Firefly Valley Leisure Park at Kota Tinggi, Johor. (Part 2)

Continue from Part 1...

At the end on the right of the Park, there was a timber bridge where you can enjoy the fish along the both side of the bridge. This was where the Fish Farm located.

The Fish Farm of Firefly Valley Leisure Park

The Fish Farm was full of Koi

Beside the Koi, there were many type of fishes around but I do not know their names...you can check it out yourself. :)
Walked along the bridge, you will notice the 'Water Wheel' which was in still position and not rotate, I just request at the counter area and the 'friendly' boss - Mr Tan turn the generator On immediately for pumping the water to the wheel and it started to rotate...Thanks Mr Tan. :)

The Water Wheel before it starts to rotate...

The water splash out after the generator was turn on...the water move the big wheel!

And this was what we got after it turns, shooting at slow shuttle - 2 sec without tripod.

There were many ducks and geese swimming around the area happily! Well, I note they do have meeting within themselves...Haha!

Their meeting was about to start...

The path will lead you back to the dining area where I saw some of the groups had started their BBQ dinner preparation...So we have to get ourselves ready for the our dinner too!

We had 12 persons and 2 children that night, so we choose the Dinner Package (minimum 10 pax) instead of BBQ dinner...

Our table...

Just opposite the Jetty, I'm just wondering why nobody row that boat?!

Before the dinner serve, we had a few cans of Carlsberg Beer (MYR7.00 per can) here...

The dinner served Sharp on 7pm, this was follow our request. The dishes were all in the package and we didn't chose the dishes as we like...(but I believe they be able to customize the dishes)

Soup

Chicken

Steam Fish

Vegetables

Bean curd - Tou-fu

Prawns

Omelette - Complimentary from the boss - Mr Tan

We were really enjoy the dinner and everyone were satisfied with the dishes served by the Park. The Cook was the elder son of the Boss.
We spent almost 1 hour 30 minutes to enjoy the dinner in this beautiful environment! When almost 9pm, they informed us that the Fireflies had wake up and it's time to enjoy the view at the riverbank!

During watching the Fireflies, Mr Tan elder's son was explaining everything about the fireflies! You can ask any questions and he will answer it from A-Z! Great!
There are about 30 types of Firefly in Malaysia, those which we see along the riverbank are in the smaller size, where else you can find more bigger size Firefly in the jungle. The life span of Firefly is merely about 3 weeks and they are staying at the root of one type of the Mangroves Tree (fireflies of river type). The fireflies will stop blinking around 10pm everyday, because they need to recharge! Haha!
The Best time to view the Fireflies is after rain! If it rain in the afternoon, that will be the Best day to visit the park!
These are knowledge that I learned from him...

I cannot get a good photos (even with tripod) that night due to my poor skills...:(
Below is the only photos you can see some fireflies blinking...too bad there was no background light to enhance the photo...

Fireflies along the riverbank. The photo taken about 9pm

The park is manage by Tan's family and some workers who stay and guided the park during night time. It is Well maintained and Clean. I Love the environment very much! According to Mr Tan (the owner), the visitors can setup their tents and camping inside the park when the electric supply from TNB come in (currently they are using generator during night time) probably end of 2010. And he will built some simple chalets in the park to let the visitors who wanna put a night in the park. I believe that will be Great for nature lover! And we will definitely visit again!

If you are visiting the Park on the night time just to watch the Fireflies, the entrance fee is MYR10.00 (without dinner). And if you like to have the dinner package, they will charge MYR15.90 for adults and MYR10.90 for children (age below 6). (6pm-10pm)

They have few packages for the dinner :-

1)  Steamboat (min. 6 pax)

2)  Buffet dinner (min. 10 pax)

3)  BBQ dinner (min. 6 pax)

4)  Dinner package (min. 10 pax adults)

You can chose any of it depends on the numbers of the group. You have to make a reservation of the dinner 2 days in advance before visit the Park. The telephone number for booking : 012-7833723/012-7896224 (Mrs Tan).

We hanged around the park until almost 10pm, till we finished all the beers and force us to say bye-bye to the Fireflies! :)

Nice and calm environment, this was where I had my beers! :)

Related post :-
*  Firefly Valley Leisure Park at Kota Tinggi, Johor. (Part 1)

Location map of The Firefly Valley Leisure Park of Kota Tinggi, Johor.

View Larger Map

Budapest -- Variety at Rosh Hashanah

My latest Ruthless Cosmopolitan column for JTA focuses on how I once again savored the "goulash Judaism" of Budapest when I was there last week for Rosh Hashanah.

