Johor and Pahang road trip

Okay, this is going to be a long one, mainly because it's two weeks worth of pictures. Instead of breaking down into a few post, I'm just going to put everything into one post. Long story... here goes.

 

As I wrote earlier, I was in Johor and Pahang for two weeks. The first week was spend in Johor. We left PJ at 11AM and after 5 hours of driving and sitting in the company's uncomfortable van, we finally arrived at Johor Baru. I haven't been to JB for years. I think the last time I came to JB was to pay respect to my grandfather's altar.

 

We checked ourselves into The Zon Hotel. It's an all-in-one free trade zone. It's got a hotel, shopping mall and clubs. It's got the usual alcohol and tobacco shops that you would find in a free trade zone. I think what's unique about this place are the nightclubs with their cheap booze. At night, the place are fool of young chinese kids partying away.

I wonder what they mean by 'exclusive KTV club'. I saw a lot of expensive cars driving up to it.

 

I like walking at the fountains at night. Quite breeze. Watching the young kids partying made me feel old.

 

 

 

The hotel itself is shaped like a triangle with all the corridors facing inwards. In the centre in the lobby, there is a band that plays every night until midnight. I could hear them from my room even on the high floors.

 

I'm afraid of heights so when I walk along the corridor, I walk as close as possible to the wall. I try not to look down.

 

The first day of shooting, I saw something interesting. A bird had build it's nest right next to this mansion that had been converted into an office.

 

It was a little yellow bird and it had made it's nest out of twigs and some cotton.

 

Besides taking pictures of birds, I also have a fascination for taking pictures of ants. That's mostly because they're everywhere and attack me mercilessly.

 

Staying in Petaling Jaya, I tend to forget we're a country infested with all sorts of ants. In Taiping I was attacked by huge red ants that literally took control of a hill I hiked up. I tell you, if I had it my way, I would come back to that hill with a few litres of kerosene and set it on fire.

 

In the palace grounds, I spotted these ants in the above pictures. The picture on the left is a large black ants with small black ants hitching a ride on it. The picture on the right is a group of workers transporting what looks like food.

 

Our next stop in our shooting schedule took us to royal palace grounds. I was standing around this old palace that hasn't seen any care for a long time.

 

The main hall. The wooden floors are all rotten so I didn't dare walk up on it. You can imagine it's splendor in it's heydays. It used to be a school too for awhile...

 

The plants are trying to take over the building now.

 

Someone had scribbled graffiti on the building. I found it amusing that the graffiti was all in english, unlike the graffiti you commonly see elsewhere where it's in crude Malay. This one was the most amusing. On the top it says "I love Kian Forever, 26-12-2005" and at the bottom it says, "I still love Kian forever 4-2-2007". I was going to scribble at the bottom "Kian don't love you anymore" but that would just encourage more graffiti.

 

 

I ran into a couple that was taking their wedding photos in the building. They seem quite surprised to see us shooting there. I was just as surprised to see them picking such an odd location to do their shoot!

 

There was a row of these trees at the back of the palace. I didn't know the name but I could guess they were pretty old. It was the strangest tree, I've never seen anything like it. It had wild branches shooting out of it's lower part of it's body with flowers at it's end.

 

The flowers were quite fragrant. With a whole row of them, the entire street was sweet smelling when a slight breeze blew.

 

The flowers turned into this cannonball sized fruits. It's exterior was hard and I didn't see anyone plucking the fruits or half eaten remains on the ground so my guess was it wasn't edible.

 

This is the royal mausoleum. It was on top of a hill in a peaceful cemetery. In the day time it looked serene, but I bet you wouldn't want to wait around until it got dark there.

 

Another unique place we stopped at was a stall called Warong Saga that had old pictures of Johor personalities. One of the picture sets caught my eye. It was a row of pictures of the former and current Chief Minister of Johor. Check out the picture right after the current Chief Minister.

 

The stall owner sure had some weird sense of humor. All this while the press was still trying to guess if Ghani was going to remain as the Chief Minister then.

 

Well, since the stall owner has a sense of humor, I decided to add my own picture...

 

Hrmm... how about this one, care to guess who would be the next prime minister?

 

All the time I was the hotel, my phone reception kept getting cut of even though there was a full bar. It wasn't until after making a few calls then I discovered the reason for this. The hotel was so close to Woodland in Singapore, the phone kept disconnecting and reconnecting to the Singapore telco side! I think I might have made some international calls to Chui Yan instead of using Maxis.

