Why Is The Authority Wasting Money Digging Up Well-Tarred Roads In Wangsa Maju?

This one's along the road from Section One towards the Shell Station near Selangor Pewter.

Have you kept your eyes on the road in Wangsa Maju lately? I have and I dont like what I saw. Snakes (or rivers if you wish) of newly tarred patches have appeared everywhere.

This one is poorly patched, no doubt.

The roads were tarred before the March 8 elections when the BN reprsentative was in charge. Now, services companies have dugged up the newly tarred roads and doing one heck of a lousy job in some areas patching them up. You see hundreds of metres long tarred strips criss-crossing the roads, posing a danger to cyclists and motorcyclists as they trap water after rain.

I wonder if the local Member of Parliament is keeping tabs on this. Because if he does, I hope he can bring up the problems with the authorities because not only money gets spent unnecessarily, the residents of Wangsa Maju are also inconvenienced and their lives put at risk in some areas.

Fancy Learning Chi Kung or Tai Chi in Wangsa Maju?

This one's at the club house near the school.

Fancy learning chi kung or tai chi in Wangsa Maju? Well, just head to the open field in Air Panas. Every morning, there are several groups doing their rounds here.

Check out the basketball court near the club house (near to the Air Panas girls' school) for the various exercises people do. Mind you, most of the participants are women (which makes me wonder why men don't bother to exercise until they are in retirement age!).


This group leaves usually before sunrise.

The refurbished car park near the Air Panas hawker centre is also a gathering area for line-dance enthusiasts and chi kung groups. These groups come early and leave just before sunrise. The one mentioned earlier, stay till about 7:30am or so.

In the evenings, the field is a soccer ground and I will talk about it in later posts.

Who Owns The Land Beneath High-Tension Wires Anyway?

Good warning this. No one should be allowed underneath high-tension wires.

Look at this photo - it holds a warning from Tenaga Nasional that no activity should be carried out beneath the high-tension lines. This warning sign is located near Jalan Perusahaan, coming out of Air Panas.

The sign is well and good, and shows that Tenaga is a socially responsible company. And who knows what might happen should there be a power surge. A sign like this will tell people not to stay underneath the power lines or partake in any activity beneath it because of the obvious dangers.

But wait a minute - why the double standard? A hundred yards down stream is a huge nursery operating blisfully underneath the same high-tension wires.


Wait a minute! What is this? A park? Nursery? What's up there? Hallo!

Is it safe here and not there? Of is there something funny going on? While a nursery means putting idle land to good use, what about the obvious danger the overhanging wires pose to customers and workers at the nursery? You tell me!

Setapak Wet Market Gives Way To Development

The Duta-Kelang Highway, otherwise known as DUKE Highway (above), which cuts across the Setapak town like a sore thumb, missing the mosque on one side and over the carpark across the road, has contributed to the demise of the Setapak Wet Market.


What's left of the operators at the market is down there. they are no long visible from the road like the old days.

Yes, there was once a big market at the corner of the hige parking lot here (arrowed). About 10 stalls are located here, selling anything from pork to anchovies and joss sticks. Today, half of them folded business and more will probably move on to another site. Development has killed yet another character of a quaint township!

Big Buses Should Not Use Forlong Short Cut

If you know the roads in Wangsa Maju like I do, there are plenty of short-cuts that can take you from Wangsa Maju to the otherside of the world, such as Gombak and Sentul or Gurney Road quite easily. Cuts travelling time and saves petrol. Yes, even with the drop in price announced, it's still expensive, but what the heck, it's another matter altogether.

I will introduce you the Forlong Shortcut, which connects Jalan Gombak at Diamond Square to Taman Forlong near P. Ramlee's house or more appropriately, the Mun Yee Chinese Secondary School. This short cut has been here since the early 2000 and I suspect it could even be as early as the late 1990s.

Of course, cars were not allowed those days as the tiny lane could only take one vehicle and getting through takes a lot of give and take. Now it still is although two cars can comfortably squeeze through.

However, of late, buses like the behemoths featured here have been using the lane and damaging the roads in the name of cutting travelling time, sometimes almost running down or squeezing smaller incoming vehicles.

This writer thinks the residents nearby this bottleneck should put up a height-barrier and prevent these buses from going through before tragedy happens one day.

A pedestrian walking through here might easily be run over by big buses travelling through this poorly lit stretch as can be seen from these pictures taken by us early one morning following complaints from motorists and pedestrians using the road.
Look at the sequential shots below.


