Chinese New Year and Human Traffic.

One week from today on Feb 18, all Chinese across the world will celebrate the lunar Chinese New Year, one of the most important day in the Chinese calendar.

There will be a lot of travelling involved. Chinese people of ages will be rushing back to their hometown for the reunion dinner with their family.

In Malaysia, the first 2 days of the celebration are declared as public holidays. And that means people of other races will also take the opportunity to travel - visiting local popular destinations, or visit their family members.

KL, the capital city, being the economic center of Malaysia, has the most number of "local immigrants" - Malaysians young and old, married and single, who have moved from their original birthplace to KL city, and made KL their permanent residence for all intents and purposes. But come major ethnic festivals like Chinese New Year (and Hari Raya Puasa), the local immigrants will be making an exodus back to their hometown.

So, it is times like this that those truly born and bred in KL can finally re-claim Kl as their birthplace. There will be no traffic jams on the streets of KL, because the traffic jam will have been moved to the hometowns.

My home state of Melaka is built for a daily population of 700,000. But come this Chinese New Year, the state will welcome back some xxx (unknown large number) of its son and daugthers who have immigrated to Kl- and then the local Melaka permanent residents will get a taste of what KL-ites feel when their town in invaded with 1 million of local immigrants and another 1 million of foreign immigrants (Indonesian, Indian, Filipinos, and Bangladeshis, to name a few)

So its your choice during this Chinese New Year - to be in KL where there's less activity for 2 days, or to be at the center of activity - back in the hometowns- where the family tradition beckons.


You see a lot of lion dances and the colour red.

Cliff Richard plays to full house

Cliff Richard Here and Now concert 2007

I was there! So was about 6,000 others.

Venue : the Arena of Stars, Genting Highlands
Date : Friday Feb 9, 2007
Time : 8 pm - 10.45 pm


Source : The Star Online

And boy, did Bachelor Boy really entertained the crowd. For someone in the 60's, he still has the 'oomph' to sing and performed some cool dance moves on the stage with his guitar. His voice never once cracked during the show. And he had only 1 short break of about 15 minutes.

Every time he sang one of his all-time favourites such Summer Holiday, The Young Ones, Livin’ Doll, Evergreen Tree, Bachelor Boy, Devil Woman and Constantly, the crowd of mostly "baby boomers" sang along, and swayed in their seats to his song. The crowd, mostly in their 50's and 60's, and a sprinkling of 30's and 40's, seemed to want more at the end of the 2 hour show.

He also sang duets with a couple of singers who are equally good "impersonators" of Dionne Warwick and Matt Monroe

True enough, he predicted in his interview, that " I’m sure there will be people in the audience going ‘he didn’t sing that song’".

Because that is exactly what a group of sisters who sat in the row in front of us, turned back and said to us , "He didn't sing 'Congratulations'!".

He did say that “I can’t sing all the songs in one evening – you’d be bored and I’d be dead.”. He has, after all, sang for 5 decades, and has many hits during the period. I bought one the promo CD's on sale : Cliff Richard Complete Hits, for RM 40.00. Other items for sale are : Cliff Richard, the Duet CD, and also a coffee- book on his career.

This is a postcard-sized picture of Cliff Richard (in his 20's) with another actress (from the movie Summer Holidays).

This picture is courtesy of the sisters in the front row. The sisters paid '20 cents' for the postcard bought from Singapore back then, and the sister proudly told me that "I will be 60 this year, and I have been a fan of Cliff Richard since my teens".



Sir Cliff should be proud, that his fan base in Malaysia spans across all races. This lady in front of me is a Malay lady in a tudung, and can be seen waving frantically at Sir Cliff every time he so much as turned towards the section where we are seated.

The sound and the lighting systems didn't fail him, and his entourage of band members is superb.

And the ticket for the show?

Cliff Richard concert ticket

Other reviews of the concert:

Cliff Richard plays to a full house at Genting show, read more here

Sir Cliff dazzles with timeless melodies, read more here

Pre-concert promotional writeups:

Interview with Malaysian press before the concert. All geared up

Peter Pan of Pop returns to thrill Malaysians, writes the Star reporter

Cliff Richard websites:
Official Cliff Richard website

Le Tour de Langkawi

Le Tour de Langkawi, Genting Highlands, Cycling

Le Tour de Langkawi - Feb 2- 11, 2007
An international-level cycling event held (annually) in Malaysia that should not to be missed by cyclists, and non-cyclists.

This year's Le Tour de Langkawi started from Langkawi island on Feb 2 and traverse through 8 states in the Malaysian peninsula, and will end at a grand affair at 3pm on Sunday Feb 11, 2007 at Dataran Merdeka. This is a big ticket event, with prize money USD 300,000 (a cool 1 million Malaysian ringgit)

I happened to be at the right time and right spot to get a first hand view of the cyclists as they cycled their way up the steep slopes of Genting Highlands on the morning of Feb 9 (circa 12 noon) for stage 8 of the race. There are altogether 10 stages in the race.

Although this event has been held in Malaysia since 11 years ago in 1986, this is the first time I witnessed the event 'live'. Here are some photo shots that I managed to capture.

To find out more about the event, do visit the official website http://www.ltdl.com.my/

This is the route that the cyclists took for the week-long cycling event (Source : official website for the Le Tour de Langkawi)



I am no cyclist, but I can imagine the Genting Highlands route must be one of the most challenging route because :
1. the final destination - First World Hotel at Genting Highlands is situated at altitude 2000 metres above sea level
2. roads leading up to the Highlands are steep and winding. Car drivers are advised to us a lower gear to go up the highlands.
3. cool temperature ranges from 16-23 degrees (Feb 9 : 18 degrees). The air gets relatively thinner as you go up.

Despite the conditions, the cyclists persevered. Kudos to all the cyclists.

Sir Cliff Richard

February 9 & 10 - Genting Highland, Arena of Stars

Sir Cliff Richard is making a trip to Malaysia to perform at Genting Highlands, one of Malaysia's famous mountain resort on February 9 & 10. Tickets from Rm 100 to Rm 655.

I remember attending his concert in Kuala Lumpur National Stadium sometime 1n 1995. I had a good time. The audience were singing along with him, and we thoroughly enjoyed the performance. You'll be surprised, some of the audience practically grew up with his songs. I liked his songs because my mum listened to them.


I grew up during Michael Jackson's era (my age showing!) and when he had a tour around Asia around the same time (1994) I went to the concert, and I remembered it was not cheap then! (He has not made modifications to his face yet then).

I think those 2 music concerts are those that I went to and liked most.