UMHB: Chapter 2 - What is Meridian and Collaterals 经络 (1)

Please refer to Disclaimer for some information.

MC [MK: MCS is abbr. of meridian and Collaterals system, MC is abbr. of meridian and Collaterals] has been used in TCM since few thousands years ago. When human fall sick, there will be few red line appears on human body and massaging those line can help in curing the disease. Human with those red line are called 经络人 and very rare can be found in this world. MCS evolved slowly from TCM treatment cases.

In Han Dynasty, there was an experiment to put tiny bamboo leaf inside vascular of a live human body, and found out the flow direction didn't match MC drawing inside TCM book. Thus TCM was not verified to be exist and slowly it was abandoned.

Later when anatomy and western medication evolved, its scientific approach gained people confidence, and thus people slowly think TCM is not solid/valid.

In a year of decade 1960, a scientist in North Korea claimed he found the MC. This announcement quake the medication world. Then more researches on MS was started by Japan and China, to hope to be able to reveal the truth of MC before the rest. Nevertheless, the Korea scientist commited suicide after few years, because of able to provide the proof of MC.

The suicide case then ruin the rest of research work and confidence. Until year 1970, US president visited China, and China government demonstration heart operation with acupuncture but anesthetics. This surprised the American specialist witness the operation. This then split the TCM practitioners into two group, one believe that acupuncture point exist but MC. The other believe MC exist although it is yet to be proven.

[To be continue]

Penang Bowl

Love to bowl? If you are in Penang, probably can consider to go Penang bowl. After staying in Penang for more than 5 years, I finally make my first visit to Penang bowl for the first time :p


Penang bowl outlook.


Any idea what is this?


Stair case to Penang bowl at first floor.




Inside Penang bowl. It cost RM 3.50 per game per person. It took us around 1hours 15 min for 4 person in a group to complete 2 games.

If you would like to go during holiday season or for big group event, it is recommended to make reservation.

Address:38 Lebuh Farquhar, 10200 Georgetown, Penang
Tel: 604-2634702

UMHB: Chapter 2 - Network system (2)

Please refer to Disclaimer for some information.

Meridian and Collaterals system 经络系统

TCM discover this system few thousand years ago but this system is not scientifically proven until 1998 by a research group in China.

This research group discovered meridian and collaterals system [MK: I will abbr. this to MCS] has light fiber physical characteristics. Besides, blood capillary nearby MSC is always in parallel with MSC. From the perspective of current hydromechanics, this yield fluid flow field. This scientifically explain TCM concept where medicine flow in MSC direction. MSC convey not only message but more substance.

The rest of human body network system comprises of certain pipeline structure. MSC is different that it consist of different kind of substance. Hopefully there will be more research on this system.

Subsequent network system are commonly mentioned in current western medication or TCM, thus we will not go through in detail.

Vascular system 血管系统

This is a transportation system for energy supply system and cleansing system.

Nerve system 神经系统

This system convey signal message between brain and other organ.

Lymphatic system 淋巴系统

This system is mainly for defensing. It detects the intruders, and send white blood cells to different part of human body.

We have gone through few different kind of human body systems, comprises of hardware, software and network [MK: Imagine human body is a network of Internet :) ], which is a complete system.

Jam of Plus North South Highway - Dec 27

It is school year end long holiday now, conjunction with the 3 days Christmas day long weekend holiday, I am expecting some traffic heavy load on PLUS north south highway when return to Penang on Dec 27 evening. As compared to Haji long weekend holiday, the traffic seems to be smoother at first, at least I didn't see any jam at Kuala Kangsar toll.

Five minutes later, sister whose driving towards south bound called me and said it started to jam somewhere near Sg Perak bridge. The average speed is around 20-30kmh. I told her for area before Kuala Kangsar, it seems to be better than Haji holiday, just around 8 km jam somewhere near Taiping, probably due to going up slope, as it was clear after that slope, and another few kilometers jam due to the heavy rain near Bukit Gantang. After Juru toll, there was around 3km of traffic queue entering toll plaza towards south bound. Besides too many car is entering the highway, 2 minor accidents contributing to the jam also. Both cases are the same, 'bumper kissing' case. My dear reader, I hope you always keep a safe distance of approximate 1 -2 car with the car in front of you and 3-4 car distance on the highway :). Tailgating is always not good. Another rule of thumb is, it will be high risk if you cannot see the front wheel of the car in front of you.