 

One of the stranger things I saw in JB was the Freemason Hall. Not many of the locals know what it was, they all referred to it as the 'Rumah Hantu' as the members were all secretive.

 

Notice the Freemason logo at the top of the building. Did you know that the former Sultan of Johor was a freemason?

 

On the post box, it said "Johor Royal Lodge". The building itself faces south (facing Singapore), as Freemason tradition requires their lodges to face south.

 

So this is the body of water that supports two rival nations. My father and his brothers used to swim across it from Johor to Singapore when they were young. The distance between the two is a lot shorter now that there is more reclaimed land.

 

After a few days in JB, we finally left the place to travel to a smaller town in Johor, Kota Tinggi. This is a town that was once flooded out in two great floods. A lot of the residence still fear the rain.

I took this panorama picture from our hotel, Mayres Hotel. The water level during the floods was lapping just below the second floor of most of the buildings in the town centre. That's almost 2 metres of water. There was a lot of damage financially and also emotionally.

 

I took a walk around the town and at first glance, you wouldn't have noticed that there was any flood at all. However, I took a closer looked at some of the closed down shops and you could see through the locked doors that there was extensive water damage. One clinic I saw never opened again, it's inside was a mess with the water level marks at it's ceiling.

 

The furniture and electronics store in the town centre is thriving, most probably from people trying to rebuild their life's.

 

 

The hotel we stayed in operates from the 8th floor of a tall building in the centre of the town. The ground floor is an abandoned supermarket. Staying on the 9 floor, that gave me a sense of security against the flood. It was only a 2 star hotel I think, judging from it's service and room.

 

The hotel had a dodgy key card system. The keys came with a plastic or metal dog tag. You had to insert the tag into a slot in the elevators while pressing the floor button at the same time. The same goes for the main power switch in the rooms. The tag on my room key was the piece of plastic that was held together by tape and was way pass it's retirement time.

 

I had to improvise and Macgyver my own key card since the hotel didn't offer much help in giving me a replacement key card. I fished out the old key card I kept as a souvenir from the The Zon Hotel and cut it up.

 

 

I didn't have a scissor so I badly butchered the key card. At least it works.

 

Anyway, I took a river cruise from Kota Tinggi heading downstream. A lot of Singaporean tourist visit this town in the weekends, the biggest attraction is the river cruise. There are fireflies to be seen by the river. There are also a lot of historical sites along it.

 

This picture was taken at the main jetty in town. The tall white building in the background is abandoned, I believe it's now a swift hotel. A lot of bird's flying around it. The guy who runs the boats, Ah Fook is a local hero himself. During the floods, he used his 5 boats together with the MCA to rescue trapped flood victims. His boats were the largest and carried the most people to safety. He himself lost a boat as it was stolen during the floods. Someone also broke into his house during the floods and stole all his life jackets. If you ever wanted to take his river tour, give him a call at +60137785999.

 

Our trip down river was pleasant but also very hot. Before we started the journey, even our boatman complained about the heat, as he never cruised down the river at noon before. He made a dash to a store nearby to buy a straw hat. I followed him and bought two umbrellas and a straw hat as well. Since the hat was only RM3.50 each, I paid for his hat as well.

 

There were a lot of people fishing on the river. In a small town like this, I guess that's the biggest entertainment here. It's peaceful and quite rewarding too. The guy in the picture above caught a very large prawn the length of my forearm.

 

I spotted two temples along the riverbanks. The one above looked like a meditation centre. It had a small peaceful park by the riverbanks. A serene place to go and contemplate the Dharma for locals.

 

After cruising for an hour, we finally stopped at a small jetty to have a drink. There wasn't much available at the stall but I did spot kids jumping into the river. At a closer look, I saw what they were catching, Horseshoe Crabs or better known as Belangkas to the locals. It's a species that is very rare. It's blood is prized in the pharmaceutical industry for viral detection. There is a malay saying, "macam Belangkas" which means a pair of lovers who are attached to each other. This is because the horseshoe crab mates for life. The male will be attached to the top of the female. When they are caught, the male is usually discarded.

 

 

It's about RM4 for a KG of Belangkas.

 

The locals prize the eggs of the female Belangkas. In the picture above, if you press near the two nodes in the centre of the picture, you would be able to squeeze out their eggs. It's a little larger than salmon eggs. There's not much meat on the crab itself.

 

I saw this jelly fish swimming as we left the kids. That would be a very painful encounter for anyone!

 

As we headed back to town, dark clouds started to loom over us. It started to drizzle a little as we passed under the clouds. Luckily, it didn't last for long.

