World Bamboo Day - September 18

World Bamboo Day was declared by the Thai Royal Forest Department on 18 September in Bangkok, during the 8^th World Bamboo Congress in 2009. This declaration is an effort to increase the awareness of bamboo globally. 

Actually I never of this before. Just saw in the news flash as there was a activities to cerebrate this day in Sri Lanka. I'm not sure whether its officially accepted by the UN which normally do for other "days". However this is for the conservation and awareness of Bamboo therefore its good to have a "day" celebrate! 

Back in Sri Lanka we do have several varieties of bamboo and we do use them for various purposes. But unlike in east Asian countries like Taiwan, China, Japan etc we do not eat them. In Taiwan Bamboo shoots are well famous as a food.

http://worldbambooday.org

Taiwan Birdathon

"Yunlin and Chiayi counties, along with Greater Tainan, are to hold a marathon-style bird-watching race for the first time in November to raise environmental awareness and promote ecotourism on the island"

This is interesting, though I have herd of this before in central Taiwan’s Dasyueshan National Forest Recreation Area earlier this year. It seems this time they have focused the southern and the coastal birds especially the migrant endangered black-faced spoonbill. 

This is a different idea, However, I have my doubts that this will be a good way of promoting so called ecotourism  and raise environmental awareness. We'll see who's the winner and the count this time as the last event it was around 150 species for this 30 hour challenge. 

For more information checkout ... http://en.taiwanbirdathon.org/

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur is the sixth most visited city in the world and following are some of the photos taken in a short trip to the city center on the way to Taiwan from Sri Lanka.

City Panorama of the KL, Malaysia

The Petronas Twin Towers -  tallest twin buildings in the world 

Malaysian ringgit

Sri Mahamariamman Temple, Kuala Lumpur's oldest Hindu temple

The Kuala Lumpur Tower - the 7th tallest telecommunication tower in the world

Colonial remaining s of the city

Telecom Museum

St. Andrew's Church

Jamek Mosque

KL's central market

Petaling Street, Kuala Lumpur's  Chinatown

Oil palm plantation