Bumi Bertuah Bumi Berkat

It was interesting to hear the old history of Bumi Bertuah being reminded again around a coffee table on a Friday afternoon after what has been a long and busy week in the office. That Sultan Sharif Ali, the third Sultan was a descendant from our Prophet through his grandsons Sayydinia Hassan or Sayydinia Hussin. Not long after he arrived in Brunei from Taif in the Arabian Peninsular, he was married to a daughter of the second Sultan, Sultan Ahmad. He became the third sultan on the death of Sultan Ahmad in 1425.

The 15th century was a period of contrast between the seat of Islamic civilisation i.e. the Middle East and South East Asia. Middle East was in upheaval with competing dynasties such the Ottoman and the Mamluk. South East Asia however saw a rapid propagation of Islam and kingdoms after another became Islamic sultanates. With the arrival of Sharif Ali, Bumi Bertuah also became officially an Islamic sultanate. Sharif Ali was famous for inheriting Pedang si-Bongkok, believe to indicate that he was formerly an Emir of Mecca. Because of his piousness, he was known as Sultan Berkat (meaning 'blessed'). He was the first to call Brunei as Darussalam. He constructed the first mosque. May the Berkat last forever to make this Bumi Bertuah as Bumi Berkat.

Island of Hope

A fly-pass through this island still showed that it is still a piece of barren land. The raised hope, over a decade now, for a mega port is still very much a hope. In those ten years, many other ports have been expanded and countless contracts and partnerships have been signed, honoured and blooming. Here as I was looking out from the plane, a feeling of despair and hopelessness crept in. The diversification drive is not happening fast enough. The country's GDP is shrinking, quoted at -1.9% in 2009, -1.9% in 2008 and 0.2% in 2007. It does not matter whether these are accurate numbers or not, there is no question that we are lagging behind other countries let alone to compete with booming economies the like of China and India. A lot really need to happen if we are to aspire to achieve the Vision 2035.

Entrusted

Exactly two years ago, I was wondering where most of the guys that I shared the same dormitory in Singapore over 30 years ago have gone. Two years ago there were only a handful of them up there. But how things have changed. And just now when looking at the list of medal receipients from His Majesty and also looking at those who are now filling key positions -amazing - there are now ten who are either permanent secretaries or deputy PS, and two are deputy ministers. Indeed these are key positions entrusted upon them and I am sure that they will do their utmost for the good of the nation.

Above the Clouds

It's like deja vu, we were here 3 months ago and here we are going through our paces climbing up the same mountain again. This time I have managed to convince my eldest and Noruen to join. It was also an opportune time to take the mind off from work and made full use of two public holidays during the week. We flew on Monday and came back today.

The 85 km taxi ride from the coast up to the mountain on Monday was accompanied by a torrential rain, roads were flooded and driving uphill under such condition was quite hazardous and not good for the faint heart. It was also enough to make us wary that our foot climb the next day might never happen.

But lo and behold, it was sunshine and clear sky when we reached our hotel - the Kinabalu Pine Resort. The place wasn't something that I had expected, internet could give quite deceiving impression, but overall the location was fantastic with the summit of the mountain in full view.

Fizah was a bit awed looking at the peak and was probably thinking what has she been taken into.

We started off at 8 am in the morning, much earlier than the previous trip. We had a petite lady guide, who

immediately offered to carry my heavy ruck sack that weighed 12kg. I was a bit apprehensive to let her do it but then she told us that she is used to carrying heavy load and that's part of her job to earn a living.

Later we found out that she is actually a very able lady, was overall 6th in the ladies ranking amongst Malaysian in the famous Kinabalu mountain race. She was able to run to the summit in 2 hrs and 22 minutes.

Her best time going up and down and running a further 5 km to the finishing line at the Kinabalu Park headquarter, a total distance of 24 km, was 3 hrs and 45 minutes. I found that

mind boggling. She has climbed the mountain over a thousand times!

Our climb up was slow. We let the two girls made their own paces. We finally reached Laban Rata at 3270 m height in just short of 6 hours. Everyones were tired. Apart from me, the kids didn't take the pre-trip preparation too seriously. Add to the misery were a few burst of cold rains while climbing into the clouds. But overall we were lucky as there were no such torrential rains like the day before.