 

The odd looking building painted with red stripes in the centre of the picture is a British build World War 2 pillar box. There's quite a few up along the river. The British had feared a sea invasion and had guarded the river. Little did they know, the attack came from up north.

 

For lunch, we stopped at this restaurant called Mahkota Belangkas. It's specialty was Belangkas Sambal tumis.

 

This is the restaurant owner, the Tunku Mahkota of Johor loves cooking the Belangkas.

 

 

The locals say don't drink coffee after eating Belangkas or you would get sick. So what did it taste like? Well, let's just say I won't eat it again. I would try all sorts of weird food at least once.

 

I remember a joke I read once, it reminds me a lot about this belangkas. "A forest ranger was walking in the woods and he stumbled upon a man who was cooking a bear over an open fire. The ranger was astonished and shouted at the man 'hey, that's a protected species, you can't cook the bear!'. The man replied, 'oh, I didn't know that... I've been living in the woods all my life, no one ever told me that'. The ranger let him of with a warning and out of curiosity asked, 'so what does the bear taste like anyway?'. The man replied, 'oh, it taste a bit like a Bald Eagle".

 

Belangkas eggs taste just as awful as turtle eggs.

 

I woke up one morning and from my hotel room I could see this. A group of BN supporters were marching down the main street of Kota Tinggi... only then did I remember it was nomination day. Kota Tinggi's incumbent was Syed Hamid Albar, the Foreign Affairs Minister. Johor itself is a BN stronghold. So no treat to him there as of this time of writing. I await to see how he fairs after the election.

 

I took some pictures in the local museum. It was quite well maintained, luckily it was build on high grounds, so the floods did not affect it.

 

I always find the mannequins they use in our local museums amusing. The locals all look like caucasians. This one is supposed to be the Dutch meeting the Sultan of Johor.

 

This is an interesting wedding poem I saw in the museum.

 

more pictures of ants. This type not so aggressive.

 

A panorama shot of the old fort at Johor Lama. This used to be the front of the fort facing the river. Across on the other side of the river is Johor Baru. It's peaceful here, looks like a nice place to have a garden wedding actually.

 

Through out the trip, we ate mostly Malay food. Not too fond of it. So when I spotted a chinese restaurant next to our hotel, I had dinner there one night on my own. All these food for only RM13. Quite cheap compared to prices in the Klang Valley. This would have cost me at least RM20.

 

It was finally time to continue our journey onwards to Kuantan, Pahang. By then, the election campaign period was already in full swing. We stopped by in Rompin to have lunch at a small shop. The food had a fly trap door but on closer look, all the flies were trapped inside with the food... gross. I didn't want to eat initially but in the end, I only ate the veggie. Good thing I didn't get sick.

 

I saw one of BN office of another minister. He had a huge balloon floating over head.

 

The rest of the journey was scenic. There were a lot of beach stretches that didn't have anyone on it. It looks like there are many potential sites for beach resorts along this area.

 

There weren't many election flags flying this year. I think the new election rulings has clamped down on the flags and poster clutter which is great. Check out the Kelisa above with the flags flying on it. I think the guy at the BN office told him to distribute the car flags but instead, he stuck it all on his car. I would like to see if his car is still like that after the election.

 

 

There was massive road construction going on from Pekan to Kuantan. They are building a new road. They suck sand out of the rivers and place it along the current road but the rains have washed most of the sand away already.

 

A portrait of the Sultan of Pahang I saw in the museum in Pekan. This museum is currently under renovation. The lower ground level was flooded out, so it's still quite a mess.

 

This is an ornate carved wooden chair that was a gift from Korea to the Sultan. It has extensive termite damage on it's back.

 

I saw this advertisement hanging on the wall of a stall we had lunch at. I found the name of the coffee really funny. Check out it's slogan "Tak minum, insteri marah...". A testament to it's virility.

 

I saw a squirrel running around in the trees above me in Pekan. When I looked on the ground, there were a lot of coconuts with holes in it. My colleague told me the squirrels had gnawed a hole into the coconut and eaten it. Smart little buggers. "Kelapa ditebuk tupai".

 

 

A strange fruit tree. The locals say it's edible. It was too high up for me to have a closer look.

Another more common fruit, the Starfruit. When I was about to get down from the van, something dropped on my head. We had parked under a starfruit tree and one had dropped on me. My crew picked the unripe green ones of the tree and started eating it. I've never seen people eat the unripe ones before.

 

A beautiful mosque in Pekan.

 

A flock of hornbills were resting in the trees in the Pekan museum. First time I've seen one up close.

