Monday, May 30, 2016

My Education.

Educating yourself is essentially feeding your brain through your mind or mental states and it is in this sense that I see my growth through my education as a series of self regulating episodes that accepts and resist, secure and discard whatever  came my way in the form of education. I became very skeptical of what was being fed to me in the name of education albeit in the form of scientific cum technological mode or religious and spiritual mode. I learn a whole lot better through listening to a good tune or watching the rain falling through the leaves in the forest or wading through the  stream the flows pass my legs as my toes sink through the sand. I find a whole lot of truth in nature as a form of education that i cannot relate with in science or mathematics. maybe this is because i have more of an artistic mind than, sensitive to feelings and emotional touch than facts and figures. 
As I have often mentioned throughout my Blogging years and even throughout my Art journal keeping years, my mind is like a sponge that is ever absorbing what transpires around me, in whatever form or shapes, good, bad or ugly; my mind takes it all in and not only does it takes it all in, it digest, comments and pass judgement of this or that, right or wrong and so on. It is like what one of my Zen Teachers used to call in his lecture,a 'Tar baby', only the tar baby in this case is my mind that gets itself attached to, fixated with wrapped up with whatever it comes into contact with. My education has always been in understanding how my mind operates throughout my adult life and in trying to un-educate it from the ideas that were impressed upon itself when I was in school. In other words I am always in the process of liberating my mind from the norms of what is education as according to my school system, professors and school teachers, my spiritual guides and religious Gurus, the books i read and the people I meet everyday who has thoughts and ideas to share. It is not that they are right or wrong, but they are simply the means to find that which is original in me, my own "Buddha Nature'.
In order to catch a glimpse of my true 'Self', I have to let go of all that it is not, all that my mind has accumulated, all that I have experienced and all that i have come to accept to be it as my mind has evolved and comes to a conclusion to be so. I do not trust my mind to be able to come to grasp of who I am any more than I can trust my Gurus and Teachers, not the Philosophers nor the Saints can tell me this is who I am, for the day i find out the truth I know the 'I' in me will be no more. Till then I am only as much as I can make sense of what has been fed to me via my brain, through my mind and my limited capacity to see beyond what is; the veil of ignorance is still impenetrable. 
Educating myself is there an act of giving up, letting go and take on life with a detached or removed attention; what the Hinayana teaching would term as 'bare attention'- towards life/ Easier said than done no doubt but persistence and resilience is part of the educating skills that i have been honing as my tool to achieve this goal, that and with a little bit of faith in my own evolved spiritual awakening. Understanding the workings of my Brain functions, my Mind activities, my spiritual awakenings as they happen simultaneously is something that i have been making as my core 'practice', towards the break through beyond the veil that is hiding me from seeing my own true nature, that which was before i was  conceived by my parents.      








Delivering the Message


Art Education has a very deep and significant meaning in my life especially when i was in the primary school where my artistic talents was what had saved me from being totally destroyed by what was supposed to help me become a well educated man. I had a Love hate relationship with my schooling through my life until i was admitted to study in College at the University of Wisconsin- Green bay, 

Where Art played the role of my Saving Grace, maths was a horror to look forward to ; I hated math classes with a passion as much as I loved Art passionately. I talked of my childhood experiences to a small group of people mostly walk ins and it was as though i was talking to myself, recounting the agony and ecstasy of growing up as an artist. .
One of the misfortune of being talented or 'born to be able to draw' was becoming the brunt of envies and frowned upon by those who have no such abilities. When you become the center of attention whenever you are doing your work you peers, your friends and fellow students treat you with disdain or even reject you. This was what i learned at an early age while attending, Francis Light, Primary School in Georgetown, Penang.

I stuck it out despite the fact that during my maths periods i was practically abused by my teachers to the point of taking of my pants and marching off to the Principal's office with my pants on my head to be caned for not remembering my multiplication tables. However comes the end of the year as 'Parent's day approaches, i was kept back in school to do life-size figures of captain Francis Light . the founder of Penang to be hung on the wall. I was not slow in my other subjects as i often enopugh walk up the stage to receive the,'First General Merit award for being first in class and the highest scorer in English and Intelligence test scores and not mention Art itself. I remember lugging stacks of books home at the end of Parent's Day, the awards i received.

