Malaysians with first class mentality?

A brief LRT ride to work this morning has enlightened me how far we are from achieving first class mentality. Not that I really believe we are anywhere near first class, but since Pak Lah has been constantly telling Malaysians to be first class or world class...

Back to the LRT ride. The train was very late today, not as what the management has promised - train will arrive every 3 minutes.

A pleasant looking old couple boarded at one of the stops. To my surprise, no one who were seated actually stood up to give up their seats. Coincidentally, all four young passengers nearest to the couple were dozing off in their seats. My attempts to 'wake' these people by knocking lightly on the glass panel next to the seats failed. Looked like these people were in deep slumber.
Another old lady came on board at the next stop. She started chatting with the old couple. They were talking about how they need to get use to the new trend of competing with the younger generation to get seats and there is no more special treatment for senior citizens. They consoled themselve by saying that luckily they are still in good shapes due to frequent exercise. They moved on to how the younger generation today are not treating the elderly the same way as they used to anymore. They even blame this on the West. Since I stood just in front of them I quickly clarified that during my 3-year stay in London, the society there are highly civic minded and show no such behaviour in general. Deep inside I felt quite embarassed for the young passengers seated near me as I felt I belong to the same generation. Then one of the old ladies tried to console herself by saying that perhaps young people nowadays are too tired and they need a lot of rest.

Twenty minutes later, the three senior citizens got off at KL Sentral station. The four seated passengers were still sleeping. I find it hard to believe that they were totally not aware of the presence of these old folks for the last twenty minutes!

My stop came next. On my way out of the train, I realised that there were two other old ladies who were squeezed in between the crowd in the LRT. Sigh.

It is a sad day for me. Finally I have seen this frequently reported situation with my own eyes. Can we be a first class nation when we are going backwards in social development?

Finally I've let out all my anger and disappointment...

Close one eyelah

It was reported in Sin Chew Jit Poh that Jasin MP Mohd Said bin Yusof might also be involved in smuggling pirated VCDs to Indonesia, which includes pornographic ones. This is on top of his admission that the company in the close one eyelah incident is his own.

The worst thing is up to now Mohd Said has not felt that what he had done is wrong. And all the focus in the past week seems to be on Datuk Shahrir's resignation as the president of the Back Benchers Club.

To make things worse, our Prime Minister has further issued a directive to all Barisan MPs to toe the line. It is a sad thing for the country as the PM himself openly endorsed Barisan MPs to put the party's interest before the rakyat's. Is this the world class mentality we want?

A Letter from Ahmadinejad to Bush

The world deserves to read this letter and the Bush administration should not reject it, unless only WAR is on their mind.

If the traslation of this document is accurate, and if he truly stand on what he wrote, then I have newfound respect for this new President of Iran. But I'm still doubtful.

Trip to Haadyai

My parents' 30th anniversary falls on 1st May 2006. Hence I took the opportunity to go back to hometown on that weekend to celebrate with them. We planned to go to Haadyai for one night.

Finally, after years of trying, I've agreed for a trip to Haadyai (or Hat Yai). I've always imagined Haadyai as an ulu place with nothing to entice me.

After sending off my sister at Penang Airport, we headed off to the border town of Bukit Kayu Hitam on Saturday morning. From there we took a taxi to Haadyai. My first impression after crossing the border - seems like a deja vu of my Phuket trip. The buildings, the power cables, the type of vehicles on the roads and the rubber plantations are exactly the same as in Phuket.

We arrived at my uncle's hotel - King's Hotel around 3 (2 local time) in the afternoon. I've always tried to imagine what my uncle's hotel looks like. Unfortunately, the real thing was not as great as what I've imagined.

We checked in to rooms 702 and 704. The rooms are decent for a 40-year old hotel. After taking some rest, we had lunch in a small shop nearby. The price of food is certainly cheap. I managed to snap a few shots of a nice looking lily outside the shop.



One thing I noticed about this place - it's very hot, just like Phuket. Shopping seems to be the main activity for tourists in this city. We walked from shop to shop looking for clothes. Johanna was looking for some office clothes. But there weren't much choices in these shops. They were full of Ah Lian's clothes. Finally we ended up in a department store. What a relief - air conditioner and better choice of clothes. Johanna finally managed to buy few blouses and a suit. I saw quite a number of nice shirts but unfortunately they were all too big for me.

My parents brought us to the busiest part of the city after that. There were many traders along side the roads selling all range of things ranging from local delicacies to imitation handbags and clothes.

We arrived back at the hotel to join my uncle for dinner at a restaurant nearby. I was missing the EPL match between Manchester United and Chelsea. Towards the end of the dinner, I managed to see the score on a TV, 3 - 0 to Chelsea, with minutes left. What a disappointment.

After dinner, my uncle left and we went back to the busy part of the town again. After some exploration, we settled down at a restaurant for some birds nest and ginko soup before calling it a day.


The next morning, we took a tuk tuk to the market area after a disappointing breakfast in a shop near the hotel. The market is huge with a lot of goods on sale. We managed to buy some stuff including some fruits to be given to relatives. We headed off to Carrefour after dropping off the goods we bought at the market.




