His startled expression and pleading eyes say it all.

Left stranded in a rather undignified position, this poor baby elephant was in need of some urgent help.

Poor baby elephant stuck! Rescuers spent 3 hours freeing the animal, who was unharmed, by using a bulldozer to widen the hole

I love these regal creatures. In the old days, Malaysians, just like the Thais, used to use elephants to move large heavy objects, for Royal use, ceremonial use and so on. You see, Northern Malaysia was once part of the Kingdom of Thailand so they share a similar culture. Today, many of the elephants in Thailand are trained to carry tourists on elephant treks through the jungle or to beg on the streets of many large Thai cities. Baby elephants are often taught tricks to appeal to tourists and, although it is illegal in many cities, work the streets with their owners from early in the morning to late at night. However, unlike the Thais today, we hardly see elephants anymore, except in the zoos. We do have an elephant sanctuary called the The Kuala Gandah Elephant Orphanage Sanctuary Malaysia.

Started in 1974, Kuala Gandah is the only elephant sanctuary centre in Malaysia. The team is dedicated to locating, subduing, translucent problem elephants from areas where their habitats are constantly being encroached by plantations, to Malaysia’s National Parks such as Taman Negara.

I have been there in my 20s, and they allow people to take rides on the elephants as you can see in the picture above. The problem is, nobody warned my group that elephants have hair as thick and as rough as wires. So, those who wore shorts or pants with thin materials had a rough time as the stiff hair kept poking into our legs and butt as we sat on them. Fun stuff!

We were not prepared, but those who want to visit this Sanctuary will be …. after reading my post! Wear jeans.

There’s always volunteers from Malaysia and from other parts of the world at this sanctuary to help the fast disappearing Asian elephants. Please click on the picture above to go to the The Kuala Gandah Elephant Orphanage Sanctuary Malaysia to read about their conservation activities and to see how you can help.

Jasmin

According to Chinese legends, peach is a fruit of the fairies and it is said to lengthen life span. This is why the Chinese God of Longevity is always holding a peach in his hand. The traditional Chinese also like to present this as a birthday gift, for the very same reason …. implying that they wish the recipient a long and prosperous life.

Talking about nutrition, the Chinese also believe that peach clears heat from the body, moisturize the intestine and improve blood circulation. Older folks should try to eat peaches more often, to get more blood and more oxygen flowing through their bodies. However, the Chinese believe that pregnant women should not take too much of it. It’s an old wife’s tale. I’m not sure why that is. I’ve search the Internet for information on this, but no info in English has turned up. But you know, my mum has always said that the Chinese are an observation lot. The local uneducated folks probably couldn’t explain why peaches are bad for pregnant women and don’t have a scientific explanation for stuff, but I would assume, over thousands of years of observation, they must have noticed that there are bad side effects of eating buckets of peaches at a go.  A peach a day is probably ok. It has good amounts of folate, that is good for the growing baby inside.

Some of the info taken from Cook Easy! Eat Healthy! Fruit and Vegetables (Chinese book)
Photo of cut peach by Patrick Tregenza, courtesy USDA Agricultural Research Service Image Library

Ethan Eating Thin Strips of Chinese Pear

I love to listen to my mum tell me stuff that happened to her as a young girl. It’s fascinating.

One of the things my mum told me was that as a child, my granny had fed her pears to reduce her high fever. However, not any pear will do. It had to be a particular pear from China.

Chinese Pear

There are many, many types of pears from China, and this particular Chinese Pear is recognizable because it is very big. It’s about 1 1/2 times the size of a regular pear that we get at the supermarket. Also it’s round unlike the normal pear.  The skin dark brown, unlike the usual light yellow pears. It’s also quite expensive. I could buy 3 regular pears for this baby.

This is an amazing fruit. The Chinese just love this pear. It’s a great natural fever reducer, something you could try if you are looking for natural alternatives instead of the usual chemical based medicine like paracetamol or aspirin. You could juice this sweet fruit for really, young kids, but otherwise, the entire fruit can be eaten, minus the core and the stem, of course.

I’ve had to tackle my little boy and force feed meds into him before, and it’s a real nightmare .. for both the parent and the child. If you have this experience, then, you know what I mean. There’s nothing worse than having the poor child scream, cry and struggle while you try to force medicine down his throat. Which is why I love this. I can’t think of a better, more yummy way to get well.

This afternoon, my mum got a pleasant surprise package; a Full Moon present from a family we have never met.

For those who don’t know what a Full Moon is; the end of the full moon period marks the first month of a Chinese baby’s birth. It is also the period when the mother completes her confinement period which to me is also known as the month of pampering, eating lots of meat and wine … if the old folks have their way, and smelling like a caveman in the hottest month of July because, again, the old folks believe bathing will make a woman’s body weak in the later years. Frankly, I think getting the good woman smelling like a bed of garbage just turns the husband green in the face. A man won’t, in his right mind, want to do the horizontal mumbo with a being that smells faintly of rotting fish, right?

But, back to the baby.

It was a surprise for my family to receive this gift because we don’t know who they are. My mum had asked the Indian guy who handed her the box of goodies if he got the right address, and he said “yup”.  Turns out, he is the driver for the family who lives in the big house on the hill near where my mum lives. He said, the father of the baby asked him to hand out these gift boxes to random houses around the neighborhood. It’s really intriging, the reason why they did that because the usual method is to pass the gift boxes to limited friends and familes.

Different shops sells different Full Moon packages. If you want to see what my husband and I ordered for our first born’s full moon celebration, just go to this webpage. http://senze.com/business-blog/viral-marketing/viral-marketing.htm. We didn’t send out full moon presents on behalf of our second son because we decided to hold a party at a nearby KFC restaurant instead.