Throughout my Secondary Education i went through the same trauma with maths classes, but only then i stood my ground and told my maths teacher that i was wasting his time and and mine and to allow me to leave the class. My math teacher was understanding enough to allow me this freedom. Education took on a whole new meaning when i was invited to join the University of Wisconsin by a  friend who thought that i had what it takes. Through counseling, i breezed through my Maths SAT test with flying colors that even shook my Maths Instructor. My five years of college life was beautiful; again Art came to my rescue from a broken man who worked eleven to twelve hours in the packing houses in Wisconsin, a drunk and divorced man to who I am today.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Sketches of Sendai Japan - 1995-1998









Sketches of my times in Japan.- 1995 -1998.

Don't know what is says in japanese but it was written by god friend Reichiro San, The haiku master cum laundromat owner

My Artist business card being designed for Sendai, Japan.

The following sketches were down while visiting a museum in Tokyo, Japan






Life in SF in sketches.-H&H Ship and Environmental Services

The comfort of Home- not much but its home.Sometime in 1992 ans somewhere in SF.

Thanks Giving Day and we are still working! I was the 'Yard Boss of this whole Facility located on China basin and third Street which is now the SF Giants Baseball Park.

The Journals were my constant companion as i keep track of what was going on at work as well as at home.
in my mind as well as in my heart. This was my form of meditation in action. No one at my work ever complained that i sketch and draw and as a matter of fact i was constantly encouraged to do so by my fellow workers and even my employers as it kept them guessing what i would come up with next.

Christmas eve and we are still on the job! The Artist in me just could not resist.My way of taking a kick at my bosses who could not care less for the employees welfare even when it was Chrisrtmas. It cost s fortune ti cut a quarter inch thick metal plate in terms of Aceteline gas and not to mention time wasted.

What's life without a touch of creativity? Most truck drivers thought themselves to 'Hotshots' but one or two saw the beauty in what they were doing

I worked on the Water Front close to Hunter's point, SF.for six years.as the Yard Supervisor for H&H Ship and Environment Services. Yes, been there and done that. This was where i would escape to have my lunch. Pier 70 or also known as the Dry Dock is seen in the far background. I used to cut hundreds of Underground Storage tanks there when we were oveloaded with tanks that came from all over the Western Seaboard of the United States. H&H was one and only company back then that was capable of disposing off these obsolete tanks and i was in charge.




Life in SF in Sketches- H&H Ships and Environmental Services.-1992.

Safety First at H&H Ships and Environment Services, 220 China Basin, SF. Ca. This site is now being replaced by the  SF GIANTS Baseball Park. I spent six years of my life on this water front mostly as a yard Supervisor and in charge of the USTD cutting operation.

The small river that runs into the bay from the Third Street Draw Bridge.

H&H Serves the Naval vessels when they come into port at Alameda

Advertizing our 'Vector Service' and Tank cleaning operation.

All our scrap metals were taken to Schnitzer's  across the bay in Oakland for sale and disposal.

At Fifth and Folsom where i do the family's laundry. Right across from the Golden gate park It was run by a Hispanic family.


H&H grew from a 'Fly by night' operation into a multi-million dollar  industry. From a company that had a fatal accident and was on the verge of being shut down to a company that serves the SF, bay Area Emergency Respond Team  with HAZMAT capabilities.

I have climbed inside this vacuum truck enough times to clean it, I have a grand idea of what it looks like inside one of these.

Occasional trip to the Beach at Sunset Blvd.

Sharing my life in Sketches -San Francisco.H&H Ship Services -1992









Still going at it-100 feet long painting..





30m. painting complete after five years. (Not so true). It will be completed by the time i am ready to kick the bucket.

You get what you deserve.