As for my trip towards north, this time there were two jam due to driving altitude. One is near Serdang of 10 km queue. I didn't see any accident or anything, most probably was due to a vehicle at fast lane driving at similar speed of the car in slow lane, which both of them are less than 80kmh. The later jam was of 8 km is caused by all car slowing down to look at what happened to the car stopping at emergency lane. Well, these are Malaysian driving altitude that need to be improved. Queue effect is yet to be taught, to make more driver realize that slowing down just to be busy body, can caused few kilometers jam at the back. This is very similar to the condition at Penang Bridge, where one side accident will caused both way to be jam, because of 'busy body' slowing down. This was then led to the high divider of Penang bridge, if you ever notice.

Oh before I ended, if you see lots of swallow on your way too, it's near the season :)

Happy driving.

House Frankfurt, Bangsar Baru, KL

During my last visit to KL, YL brought EE and I to House Frankfurt for German food.



First of all, my apology for the dark picture :p I am using other people camera and yet to familiarize with that camera's functionality performance and LCD display lighting.


Dinner set of pork meat with German style mashed potato @ RM 36. I hope the meat texture can be more tender and more crispy skin. The mashed potato is typically nice :)


Matjes Herring salad, with marinated Herring fish (we feel it is raw), potato and onion, @ RM 23.50. We found out we don't really like raw marinated Herring fish :p


Sauerkraut (sour cabbage) @ RM 7.50. Typical German sauerkraut taste ;) While I was in German, the people there seems to like to eat it with meat, for healthier diet maybe ;)


Spaghetti with tomato sauce @ RM 10.50. EE and I felt the taste is typical but YL said the tomato sauce is so fresh. EE and I need to take care of our tounge more to feel the freshness :D The apply juice is @ RM 10 per glass.

In overall, I prefer the German food I had in German and Beijing better :) Oh before I forgot, I prefer Ingulf Penang better :) But in terms of service, this restaurant has professional waitress/captain that can oder my food without any pen/paper but brain :)

Anyway, if you would like to pay a visit:
House Frankfurt Restaurant
Address: 12 Jalan Telawi 5, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel/Fax: 603-22841624

UMHB: Chapter 2 - Network system

Please refer to Disclaimer for some information.

Human body system is far more complex than a computer. Beside conveying signal/message, human body system has more functionality. For example, energy transportation and rubbish transportation.

In subsequent post, we will discuss more on human body network system :)

How to make picture posted to blogpost not so blurry

I always found the picture I posted to blogpost is blurry although the picture resolution uploaded is quite reasonable. After posting the question in blogspot help and with the good answer, here is what I tried and it works, maybe it will be useful for you also :)

Whenever you write a blog post using blospot editor, go to Edit Html tab. For the picture you'd posted, you will probably see something like this:

<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href=Some url><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 544px; height: 407px;" src="some url/s400/picture.JPG" alt="" id="some id" border="0" />a>

Notice the /s400 inside src field. Remove the /s400. Publish your post and the picture will be sharper as you originally posted. Noted the loading speed could be slower, so use this appropriately with the picture you wish.

Thanks to hbl!

Bayan Place, D'Piazza, Penang

First of all, merry Christmas :)



There are a few newly open restaurant at D'Piazza Bayan Baru. One of it is called Bayan Place, which is facing PISA direction.



Its interior decoration, tempting to get a pair of sport shoe? ;)



Look at the Xmas doggie, it is made from Xmas tree, so cute :D


Finally, the food :D


Kam Heong chicken rice @ RM 8.90.


Tom Yam Fried Beehoon at RM 6.30. It taste good but we prefer Cosmo restaurant at Sungai Ara better.


Tom Yam soup @ RM 3.90, rice @ RM 1, fried egg @ RM 1.

We found the food in general is okay, but it is very subjective though ;)

Beside rice and noodles, they also served some western food, bread with half boiled egg, and snacks. They do accept function reservation. Can consider to come for farewell next time :p

Business hours:
Mon - Thu 10am - 10pm
Fri - Sat 10am - 2am
Sun 10am - 12am
(Kitchen close at 10pm)

Address: 70-1-6 & 70-1-7, D' Piazza Mall, Jalan Mahsuri, 11950 Bayan Baru, Penang
Tel: 04-6429628
Email: bayanplace@gmail.com

Happy Dong Zhi (Winter day) 冬至快乐

Every year Dec 22th (occasionally 21th) is Winter Day 冬至。On this day, Chinese tradition is to make Tang Yuan 汤圆, which looks like below. It is made from glutinous rice powder, plain or stuffed with peanut ingredient, or other ingredient. The soup base is usually boiled with Pandan leave, ginger and sugar.

