Taiping*太平 Peace Initiative

Alright, actually before we finally ended up in Penang for an annual gathering, all the SCI Malaysia members (from KL, at least!) suppose to meet up Dr. Anwar Fazal et. al. in the "peace town", Taiping*太平 in Perak, my hometown state. In fact, this peaceful town is just half hour away from my little hometown, Padang Rengas*硝山.

This is a beginning of many meetings and visits to come, as we are looking into possibilities to have an international workcamps here, part of the Taiping Peace Initiative programme, started off by Dr. Anwar Fazal himself.


Meet Addision!
After a simple tea break with Dr. Anwar near the Cangkat Jering toll exits, we first take a short tour around Warisan Resort. Some 10 minutes drive away from Cangkat Jering, Warisan Resort was build literally in an orchard, owns by a local Malay in Kampung Cheh. I am pretty surprise myself to find out about this new starting point to Gunung Bubu, a 1,568m mountain well known to diehard hiker worldwide.


And how close you house can be, to river? This close! Imagine having the sound of water running down the stream accompany you as you sleep, instead of traffic building up outside of the apartment. Not to mention that green atmosphere that makes you feel like going back in time, in another world...

Even back in my hometown, i still have to cycle for 15 minutes to take a cool dip into the river. Here, it's just few steps away. So now you know that when i talk about river, this is what i have in my mind, for as far as i can remember. You can take whatever sample or pH test on it, but we only need to swim in it, to be sure!


This is, erm, where i pee!
Also, we met Fletcher and Donna, a lovely couples from Canada who now settle in Ipoh, Perak. As they are talking about Gunung Bubu hiking experience, i felt rather embarrassing, so-called local boy don't even heard about it before! I guess this is where the impact of workcamps lies, as everyone gathers at the peaceful town of Taiping.


We never really stop by the wonderful town of Taiping. Instead we drove past the town area and went straight to the Lake Garden. Here Dr. Anwar gave us a brief history of his works and thougths, including the creation of Peace Park, miniature of Peace Pole, working with local residence and universities to spread the seeds of peace.

All this, including a lecture on TOILET, in conjunction with World Toilet Day!


On the other hand, Taiping means more than just peace for Jon - - it means ferns! Varies fern species are spotted all over the Lake Garden, espcially crawling all over some big old rain trees. As usual, given to opportunity and permisson (guess who?:P), Jon would loved to "adopt" a fern or two.

Tree ferns must be the real ultimate "adoption" for Jon. But hey, you might need to ask your missus to walk home afterwards, haha! Anyway i found it hardly amused as i sat back into the car: Jon, Ros, Kim and me on board. Now, who will be walking afterwards? :)


One last shot before we finally on our way to Penang (for real!).

I like this greenery view, certainly look peaceful enough for me. And if you think green is just ONE colour, look carefully again. Likewise, peace may come in many forms. There is much for us to do to promote peace among human, mother nature and universe as a whole.

But for now, i wish to have a peace journey!