To my relief, my friend the air -cond. man, Ah Huat has come around with his usual big smile again yesterday when I was at is shop. It took two days for him to thaw out his anger and I felt my patience with his temperament has paid off. It is difficult to carve out true friendship but a whole lot easier to loose one, they say and i have learned over many of my past failed friendships to understand better what it takes. Get my ego out of the equation and his will step out of the way too is the long and short of it. Anyway we are back on our track of him wanting to make as much and as fast money and me I will help him in getting this accomplished, but all in the spirit of relax and play and not forced labor.
Yesterday evening, (Friday) I was supposed to give and Art talk to an audience who evidently failed to turn up except for six people, a mother and her two children and their friend. Also present were two ladies who had organized the talk. The talk was on Art Education - as a Lifetime Education in conjunction with Celebrating the UNESCO Day. I was asked to give the talk by the Director of the the MGTF-USM who could not make it himself due to prior engagement. So I was apprehensive for two days thinking what I was going to say and if i was prepared or what am I to wear and the parking problem around the venue and so forth. When It all finally happened I found myself the only speaker there while the two others who were supposed to be here were missing and the audience was just the five or six people. Oddly enough I was far from disappointed and i spent two hours chatting with this group pf Chinese ladies who were there running the event. I had the best moment on my life feeling like i could communicate so freely of what I truly felt without inhibitions which would not had been possible had there been a larger audience.
By the end of the day I felt i have learned yet another lesson about what and what not to expect but just to be present and be involved and accounted for without any premeditated interest. The talk i gave was more for myself to hear and know who I am and what I am all about in Art and Education and how i have arrived at being able to reconcile my feelings of the past negative experiences about Education and how Art has been my healing tool and process. As much  as I desire to make money as the next guy, Art has always been secondary when it comes to earning a living. Throughout my life i have held more than thirty different jobs, some briefly while the longest lasted six years. I have worked for no salaries on many jobs simply because i just felt like working and experiencing what it takes to perform the work; I like to volunteer my services any chance I get so long as i get to do things the way I like to do them. I like to play while I work, and work while i play- perhaps it makes no sense but it is the way I have always felt about employment; I quit or get myself fried if i find my job has become uninteresting or a psycho/ emotional drag than benefits me in no way than simply making a living.
I have begged and I have borrowed and even stolen in my life and i am not proud of it, but i managed to stay afloat like a cork over water moving down a stream, I never find myself stuck in one place for too long. I am not good at saving and I spend what i make just as i make them while often enough sharing with others who I feel in need like I am a rich man. Sometimes I have gone for weeks without a penny in my pocket just to see how I fare and sometimes i have more than I know what to do with that I felt like it is not even there. I do not envy others who have made it big financially, just respect for their ability to. I treat having and not having money as a healthy practice of attach and detachment, I can say no and yes to whenever or whatever that I may desire to have and watch how it happens when i got what i had intended to have in the end. Sometimes things just comes my way out of the blue, just enough to allow me the next phase or mile or days into the future with little or no pressure. I feel strongly that I have achieved a better understanding of the laws of 'abundance' and how it affects my material needs; you get just enough, no more nor less than what you truly need. 









Wednesday, May 25, 2016

I am all I have got and proud of it.

I made an error in trying to share my thoughts on these matters with my Chinese friend Ah Huat the auto-air conditioning mechanic after the shop closed and we were sipping a few cans of beer. Just to break from the tedious non stop babbling he always rant on mostly about the same things, I decided to take a poke at him with the question, Who are you, Ah Huat? It stopped him on his tracks and blew a gasket right out of the cylinder, I have never seen a man could get so pissed off over such a trivia question. I saw my friend's altered state for the first time of how ill tempered he can become to the point of irrationality that he almost decked me had i kept pushing him. I kept apologizing to him for raising such a banal question in an effort to uplift his knowledge to higher level or so i assumed, but it back fired miserably and as i visited him this evening he was still not in the best of moods to talk to me. Looks like another failed friendship in the making before it even developed to full bloom. Such Is! ...this too will pass.
It is said that you never throw pearls at swines they will never know what to do with them but just to eat them and shit on them. It is also said or not that one should make an effort to uplift a spirit when one deems it is ready to be uplifted to higher state of Consciousness. Who am i to know what is best for others anyway? Why should i even care if they appreciate or not what i have been trying to share in my relationship with them and at the end of the day i realize it is all about money and work, he bribes me with small amounts of cash insisting that i should accept it for what i have done for him and eventually I become his employee, sad, so sad.
I suppose I will keep on trying to keep this relationship alive for whatever it is worth as i know the man is going through some heavy duty work pressure trying to handle money matters when he cannot even read or write properly according to his friends. I do not write to criticize but to share my predicament and perhaps witness the final outcome of this episode of my life as it is still part and parcel of my lifelong practice. in relationships. is it necessary? Off course it is as it is part and parcel my karmic consequences in dealing with my own weaknesses and failures in trust and integrity towards my friends and various relationships in the past. I could atone for my sins and wait to be judged by the All Mighty when I am face to face with my Maker. In the mean time it is my Karmic duty to cleanse myself of faults and failures in this life through working with others in our interpersonal relationships. What a bunch of Hogwash, you say and yes perhaps it is so, but what have i got to loose? Perhaps just another potential good friend. What lessons have i learned? Nothing last? All is Illusion? That i shoudl, no go throwing my big mouth about matters that hardly got a grasp myself? Says Who? Rajneesh? Mooji? Alan Watts? Krishnamurti? Ramana Maharshi? Baba Ram Dass? Katagiri Roshis? Or Dennis Junpo Kelly?
What i have learned if nothing else is that we are all fragile in our projections of ourselves we pretend to be impeccable towards the external world but deep within we are still groping in the dark trying to figure out who we are and where our place is in this whole scheme of Life. The closer we get to the end of our days the more desperate and irrational we become with this need to justify why things are the way they are. Bent and battered over the years from abuses and being abused physically, psychologically and emotionally, we find ourselves still wondering what went wrong and how we were wronged but w wear his mask to hide behind and say this is who I am. Not much but I am all that i have got, n much but more than most and am proud of it beating out chest like a ape.   







