Ching Ming Festival

Ching Ming (also Qingming) Festival literally means "Clear and Bright" Festival. It occurs on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox (usually April 4, 5 or 6th). This year it will fall on April 5. It is the day for cleaning the gravesites of your ancestors, burning the paper stuff-of-the-afterlife (money, clothes, gold ...), and offering of fruits and roasted meats (food).

But we normally pick a sunday before the actual date to perform our duties to our ancestors.


But first, a photo of the morning sun at 6.33am, taken just after sunrise (taken yesterday). It was a red orb for the first few minutes after sunrise.

In Kota Kinabalu, a lot of us picked today to celebrate Ching Ming. The Chinese Cemetery, managed by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, is located at Mile 5.5, Tuaran Road. We went there at about 7am. The entry fee was RM10 for the past year's upkeep, which the management took to mean setting fire to the whole place, then chemically spraying all the remaining weeds and bushes just before Ching Ming!


The initial view of the older part of the cemetery was "a chaotic mess". This is typical of an old chinese cemetery. In the old days, you just pay the fee (it was $500 per lot in the late 70s) and then go select the site you want. You then build the grave as big and as elaborate as you want. Different people had different interpretations of Feng Shui, so the graves all faced different directions and had no "roads" to reach them. So going to one is an adventure in climbing and stepping over all the graves in between. Obviously the ones at the top had the "best" feng shui. This older part of the cemetery is officially "full".


The old signboard for the cemetery.


The Chinese Chamber of Commerce had set up a funeral parlour (business can be made even in a cemetery compound!). Previously the site was a very nice, covered but open-sided, waiting area.


Before going to the gravesite, you need to pay a visit to the temple of the "Gatekeeper"!


Then it down to some sweeping, cleaning and making the offerings.


A view from near the top of the hill.


When I turned to the left, it was a different sight. The christian portion of the cemetery was set out in nice and neat rows.


And so it also was in the New Extension part of the chinese cemetery (ie the next hill).

But despite the chaos, the older part had more character and colour. The Ching Ming Festival started more than 2,500 years ago. In 732AD, the emperor issued an edict that Ching Ming was ONLY to be celebrated on one day each year. It was because those rich folks had begun to celebrate (ie show off = waste) many many times a year.

Ching Ming is also the dividing date for the grades of green tea. The pre-Ching Ming harvested tea leaves are the "early and younger" tea leaves and are consequently more expensive.

Imation Digital Multimedia Link Pro

There's a very nice website, Malaysia Mobile Tech News, that I visit everyday. It belongs to someone who is obviously a gadget freak! You will get the latest info on phones, notebooks, pc offers, even bookshop.... It deserves a mention as I read about the Imation Digital Multimedia Link Pro from one of his postings.



A Friend of mine, Donz Biago, was in KL this past weekend and very kindly purchased one unit for me (from a shop in 1Utama). It is currently available as a "Pre-launch Offer" at RM539 for the Link Pro (basically a media player - claimed to do almost all codex including MKV, RMVB ...), an Imation 320GB external HD, cables (including HDMI), and a remote control (including the AAA batteries).


The HD is a 2.5" Toshiba. The remote control is small but quite usable. I just plugged in the HDMI cable (it carries both video and sound), loaded the HD with some software, and turned the unit on.


A nice simple menu came up on screen. Setup allowed various adjustments to picture size, contrast, brightness and others. There is an ethernet LAN connection available (not tested, I will have to go and buy a cable as it was not provided).


All the media files (video, music and photos), from the storage media (HD and PenDrives) connected to the 2 USB ports at the front, will be shown on the screen. The screen above showed the external HD as Drive C.

Movies (AVI tested, H264 tested) played smoothly. So far, very nice. Imation could have included the LAN as wireless (more convenient for file transfers). Up-scaling to 720p would be nice if it was available. Of course the price would then be higher.

