Malaysia
Dodiesdreamworld
EQ Strawberry Farm, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia
Posted:
04 Aug 2009 10:03 AM PDT
Being a tropical country, it’s not easy to grow strawberries in Malaysia.
Cameron Highlands is probably the only place which mass produced the juicy fruit
in the country thanks to its higher altitude and cooler temperature.
BEFORE WE TRAVEL TO MALAYSIA AND INDONESIA,
LET US TAKE A LITTLE DETOUR TO
JAVA AND BORNEO
FIRST, WITH A STORY THAT IS TOLD THROUGHOUT ASIA.
This tale told by
the Ilocano is well known among both the Christianized and the wild tribes
of the Philippines, and also in Borneo and Java. However, the Ilocano
is the only version, so far as known, which has the explanatory element:
the reason is given here why monkeys do not eat meat. The turtle is accredited
with extraordinary sagacity and cunning. It is another example of the
type of tale showing the victory of the weak and cunning over the strong
but stupid.
The
Monkey and the Turtle
(Ilocano)
A Monkey, looking
very sad and dejected, was walking along the bank of the river one day
when he met a turtle.
"How are you?" asked the turtle, noticing that
he looked sad.
The monkey replied, "Oh, my friend, I am very hungry.
The squash of Mr. Farmer were all taken by the other monkeys, and now
I am about to die from want of food."
"Do not be discouraged," said the turtle; "take
a bolo and follow me and we will steal some banana plants."
So they walked along together until they found some nice
plants which they dug up, and then they looked for a place to set them.
Finally the monkey climbed a tree and planted his in it, but as the turtle
could not climb he dug a hole in the ground and set his there.
When their work was finished they went away, planning
what they should do with their crop. The monkey said:
"When my tree bears fruit, I shall sell it and have
a great deal of money."
And the turtle said: "When my tree bears fruit, I
shall sell it and buy three varas of cloth to wear in place of this cracked
shell."
A few weeks later they went back to the place to see their
plants and found that that of the monkey was dead, for its roots had had
no soil in the tree, but that of the turtle was tall and bearing fruit.
"I will climb to the top so that we can get the fruit,"
said the monkey. And he sprang up the tree, leaving the poor turtle on
the ground alone.
"Please give me some to eat," called the turtle,
but the monkey threw him only a green one and ate all the ripe ones himself.
When he had eaten all the good bananas, the monkey stretched
his arms around the tree and went to sleep. The turtle, seeing this, was
very angry and considered how he might punish the thief. Having decided
on a scheme, he gathered some sharp bamboo which he stuck all around under
the tree, and then he exclaimed:
"Crocodile is coming! Crocodile is coming!"
The monkey was so startled at the cry that he fell upon
the sharp bamboo and was killed.
Then the turtle cut the dead monkey into pieces, put salt
on it, and dried it in the sun. The next day, he went to the mountains
and sold his meat to other monkeys who gladly gave him squash in return.
As he was leaving them he called back:
"Lazy fellows, you are now eating your own body;
you are now eating your own body."
Then the monkeys ran and caught him and carried him to
their own home.
"Let us take a hatchet," said one old monkey,
"and cut him into very small pieces."
But the turtle laughed and said: "That is just what
I like, I have been struck with a hatchet many times. Do you not see the
black scars on my shell?"
Then one of the other monkeys said: "Let us throw
him into the water,"
At this the turtle cried and begged them to spare his
life, but they paid no heed to his pleadings and threw him into the water.
He sank to the bottom, but very soon came up with a lobster. The monkeys
were greatly surprised at this and begged him to tell them how to catch
lobsters.
"I tied one end of a string around my waist,"
said the turtle. "To the other end of the string I tied a stone so
that I would sink."
The monkeys immediately tied strings around themselves
as the turtle said, and when all was ready they plunged into the water
never to come up again.
And to this day monkeys do not like to eat meat, because
they remember the ancient story.
Another Wonderful Story from the Surlalune web site.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Dodies_Dream_ World. Dragon Queen of Seligors Castle : Blog
Tubal Cain
the Vulcan.