I Am That I AM.

To put one's 'Practice into action in this life is not a simple matter as it takes a whole lot of ability and dexterity in being able to act selflessly as well as spontaneously without any preconception of making an effort to act; it just has to happen. This will only materialize if and when the mind is silenced through, (practice). Spontaneous action 'erupts' or happens without premeditated thinking and when it takes place something new and exciting if not, 'Mind Boggling' materializes that even the doer is caught by surprise. This 'explosion', a instant reaction to any given situation often manifests itself when one is dire need of a solution, or in a state of danger or being threatened physically of mentally or when one is in a position to act for the benefit of someone else's safety. To be in this state of mind I find one has to be in close contact with one's consciousness or more like one is constantly in a 'fully conscious state'of ' Being.
The mind or more accurately the, the consciousness we all have within us is the most powerful tool, (next to God). We have been urged and impressed upon by those Ancient Masters to develop this state of consciousness, to become enlightened to, to master the ability to put it into action in all that we do. In short we have been taught from the beginning to not allow ourselves to sleep walk through our lives like zombies or become just 'grist for the mill' or a part of cog and screw for a machine;we are the machine. We are the creators of the cog and screws that makes the machine run, we    provide the coding system that the computer may function to our needs and not the other way round. We are more than just exploiters and manipulators utilizing what is already created to suit our needs, it is our duty to transcend beyond what is already there and manifest what is original and primordial from our inner being.

YOU ARE A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH!
workisnotjob.

Just as the miner sheds his blood sweat and tears digging through the mountain side in seeking that perfect diamond, it is our duty to dig deep within ourselves to find that trophy trough where all things manifest from and share our discovery with humanity in each and every way we possibly can. Otherwise life is but a dream and dreamers often awakens to a nightmare at the end of the day. Whatever guise we have taken to be identified as a member of our society, the human race, we must strive to share our self discovery, our intuitions our, insights with those around us, right or wrong, let  
the rest of humanity be the judge and only time can tell. No matter how small or insignificant the revelation we receive from our inner being, given at the right moment and circumstances, it will make a difference; it might even move mountains. 
If one is to be a dreamer in this life, dream big, dream a glorious dream that the mind can conjure up with and even if it is all an illusion at least the joy of dreaming such a dream is worth the impending nightmare when it comes. In my teenage years i was accused of being a dreamer than none other, my oldest brother, my English teacher and the man who shaped my life at that time in my life when I was beginning to figure out what I was all about. I dreamed of far off distant lands of snow covered mountains and endless desert sand, depth-less oceans and thick rain forests all over the world and today i dare say i have been there and done it. Sometimes out of the sheer need to escape from the reality that was choking my very life I loose myself into my dreams and most of my dreams in the past has manifested themselves in reality through out my life.
For dreams to become reality, for fantasy to become a way of life, for wishful hopes and thoughts to manifest in our lives we have to learn how to make it happen. We have to seek out the tolls the ways and means the secrets of the ages as handed down from the first man who thought about  such notions, the Man who sat and stared at the stars and wondered at the entrance to his cave: Who Am I? Is there a Creator out there or am I the creator of my own Universe? If i do not exist would there be this! Perhaps! But who is there to be the witness to all these if I am not? I AM THAT, I AM?






Tuesday, May 24, 2016

All is as It should be.

