Monday, October 28, 2013

Health Forum: "Towards Successful and Healthy Ageing"

A Public Health Forum was held on 24 October 2013, at the New Club Taiping. It was jointly organized by the Taiping Heritage Society (THS) and New Club Taiping (NCT). The main speaker was Dr David Yong from the Department of Geriatrics, Changi General Hospital, Singapore.
Forum backdrop
Dr Yong is a Senior Aged Care Physician, a clinical expert in long term care in nursing homes, a lecturer in geriatric and family medicine to medical students and gerontology nurses and sits on various Ministry of Health committees. He has represented Singapore in HMDP Fellowship to Australia in 1998 and the USA in 2011and has received the Singapore Long Service Award in 2013.
Registration desk
Dr Yong spoke on five features of diseases in older people, ten common disorders of the elderly, good care-giving of the aged and five points for successful ageing, based on current knowledge. His 4W and 1w formula for healthy ageing was especially captivating: Walk, Weight, Work, Worry less and with a small ‘w’ … wealth. He advised the audience not to give away all their money and property before they die!
Dr David Yong
Other ailments briefly discussed were Alzheimer’s Disease, Strokes, Parkinson’s Disease and Dementia. Free admission to this health forum attracted 50 THS and NCT members and 70 members of the public. The guests of honour were YDH Toh Muda Orang Kaya Menteri Dato Wan Mohd Isa and his wife Toh Puan Muda Datin Norisha.
Section of the participants
Before the health forum, MC for the nite, Mr. C.T. Nathan from NCT,  gave a short history of New Club Taiping and the facilities offered. Organising Chairperson, Mrs Sharon Chan, gave a brief history of Taiping Heritage Society and a short power point presentation of some activities organised by the THS in recent years. She also reminded the audience that the senior citizens of Taiping form part of the heritage of this town. President of THS, Mr Yeap Thean Eng and President of NCT, Mr Tang Yuet Mun, also graced the occasion.

Report by: Sharon Ng-Chan












Thursday, October 17, 2013

PUBLIC FORUM ANNOUNCEMENT

 PUBLIC FORUM ANNOUNCEMENT

TOWARDS SUCCESSFUL & HEALTHY AGEING

(Organised by the Taiping Heritage Society & New Club Taiping)

SPEAKER: DR. DAVID YONG (Senior Aged Care Physician,
Department of Geriatric Medicine, Changi Hospital, Singapore)

Date:          24 October 2013, Thursday
Time:          8.00pm 
Venue:        New Club Taiping

Dr David Yong will share
.   Five features of diseases in older people
.   Ten common disorders of the elderly
.   Good care giving
.   Five points for successful ageing based on current knowledge

Among ailments discussed will be Alzheimer’s Disease, Strokes and
Parkinson’s Disease.

Light refreshments will be served after the Forum

Please register before the Closing Date: 22 October 2013, Tuesday.
Admission is FREE.  Limited places! So register early!

Tel: 012-5382743 (YeapTheanEng, Taiping Heritage Society)
05-8073935 (New Club Taiping)

Monday, October 7, 2013

Exploring Perak's heritage.

Exploring Perak’s heritage
Story and pics by Sharon Chan

At the break of dawn on the last Sunday of September 2013, 70 eager participants from Taiping embarked on a tour of Perak’s heritage sites. Organised by the Taiping Heritage Society, in collaboration with the Ceylon Association and Inner Wheel Club, this heritage tour covered six locations in Gopeng, Kampar and Batu Gajah.
            After breakfast at Gopeng Pasar Food Court, we explored two small museums, the Gopeng Heritage House and the Gopeng Museum housed in refurbished prewar shop houses. We learnt about how the tin mining and rubber industries were started here and how they helped to develop the town and its surrounding areas.
Gopeng Heritage House