Thanks to YY for the delicious homemade Tang Yuan :)


Green color is with Pandan juice, blue color is with a kind of flower (I forgot the name, it is the same flower used to made nasi served with kaya), the yellow color is from natural plant also but YY forgot that is that. Well, the red color need artificial color agent. The white one, of course, is the natural color of glutinous rice :)

Hope you have had an enjoyable Winter Day with your family/friends :)

UMHB: Chapter 2 - Peripheral system

Please refer to Disclaimer for some information.

This system consist of "Si(Four) Zhi(Limb) Wu（Five) Guan（Organ)" 四肢五官 (Si Zhi means 2 hands, 2 legs. Wu Guan means eye, nose, ear, mouth and eyebrow). From the perspective of TCM, Four Limb Five Organ reflects the status of respective internal organ condition. So when we see the symptoms of Four Limb Five Organ, the actual problem reside in the respective internal organ. [MK: For example， Tinnitus sometimes reflect problem inside kidney]. A lot of doctor will just focusing on curing the symptoms, which the disease usually reoccur after sometime, as the root cause is not fixed.

That is all for functional system for the moment. We will discuss more on Network system in coming post.

Delicious wedding dinner at Pusing Public Seafood Restaurant 怡保布先民众海鲜

Year end is greeting season, Christmas day, new year and also wedding season in Malaysia especially for Chinese!

This is a delicious wedding dinner I've had at Ipoh Pusing Public Seafood Restaurant 怡保布先民众海鲜 :)


- Starter 五福临门 with a nice couple deco item. EL so wanted to bring it home.
- Roasted pig 明炉全猪. The pork skin is so crispy, just can't stop eating it :p Eat it with at least the spring onion leave and sweet sauce, then it will not so oily.


- Fried fish with spicy sauce 合时海鲜, nice spicy sour taste
- Ginger steamed Chicken 姜茸菜园鸡, a famous dish of this restaurant.


- Pan-fried prawn with soy sauce 酱油煎虾. This is amazingly nice. Notice the prawn is 大头虾.
- Vegetables 民众小素. Very fresh vegetables.


- Fried rice 扬州炒饭, delicious. A lot of ingredient, you can taste it is really fried rice, the rice is so chewy and nice. I don't know how to describe :p
- Dessert 锅饼 Crispy and yet soft biscuit :D

The portion is huge. We had 9 person for that table and we can't finish some of the dishes, and requested the waitress to pack it for some friend to take home :D Don't waste food especially nice food, hehe :D

No, no magnum today :)

Address: 57 Jalan Verasamy (Off Horley Street), 30300 Ipoh, Perak
Tel: 605-2419348/2533428/2410306
Fax: 605-2419349

Have a seat, please :)

This is a forwarded picture from a friend, I think this is meaningful :D Click on the picture and enjoy your seat.

UMHB: Chapter 2 - Cleansing system

Please refer to Disclaimer for some information.

Metabolism activities is going on inside human body every single second. Similarly, 'rubbish' [MK: Hmm I cannot recall the appropriate scientific term, it means unwanted item] is being generated every moment. When human body energy supply system not working well, organ functionality goes down, the meridian system will be impacted too. Weak organ will caused blockage in its respective meridian system, while the blockage will then have negative impact on the organ functionality, which is a vicious cycle.

When one is young, there is enough Blood Qi, the cleansing system is able to work fine, thus no dark spot, wrinkle and obesity. When one grow with the age, very commonly Blood Qi will dropped, and thus fatter, more dark spot.

A lot of TCM treatment via meridian system is to help human body to do cleansing job. As long as the cleansing system is working well with enough Blood Qi supply, one will stay young and healthy.

Cleansing system consists of few operation e.g. blood cleansing in liver and kidney, lung cleaning breath-in air, motion, sweat and etc. Heart, spleen and meridian system is playing role in transporting the rubbish to be clear from human body. Most of the organs are involved in cleansing operation.

Poisonous money plant 有毒金钱树

[Picture taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zamioculcas_zamiifolia_1.jpg]

Does this plant looks familiar for you? This plant is called Zamioculcas (Common name "Zanzibar Gem"). In Malaysia it is more commonly known as Money Plant. A common say is that this will bring wealthiness thus it can be found very easily in office or household recently.