English-speaking travelers should note that the two alternative congregations I attended are English- and Visitor-friendly -- at the Bet Orim reform services, I met a mother and daughter who were on vacation from the U.S. Rabbi Raj (who is retired from a synagogue in Berkeley) conducted the service in Hebrew, Hungarian and English -- he even gave his sermon in both English and Hungarian.

Savoring "goulash Judaism" in the Hungarian capital

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

JTA -- Sept. 16, 2010

BUDAPEST (JTA) -- I always try to spend at least part of the High Holidays in Budapest, so I can sample some of the spicy mixture that characterizes the Jewish experience in the Hungarian capital.
As many as 90,000 Jews live in Budapest, the largest Jewish population in any central European city. The vast majority are unaffiliated -- and probably always will be.

Those who do identify as Jews, however tenuously, have an evolving choice of public and private, religious, cultural and secular ways to express or explore their identity.

Gastronomic, too: This year, one friend made challah for the first time to serve at the holiday dinner, and a downtown restaurant even offered a special Rosh Hashanah menu.

Call it "goulash Judaism," if you will -- a simmering mix whose disparate, and often fractious, components combine to form a highly seasoned whole.

Events and observances this year bore witness to the growing array of Jewish options, both inside and outside traditional settings.

The week leading up to Rosh Hashanah, for example, saw the conclusion of the city's 13th annual Jewish Summer Festival, a 10-day series of performances and other events, including a book and crafts fair, that drew thousands of visitors. Also that week, an ambitious Israeli Cultural Institute opened in a refurbished building at the edge of the main old downtown Jewish quarter.

And further afield, in the Obuda district in the northern part of the city, a 190-year-old synagogue that had been used for decades as a state TV studio was rededicated as a Jewish house of worship.

Rented from the state and restored by Chabad, the synagogue will form part of Chabad's growing local network.

Foreign VIPs were in town for all three occasions.

The Jewish Summer Festival culminated with a well-publicized concert by the Chasidic reggae rapper Matisyahu in a major city event arena.

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky affixed the mezuzah to the doorpost of the Israeli Cultural Institute, which was largely funded by the agency. Institute director Gabor Balazs said the institute's aim was to introduce and popularize Israel's "mosaic-like" culture to the Jewish and non-Jewish public at large.

And Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Yonah Metzger, joined Chabad rabbis in cutting the ribbon at the Obuda synagogue.

"This is the best possible answer to what the Nazis did," Metzger told the crowd of 1,000 or more, including Hungarian government and religious leaders, attending the ceremony. "Fifty years after the last time Rosh Hashanah was celebrated here, it will be celebrated here once again."

My own holiday observances also reflected new choices.

I usually attend High Holidays services at one of the 15 or so mainstream synagogues active in Budapest, or sometimes I "synagogue hop" to two or three shuls. Most of them belong to the Neolog movement -- the Hungarian variant of Reform Judaism that is the country's dominant religious stream. But there are also several traditional Orthodox synagogues, as well three or four now affiliated with Chabad.

This year I chose to avoid the mainstream. I sampled Rosh Hashanah services at two small alternative groups -- Bet Orim, one of Budapest's two American-style Reform congregations, and Dor Chadash, a young people's minyan associated with the Masorti, or Conservative, movement.

As neither Reform nor Masorti is recognized by the Hungarian Jewish Federation, both operate outside the umbrella of establishment Jewry.

Bet Orim celebrated a formal service in the auditorium of the Budapest JCC, while Dor Chadash held a more informal gathering in the living room of the local Moishe House, a downtown apartment that serves as a combination residence and center for Jewish educational encounters.

Each group numbered about 30 or 35 people, and both offered an American-style egalitarian Jewish prayer experience that is alien to mainstream Hungarian Jewry.

At Bet Orim, in fact, a young woman named Flora Polnauer served as the cantor for High Holidays services.
"It's the first time that a Hungarian Jewish woman has fulfilled this role," Bet Orim's rabbi, Ferenc Raj, told me proudly.

Raj, a native of Hungary, moved to the United States decades ago and is rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth El in Berkeley, Calif.

"We are making history tonight," he said.

I had met Polnauer before under quite different circumstances. The daughter of a rabbi, she sings with several local music groups, including hard-driving Jewish hip hop bands.

During the service, dressed in white, she chanted the familiar melodies in a lilting voice. But she looked a little nervous and was clearly moved by the experience.

"I really feel we deserve the Shehecheyanu!" she exclaimed at the end, referring to the blessing recited to mark special occasions and moments of joy.

