The previous spring my friend Hari kindly offered to guide me around Malaysia. I gladly accepted, and he advised that late fall would be a good time to come. I arrived on November 2, and after a night’s rest, Hari, his father Siva, and I, began work in and near the capital Kuala Lumpur.
          Our first latent vortex was behind a secured apartment building on a hill, not far from the center of the city. Hari initially asked the guards whether we could go in to take photos. They let us speak with the manager, and Hari explained that we were really going to improve the feng shui, by turning a negative spot into a positive one. We showed him, and the assistant manager, some of our TBs . The direct approach worked. The manager didn’t totally believe us, or at least he said he didn’t, but he did let us bury a TB at a critical point .
          The next stop was on the outskirts of town, on an army base. The vortex was on a high hill with a cellular tower, in the middle of the grounds. The soldiers at the entrance gate directed us to some officers in a nearby office. The first man with whom we spoke there, asked us for IDs, and when he found that I was from the US, he didn’t want to let us in (for security reasons). But when Hari explained we were going to change a bad feng-shui place to a good one, his superior officer decided they could stretch regulations a little, and let us onto the base, strictly enjoining us only to go to the tower on the hill, and nowhere else. We complied, and so were able to kill two birds with one stone, as they say.
          The third (and final) vortex of the day was on a hill in a more remote area in the suburbs. We had to park on the side of the road, walk down a steep incline to a pond, and then up a jungled hill behind the pond. No problem on the way up, but on the way back, I took the lead, got off our old trail a bit, and wound up in a place where we had to wade through the water and mud. Got my first look at leeches, when one fastened itself on Siva’s arm. He calmly plucked it off. It wasn’t until the next day that I had my own intimate encounter. Those little rascals are quite small when hungry, but when surfeited, reach amazing proportions. Mine just reached full size on my leg before dropping off, prior to which, I hadn’t even known he was there. Now I carry a small sack of salt in my pocket -- apparently they withdraw after the first touch of salt on their bodies. They would serve as an excellent logo, for some organizations I can think of.

          On the second day we travelled north and west of Kuala Lumpur, to complete a ring of opened vortices about the city. Siva had been our guide the first day, since the road system around KL is a bit complicated, and he had grown up with the city. This day we were accompanied by one of Hari’s friends, Yvonne, who had hiked up many of the hills around the city, and knew the country roads. The first latent vortex was on a jungle-covered hill again, and it took us awhile to beat through the tangled growth to the top. It was then we decided to purchase a couple of machetes. The other two vortices were within palm oil plantations, and so were subject to much easier access. Those plantation roads were good, and we were able to approach relatively close by car.

          Next day (Sunday) our first target was a vortex I had spotted on the plane trip in. It was the strongest in the northern half of the country, and being near one of the curves on a major river, was fairly easy to locate on the map. It was in the mid-part of the peninsula, and so we had to drive some distance to reach it. After minor difficulty, we found the proper access, and came upon the latent vortex on a hill, again in a plantation.
          I had spotted a second strong vortex from the plane, and we tried to reach that one as well. It turned out to be more remote however, and after high centering and nearly getting the car stuck in a ditch, we had to give up on it. On the way home we noticed that there was a latent vortex up in the direction of the Genting Hills. Malaysia is officially a Muslim country (although Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism flourish there as well), and so gambling establishments are generally prohibited. Somehow there is an exception, which exception is a huge casino in the Genting Hills. Siva and Hari told me that many bad things (suicides and such) have occurred there, and were pleased at the excuse to go up there and gift. We did not have time to make the trip before dark, and so postponed it until Monday.
          Next morning we drove up to the Genting Hills. There were actually two vortices in the area: a stronger one a couple of miles from the casino, and a weaker near an ugly cell phone tower near the casino. The latter turned out to be inaccessible, due to a high fence and two guards with orders to let no one in. We drove around however, and Hari gifted the perimeter well with TBs .
          I must state here that, as a gifter, Hari is intrepid, ingenious, and indefatigable. I will not go into his methods, as that would be telling (as Cesco is wont to say). Several days before we had visited the famous Batu caves, where millions of pilgrims come annually to visit the resident Hindu god. The god was quite strong, positive, and respectable, but some of the approaching paths were polluted with sha qi . We did what we could to change this around, and it was while doing this, that I observed some of Hari’s ingenuity. One of his ideas did not work out so well however: he gave a TB to a monkey, hoping the little fellow would carry it whither Hari could not go. But the monkey just tried to eat it, and then disgustedly tossed it to the ground.
          The stronger vortex of the Genting caves was accessible, but required several hours to reach. The last part of the journey consisted of a jungle-covered hill, and the thick growth in this case was not all bad. For the hill was on about a 60 degree angle, and there is no way we would have been able to climb it without trees, roots, and vines to latch onto, pulling ourselves up. We both looked rather disreputable afterwards.
          That afternoon, when we drove back down into Kuala Lumpur, I found that a sheng canopy had appeared over the city. The first phase of our job was complete.