At around 2.30 am in the morning, we started our final ascend. Faris stayed

back as he was again hit by attitude sickness, but mainly because he had done it before and didn't want to go through the ordeal again. Noruen turned back after 1.5 hours as she too wasn't feeling well. That left me and Fizah to wade our way to the summit.

We were told not to take too many stops and just take small steps to go up. We did that and reached the crowded summit well before 6 am. People seemed to be waiting for the sunrise before heading down. Imagine how it looked like when something like one hundred climbers were just squatting and sitting on the rocks up there. There was nowhere to go apart from just waiting near the top. In the end we managed to take our obligatory photos at the summit.

We made our way down. From Laban Rata it took over four hours to reach the gate. The taxi trip to our hotel in KK was again constantly interrupted by torrential rain. The taxi driver (the same one again) was saying that the rains were a sign of good prosperity!

That was my fourth climbs to the mountain, admittedly still a long way to beat my father who has scaled the Mount Kinabalu seven times before. I hope to accomplish the same feat. But for now I have set my sight to another mountain.

Kids in the Wild

Kids were back. They have been away for 8 days, travelling on foot, bus, boat and AirAsia!

They have been hopping from one place to another. One of the location they stayed overnight was like a long house deep in the wild and onlyreachable by boat. That was the location where they could see Orang Utan, elephants and so on.

Apart from the many walks, they have also been doing lots of physical activities, so much so they were aching and tired when they reached home. But I told them they won't have many days to rest as they will join me to another endurance trip

in a couple of days time!

Dumping Ground

While looking for car tyres, I saw this pile of used tyres being sold at incredibly low prices. They are as low as $15 a piece. Some are clearly worn out, imported from neighbouring countries without any set standard, to fill a growing niche market for people who cannot afford to buy new. Not only do they pose unknown but serious danger to the new users, but also create an unhealthy industry for the country - dumping ground for used material from 1st World countries.

These are not the only things. One could get used car parts, engines and even car body chasis. And then there is another iniquitous industry - the widespread sale of non-genuine car parts which are almost difficult to differentiate from the original parts. Somebody need to stand up on this.

Angelic Beach Spot

Yesterday our niece had a birthday do on a beach spot known as the Angel Beach somewhere along Seri Kenangan beach in Tutong, a place that is gaining popularity amongst the public.

The spot is a bit secluded, available for rental, and for that you get a few sheds, BBQ hut, shower and toilet facilities and so on. And you don't have worry about annoying youngsters or noisy bikers or fighting for space on the beach.

We are not regular beach goers which is a bit sad considering that there are so many gorgeous beaches in the country. I guess that when things are a plenty, we tend not to appreciate and do not make full use of the gifts given to this land.

What is even more sad is that when people go to the beach, they have complete disregard for cleanliness and often left behind plenty of thrash. Nonetheless it is good to know that there are also plenty of Samaritans in the country who go out during every weekend just to pick up those thrash or other people's undoing.

A Group of Friends

The house is a bit quiet this week, Faris and Fizah are on a week long school trip to a place formally known as Jesselton, heading eastwards to Sandakan and so on. They will be spending time going back to nature, seeing Orang Utan, into the mangrove, the national parks, the mountains and the beaches. Will be pretty exciting.

But most of all we will be quite curious to know how they survive a week without laptop, without access to FaceBook or other social cyber network. Kids nowadays are just blessed with so many things in life, every now and then it's good to let them out and appreciate mother nature.

Land of Orange

Just came back from a short trip back to the land famous for its bicycles, tulips, cows and anything that is orange. Indeed as it is the World Cup at the moment, the whole place is more colourful or orange than usual, orange is of course the official colour of the Dutch football team and its supporters.

Whilst there we found the mid June weather was a bit chilly, unusual for this is the middle of summer in Europe. Somehow that is now the order of the day when it comes to the weather - global warming, ash clouds or whatever people can lay the blame on.

Talking about the World Cup, it has been a week since it started. The Americas seemed to be doing much better than their Europeans counterpart. Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Mexico and even USA are winning or getting precious points. Whereas, we have seen Germany, Spain, France and even England faltering.

So may be this will be the year for a team from South America to win. That would be either Brazil or Argentina. But then the ball is round and even a better team is not guaranteed to win. It will still be another 3 weeks to go before we know who will win. In the meantime lets enjoy the late nights of watching football.