Today's Weather - South East Asia Satellite Photo

There're clouds east of Sabah. There's a Tropical Storm forming east of the Philippines. This is named 02W. The projected track is available at the Institute For Astronomy (IFA) at Hawaii. The latest track is shown below.


If the storm does track north east, then there maybe a chance of some rain for us in Kota Kinabalu. Also the counterclockwise spin may change the wind to northerly or northeasterly. This should reduce the haze reaching us in Kota Kinabalu. The majority of the hotspots (fires causing smoke / haze) are in Laos and Cambodia. You can see this at the Singapore National Environment Agency. The image for 21 March 2010 is below.


Today's high for Kota Kinabalu has been forecasted at 31°C (Heat Index at 44°C) with chance of Thundersorms in the late afternoon.

The Malaysian Department of Environment shows the Air Pollutant Index (API) readings for 7am, 11am, and 5pm in some of the major cities and towns in Malaysia. Unfortunately the website is not reachable this morning (too many connections - that's what it says! - maybe time to add more servers?)

Today's South East Asia Satellite Photo

Very light clouds over Kota Kinabalu. Still hot and dry. Wind said to be westerly. The haze is worsening. If the westerly wind is correct, then the haze is from Sumatra.

Compare these two photos (taken @ 10.10am) to the two taken on 9 March (Posted under Quite A Hazy Day)




Thought For The Day:

Do not be concerned about others appreciating you,
be concerned about your not appreciating others.
~ Confucius

To be concerned about others appreciating you, is to have expectations, which will lead to unhappiness when not given. The things you do (for your family, relatives, and friends) should be done without expectation of appreciation. If you do get appreciation in return, then that's great! Its a Bonus!

Confucius wrote as a "Superior Man". So as a Gentleman, you must not forget to show your appreciation of others.

Fine Weather Photo 02

Fine weather at night in the previous weeks allowed me to take some photos of the moon. This shot required the use of a tripod.

The Lumix FZ-35 allows me to set a lower pixel resolution in return for a higher than the 18X normal zoom setting . This photo was taken on 27 Feb 2010 at 8.50pm. The zoom setting was 24X (= 618mm).

Of course for publication on this blog, all the photos were reduced in size.

Fine Weather Photo 01

The fine clear weather in the previous weeks had allowed me to take some photographs normally unavailable due to clouds.

This is one taken on 24 Feb 2010 of a plane on an overflight of Kota Kinabalu (perhaps a direct flight from KL to Tawau?)

My Lumix FZ-35 camera was set at full zoom (18X = 486mm). Hand-held shot made possible by the Image Stabilisation.

Quite A Hazy Day

On my early morning jog, I noted that the haze today is thickening.



I guess (from the weather forecast) that the south easterly wind is bringing the haze from the forest fires (interior of Borneo and Kalimantan)

Today's Weather - South East Asia Satellite Photo

Still cloud-less over Kota Kinabalu, although the forecast holds out the slight chance of some showers this afternoon or evening. The temperature is forecasted at a high of 34°C. The Heat Index is 43°C (This is what it feels like because of the other factors, eg Humidity which is forecasted higher for today at 85%). The wind is from the south east, yet another reason for the high temperature.

Thought For Today:

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority.
The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.
~Ralph W. Sockman

Ralph Sockman (1889 - 1970) was a famous preacher in USA. He gave sermons (including on radio) and spoke on nationwide engagements. He was well-known for the sayings used in his sermons. I believe the saying is simple and clear, no further expansion required.

Today's Weather - South East Asia Satellite Photo

The hot days continue for Kota Kinabalu (most of Borneo in fact).


Thought For The Day:

Cutting stalks at noontime.
Perspiration drips to the earth.
Know you that your bowl of rice,
each grain from hardship comes?
~Chang Chan-Pao

It's a better way of putting it, compared to my parents' "Don't waste the rice, eat it all, there are many starving children in Africa!"

Of course, we were young then and didn't bother to understand what they were saying. Now that I am a parent, I do tell my children to realise the "cost" of making money and therefore not to "waste" what we have bought.