The Carrefour in Haadyai is very similar to the ones in KL. The price is slightly cheaper though. We managed to buy quite a number of stuff. After walking through the whole store we ate at the food court within the same building before going back to the hotel.

Upon arrival at the hotel, I noticed a signage on top of the elevator - stating that the elevator is the first in Haadyai. Hmm... this hotel has had its glory days in the past.

After packing up, we took a taxi back to the border, the end of our short trip to Haadyai.

This trip has not changed my opinion on Haadyai like the trip to Phuket did. I find the city uninteresting. Other than two tired legs resulted from long shopping trips, there's nothing much I could remember from the trip. And shopping is definitely not something I look forward to in any trips. Looking forward to more exciting trips soon...

Our parliament

"Yang mana lebih sikit, pejam matalah. Biasalah itu."

I'm really confused... Is our parliament an institution to debate issues affecting the rakyat, regardless of who initiated the motion, or is it merely a government department where every MP must support the government?

Anyway, why even bother when most issues raised are petty issues?

We should have more MPs like Shahrir Abdul Samad who truly understand the meaning of integrity and the principles of a MP.

Still waiting for the day when parliament proceedings will be aired live to the Malaysian public. On the otherhand, can we Malaysians withstand the humiliation of showing the world what a circus or zoo our parliament is?

Crash

Just watched Crash at home over the weekend. Definitely my choice for Oscar's best picture compared to Brokeback Mountain. Still trying to figure out why Brokeback is so highly rated.

Back to Crash, the movie... This tragically beautiful movie revolves around few people's lives from the diverse population of Los Angeles which collided within 36 hours. Crash shows the power of racism through all eyes of those involved, from the victims to the wrong doers.

The district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his wife (Sandra Bullock, strikingly uncongenial) are carjacked at gunpoint by two black men (Ludacris and Larenz Tate). At home, the wife orders the locks changed and then changed again because a Mexican (Michael Pena) did the first job. A black TV director (Terrence Howard), getting a blow job from his wife (Thandie Newton) while driving home, is stopped by two white cops. One officer (Matt Dillon) gropes the wife to humiliate the husband, while the other cop (Ryan Phillippe) watches helplessly. A Persian store owner (Shaun Toub), taken for an Arab, buys a gun for protection. Don Cheadle plays a detective who ties these stories together when he finds a dead body in the road.

The acting was top notch, and each actor and actress delivered performances that brought out the true emotion and power of the movie.

Racism is everywhere, from developed nations such as US and UK to developing nation like ours. Many times in our lives we pass judgment on a person based on colour rather than content. I would like to agree with Martin Luther King Jr. (I have a dream) but in reality it's way more complicated than that. Can racism be eradicated? I highly doubt so.

Malaysia's first astronaut

I found this article in BBC rather amusing. Once again we are missing the big picture.

Malaysia considers Islam in space

A two-day conference on Islam and life in space is under way in Malaysia, in a bid to answer questions faced by would-be Muslim
astronauts.

Malaysia is due to send an astronaut into space with the Russians next year.

The country's first spaceman is almost certain to be a Muslim, which raises a number of practical issues.

For instance, Muslims wash before they pray but not only is water a precious commodity in space, but it is also impractical in weightlessness.

Likewise, the faithful face Mecca. However, that will mean pin-pointing a moving location while in zero gravity.

And Muslim prayer times are linked to those of the sunrise and sunset, but in orbit the sun appears to rise and set more than a dozen times a day.

Streamyx

After reading numerous posts online regarding Streamyx's poor service throughout the whole last week, I'm grateful that I'm using TimedotCom's Webbit which is nothing spectacular, but at least reliable. I'm quite surprised with Paul Tan's outburst on Streamyx's 'performance'. Not his usual calm and composed style.

The need for competition in this area is way overdue. Furthermore TMNet had left users in the dark over the whole matter. This is definitely no world class service. Buck up GLCs!

Honeymoon in Phuket

Finally I've got my actuarial exam out of the way... This is a long overdue post.

Johanna & I finally received our wedding photos from our photographers myBest and LesChang. We've posted most of them in our wedding album.

The day after our wedding, Johanna & I rushed back to KL to fly to Phuket for our 4-day honeymoon the next day. It's our first time flying together. The journey was shorter than I imagined - a mere one hour and fifteen minute flight.

We checked in to our hotel - Patong Premiere Resort upon arrival at Patong Beach. The hotel has a Balinese setting. Our room, a honeymoon suite, was tastefully decorated, complete with a bottle of Thai wine produced in 1948!

We spent our first few hours walking along Patong Beach, checking out the shops and looking for a restaurant. Finally settled down in Savoey, an air-conditioned Thai restaurant. We ordered 2 raw oysters, some clams, tom yum seafood and a plate of Thai noodles. A sumptuous meal indeed. The price was great too.

We spent our evening in a theme part called FantaSea. The main attraction was the cultural show in the Palace of the Elephants, featuring Thai culture, myth, magic show etc. Among the casts were a herd of elephants, a flock of chickens, a flock of pigeons and a herd of goats!