Then it was just a ten minutes drive to Gua Tempurung, the largest cave complex in Peninsular Malaysia. I was in one of two buses on this tour group and my bus of 40 passengers had 22 seniors over 60 years of age with us! These golden cistizens received a good discounted rate of only RM3 each when the rest had to pay RM9 entry fees for the Top of the World Grade Two package.
As we trudged along an endless series of steps, we were shown fascinating limestone formations of stalactites and stalagmites, some joining up to form towering pillars. Many of these formations which had taken 250 to 400 million years to form, resembled animals and humans and we had a fun time picking out these resembles. Rosli, our caving guide, used his torchlight to point out these images as well as limestone crystals, wave walls, potholes and many amazing structures. What a spectacular natural heritage Perak possesses and all Perakians should be proud of Gua Tempurung!
Twenty-five out of 40 made it to the end of the tour, climbing a total of 640 steps reaching an elevation of 120m! That was quite an achievement! Syabas! to all, especially a sprightly 77 year old lady who was not even breathless climbing all those steps.
We made it! Gua Tempurung's Top of the World
We took lunch at Kampar New Town and then had a great time in Jalan Idris, buying lots of the famous Kampar biscuits, cookies, pastries and curry bread. Then it was off to the Kinta Gravel Pump Tin Mining Museum. The surrounding grounds had replicas of dulang washers panning for alluvial tin ore and a wooden sluice with water flowing down it used to trap the heavier tin particles. A number of heavy machinery used in excavating for tin in the 19th century were displayed inside and outside the museum. The air conditioned interior was a welcomed respite from the heat outside.
            A brainchild of Tan Sri Hew See Tong, former tin miner and Kampar MP, the museum was set up at a cost of RM2 million and is really worth a visit from anyone interested in the tin mining industry. Look out for a replica of Larut, (the famous pet elephant of territorial chief Dato Long Jaafar) who got lost and when found days later, was covered in mud and tin ore! So Larut led to the discovery of tin in Taiping in 1848, resulting in other tin fields found all over Perak.
            The next heritage site we visited was Kellie’s Castle, a Scottish rubber planter’s dream gone awry. In 1820, William Kellie Smith arrived in the then Malaya at the age of 20 and over several years, built his hugely successful business empire in the rubber and tin mining industries. He married his Scottish childhood sweetheart, Agnes, and had a daughter Helen and many years later, his son Anthony. To celebrate the much awaited birth of his son and heir, Kellie started building his castle, reminiscent of his Scottish roots. But tragedy struck shortly after WW2, when the endemic Spanish Flu killed off many of his imported Indian labourers and craftsmen. On a short visit to Portugal in 1926, Kellie himself also died, leaving behind a dream unrealized and uncompleted.
Heritage tour members at Kellie's Castle
            Today, Kellie’s Castle is a major tourist attraction in Perak, a structure of alien architecture, shrouded in mystery and a romance won and lost. Its corridors are reputed to be haunted and there are undiscovered tunnels and concrete staircases leading nowhere. Plans to build an indoor tennis court and roof top gardens to entertain the local royalties and the foreign planters’ communities were left unfulfilled. Look for the elevator, caged in metal meshes, because it is the first lift ever built in Malaysia.
            Our last destination was the Gaharu Tea Garden near Gopeng. David Ho Kwan Meng, Managing Director and 75% share holder, was at hand to welcome us. He shepherded us into a meeting room where he gave us an informative and humorous 30 minute briefing of the efficacy of his gaharu products and many testimonies of real life healings. Also known as Agarwood or Eaglewood, gaharu has featured for centuries in Chinese and Arabain cultures to promote longevity, good health and beauty. It has taken Ho, 21 years to build up his gaharu empire, which is now a thriving business venture and tourist attraction. He has also built the Great Wall of Gopeng surrounding his 120ha gaharu plantation, which now has 200,000 agarwood trees.
Briefing by owner Mr David Ho

            Visitors can buy a wide variety of gaharu products at the gift shop of the Visitors Centre, from teas and perfumes to biscuits, instant noodles, aromatherapy oils and various concoctions that are claimed to be anti cancerous, anti ageing and a cure for all sorts of ailments.
            What a successful heritage tour of some major historical sites in Perak we have embarked upon! It was with a sense of achievement that we arrived safely back in Taiping at 7.30pm, rejoicing in the fact that we had visited so many interesting places in just 12 hours.

At Gaharu Tea Valley, Gopeng
Contacts
Taiping Heritage Society: 012-5382743 (President Yeap Thean Eng)

Gaharu Tea Garden: 012-5886999 (Managing Director David Ho)