 

Over the next few days when we were shuttling back and forth between Kuantan where we stayed and Pekan to do our shoots, it rained heavily.

 

Our hotel room in Kuantan at the Grand Continental didn't have TV3. So I ended up watching a lot of RTM and NTV7 news. It was mostly propaganda and heavily sided towards the government. It was blantantly biased so I stopped watching after a few days. The RTM reports were so biased it was comical. I saw one report where the Information Minister attacked Anwar Ibrahim. It had inserted pictures of Anwar singing and dancing. It just looked so bad for the minister.

 

I woke up one morning and saw the morning headlines on Berita Harian. Just another example of blantant yellow journalism. Their excuse for the headline would most probably be "The deputy prime minister said so, so we just quote him". Right... I can probably quote anyone of the streets who can say "Berita Harian tak adil dalam laporan" and run that as a headline too. Good thing I didn't pay any money for this paper.

 

Anyway, one of the higlights of Kuantan was an old camera shop. The guy had old cameras on that he showed us. The cameras from the early 1920's that his father had used to take early pictures of Kuantan.

 

The picture two cameras and a picture of it's owner.

 

The lens was by Carl Zeiss, which is still used by Sony today. Amazing.

 

The cameras don't work anymore. In the above picture, the main picture is the view from the Graflex camera. The insert picture is the picture I took from my camera from the same view point. For an old camera, the lens were still quite sharp. The image on the old camera's look down viewfinder was a mirror image.

 

I saw this on snuck away in one corner of the shop. I googled it and found out that Sakura Color is actually the brand name of a Japanese pen company.

 

Another wierd food I tried, coconut pancake or better known as lempeng in Kuantan.

 

I also got to watch some Gamelan dancers. Very graceful.

In the old days, the dance was performed at night for the Sultan so he could pick and choose a 'companion' from one of the dancers at night.

 

More rain clouds. This one almost flooded out the road.

 

I also got to visit the Istana Abu Bakar in Pekan.

It was next to the Royal Pahang Polo Club. Is it just me or does it looks like the two horses just shitted out it's tail?

 

We had lunch at the royal dinning room. It was a very grand room.

They served us this royal banana pudding that only was served for the royal family. The black pieces in the bowl are actually fermented small bananas. It was very sweet but too odd for my liking.

 

official cup

 

The Balairong was impressive. Very regal. It would make any man feel humbled when walking up to the throne.

 

I saw a few houses in the low lying areas of Pekan flooded out. They already had boats tied to their front doors. It's a good thing the election campaigns are going on with Najib around to offer aid instantly.

 

We also stopped by Pantai Chempedak. It was raining heavily, otherwise it would have been a perfect day by the beach.

While I was standing in the shade, a large Malay family had stopped by. Two very young kids from the group ran out to the beach in the middle of the heavy rain with the parents just watching. I think Chinese parents are very different, they wouldn't have let the kids just run of like that. The picture above is a picture of the two kids standing in the rain by the beach. I was standing just next to their parents who didn't seem to care.

 

I spend a lot of time in the shopping mall next to our hotel in Kuantan too and I noticed the same thing. Kids, mostly Malay were running around without any parents supervising them. Once when I took the lift, I spotted two teenagers trying to help two young kids to find their parents. It was a bubble lift and they looked out and suddenly pointed out and shouted that's their mother. We stopped on the ground floor the two kids ran of. Turns out it wasn't their mother, so I waited to watch what would happen. They two kids just ran all over the place up and down escalators without any adult supervision. I don't think it would be the same in the Klang Valley.

 

Just yesterday, I was buying bread at the One Utama bakery and a small Malay boy ran by crying for his mother. Everyone quickly stopped what they were doing and took notice. The lady serving us in the bakery ran out to lead the boy to the info counter. Everyone stood around him concerned for his safety. Everyone in the Klang Valley is now more aware ever since two kids when missing.

 

While in Kuantan, there wasn't much to do but to watch movies in GSC cinema nearby. I watched 3 movies in a week... more than I normally would.

 

The one thing I noticed about small towns are that services and goods are sometimes cheaper than larger cities. In Kuantan, I got a hair wash, shoulder massage and a face wash all for Rm36. In PJ, a hair wash itself is already RM15.

I also saw really cheap toy miniature remote controlled helicopters in Kota Tinggi. They were about RM50, the same model would be about RM90 in PJ. I regret not buying one.

 

Anyway, I'll continue this post another time. This is way too long.

 

For the pass few days, while I was staying in Kuantan, I stopped watching TV3 news. The TV in the hotel room I was staying in didn't have TV3 programmed in. I was too lazy to call the hotel maintainance to fix it. I ended up instead watching the news on RTM 2 and NTV7.