Spiritual Living

Just came back from a quick hop to a place I spent some part of my tender age. A place where a clear example of truly urban way of living with an overdeveloped Westernised society is to be seen. A place so thoroughly modern, litter-free, shiny and new. A place with endless number of high-rise buildings and shopping malls filled with the latest gadgets and goodies. But this place makes many outsiders having strong opinion that all these amazing organisation and systems make the place dull. For amidst all this modernity and sparkling clean (or to be exact chewing gum free), there is nothing unique in its culture, history and people when compare to all the other Asean countries.

When I lived there before I recalled even the citizens need to be reminded to 'smile' through constant campaigns. Everyones are too busy and neglect their own unique individuality and desire for expressions. It is as if this is as a modern-day version of communism - everyone sacrifices for the greater good of the general society.

Amidst all these though, I found the lush greenery and the tall trees within the city make things less lifeless. And in the middle of the city just a stone throw away from Orchard Road is a place of salvation, where one's spiritual belief and responsibility can still be uphold. The Mesjid, humbly located underneath a storey car park building, provides a place of respite for the devotees amidst the hustle and bustle and temptation of modern living in what some people described as probably one of the most sterile place around in every sense of the word.

Period of Bereavements

This week saw two of our eldest have succumbed from old age and passed away. One is always filled with humility in times of bereavements like these. And the presence of so many to pay their last respect on the day is always quite a sight. Slowly less and less of our elders are living, a sign that we are fast advancing our age and that soon we will ourselves be called the elders.

Death is the clearest sign shown to all humans that everyone are born equal. No one is more equal than others in the eyes of Allah. It is only his deeds that will be counted when the person is judged at the end of life. So when one is confronted with the challenge of life - that hierarchy, rank and wealth are reigning supreme in our society, just step back and be satisfied with what you are.

How Green are We

This photo was taken by Zimah of two baby birds on one of our mango tree. It is so nice to see that we are living in harmony with all the animals around us, even to the point that we sometimes hardly ever had the chance to taste our mango fruits because of the ever clever and quick primates that live in the nearby forest.

Talking about primates, the proboscis monkey came to light. Lately a stretch of pristine mangrove forest had to be cleared to allow for widening of a water channel to prevent flooding upstream. What might be a perfectly good reason, the lack of other basic effort and eco planning could come into question. The point is whenever a housing project or shopping buildings are built; the first thing that is done is to cut down trees in a wholesale manner and to flattened the whole land. That is the current unfortunate trend of developers, this is then followed by the growing use of treeless fields.

There is no eco-planning or any visible sign of sustainable development implemented. Prove me if I am wrong. It is so much so that our shopping complexes are very dull and a ring of hard concrete, unwelcoming and always hot with hardly any trees for shades or beauty. Just walk around in Kuilap, Serusop or any shopping places to prove the point. Perhaps if only planners and developers alike could just consider the planting of proper trees. It is amazing to discover what difference a tree could make to reduce noises or throw shade to reduce heat especially from the afternoon sun. Everyone will agree that a single shade tree can also make a very great difference in the comfort and beauty of a place.

And here we are proud of our vast undisturbed and pristine forests. And yet every day we are chopping down and destroying our eco system, many still hasn't got a clue what recycling is all about, and we are amongst the highest user of energy per-capita. Are we the right people to inherit this piece of earth's paradise?

Not Just any Starchy Food

It's our way of living. Most people love it. We normally take it at our family's home, but just last week we wanted to try out at a well known restaurant which has a branch in our home town reputedly to be amongst the best around. Well, it better be as this is the true homeland of the food. The restaurant got a Grade 'A' under the restaurant grading programme recently, the programme that encourages food operators to maintain the cleanliness of their premises and also the hygiene of their staff when handling and serving food to customers.

The starchy food in question, ambuyat, is unique to Brunei. Normally it is something that is taken almost in impromptu especially during lunchtime and mostly on Friday or Sunday afternoons. As in the restaurant, it is not eaten in a small group but really in a big company of families and friends. It is a unique Bruneians way of living. As somebody said it stages the true togetherness of families and friends, the sharing, the harmony, the loving and the welcoming of real Bruneians.

Going for a Dip

The blog has been quiet over a period. Spare time is a real commodity nowadays.