We all joined in and chanted it with her: "Blessed are you, O Lord, our God, sovereign of the universe who has kept us alive, sustained us, and enabled us to reach this season."

Firefly Valley Leisure Park at Kota Tinggi, Johor. (Part 1)

The Firefly Valley Leisure Park (N1 42.162 E103 54.801) is located at the riverbank of Kota Tinggi River (Johor River). The entrance is situated about 3km after the junction of the road to Kota Tinggi Town and Kota Tinggi Bypass road, you will be notice by the big signage of the Park, you have to continue on the unpaved road for about 2km to reach the Firefly Valley Leisure Park.
You can have a few of dinner package withing the Park, and all the package are 100% No Pork & Beef. I will brief through the dinner package in Part 2.

The daytime entrance fee is MYR1.00 (10am - 6pm). Doesn't it sound good? :)

Firefly Valley Leisure Park of Kota Tinggi

Once you enter the park, there was a bridge just right in-front of you! That's the entrance to the Rabbit's Farm.

Entrance to the Rabbit's Farm

You have to walk across this timber bridge to the farm. And the farm was actually an island surrounded by water...named - Love Island.

The bridge to the Rabbit's Farm

The rabbit's farm of Firefly Valley Leisure Park

I took many photos in the farm. There were many rabbits there and also ducks, turkeys and others small animals...

I'm having a rest...

What did you say??

Cuties Black and White

Hey! How are you?

Mr and Mrs Ducks were everywhere...

I was wondering the communication language between rabbits and the ducks?! No matter how...I still cannot understand! :)

Hey! Someone is shooting at us!

Beside the rabbits and the ducks, there were also unique birds are staying on the Love Island.

And Iguanas too...

Iguanas of Firefly Valley Leisure Park

After making friends with all these small animals in the Love Island, I started to walk around the park...the dining area is located on the right side. I like the area very much because it just next to the stream...

On the left, there is the children playground...

Nice and Clean washroom located in between...

The Firefly area was located after the playground, and it's just beside the riverbank...

This wooden walkway is about 50 meter long...

This is also the Monkeys area. Can you see the monkey?

And another area to enjoy Firefly is the Jetty area...(the kids were very excited about the area)

The Kota Tinggi River (Johor River)

Another view of the Firefly Valley Leisure Park

The Friendly Lady Boss of the Park - Mrs Tan

I spent about an hour at the riverbank area because of the peaceful feeling...it was a wonderful place for family outing and also for photography...but the weather was humid, that's usual along the river...

At the other end of the park, there was a timber bridge and both side full of fishes! Well, I gotta blog about it in the next post (Part 2).

In case you are lost...

I was there with my family and another friend - Ben (Slice Of Life) for our wonderful dinner in the park. Photos of the dinner will be share in my next post...

The Firefly Valley Leisure Park of Kota Tinggi, Johor.

Related post :-

*  Firefly Valley Leisure Park at Kota Tinggi, Johor. (Part 2)

The Location map of The Firefly Valley Leisure Park of Kota Tinggi


View Larger Map

Article on upcoming Jewish cultural events

The The New York Jewish Week has a nice article by Hilary Larson previewing some upcoming Jewish culture festivals and other events in Europe. (You can see an expanding list of festivals in the sidebar of this blog).

throughout the chilly days of fall, cities across North-Central Europe host Jewish cultural festivals that go beyond mere street fairs to showcase finely curated klezmer, cinema and more.

As airfares drop and drab afternoons shorten, consider planning travel around these cultural events. A trip immersed in klezmer or Yiddish theater, say, will be more memorable than another tour of castles.
For aficionados of all things Yiddish, the 14th annual Week of Yiddish Music and Theater in Dresden, Germany, will take place from Oct. 17-31. Concerts, plays, lectures, and even Yiddish linguistics classes all explore the lingering influence of Yiddish in contemporary culture. The festival’s musical highlights include songs of the shtetl performed by a broad range of musical artists, from Yachad, a Russian-Ukrainian group, to Anakronic Okestra, which sets traditional klezmer tunes to hip-hop for an evening of dancing.

In addition to performances, the festival offers opportunities for visitors to engage with the local Jewish community, which is once again flourishing. Community Shabbat worship is held at Dresden’s award-winning New Synagogue; a guided tour of the synagogue is also on the program. There are also several café afternoons, when visitors can mingle over traditional German-Jewish cake with Dresden Jewish residents. (On that note, don’t be intimidated by the fact that lectures and discussions, as well as most festival websites, are in German: most urban Germans also speak English, music is universal, and Google’s Translate tool can help you figure out the website program schedules.)