          Hari and I set out south from the capital on Thursday the 12th. We planned to go around the southern tip of the island, and then back up the eastern coast.
          We wasted several hours hacking through jungle up a hill, only to be met at the top by a tropical downpour, along with the realization that the latent vortex was not on that hill at all, but on one some distance away. Fortunately we found a much easier way back to the car, but after a fruitless hour and a half search for an access road, we had to give up on that vortex. However, we managed to dry off during the process, and our luck changed: we found one good one on the way to Melacca, close enough to the freeway that we could park, hop a fence, climb a cleared hill, and open it.
          In Melacca there was a strong vortex in a high-security police compound. There was no way we could get in without being observed, so we applied directly at the gate for admission. The guard was sympathetic, but told us we would have to come back the next day and speak with his superior. It was raining hard by then, and nearing dark, so we found a cheap motel for the night. Next day we saw the man’s superior -- this lady was also sympathetic, and she spoke to Hari about feng shui and such, but at the end, said she did not have authority to let us up where the vortex was, and sent us with an officer to see the Chief. The Chief was too busy to see us, and sent us away peremptorily. Things turned out alright though, as we found a vortex just as strong by the beach, when we drove out of town. By this time, the sheng canopy had extended down to Melacca from Kuala Lumpur.
          As was the case last year on Taiwan, I found that vortices tended to occur fairly often near the beach. My guess is that this has something to do with the fact the beach is a high point relative to the ground level under the sea. For the remainder of the trip, we kept to the coast route as much as possible. We continued south, and our last vortex for the day was near the southern tip of the peninsula to the west of Singapore. Hari could feel the strength of the qi of that vortex as we neared it: indeed as the trip progressed, his degree of perception seemed to be gradually increasing. We did not enter Singapore, partly because Hari’s passport had run out, and it would have required some delay to procure admission documentation. So it was good to have such a strong vortex just across the channel from the island. The ground was mucky, and one of the TBs went down a sand crab hole.
          We began the third day by driving down to the tip of the Malay Peninsula, just to the east of Singapore, and opening a strong latent vortex there. When we woke up the next morning, I noted that the sheng canopy had extended down to Singapore on the west from Melacca. Sandwiched between two vortices, the city should by now be covered by the sheng canopy .
          The southwestern part of the peninsula turned out to have beautiful beaches, relatively small population, and good weather -- it was for me the most enjoyable part of the trip.

          On November 16th Hari, Yvonne, and I headed north to cover the coast north from Kuala Lumpur to the Thai border. I found that the northwestern coast of the peninsula is not nearly so pleasant as the eastern coast: instead of sandy beaches, here we had muddy beaches or hills which reached right to the water. Somewhat south of the island of Penang, I sighted some qi in the sky, which I mistakenly took to be coming from a latent vortex. It was to the north and somewhat to the east, but the source was not clear. We continued on its trail to Butterworth, the town on the mainland just across the bridge from Penang, at which point darkness and rain overtook us.
          Next morning, after a brief visit to the island, we set off on the trail again. But, frustratingly, like the end of a rainbow, the targeted qi appeared yet farther north, the farther north we travelled. We finally had to seek out other vortices on the way, so as to not put too far a distance from the northernmost edge of the sheng qi and our opened vortices. Eventually, a similarity to the search I had made in western Germany with Cesco last year, registered in my mind, and I began to think that what we were seeking was not a vortex, but the source of a river of qi. This realization was a bit disconcerting, because such a search can extend quite a distance before the source is found. The first river of qi I had come upon, had its source nearly a thousand miles from where I had first sighted the attendant qi . This time however, we were lucky, and we found the source on a hill just south of Thailand. Hari and I hiked through sugar cane fields

          On the morning of the 20th, Hari and Yvonne saw me off at the KL airport. It was light, and reasonably clear, when the plane took off, and so I had some opportunity for observation. The plane flew first south some hundred miles or so, then more or less directly to Taipei (Taiwan). I was surprised to observe that not only was peninsular Malaysia covered by the canopy, but a broad path from there to Taiwan was also covered. So now a positive canopy extends from Malaysia all the way to central Japan. I was unable to tell for sure from the airplane, but it appears that it is also hooked up to the canopy over Hong Kong.