One thing that we have picked up lately is swimming. A new swim facility has just been opened recently in our place and is such a bit hit with the local masses. During one of our afternoon outings, we counted about 160 swimmers in the pool! And barely a month since opening the place has generated so much in gate receipts that the amounts were never heard off in other better known places in the country.

It just shows that given the right facilities, everyone especially teenagers will take a worthwhile activity rather than wasting time loitering around in shopping malls and other places.

The main pool is an Olympic-size pool, great for doing lap swim. As always with too many in the pool, doing a complete lap without being interrupted is quite a challenge.

How Small We Are

This ia an amazing view of the sun that captures a huge fireball on its surface that is so big that it can wrap up 100 Earths in it. The fact is the size of the sun is so mind-boggling, it is so huge that it is equivalent to 1,300,000 Earth.

In an article in Daily Mails recently here's what it quotes.

"Forget Iceland's volcano. If you want to see a really big eruption, you need to head to the Sun. This astonishing image - captured by a new Nasa space telescope - shows a ferocious solar flare looping out the Sun with the power of 100 hydrogen bombs. The ring of fire, heated to tens of millions of degrees, stretches out tens of thousands of miles - and is so big it could contain more than 100 Earths."

So next time when you have a problem, just look at the bigger picture. We are very small and so insignificant.

Cloud of Ash

The effect of the volcanic eruption in Iceland is unprecedented and has caused a huge impact on human mobility and economy. This is not only a European problem but a global one as for example banana and fruit growers from Central America to Africa are losing millions of dollars in income everyday as they cannot supply fresh products to their European customers.

It also impacted yours truly as a planned travel yesterday had to be cancelled. Indeed when looking at the statistic on how much the volcanic ash has interrupted flights, the numbers are mind-boggling. Literally thousands of flights have been cancelled, over a million people are still stranded and the end of the chaos is difficult to predict.

But this is mother nature trying to release the strains due to the movement of the earth. Iceland is right at the mid-continental rift known to possess many volcanoes. It is an amazing country to visit but in that calmness and amazing countryside scenery lies a real ticking bomb where the many volcanoes could come alive at anytime.

With the recent mega earthquake in Chile, it is a sign that the earth is trying to release the build-up strains and tensions that have been building massively over the years or decades.

It is not surprising to see that this year we already saw many large earthquakes such as in Haiti, Sumatra and just last week in China. Along with that some volcanoes also became alive. It will not be surprising if some other volcanoes will become active again. Time will tell.

Dying Heart Beat

It's a nice view of the Capital. It went through a fast development in the 80's before coming to a sudden halt. Now, everybody seems to be in a planning mood, a Master Plan is in the making.

Obviously with recent experiences with most new things some superior beings called 'consultants' had to be engaged. It would be interesting what would come out but my hunch says that there will not going to be many surprises but the obvious stuff.

It would be nice if the focus of the country's commercial and business activities are back to where it used to be - in the capital. But with the continuous explosion of other commercial centres that are dotted everywhere, BSB has became a ghost town and is losing its heart beat.

I Dream a Dream

The sports world is hotting up right now. We are in the middle of the Golf Master and the much awaited reappearance of Tiger has not been a disappointment so far. Tiger is prowling with a vengeance. Then the F1 is well underway and a good mix of unexpected results so far are definitely going to make the season more interesting than the recent past. Football is also heading towards end of its season where clubs are scrambling to stay in contention for cups and titles. The most amazing match was the 4-1 trashing of Arsenal by Barcelona, must be an amazing feeling for the Catalans supporters to be at their stadium to witness Messi's brilliance in that game.

Bumi Bertuah seems to be in a doldrum when it comes to sports recently. I remember how it was like when thousands thronged the national stadium when the national football team was doing well in the Malaysia cup. Everyone really wanted to be there at the stadium for every home match. The culmination was winning the Malaysia Cup in KL, yours truly together with more than 10,000 people made the journey there.

No doubt glory in sport or even the staging of a major sport event does have a strong positive impact on population's mood and the nation. It acts as a springboard to aspire and cultivate the 'can do' mentality. A lot of countries invest quite a lot on this. Two of our neighbours are hosting F1 race every year. Not that I am hoping that we host an F1 race here but at least get our football team back into the international fold.

Limping on Sore Legs

Two days after the big climb our legs are still hurting. Going up and down the staircase or simply walking are no longer trivial things. We wondered what if we have not done our fitness programme before the climb, it could have even been worse.

