My Happiest Moment

This is Mommy's favourite photo - the photo that captures Mommy's happiest moment.

It was Juan Or's infectious laughter and giggles that makes Mommy's happiest moment - something that Mommy wants to capture forever. Well, you may be wondering now what made Juan Or so happy that made Mommy so happy too. It's none other than seeing monkeys swinging around at close range in Bukit Melawati, Kuala Selangor!

Though this happiest moment was just as simple as watching the monkeys swinging around, nevertheless, this is the story behind Juan Or’s infectious laughter and giggles.

 

Juan Or was about 1 year 1 month old when his walking ability became somewhat established. What started to be like the Frankenstein walking style.....

(animation credits from Animation Playhouse)

......improved by leaps and bound to be more and more like how a human kid walks. With his walking skill getting more and more polished, so did his appetite for physical adventure. He began to explore (and imitate) jumping, skipping and whatever ‘funny’ leg movements that he saw both on the television screen and also in real life.

One ‘leg activity’ that Juan Or particularly liked most was jumping on the bed, most probably because of the springing sensation it gave. Mommy had warned him countless times before not to get too carried away with ‘the activity’ lest he falls down and hurts himself. However, the countless warnings all fell on deaf ears. Mommy even resorted to teaching him about the consequences with the nursery rhyme on monkeys jumping on the bed which sounds like this:

Five little monkeys jumping on the bed
One fell off and bumped his head
Mama called the doctor and the doctor said

"No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"

Or if you prefer to hear the nursery rhyme in the form of song and video, here is one from You Tube. 

As if to mock Mommy, Juan Or would merely laugh out loud and parrot the nursery rhyme as he continued his jumping. Mommy wondered when he will ever learn. *Sigh!*

Then, one day, in the midst of feeling high from the springing sensation, sure enough, true to Mommy’s word, Juan Or tumbled down the bed. Crash, boom, bang! – he fell down just like nangka busuk (rotten jackfruit)! If falling down the bed (and landing on the hard floor) was already bad enough, nothing could be worse than having to fall onto a kiddy stool just next to the bed and getting a cut near the lips before landing on the floor! 

There was blood all over his mouth, both Juan Or and Mommy went panicky but luckily Mommy managed to control the situation. Mommy carried Juan Or to the bathroom to rinse away the blood stain and then used handkerchief to press on the wound to stop the bleeding. 

Many weeks went by since the bloody incident. The wound healed, but the ‘wound’ in his memory did not! Whenever Mommy read him the monkeys-jumping-on-the-bed nursery rhyme, Juan Or would cringe his face and shouted “Scared! Scared!” Whenever Mommy showed him pictures of monkeys in his kiddy books, he would give the same reaction. Poor boy! Now he seemed to associate monkeys with bad fall! *Sigh!*

Then one day, Papa took us for an outing to Bukit Melawati, Kuala Selangor. Our main reason for going there was to get up close and personal with the real monkeys, but of course knowing that Juan Or was phobic towards monkeys, Papa and Mommy kept the monkeys a secret. Instead, Mommy told Juan Or all about the tram that ferries visitors up and down the hill – the one children would prefer to call as choo-choo train! Boy was Juan Or excited to ride on the tram!

Well, we reached the part of the hill top where trams would normally stop the visitors. As expected, the monkeys came in flocks to ‘busybody’ around because the visitors had food to offer. Bold ones would openly come forward and ‘beg’ for food whereas the more timid ones would merely swing around or watch from a distance and only pick up food that were thrown to them. 

What about Juan Or? Much to Mommy’s surprise, Juan Or seemed to have ‘forgotten’ about his phobia for monkeys! Was it because of watching the cute monkeys swinging live? Or was it because of the natural beauty of monkeys that can be seen so up close and personal? Whatever the ‘magical factor’ was, what was clear was that Mommy did not do anything special to break his monkey phobia and that Juan Or was obviously enjoying watching the monkeys! Maybe something in him realized that it was not the monkeys that caused the bad fall, but rather, it was recklessness and getting too carried away. 

Whatever it was, Mommy was happy that the mental wound is gone for good and that Juan Or is able to enjoy the beauty of nature without associating it with his past traumatic experience. Seeing and hearing Juan Or laugh and giggle are the simple things that make Mommy’s life so happy, beautiful and rewarding. When Juan Or is HAPPY, Mommy is HAPPY too! 

By the way, all the photos here were taken using Mommy’s handphone camera. Mommy has long been yearning to upgrade Mommy’s photography tool. So this “Happy Photography  Contest” held by Olympus and Nuffnang is a good chance to make the yearning a reality – a chance to win Olympus’ new range of PEN Lite.....

and PEN Mini digital cameras that come with high DSLR image quality.

So here it goes:  

HAPPY Juan Or = HAPPY photography = HAPPY Mommy!

Seeing Monkeys Again! (Part 1)

Last Sunday was a last minute decision to head the car towards Kuala Selangor. Both Papa and Mommy decided to let Juan Or visit the monkeys again at Bukit Malawati, Kuala Selangor. Just like last time, Papa parked the car at the foothill of Bukit Malawati and Juan Or was still asleep. So Mommy woke him up and he ended up fretting and crying! Luckily there was the Bukit Malawati tram passing by and lo and behold, Juan Or's teary face immediately turned into a smiling face!

This time round, Papa and Mommy decided to let Juan Or experience the ride on the tram. The ticket for an adult costs RM3 and is free-of-charge for children 3 years old and below. So Papa asked Mommy to accompany Juan Or in the tram ride while Papa waited at the bottom of the hill since the RM3 fee can be quite costly for merely riding up and down the hill - or so we thought at first.