But do you realized that it is poisonous? Read more from link below (Thanks to SA for the email, AS for the URL):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamioculcas
http://members.chello.at/norbert.anderwald/Zamioculcas/cultivation_e.htm
http://www.weekendgardener.net/houseplants/zamioculcas-zamiifolia.htm

For mandarin version, please read more at http://kjphang.blogspot.com/2009/08/blog-post_27.html.

The moral of the story: Don't judge a book by its cover. Keep our eyes open and we will see more :D

Queens Park, KL

Do you ever know there are Espirit outlet in Kuala Lumpur? As I was told, there are two of them, one at Maju Junction, one at Queens Park. You may find cheaper Esprit item at these outlet, of course, not the latest fashion.



In my eyes, Queens Park is similar concept as US factory outlet store.There are other shops like Baskin Robin, Starbucks, Sushi King, DKNY and other shop sell travel item like luggage, uniforms, design house, saloon, boutique and etc. M'ng moved out. Anyway, I am not a shopping fan, but it is nice to know there are such outlet store in Malaysia too :)







The address:
Lot 392, Jln. Peel
Kuala Lumpur.
Open 9am-6pm (not sure if all shops are open daily)

UMHB: Chapter 2 - Diagnosis and maintenance system

Please refer to Disclaimer for some information.

When we cut our hand or leg, the doctor will apply spirit and antiseptic gel/liquid. These are just to prevent inflammation. All other recovery work and cell regeneration are done by human body itself. This applies to external cut and also internal healing. These recovery and regeneration operations come with human body in nature, which we will then not paying attention to. But if we think about it in more details, these are complicated operations!

First, human body need to diagnose the wound location and its severity, then take appropriate operation, compose the the dead cells become wound to cover the cut, to protect human body. Then new cell will grown and the wound will disappear. The whole operation will consume a lot of energy like Blood Qi.

When human body has enough energy supply, these maintenance and recovery work will goes on daily. But if there is not enough of energy, it will be selective to perform critical repair work only. TCM focus on human body self recover ability, and most treatment are meant to increase human body energy level, to enable recovery and maintenance work.

During wound recovery, maybe the wound will swollen or has other sign of inflammation. Similarly, during organ recovery, there will be symptom e.g. cough, phlegm, tired and etc. In TCM, human body is very intelligent, and these symptoms are caused by recovery work, thus its treatment is usually helping out the recovery function. Whereas in western medication, it treat symptoms as human body fault and try to stop all the symptoms.

Buffet lunch at Sarkie's Corner, E&O Hotel, Penang

This is my first time having buffet lunch at E&O hotel. A lot of pictures in this post ;) As usual, click on the picture if you requires clearer version.


We parked at E&O multi-level car park. Pay the RM 4 parking fee upon entry, then bring it along to the restaurant for an instant RM 2 rebate for each parking ticket to be deducted from the dining bill.


The street view before reach E&O hotel.



Here we are :D

Since we went in big group, it is always wiser to make reservation beforehand :) Let's look at the food :D


Roasted duck/goose is very nice.


Grill food corner. It is around 2pm and the chef can relax for a while. The queue was pretty long before that ;) The grill lamb is pretty nice, but I felt if will be even better if more moisture.


Fried noodle, fried food corner. The char koay teow is quite big in portion. We didn't order it :p We rather go for hawker center char koay teow instead :p


Some main course, e.g. rice, fried noodle, stir fried vegetables, chicken, meat and etc.


Salad corner. You may get the mint sauce to go together with the lamb here.


Japanese corner. Can you see the roe and different kind of Japanese style pickel? Hehe.


Raw food and Sashimi corner. Salmon, oyster, baby lobster, prawn, scallop (all gone, I did not know there was fresh scallop until my colleauge told me the next day)


Fondue, if I was not full, I will get some fresh fruit and dip it into chocolate fondue. If you are marshmallow fans, this could be your favourite counter :)


Ais kacang corner.

Dessert corner. No tiramisu :p Suprisingly they served Chinese style herbal gel 龟苓膏。


Bread corner.


Soup corner. I like its herbal soup :D

Here are the food I took :D






Here is the dining place environment.



The beach is right outside the restaurant.



Again, merry christmas and happy new year 2010 :D


E&O Hotel (Eastern & Oriental) established since year 1885

Eastern & Oriental Hotel
Add: 10 Lebuh Farquhar, 10200 Penang
Tel : +(6) 04 222 2000
Fax : +(6) 04 261 6333
Email : hotel-info@e-o-hotel.com
Website : www.e-o-hotel.com