The propaganda and biased news are coming in hard and fast now. They don't even bother disguising it as fair news anymore. It's all out opposition bashing on RTM. On the Media Prima networks, BN must have paid a lot of money to run their TV commercials. They're attacking all the issues head on. There's specific TVC's to address the chinese voters; the east coast malay voters; the young voters; and even the Indian voters. This is the most massive and complex BN TV campaign I've ever seen in history. I can't even imagine the budget that has gone into making this work.

All the opposition has on the other hand is youtube and supporter created clips. BN has the creative might of professional copywriters; production houses; and... money.

While the press here may claim they are fair and just, taking a closer look you can tell that it's not the case. Newspaper coverage are more inclined to report BN leader's quotes. If there are any reports on what the opposition says, it's usually at the bottom of a paragraph without the opposition leader's picture. More and more people are turning to the alternative media to search for what the opposition is saying... I think this has lead to a lot of misiformation and more biases out there. Bloggers out there are not professional journalist, most of them do not understand journalism ethics or report accurately. All this has made searching for a balanced picture even harder for everyone.

All I can say is trust no one. You make your own judgements now. Undi anda adalah rahsia.

yes, I'm finally back home. The first thing I did was go to have dinner with Chui Yan. I never knew I missed salted veggie soup so much. The next thing was to indulge in my favourite activity... mall walking in One Utama. It's confirmed, One Utama is the best mall in Malaysia! Of course, that's just my personal opinion based on the other malls I've seen in the past two weeks.

It feels so good to seat in my throne in front of my own PC, in my own bedroom not having to share it with anyone.

Privacy... mmm, feels good.

When the shit hits the fan...

Blogging from my phone again. I'm at a mamak having a late supper
outside my hotel in Kuantan. I don't have TV3 in my room. I'm actually
watching 360 now. Damn, it just started raining. Anyway i've been
reading the papers and man... The propaganda sure is coming hard and
fast now. Reading the malay papers just makes me want to laugh and
puke at the same time. Their bias is so damn obvious... Who the heck
are they kidding when they say there is press freedom in malaysia? Its
a good thing i don't watch much tv here. Reminds of this old joke. A
guy runs into a bar and ask for the loo. The bartender points upstairs
and the guy runs upstairs. He doesn't find the loo. Since he can't
hold it any longer, he spots a hole in the floor and promptly shits in
it. After he walks down, he finds the bar empty. He ask the bartender
who is mopping the floor where everyone when. The bartender replied
'where were you when the shit hit the fan man?!' well... that's me.

All quiet on the southern front

Blogging from my phone again. I'm in a van on the way to johor lama.
For the pass two days i've been staying in Kota Tinggi. Our hotel is
at best, only three stars... However i think it.most probably two
stars only. The towels are extremely thin. I had to buy my own towel
from the local supermarket. A quick glance around and you wouldn't
realize that this town was completely flooded in a great flood only a
few months ago. The water level was up to the ceiling of the first
floor of most buildings in the town area. Now, most of the buildings
have been newly painted again. Only a few stores have been left
abandoned. I have a feeling those never recovered financially and have
a fear of the floods returning. Earlier this morning i watched the
UMNO procession walk by to the nomination centre. The MP for this area
is the current foreign minister, Syed Hamid Albar. It was a pretty
quiet affair. Not much chanting of slogans. As Johor is a barisan
nasional stronghold, there isn't much of a challenge.

In my hotel room

Bloging from my phone. I'm in my hotel room in the Zon. I'm watching
singaporean TV. Its weird. They have the same programs they buy as us
but their commercial breaks are so different. The have a lot more
local brands advertising on media corp. Anyway, it was the usual
tiring day shooting. We when to this abandoned building to shoot. We
ran into a couple taking their wedding photos with the old building as
their backdrop. I find it amusing people would choose a location like
that for their wedding album. I personally would choose something that
isn't so spooky like that... I think i might go take another walk
around the hotel lobby later. I can hear the band playing in the
lobby. Very noisy!

Away again

Blogging from my phone. I am at a delifrance in a strangely named
shopping mall, 'the zon' in johor baru. My hotel is in an ajoining
building also with the same name. A lot of bars here. Its a duty free
zone and there is a jetty here that goes to indonesia i think. After
JB i will be in kota tinggi and then kuantan. 2 weeks of travelling!