Juan Or and Mommy then got up the tram and Mommy managed to snap a photo of Juan Or before the tram started moving.

And here's the tram from the passenger's view.

Then when the tram started moving, Mommy can't help taking some more photos, and Juan Or kept on uttering,"Train, train!" Probably he was very excited about actually riding on the so-called 'train' since all trains he has seen before are merely toy trains.

Here we go up the hill!

Still in the tram, this photo is Mommy's favourite self-portrait of Juan Or and Mommy. This angle really made Juan Or looked like a young boy, rather than a toddler.

Finally we are at the top of the hill to see the main attraction - the monkeys!

And more monkeys sitting in a row!

Juan Or was very excited about seeing monkeys and kept on calling,"Monkeeeey! Monkeeeeyy!"

At the hill, there was an ice-cream man selling bananas, longs beans, and peanuts for people to feed the monkeys. The most expensive item was the banana - a small bunch selling for RM4! And the bananas didn't look good either, but anyway, who cares, it was after all for the monkeys' consumption. Even bananas meant for human consumption (like the tasty pisang berangan) cost much cheaper for that same amount! Hahaha....if you intend to feed monkeys with bananas, might as well buy bananas from a fruit stall first before going up Bukit Malawati - it's cheaper that way!

By the way, when Juan Or saw the monkeys peeling bananas to eat, he looked at Mommy and insisted that he wanted to eat those bananas too! ^ ^ So Mommy had to console him by saying that those bananas eaten by the monkeys actually don't taste good. They are not the pisang berangan that Mommy usually buys for him (Juan Or only eats the berangan breed and nothing else!).

It would be a waste if you only go there to see monkeys, so Mommy pointed Juan Or to the scenery from the hilltop and of course, the famous Kuala Selangor lighthouse.

When the next tram appeared, Juan Or and Mommy boarded the tram to go down the hill. However, the tram didn't seem to stop the moment it reached the foothill. The tram went on much to Mommy's surprise. First thing in Mommy's mind was probably the tram was making extra circles to give passengers their money's worth, but turned out, the tram was actually taking the passengers to another destination, Taman Alam, which Mommy will narrate in the next blogpost. Stay tuned!

'Monkey-ing' Around Bukit Malawati, Kuala Selangor

Today Papa and Mommy decided to take Juan Or for a countryside outing to Kuala Selangor again, but this time to Bukit Malawati to 'make friends' with monkeys. When we reached Kuala Selangor, it was already late morning (about 11.30am), so Papa decided that we should go eat lunch first and make Bukit Malawati as our last destination. At least if Juan Or started fretting at Bukit Malawati, then we could straightaway head back home as the lunch part was already settled. So off we went to Tian Wai Tian Restaurant first. Papa ordered four dishes - mantis shrimp, steamed garoupa cutlet, oyster omelette and sweet potato leaves stir-fried in belacan, plus rice and Chinese tea, all for RM38.00 (which was very cheap!) and Juan Or behaved relatively well at the restaurant. Mommy didn't have enough hands to capture photos of the food because Mommy was too occupied with entertaining Juan Or. So if Mommy has more hands and eyes, that will be very helpful!

After the lunch, we headed to Bukit Malawati. Papa parked the car at the foothill and we walked up the hill. It was good exercise for Mommy considering that it was just after lunch and the fact that Mommy had been very sedentary ever since giving birth to Juan Or! Here are some snapshots (and some narration) of Juan Or at Bukit Malawati:

Where there are stairs, there is Juan Or! Juan Or seems fond of climbing stairs.

Juan Or posing at the canon that surrounds the fort of Bukit Malawati. Seen here is Papa holding on to Juan Or in case he falls.

The view from Bukit Malawati.

This is the famous historical lighthouse of Kuala Selangor, which is situated at the hilltop of Bukit Malawati.

This is the first time for Juan Or to see monkeys real life at close range.

Suddenly a monkey leaped in front of him and this took Juan Or by surprise - an amusing surprise!

"Monkey, oh, monkey! Getting to know you!"

This is Mommy's favourite photo. The monkey perched at the road barrier just now suddenly leaped onto a nearby tree, causing Juan Or to burst with laughter! Seeing a monkey jumping around is sure a sheer joy for Juan Or!

"Hey, monkey! Why are you going away from me? Can't we be friends?"

"Ah, never mind. At least another monkey is willing to be friends with me."

"Hahaha! How strikingly similar! A child monkey accompanied by the parent - just like me!"



This is also another of Mommy's favourite photo of Juan Or, now captured full-bodied. This was taken at the look-out building, which unfortunately was closed to the public.





By the time we were done with monkey-watching, Juan Or was already showing signs of tiredness, so down we went the hill.

When Juan Or was tired, petty things seemed to irritate him, causing him to fret. But luckily there's this funny-looking 'choo-choo train' (that carries visitors up and down the hill for a fee)to distract his attention, turning his frets into laughter instead! This 'choo-choo train' appeared every now and then when we went up and then down the hill. In Juan Or's mind, probably this 'choo-choo train' resembled Mickey Mouse Clubhouse's Choo-choo Express. So probably Juan Or must be thinking that the train he saw in cartoon has come alive!

Mommy managed to capture a photo of both father and son walking down the hill. "Bye-bye, Bukit Malawati! See you again, monkeys! We'll be back!"