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The story begins here, Bukit Merah, a Chinese new village nearby Menglembu. Rare earth plant was a nightmare to the residents of Bukit Merah. In 1982, a factory called Asian Rare Earth (ARE, joint developed by Japanese & local companies) was built along Lahat Road, which is just opposite to the village. Due to the toxic radioactive waste from the factory, they had fought for 12 years to chase this plant out from their home. However, the villagers suffered a higher rate of cancer & immune system diseases over the years. (For more information, please refer Chronology of Events in the Bukit Merah Asian Rare Earth Development)
ARE finally ceased operation in 1994. However, history is recurring recently; an Australian rare earth mining company, Lynas is setting up a plant at Kuantan, the capital of Pahang state. The better awareness of Malaysian about threat of radioactive waste to human body is triggering a nationwide objection to the rare earth plant in Kuantan. After several attempts to urge Federal Government to drop this project failed, people starts to march on the street to voice out the concern.
State Assemblyman of Tebing Tinggi (Ong Boon Piow) & Member of Parliment of Gopeng (Lee Boon Chye) from opposition parties are greeting each other. 
Saving our homeland from threat of hazardous industry is regardless of race & age.
This is my second attempt to climb the Kledang Hill within a month. When reach different level of height, the scene on Kinta Valley changes. The higher I reach, the broader sight I gain & I find the great view indulges me so much until I feel reluctant to go down hill. Moreover, there are also many people like to stop by to rest & enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Five years, eight years? When I really recall how long have I not climbing the Kledang Hill, then only I realized it has been more than ten years. Finally I am at Kledang Hill again today. I choose not to go by the tar road but following the small path. Anyway, it has changed so much where some people had spent so much effort making the steps to ease the climbers. However, one thing never change; it's the awesome view on Ipoh city still amazing. I am not reaching the higher spot for the entire Ipoh city view, but what the southern part of Ipoh is already in sight.
In tropical countries, even a small piece of expose land under the sun, it would always grown with grass & some little wild flowers. They may not be very eye catching feature. But when these flowers come together, it looked like stars scattered above the green grass. The simple & humble wild flower would also create a nice scenery.
In a gathering at Hokaido Cafe, Menglembu, a cup of coffee is served. This is nothing much than an ordinary coffee but the appearance on top catches my eyes. I am not sure it is purposely or just coincidently made, the bigger bubbles are concentrated at circumference of the cup. Or it could be just a normal phenomena on a stirred coffee that I never pay attention to it in the past.
It's a cloudy evening and normally a right condition to see nice colorful refraction of sunlight from the clouds. While stopping in front a shop at 1st Curve, I am a little bit slow to capture the best moment. I only able to get this photo with color started fading away. Well, when uploading this post, I find difficulty to exactly categorize this area. Should it be part of Menglembu, Buntong or Falim? Or suppose this is considered a session on its own, call it Desa Rishah, 1st Curve or Kledang?.JPG)
Lord Guan is worshipped by many Chinese especially in southern China, Hong Kong & South East Asia. Guan Yu 关羽 was his real name & he was a general serving warlord Liu Bei 刘备 during 2nd Century, the era of Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms era of China. He is well known of his loyalty and righteousness. Many Chinese shops & restaurants are having small shrine or statue of Lord Guan..JPG)
Life is getting more amazing with all kind of illusory things around us. As simple as glass or mirror could create a virtual world, just like the interior designer uses to "increase" space in a small apartment. The fact that human enjoy living in illusions is undeniable. We are creating more and more unreal features that fulfill our desire on excitement but we let many precious things & awesome moments at our surrounding slipped away from us.
Pigeons are lining up on a power cable at Menglembu town. It's normally seen when nearby shops are feeding them.
This is something that no one can predict at three hours ago. It was such an extremely warm afternoon which makes everyone feels like being cooked in a giant oven. Complains about the terrible weather is frequently heard lately. However, the unexpected is happening in the evening; downpour sweeps over the city & even creates flood at some lower grounds. The rain is so welcomed despite the inconvenience caused by flood.
I have not been coming to Kledang Hill, the most popular hill jogging spot in Ipoh, for so many years. I am here this evening to have a look, not for exercise. I did not go far up but just stopped at a higher spot from normal ground which is good enough to take a view over the valley. It was raining before I reach here, and there is still raining somewhere at the southern part of Ipoh. This is a view towards southeast. The nearest seen ex tin mine lake & houses is Menglembu residential area while the mystic limestone hill formed a beautiful background
On my way to lunch, I saw thick black smoke rising from ground, which should be the Menglembu industry estate. My first guess would be a factory is on fire, and at quite serious level. This is definitely not a joke of April fool. I did not divert my destination to the scene of incident, but just capture this photo at miles away. Later I heard people talking in the restaurant about frequent fire cases in town. Looks like this is not the only incident occur recently.
There is a Guanyin Temple at higher ground of Menglembu new village & it is just beside the trunk road between Ipoh city & Lahat. I believe most of the people traveling on this road will easily find this temple. I was driving through Menglembu this evening & was attracted by the scene of sunset. I found it the dragons on roof top become livelier with the flame-like background.
Skyscraper is very limited in Ipoh. All high rise buildings here are controlled at certain height (if not mistaken, approximately 150m) due to the nearby airport & surrounding hills. Therefore, we seldom look for tall manmade structures as landmark for direction or to estimate the distance to destination. The only easiest recognizable manmade structures are these communication towers on Kledang Hill. Although it is not built to be special, unique or outstanding but I believe any Ipoh citizen should be very familiar of its existence & unconsciously recognize it as a landmark of the city. 
The cloud is crawling along the Kledang Mountain Range after rain in late afternoon. It washes away the heat accumulated during the sunny noon.
This is seen from the Menglembu hawker street in the evening. The old shop houses in Menglembu town seemed to be more romantic under the golden sunset. It is seen at far the Kledang Hill that everyone live in Ipoh will recognize the transmission towers on it.
This is a sign that attracted me several times. It is promoting Gopeng Noodle (Gopeng is a town at about 20km from Ipoh), but this sign is placed at backyard of a shop in Menglembu town. Why? It’s because there are some car parking lots at the small alley & when the front street is congested during daytime, many will choose to drive this way. Well, I am one of them. Finally I give a try on the noodle this afternoon, not bad…
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