The drums of propaganda

Well, the elections finally has a date. The Election Commission has fixed the date for the 2008 General Election on March 8. Just in time for me to vote as I'll be gone from 18 February to 2nd March. I'll be in Johor Baru and Kuantan shooting during the two weeks.

 

I'm dreading the poster wars that will start on polling day on 28 February. All the posters hanging from every corner is such an eyesore. I wish the local councils would designate places that the political parties can put their posters and leave other areas clear of it.

 

I remember in the last election Barisan Nasional hung a huge flag right outside my house and it didn't go down for a month. It took a few phone calls complaining to them before their came to take it down.

 

The Star has given their election coverage a title, "Malaysia Decides 2008" while The New Straits Times is calling it quite simply "Election 2008". Utusan's title is quite long, "Laporan Khas Menjelang Pilihan Raya".

 

The election is something all the press has been planning for months now. Like the political parties, the press probably had their own preparations well rehearsed.

 

Political parties are vying for votes during an election while the press are vying for attention. The election in a way is a popularity contest for both political parties and the press. For the press, it's one of the rare few times where everyone gives the same coverage for the same event. So far TV3 has always come out tops in a 'same event' ratings war.

 

In the US, National Television networks like CBS, NBC and FOX look forward to the rating wars during the election. It's a time when they put the credibility of their news team to the test. The one with the widest and most interesting coverage will get the highest ratings. For the local TV stations, it would be a test of their national coverage.

 

With TV3, NTV7, TV9 and 8TV sharing the same news resources this year, it would be interesting to see their news coverage. There would be economy of scales in terms of the back office operations. I can forsee that they can share the same operation rooms outside of the Klang Valley. I just hope they have their own editorial angle.

 

This year for the TV stations, the battle will be between 3 forces. The 'federation' of Media Prima (with TV3, NTV7, 8TV and TV9) against ASTRO and RTM. TV3 would most probably lead the pack in the Media Prima federation. I don't have ASTRO at home so I can't really watch how they cover the election but I do expect quality discussions coming out of their studios. RTM's mandarin news is quite good too. I think it would be a strong fight between their mandarin news and 8TV's mandarin news.

 

It would also be interesting to see how much access the opposition party has to the mainstream press this year. They have already proven they could use the alternative means like blogs very well. However, the internet is still mostly accessable to the urban voters only.The coming elections here will be a gauge of press freedom in Malaysia and the news quality of all the press (whether local or foreign).

 

I forsee this would be a tough year for BN trying to convince the urban voters. Places like Petaling Jaya, Ipoh and Penang will be a tough fight. Crime and inflation will be high on their mind.I myself would be voting in Petaling Jaya Utara and I await to see what are the issues they would be bringing up. All the dirt, insults and wrong doing from the last 4 years would be dredged up. It's the time of reckoning.

 

The drums of propaganda are beating, The troops are keen, soon the battle lines will be joined.

 

Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war...

 

election,press coverage,TV stations,Malaysia

 

 

 

 

 

change, change, change... chain of fools

I have the whole week of with not much to do. I have 21 days of leave that I carried forward from last year. I'm trying to finish as much of the leave as a I can by the first quarter of this year.

 

Surprisingly I woke up at 6AM today. I did some light exercises and bought nasi lemak for breakfast. Looking around, there wasn't much to do and I jumped back into bed. So much for an early start to the day. I woke up again at lunch time and here I am still sitting in front of the PC surfing the net.

 

Lately, the newspapers and the news on TV have all been about the election. The producers have dedicated more time to government propaganda. Usually the first block of the news is about national stories, which could be crime, politics, PM and DPM's visits, etc. Now it's all about what the government has done for the people. The campaigning has most certainly started.

 

Out of curiousity what the opposition has been doing to prepare for the election, I visited the DAP website. Since they are most likely to contest PJ Utara, the constituency that I am staying and working at, it would be nice to see what they are working on.

 

Well, I didn't find the name of their candidate... yet, but I did find out that their slogan is "Jom Ubah". Sounds a lot similar like the theme for some of the presidential candidates in the US. Obama's fighting theme is about change. Change for the better I hope.

 

I did find a DAP TV commercial. Looks like the DAP campaign style is copying a lot from the Americans, they're getting a lot more savvy.

 

 

I took a look at some of the blogs of their Parliment representatives too. It looks like everyone is busy preparing for the coming election. Teresa Kok recently when around town with a lion dance troup to collection donations. That's quite creative I would say.

 

I remember elections are always stressful time, even for the press. In my office they setup an operation centre in the theatrette the last election. It looked like the NASA mission command centre with rows of PC's and a large monitor up front.