This monster takes a turn into Diamond Square at Jalan Gombak. Buses should in fact use Jalan Gombak-Jalan Pahang Left Turn to get into Genting Kelang. This driver apparently do not give a damn and use this Forlong Shortcut.


The driver approaches the Forlong Apartments when the road becomes a squeeze. This is the beginning of the danger - the poorly-lit lane which is also used by pedestrians and cyclists. If the driver is sleepy and do not see them, one might end up in the drain (look below, from the yellow signboard) at the side of the road and it won't be the bus driver.


See the oncoming Kancil? The driver had to reverse quickly or risk being swept off the road and possibly run over by this bus.

Where on Earth is Taman Wangsa Maju?

I am perplexed over this news report:

Boy: Teacher watched as students beat me up

KUALA LUMPUR: A Form Four student has reported to the police that he was beaten up by more than 20 students in front of his school in Taman Wangsa Maju here.

The 16-year-old boy claimed that a teacher and guard who saw the incident did not go to his aid.

“After I was beaten up, the teacher even had the nerve to tell me to go home and come back tomorrow but warned me to not make it an issue,” the student said.

He said he was beaten up by the students aged between 16 and 17 at 1.20pm on Wednesday because he had accidentally bumped into the girlfriend of one of the students during recess on the same day...

More Here

If you can please enlighten me, where on earth is Taman Wangsa Maju? I know of Section 2. I know of Section 4. Heck, I even know where Section 10 is. But Taman Wangsa Maju? Is it near the zoo? Enlighten me please so that I won't assume that the reporter was not making any ASS-UMPTIONS, and thus make an ASS-out-of-U- and ME.

A Star Once Lived In Taman Forlong

Do you remember this man (picture above, inset right bottom)?

His name is Teuku Zakaria Teuku Nyak Puteh. Also known as P. Ramlee, the great Malay star who has no equal even till this day. P Ramlee was famous for his acting as well as direction. But to me, he was truly one heck of the few Malay directors (perhaps the only one) who has managed to cross all racial borders with his movies.

He was loved by young and old and during the passing in 1973, everyone who had seen his movies and gotten to know this great man cried upon hearing his demise. Indeed he was such as character who has managed to touch all hearts - A True Malay Malaysian in every sense of the word.

This house at Jalan Dedap in Taman Forlong was his former house. Today, it has become a museum. Entrance is free and you can get to know more about this fantastic man.

Mooncake Festival - Fifteenth Day of the Eighth Lunar Month

Mid Autumn Festival or Toong Chiew Chit or Teong Chiew Chiat (in English, Cantonese and Hokkien respectively) is celebrated on Sept 14, which falls on Sunday.

If you have been going around, you would have seen lanterns of various shapes and sizes being sold, and mooncakes too.

Besides the Chinese New Year, this festival is also one of the important ones celebrated by the Chinese community. While elsewhere it is known as Mid-Autumn Festival, down here it is also called the Lantern Festival.

Spun from the legend of the Goddess of the Moon Chang Er and Hou Yi the great archer, the Mid Autumn festival, also known as moooncake festival for the characteristic sweetmeat eaten during the occasion, is believed to be the most auspicious occasion in the Chinese lunar calendar system.

Couples who want to tie the knot choose the special day, which is the Fifteenth Day of the Eighth Lunar Month. It is believed that the moon is at its brightest and is fullest this night.

Lantern parades and parties are held on this day. Several years ago, the MP held a lantern parade. Will the new MP hold a lantern parade in Desa Setapak where his service center is?

Thank You For Bringing Us Up The Alexa Ranks!

I was pleasantly surprised this morning when one of you readers sent me this stats (copied above). Normally I would install a trackker and absentmindedly forget all about it. You know the kind of things that tend to slip your mind until someone reminds you.

Well, this morning, I received an email from one of the readers of this blog. He/she (cybertrackker62) must have been a person of high knowledge of the web and traffic ranking to know so much.

In his/her words:

Congratulations for moving up the Alexa ladder. Most blogs stay down for a long, long time until an unexpected event pulls them out from the sandbox. Some sites never see light of day. However, I am pleased to inform you that yours are slowly crawling up the ranks as you can see [link to alexa] here. Keep up the good work and I am sure you will be up there very soon.

Well, thank you whoever you are and Godbless. We are here because of nice readers like you keep returning with tips and posts and interaction. Many of you have linked to this site, and to those whose links have been discovered, I have linked my thanks on your site too. To the many whom I have yet to discover, hang in there. Will be around in your neighbourhood shortly.

Thanks everyone, for visiting Wangsa Maju.