As I have rarely come upon a living Guru or teacher that I can look up to or learn a thing or two from in my daily relationship with those i encounter, I have resorted to reflecting more upon the thoughts of thinkers via the You Tube in the Internet. It is a blessing as i have time and again emphasized the fact that the Internet is the latest of Divine Miracles for humanity while at the same time it can be the curse that would tear the fabric of our existence to shreds.The amount of information spewed out by the Internet is beyond phenomenal and yet it has also revealed the amount of ignorance that we as humanity is made up of when it comes to sharing and dispatching this information. Like everything that has grown out of proportion the Internet too needs policing in order to curb wrong and harmful usage for self aggrandizement, political mileage and religious props. It is not wrong to say that the abuse of the Internet usage has become alarmingly scary for it is available to every nook and cranny around this planet and to the good as well as the bad and the ugly; knowledge at the fingertips.
I do not have to look far, my son half his days facing the PC in his room that it does not make difference to him if he is surrounded by all kinds of garbage from half leftovers and empty plastic bottles, a can full of cigarette buts and a bed that has not seen the laundry for weeks on end. It is as though  he believes that it is his calling in life to be hunched over the PC browsing every single series on You Tube, chat with all his friends on Face Book and play the latest Video Games available while downloading movies and mini series like Games of Thrones from the beginning to the latest season, Like any father who has to raise his children without the mother i keep telling myself, and this too will pass. I keep accepting the fact that he will find what he is looking for eventually and that it will happen sooner than later; looks like he is aiming at becoming a screen writer! So i accept his good as well as bad habits and give him the benefit of the doubt that he will find himself somewhere down the road even if it is through the Internet.
The Internet has become my major Guru like every one else's and i seek advice from all the contemporary Gurus on You Tube to confirm my own thought processes and that i am not too far off from their line of thinking on subjects that i have deep interest in. Alan Watts as i have time and again mentioned is one of those and J. Krishnamurti, Mooji and Ekhart Tolle and the host of other Teachers from the past. What I learn on the street is through watching and with bare attention in so much as not getting myself sucked into what is but merely being a witness to events in the moment in time. I find that as i remove myself getting involved too intimately or become too familiar with any circumstances happening before me i loose the hold these events or happenings has on me. I am more free to be present just as an observer and only allow myself to be involved if and when it is called for.
It has taken a good part of my life to come to this simple realization but it is never too late to practice what is Right Attention.
Instead of allowing my mind to wonder around like a parasite feeding on every phenomenon or like a sponge absorbing all that it comes in contact with, pure or filth, i am finding myself less and less distracted from focusing on what is right before me and letting it go right after it is past...and this too will pass. The good and the ugly distinction has lost its discriminating effect and everything or event, every episode and experience has become just as it is, nothing more and nothing less to add or subtract from; All is as it should be. 

  









Monday, May 23, 2016

We Are thinking ourselves Down the Hole.

How to keep on keeping your consciousness sharp and brilliant, spotless and unblemished from the illusions of what  you are exposed to in your daily lives. How to keep honing your senses and keep them from slipping into darkness before their allotted time span, this is the quest being set about by most modern day young and active members of societies. Various activities that are set to challenge the human spirit are catered towards accomplishing these goals at the end of the day, when you get more and more feeble as age wears down on you claiming yet another food and fodder for the worms before it is time due to giving up prematurely, this thirst for life. It is imperative that dearth is our final destination, at least in this physical body, but it does not mean the our mind need to surrender without a fight, that our will should bend from further accomplishing the impossible or the least to fulfill our wishes and dreams. before the final curtains.
A friend recently asked me how i keep up my enthusiasm in creating as an artist or even keeping on writing this Blog year in day out. I told him him simply, what else is there to do otherwise. It is like facing a battle cry all the time as one rides into the faces of the enemy letting out wild screams from deep within you knowing that you will be dropped anytime by the bullet aimed at you, you just have to make the final scream as loud and as full of passion as you can and impale yourself into the inevitable that awaits you like the Thorn Bird. This is the passion of an artist, a warrior, a monk. To face the unknown fully conscious and with full vigor even when there is lack of energy or commitment. To transcend one's own weaknesses and face that challenge even if it means utter defeat in the final analysis; to not give in.
What is Art/ He asked me, and I replied, it is creating. When you start creating even a single line on a piece of paper, it is Art; if not No Art. Talk all you want and critique all you wish about Art, still; No Art. Art is in Making it Happen. So is life in essence, it is in living and living is not merely in counting your change if it is more that you need or if you have more than others, life it is more than what meets the eyes. Living is ideally, in being Creative and Productive, Loving and Compassionate, towards yourself and mostly towards others. it is in the ability to Live and let live, in giving and taking, in knowing and understanding and most of all in getting to Know who you are. Living life without these attributes is like cattle grazing in the lush full fields getting fattened for the butcher's knife.
As I have often enough reminded myself and others patience is an impeccable virtue that one cannot afford to neglect or take  lightly in whatever matter one is involved in. Patience wear down all tensions and defuses all anger and if taken seriously can make wonders materialize in their proper time and moments. Many fail to grasp this and often flounder around in despair after learning the errors of rushing into matters before taking the deep breath and refraining from making rash moves without contemplating its significant and consequences. The human mind is capable of multi tasking and multi-layering of events and options in the process of getting anything done and it is only in how we are able to understand and use this ability like we utilize the Adobe Web tool, the more we learn the larger the significance of its use we find. We are religious, scientific, technological, and poetic creatures all wrapped into one, but we chose only what we feel is our field of virtue and neglect the rest, thinking that the Artist and the Scientist, the Savant and the Monk cannot coexist in one individual's mind. 
The mind that has evolved for millions of years, (according to science), is limitless to the the extent of its owner's knowledge and ability to understand what is thoughts in relation to the mind. We all think, but what we are capable of thinking is never the same just as our DNA is never the same in each and every one of us. It is said that thoughts creates our environment, the world that we live in and if this is so, how do we manage to think of so much inequity and discord, crimes and destruction, waste and most of all untold suffering among us? Is our Collective thinking so warped and distorted that we cannot find a solution to our miseries anymore through Right Thinking. It is indeed a sad thing thing to even think about.