We met quite a lot of people when climbing the mountain. One guy told us he just came back from spending a week in Pokhara in Nepal. That interested me a lot and we ended up having a long conversation on the subject. It is one of the ambition I want to fulfill to trek among the highest mountains in the world and experience the unique culture of Nepal. My kids always teased me that I must be going through a mid-life crisis. I told them all these new things are to stop life from becoming too predictable. Back to this guy, he said it was actually quiet affordable and some treks are relatively easy compare to climbing Mount Kinabalu. Accommodations along the treks are a plenty ranging from US$5 to US$100 a night. Pokhara is always described as one of the most beautiful place in the world! I am not sure if Everest could be seen from there although it is only about a hundred kilometres away. Kathmandu is actually closer to Everest and a short flight is required from Kathmandu to reach Pokhara.

Ok ... back down to Earth now, there was a lot of news on car recalls nowadays. One company in particular is in the spotlight - Toyota. It has announced a major recall programme on a number of its models. One of the big issues is the sudden acceleration of one or two of their new models. It culminated with the news in the US that a police patrol car has to assist in stopping a runaway Pruis. But the whole incident now turned out be doubtful but was enough to put a serious dent on Toyota's reputation. It seemed that in a society where suing and legal proceeding is a norm, people in the US are more likely to come up with all sort of means and excuses to sue. Ironically I had similar experience with a Toyota brand 10 years ago. The car had just came out from its first servicing when after a kilometre away from the dealer's garage, the car suddenly accelerated. Luckily it has a manual gear, I managed to put it into neutral and parked on the side road. The car continued to revved up until the engine gave way. In the end I managed to get a new car replacement (was told that was the first time that was ever done to a customer here!) and thought until recently that was an isolated incident. Things have moved on. We don't have a Toyota in our garage anymore.

4 km above Sea Level

It was something that we have been thinking about since last year and we just made the final go on it last week by booking the package. But physically we have been training for it every weekend for the last 4 months.

The last time I climbed the mountain was 20 years ago. I could not remember how hard it was. Now that I did it again, I found it was grueling, tiring and very cold up there.

There are porter services available to ease one's climb but then I thought of doing the hard way by carrying a 10 kg backpack. But this was nothing compare to what the porters were carrying. A group of lady porters were carrying 20 kg of restaurant supplies each and they were paid RM100 for that. They could be earning RM3000 per month if they do it everyday - not bad. The male porters are normally for tourists. They charge from RM8 to RM10 per kilo. I saw one was carrying 38 Kg. That's a good RM300 worth of work.

We followed a guide but left him and the group behind as we were eager to climb on our own pace. We managed to overtake lots of porters and climbers and yet it still took us 5 hours and 15 minutes to reach the staging camp which is called Laban Rata before the final climb.

At times we climbed an endless trail of wooden and rocky steps for an hour before taking a rest at the resting huts dotted along the trail. The air was getting thinner as the elevation increases and most people do get slight headache because of that. So a good rest and sleep is required to acclimatised before the final climb.

The Laban Rata could accommodate up to 140 climbers and is normally full. One has to book months in advance if not to be disappointed. The whole place is now run by Sutera Habour and has became very expensive. Facilities are still pretty basic though.

We woke up at 1.30 a.m. in the morning and started the final ascend, some one km vertically up the summit. The final climb has to be done in darkness, albeit aided only with a touch light, as the climb is more daunting. There are no longer any vegetation and everything are just barren rocks. From the top, one could see countless small lights from the villages below, a sight one normally see when flying at night.

Faris was the only kid amongst the 140 climbers. Children are more vulnerable to the thin air. And it was hard for him. Most people climbed the final leg at their own pace and talking enough rest. Some people like us just did it slowly, taking regular rest and so on. The weather was very cold and windy.

Finally after 3 hours and 40 minutes we reached the 4000 m mark at the foot of the final pile of rocks. It was just another 80 m. Faris could not do it and he was just too tired. But he has done enough. I could not imagine I would have done similar feat at that age. For most kids nowadays, pampered by their parents and most of the time staying indoor and in front of their computer, we tried our best to give our kids a taste of the real outdoor. Altogether it took us 9 hours from the base to reach the summit. The feeling up there was amazing. The scenery looks unreal. We could see the other mountain ranges and the green lowlands below.