Mes-kalam-dug. King of Ur. Hero
of the Good Land
- OLD Tubal Cain was a man of might
- In the days when earth was young:
- By the fierce red light of his furnace bright
- The strokes of his hammer rung;
- And he lifted high his brawny hand
- On the iron glowing clear,
- Till the sparks rush'd out in scarlet showers,
- As he fashion'd the sword and spear.
- And he sang - "Hurrah for my handiwork!
- Hurrah for the spear and sword!
- Hurrah for the hand that shall wield them well,
- For he shall be king and lord!'
Friday, July 24, 2009
Diddily Dee Dot's Dreamland for Children Everywhere : Blog
TOM THIN AND TOM THUMB
umb.One day they put on their hats and went out together. As they went along, Tom Thin said, "I think I can hear thunder."
It was thunder, too, and down came the rain.
Just then a kind lady saw them, and she said: Come in, my boys, you will get soaking wet.
They both said "Thank you, and went inside.
The lady said: I think I know you both, it is Tom Thin and Tom Thumb surely.
She was so kind, she phoned their mother to tell them where they where and then she gave them a really nice tea. The bread was cut thin, the butter was rather thick, and the jam was very thick indeed!Soon after they had fisished their tea the thunder had gone and the boys said thank you very
much to the lady and went off home.I wonder how many words there are with TH in the story. You may want to count them and get mummy to check if you are right.
There is another sound very like TH which we have to stick our tongues out a litle in order to make the TH sound and that is CH, this word though is more like a sneezing sound.
Mother called the story ;
His mother said she should call him Chilly Charlie.
As they went down the road, they saw a picture of Chin-chin China man.
Then they saw a band with the queen's flag, and the boys in the street sang:
T
hree cheers for the Red, White and Blue; and Cheer, Boys, Cheer!When they arrived at the toy shop they saw lots of things in the window.
The bought a box of chalks, a toy chicken that ran along on a little wheel and a big wheel which made it go up and down And a toy watch on a chain just like daddies.
Then they went into the tea-shop and that was great fun for Charlie. After he had had some bread and butter, his mother let him have some cheese cakes and some chocolates, and they took a cherry cake home for Daddy.
Gosh look at the time already, it is almost 02.15 in the morning and Diddilydeedot is very tired, so like Charlie and Tom Thin and Tom Thumb, I think it is well past my bed time. I will see you all again tomorrow with a few more rhymes and special words, I know a good one, SH, that's a great sound and quiet one already.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
From Here to There and Back again with Diddilydeedot : Blog
VENEZUALA
Land and People
land of vivid contrasts, with four major divisions: the Venezuelan
highlands, the coastal lowlands, the basin of the Orinoco River, and
the Guiana Highlands. An almost inaccessible and largely unexplored
wilderness south of the Orinoco, the Guiana Highlands occupy more than
half of the national territory and are noted for scenic wonders such as
Angel Falls. Iron ore, gold, diamonds, and other minerals are found near Ciudad Bolívar
and Ciudad Guayana. The dense forests of the region yield rubber,
tropical hardwoods, and other forest products. The boundary with Brazil
is mostly mountainous; its rain forests are home to thousands of
indigenous inhabitants. The Orinoco, one of the great rivers of South
America, has its source in this region. The Orinoco basin is a great
pastoral area. North of the Orinoco and about the Apure River and its
tributaries are the llanos, the vast, hot Orinoco plains, where there
is a great cattle industry.
The term Arawak (from aru, the Lokono word for cassava flour), was used
to designate some of the peoples encountered by the Spanish in the West
Indies in 1492 and thereafter. These include the Taíno, who occupied
the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas (Lucayan) and Bimini Florida, the
Nepoya and Suppoyo of Trinidad and the Igneri, who were supposed to
have preceded the Caribs in the Lesser Antilles, together with related
groups (including the Lokono) which lived along the eastern coast of
South America, as far south as what is now Brazil. The group belongs to
the Arawakan language family and they were the natives Christopher
Columbus encountered when he first landed in the Americas. The Spanish
described them as a peaceful people.