Keeping it all in Gear.

When my daughter asked me what my plans were for the rest of the day at breakfast at Kassim Mustafa on Chulia Street, in Georgetown, I told her i really have no idea as yet. She said you are just going with the flow and i said just about it. I dropped her off at Giat MARA where she is doing her Seamstress course which is in keeping with her wanting to be a fashion designer. I am confident that she will survive on her own even when i am no more around to help her see it through day by day, she has become more than self confident and is capable of earning a living in more than one way.
I drove off to USM hoping that the office will be open and it is, thus i am working on blog entry which i have been neglecting for the past few weeks.
Perhaps i am slowly winding down and letting go of activities that really has worn out its values in affecting much changes in my life. I am more into trying to keep body and mind from deteriorating too soon before it is time to bow out of this cycle of life and death. I am maintaining my physical self by performing as much physical labor as i can afford to while at the same time contribute towards the well being of my immediate community of family and friends. Yesterday was spent working on a long Mural on the wall of a Kindergarten along with the parents and teachers of the school. This is the school where my grand nephews and nieces attends in Balik Pulau, located on the other side of the Island of Penang. Hence i am recovering from aches and pains all over the body, especially on the lower back.
The week earlier I was with the USM staff attending the Natinal Meuseum Day which wsa held at the Museum Padi or Padi Museum located in Alor Star, the capital town of the northern State of Kedah. Evidently, Penang was once a part of the State of Kedah until the Sea captain Francis Light Conned the Sultan into selling him the Island in return for the protection he afforded against pirates and such. But that was History and who pays much attention to History anymore, as it is said history is written by the victorious and not by the vanquished. If there is anyone to be blamed for the fate of this Island, it is the Kedah Sultan of the day who was swayed by the sweet talks ans sabre rattling of the British East India Company when they came to set up trading in the Malay peninsular. Today you see the black and white picture of the said Sultaa in in homes and coffee shops in Kedah showing of His Highness.s medals stuck to his chest given by the British for being fooled.
The Museum Padi is located on the outskirt of the town of Alor Star at the foot of Gunung Keriang, is worth visiting for it has one of the most fantastic Mural I have ever seen depicting the landscape of Rice fields and local lifestyle. I was very impressed by this massive work which was done by a a group of about sixty Korean Artists and artisans. In an age where 3D Art is becoming a fad all over the world, this piece which was officially launched in 2004 is for me among the most captivating.
Gunung Keriang itself is a site worth exploring for those interest in caves and climbings. 
Image result for Museum Padi, kedah
    Gunung Keriang.

 
Muzium Padi, Lot798 Jalan Gunung Keriang, Mukim Gunung Keriang, 06570 Alor Setar, Kedah Darul Aman.

Tel. No: 04-7351315







I also made a short visit to my friends at SRI Lovely in the foot hills of Kampung Lintang in Sik, Kedah. I stayed there for a few days long enough to get some cutting and trimming done giving the place a facelift as they were expecting a visit by the Students from the Thaksin University in Thailand. This was before i made the trip to the Natinal Museum Day celebration in Alor Star. Yes, I was trying to keep my time occupied so as to keep my body and mind active and productive. Believe me it does not get any easier as one gets older and the body is telling you that you are no longer what you used to be.