Going down was actually the more difficult part because of the slippery condition and the constant hard impact on the foot and knee. It took us 5.5 hours from the summit to the entrance gate. All in all it was a very tiring trip but more importantly our 13 year old made it. Faris really enjoyed the experience.

A Turmoil World

Trolling the book store today, we found a couple of interesting books to read. One is regarding a person's own account on what are happening inside the many madrasahs in Asia and the different and usually totally opposite perceptions that we and western world have on them.

The other book is written by a well known figure by the name of Chris Patten sharing his thoughts on what awaits us in a new world of the twenty-first century, where the challenges we face will be complex, from energy security to environment to financial and so on. Indeed the past few years have been not only a turmoil period in the financial world but also pretty unpredictable in many aspects.

As we conduct our life, between maintaining our spiritual consciousness and gathering material gains, most of the times it is difficult to balance between the two. On one side, a minority group of people would completely abandoned material gains and throw themselves completely into religious life with uncompromising zeal. That's what the first book talked about. Another group of people, if not the majority, would happily gone into a rat race to satisfy self hunger and desire for everything worth going for to elevate one's standing in the society. These are indeed difficult things to balance. We just all hope and pray that we are given the righteous path as we spend our short life in this world.

Paradise on Earth

It's a bright start to the day. The heavy rains over the last two nights have at least cleared up the air from the recent hazy situation. We took a short flight last night to a place where we have not been for the last seven years. For most people back home, this place is so familiar, it is their annual holiday destination. For us we will be spending a few days at a family's house, away from the hustle and bustle of a hotel and where our kids can meet up with their cousins.

Our first impression of this place has been good. Indeed the whole place is so well developed. One would wonder why Bumi Bertuah cannot be like this. There seemed to be no straight answers.

We made a short hop to one of the island. The water was cold even when snorkeling in the middle of the day. One could easily get sun-burned if not careful. But the kids kept reminding us that it is really a good thing as the sun is a source for generating vitamin D in the skin!

Turun nya Rahmat

After what has been a long dry spell, finally it was raining heavily last night. The earth must have been longing for this for some times. The morning after was really amazing, it was cold, wet and a bit overcast. We saw the rain still drizzled lightly but I guess nobody would mind that. It was such a welcomed change. Hopefully the burned forest will start regenerating again and the brownish scenery will start becoming more green. The outlook is that more afternoon and evening thundershowers can be expected for the next few days. A late season cold surge has brought about increased convective activity over the country.

Most schools start today after the mid-term break. The same goes with most office workers, coming from a break is not easy and psychologically Monday could be quite a challenging day to face with. Luckily I don't have to face the same Monday blue as I am on leave!

Time Off

It's the first day on leave. So far managed to keep self busy, running 12 km and done a few errands at the government offices and shops. But one would not missed from the media that today is Earth Day - it seems to be the order of the day. As like every good teenagers around the world, our kids switched off the lights at home at 8.30 pm for an hour. Nowadays everybody seems to be eco warriors and having global mindset. It is as if everything that we do has to be tied in to some global initiatives. Even sometimes I feel irritated that there are so much global news on television and hardly any local ones. At times I get to know car accidents in some corners of the world but ironically the recent road accident that killed three people back home hardly get reported. At other times I get to watch bush fires in Australia or California but hardly see any coverage of bush fires that are becoming rampant down the road here. Not that I am against having a global mindset but lets not forget our roots as well.

Dry Season

The weather has been dry and hot lately. On my way home yesterday, I passed 5 bush fires. Only one was attended by the Fire Brigade while the rest were left to spread on their own. I guess the Bomba were working overtime and could not handle all the locations. Perhaps this is the time to activate the national management disaster team.

Nowadays we are all measured as to how green we are. Countries are now compared to how many tons of CO2 they produced per capita. Some countries although are big polluters counteract that they still preserved a lot of green belts and pristine forests.

We in Bumi Bertuah are blessed, a large tract of our country still remains fairly undisturbed. Nonetheless the same cannot be said for many commercial areas that are dotted across the country. Most of them lack any planted trees or 'green' initiative in the area development. It seems that the easiest way to develop such areas is to flattened the whole land and uproot all the trees. Once the buildings were completed, next was to pour ton of cements all around them. How sad!