 

In 1999 when I first started work as a reporter, one of things I had to do was to answer the phone during the election. I remember the night the results were being announced and there was a lot of calls coming in enquiring about the late result tabulations for Terengganu.

 

A few called in to swear at us and also remind me about eternal damnation. After awhile, I just picked up the phone answered with "hello" and then put the receiver on the table and every few minutes say "okay" into the receiver and go back to my work. Most of them are so engrossed in quoting the holy verses to me they don't realize I'm not on the phone. They just want someone to release their frustration on.

 

I speak fluent Bahasa Malaysia (yes, it's Bahasa Malaysia now, not Bahasa Melayu!) so a lot of the callers assume I'm a Muslim. One caller after ranting about how lying will lead to eternal damnation asked if I was a Muslim expecting a yes from me and I replied no and the guy kept quite for awhile and then hung up after ranting on for awhile. His sales pitch didn't quite work on me.

 

This year I most probably won't be involved with the election. I hope. I just want to be a regular voter. Hrmm... now that I think about it, I do hope I'm not travelling around during the election. I want to make my vote count this time around.

 

Okay, it's time to get out and explore the world!

 

 

 

change,Petaling Jaya,election

Up and about in Taiping

Hola! I've been busy since I got back from Taiping. It was straight into the Chinese New Year celebrations. It was the usual, reunion dinner with relatives and first day gathering with relatives.

 

The Taiping trip was good. I'm always pleasantly surprised at the generosity and hospitality shown by locals when ever I go to a strange new place to do a shoot. Taiping was no exception, the people there was nice enough to take us around and show us their wonderful town.

 

It was nostalgic for me as well as I haven't been to Taiping in many years. When I was staying in Bagan Serai, I used to go to Taiping every weekend with my brother for art class. After art class, we would hang out at the supermarket below the Panorama hotel.

 

Not much of Taiping has changed. Just the addition of a few buildings and The Store has taken over the supermarket I used to hang out at. There's a Tesco and a Giant now.

 

The streets of Taiping are all grids so they all run North-South and East-West. Can't really get lost in this town. When the British first planned the town, Taiping was the first modern town in the whole of the Malayan peninsula. The only other large town was the Penang Island. The Brits had a lot of foresight to plan large streets like these. In the background, you can see Maxwell Hill (also known as Bukit Larut).

 

I've seen the old black and white pictures of Taiping. There were a lot more trees then. This picture I took is based on a black and white photo I saw. Amazingly, the streets and the building in the old photo still looks exactly the same as in this photo.

 

Of course back then, it was much easier for the photographer to setup a tripod right in the middle of the crossroad to take this picture. The streets were all packed dirt and horse carriages were the mode of transport. The rest of the of the people walked. You can still explore the whole of Taiping itself on foot. The buildings on the left and right are still the same. The clocktower in the background of the picture is still the same too.

 

This market was where I used to have lunch.

 

I had breakfast at this shop near the market. They had some new Chicken Kuew Teow Soup. Not bad. I liked sitting by the street listening to everyone speak hokkien. Just thinking, that 200 years ago, people were having breakfast exactly the same way.

 

I was looking for a toilet after breakfast and I turned into the Wisma Hasil and suprisingly, The Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri has the cleanest toilet in the whole of Taiping! I'm not kidding, this toilet is spotless clean and the floor is dry and it smells nice too.

 

Even the "New Club" feels old. Back when the Brits started it, it was still new but now it's an 'old' club. I took a closer look at the past presidents board. There's a blank between 1941 and 1945. It makes you wonder what happened too all the club members during World War 2. A blank says a lot.

 

 

 

I managed to stop by and visit the Commonwealth graves. Very somber and well maintained. A lot of young soldiers died defending Malaya during WW2.

 

A lot of the graves did not have names on it, all that was written was "A soldier of The Indian army is honoured here". I think the bodies were probably beyond recognition when they were buried after the war.

 

After Ipoh I stopped over in my hometown, Ipoh to stay the night. I visited my grandmother and relatives there. I also took the time to visit my old primary school, LaSalle primary school.

 

Brought back a lot of memories. I don't remember much but I do remember our teacher used to lead us out to the school field and we'll sit under the trees.

 

Most of my schooling years, it has been at a missionary school. I when to a Methodist Kindergarden in Ipoh, a missionary primary school in Ipoh and a missionary secondary school in Petaling jaya. The only non-missionary school I when too was Chim kindergarden in PJ and Bagan Serai secondary school. Did it make me a better person? Hrmmm... I'll just say it made me what I am today.