Early History and the Colonial Era
The Arawaks
and the Caribs were the earliest inhabitants of Venezuela, along with
certain nomadic hunting and fishing tribes. Columbus discovered the
mouths of the Orinoco in 1498. In 1499 the Venezuelan coast was
explored by Alonso de Ojeda and Amerigo Vespucci.
The latter, coming upon an island off the Paraguaná peninsula (probably
Aruba), nicknamed it Venezuela (little Venice) because of native
villages built above the water on stilts; the name held and was soon
applied to the mainland. Spanish settlements were established on the
coast at Cumaná (1520) and Santa Ana de Coro (1527).
The major task of the conquest was accomplished by
German adventurers—Ambrosio de Alfinger, George de Speyer and
especially Nikolaus Federmann—in
the service of the Welsers, German bankers who had obtained rights in
Venezuela from Emperor Charles V. During part of the colonial period
the area was an adjunct of New Granada.
Cocoa cultivation was the mainstay of the colonial economy. From the
16th to the 18th cent. the coastline was attacked by English
buccaneers, and in the 18th cent. there was a brisk smuggling trade
with the British islands of the West Indies.
pearls, gold, and spices in the New World were a powerful stimulus for
Spain to expand into the Americas. Samples of these resources, which
Christopher Columbus and later crews brought back to Spain, so aroused
public enthusiasm in Spain that navigators, explorers, and adventurers
began to organize
Venezuala and Uruguay for your enjoyman at diddilydeedot. here there and everywhere.
www.walterroldan.com
URUGUAY
Gaucho Uruguay Live the Gaucho life in Uruguay's
wide-open spaces
Story and photos by REMY SCALZA / Special Contributor to
"The Dallas Morning News"
FLORES, Uruguay
Even Charles Darwin was smitten by the gauchos.
Notes from his 1833 expedition to South America excitedly describe a rare breed of cowboys discovered riding the open plains, "long, black hair curling down their backs ... daggers at their waists" and weather-beaten guitars in tow.
For centuries, the itinerant gauchos roamed the South American countryside, toiling on ranches, serenading small-town women and inspiring folk legends about their footloose way of life.
Gaucho fine horsemen
Now, growing numbers of working farms, known in Uruguay as estancias , are offering mo
dern-day explorers the chance to experience the gaucho lifestyle for themselves, with a few co
ntemporary comforts thrown in.
"The gaucho was a wanderer, a free spirit," says Raúl Onetto, silver-haired owner of San Martín del Yi, a 4,500-acre estancia that attracts visitors from as far away as India and Japan.
But San Martín is no mere country inn. While saddling up guests' horses in the stable out back, owner Raúl proudly ticks off the ranch's stats: 1,100 sheep, 850 head of cattle and a crew of a half-dozen gauchos to keep the place running.
Today, as usual, there's work to be done. From his horse, Raúl surveys a flock of fuzzy lambs – a veritable sea of bad perms – that needs to be corralled and sheared before the week is out.
"The gauchos were loners," Raúl explains, opening a fence gate and letting the flock flood past. "They'd ride from estancia to estancia, working when they needed a little money for tobacco."
Raúl slows to round up a straggling lamb, burdened under the weight of its heavy coat. By now, morning clouds have burned off, and the sun sends up a fine mist from the plains. Apart from the soft thud of hooves, the scene is silent.
It was on lonely plains like these where, in the early 1700s, the gaucho was born, the progeny of Spanish colonists and local Indians. The mixed-race gauchos played Spanish guitars but wore ponchos, smoked tobacco but also sipped mate, a tea brewed from a Pampas shrub.
But above all, they were outcasts. Rejected by conquistadors and conquered alike, the gauchos mounted up and took to the plains, living off the land and herding cattle to earn spending money. Gauchos "had no land of their own," Raúl explains, helping a guest off her horse. "They weren't attached to anything