The next morning Johanna & I went for an elephant ride. Not the most pleasurable thing to do as we wobbled from one side to the other throughout the journey up and down hill. Nevertheless it was worth experiencing once in a lifetime. We also managed to capture the antics of a small monkey at the elephant trekking lodge.

In the afternoon, we're provided with a free half day tour of Phuket by the hotel. Our driver, Peter, drove us along the west coast of Phuket island, passing through Karon Beach and Kata Beach before arriving at the Phromthep Cape viewpoint. The scenery throughout was breathtaking. The view of Andaman Sea was definitely more pleasurable compared to Langkawi.

We proceed to a Buddhist temple called Wat Chalong after that. This monastry is about 500 years old. I was amazed by the details in the Thai architecture. Johanna and I ended up taking a large volume of photos, until Peter told us we were behind schedule.

Next we arrived in Phuket Town. There was nothing much to see and the only activity was to shop for souveniors. We managed only to buy some t-shirts and key chains due to time constraint.

Our last destination before heading back to Patong Town was a jewellery shop - touted as the biggest in the world.

We arrived back in hotel just in time for dinner. This time we went the other way along Patong Beach and arrived at a restaurant called Lam Phat. Another great seafood meal ensued.

On the third day of our trip, we took a boat trip to Phanga Bay, which has 42 isle. But we only visited 4 of those. The activities included canoeing, caves and lagoons visits. We were very impressed with the shapes of the isle. One of them is merely a rock - the famous James Bond Island, made popular by The Man with the Golden Gun. Johanna and I managed to know one couple from Findland - Timo and Linda who were in Phuket for a long holiday. We ended up having dinner together that evening.

The last day of our trip was merely checking out and travelling to airport. This was the most enjoyable trip in my life - the most likely reason was because of Johanna. But Phuket deserved all the credit as well. The tourism there was so well managed that we had seamless travel and touring services. The whole island was also very clean. I hope Malaysia can learn a lot from Phuket.

We managed to take more than 1Gb worth of photos from the trip. We have selected 10% of these to be included in our honeymoon album.

Our wedding day

It has been a while since I last update my blog. Well, for a good reason. I had been busy preparing for my wedding on 25 February. Now that everything is over made me felt so much relieved and relaxed. Johanna & I truly enjoyed our honeymoon after the big day.

Our dinner was held at Evergreen Laurel Hotel in Penang. We were really happy that many of our friends and colleagues turned up despite some having to travel very far - Medan, Singapore, KL, etc.

In the morning I went over to Parit Buntar Inn to bring Johanna over to my place. Of course not without having to go through the custom of knocking on the door and accepting some challenges from her jimui. I considered myself lucky as the challenges were relatively easy. I was asked to answer a number of questions relating to Johanna or our relationship, which I managed to answer correctly for each and everyone. But my hengdai and myself were not spared of drinking some 'cocktails' made from vinegar plus other unkown ingredient. Kok Zhen, one of my hengdai, even had to do push ups - ironically, he used to be the commander of the scout troop in SMJK Krian, who usually made others do push ups. After completing all the other challenges, such as eating bananas and drinking unfiltered coffee, I finally got to meet my bride and bring her back to my parents' house to complete the ceremony by offering tea to relatives.

After the tea ceremony, both of us rushed to Penang to prepare for the wedding dinner. My parents in law had arrived at the hotel around 2pm. Johanna then went to Kuang Yee Penang to get her make up for the night done.

By 7pm, my parents were not even ready to greet the guests. I was getting worried as many guests have arrived. Luckily my cousins had managed to organise themselves to help us ushering the guests. The dinner finally started at 8. Johanna came in in a sedan chair while I eagerly waited for her inside the ballroom. After inviting her out from the sedan chair, both of us marched down the red carpet towards the main table, with our theme song "I finally found someone" playing in the background. The band started playing and the ballroom was filled with songs sang by Tony and Joanne, our singers for the night.

We were very happy to see many of our photographer friends turned up on that night and took our photos. Really appreciate that some of them travelled all the way from KL.

We had our cake cutting ceremony after the second course, before Johanna went to change into evening gown. We marched in together again. Then, the rest of the event followed - champagne pouring, toasting, my dad giving his speech and finally my speech. I didn't have time to prepare the speech and hence I had to just share whatever that came to my mind, perhaps it's the most sincere way to give a wedding speech.

After the speech, we went around the tables to toast with our guests. Johanna's ex-housemates were so active - toasting louder than most despite being all female.

The night finally ended with us saying goodbye and thank you to our guests. We didn't manage to have long conversations with most of our guests as there were just too many guests to attend to.

After all the guests were gone, I finally felt relieved - all the stress is finally gone. Looking forward to the honeymoon to Phuket on Monday. Good that I only have to go through this once. Nevertheless I felt very happy with all the blessings from families, relatives, friends, colleagues, etc. It's finally complete.

I have yet to receive the photos on the wedding night. Will post some when they arrive. Many thanks to Ch'ng OT & co.