 

The best thing I like about Chinese New Year is the easy moving traffic in town. I like visiting the shopping malls during the first few days of CNY. The malls are empty and it's easy to walk around and find parking.

 

I managed to take this panorama picture of Damansara Perdana and Mutiara Damansara from the rooftop parking of One Utama new wing. Who knows, 200 years from now someone will take a look at this photo and wonder how much Petaling Jaya has changed... or how much it looks alike.

 

 

Chinese New Year,Taiping,nostalgia

Taiping preparation

Well I'm of to Taiping. Just done packing my bag. I'm still deciding whether to take my own car or use the company's car. The company car smells but then I don't have to pay for the gas and less wear and tear on my own car.

 

If I drive my own car, I can claim the gas money later but it adds more mileage to my car. Anyway, I'm more comfortable driving my own car even though it's older and drives a little slower.

 

Hrmm... I think I'll take my own car. My car smells a lot nicer! I might stop over in Ipoh and visit my relatives there on the way back.

 

Travelling always make me think of this song...

 

All my bags are packed, Im ready to go
Im standing here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin, its early morn
The taxis waiting, hes blowin his horn
Already Im so lonesome I could cry.

Chorus:
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go.
Im leavin on a jet plane
I dont know when Ill be back again
Oh, babe, I hate to go.

Theres so many times Ive let you down
So many times Ive played around
I tell you now, they dont mean a thing
Every place I go, I think of you
Every song I sing, I sing for you
When I come back, Ill wear your wedding ring.

Chorus:
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go.
Im leavin on a jet plane
I dont know when Ill be back again
Oh, babe, I hate to go.

Now the time has come to leave you
One more time let me kiss you
Then close your eyes, Ill be on my way.
Dream about the days to come
When I wont have to leave alone
About the times, I wont have to say,

Chorus:
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go.
Im leavin on a jet plane
I dont know when Ill be back again
Oh, babe, I hate to go.

travelling

I think I hate travelling. I mean, I like visiting new places, it's just the getting there and getting back part I hate. Especially if it's by car. I'm quite the restless person. I have to do something that's interactive. Whether it's using the PC to play games or surf the internet.

 

The trip back from Kuala Terengganu took about 7 hours of driving. I hitched a ride with my father as he was coming back too. I drove most of the way so at least that was something to do. I rather be the one doing the driving instead of just sitting and doing nothing... unless I'm sleepy.

 

I'm a few shades darker after Kuala Terengganu. From my neck up and my forearm are all dark. If I take my watch of, there's a pretty prominent tan line on my left wrist. I'm going to try one of those skin whitening face wash and see if I can even out the wierd tan lines.

 

Right after I got back, one of the things I was craving for was Bah Kut Teh. I had dinner with Chui Yan at a new Bah Kut Teh shop near her place in Aman Suria. It was okay, something different from the usual shop I go too.

 

Today, we when to a Feng Shui seminar by Joey Yap. At first we were planning to leave early but it was actually quite interesting and we stayed throughout the whole thing from 10AM to 5PM at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. I even bought an interior design feng shui book. RM40 poorer now.

 

I think it'll come in handy when I do my apartment's renovation.

 

This week, I have to go to Taiping for another shoot. I'm dreading driving there on my own. It's going to be tiring driving just by myself. The Ipoh stretch is just notorious as a accident prone place. I got to be extra alert in that area.

 

Okay, time for bed!

travelling,kuala terengganu

Kuala Terrenganu assigment

I am blogging from my phone again. Its my second day in kuala
terrenganu. We left yesterday at 11am. We were supposed to leave at 9
am but we were delayed as most of the crew arrived late. We were
actually supposed to leave on friday but i got pick. We picked up our
producer along the way. He too was pick and was recovering at home.
The trip took us six hours by the coastal way. I slept most of the
way. My stomach still isn't feeling so great. We are staying at the
grand continental hotel. It has a nice view of the beach. However the
beach has a lot of drift wood on it and huge waves. I met up with Teng
today as i was going to visit the china town. Quite a quaint looking
place. Currently resting in my hotel room before the next shoot. I
came back here to the room just to use the toilet. Like i said, my
stomach isn't feeling so great.

Training Dogs / Husbands

Training Dogs, originally uploaded by luxen.

I recently moved to a new desk in my office. I noticed the person sitting next to me had this book. I sniggered and asked her if this was the book she used to train her husband. She wasn't amused... haha.

Actually, there is a a book I saw on Amazon about how to train your husband based on what the author learned from dog trainers.

Food Poisoning

I'm down with food poisoning. I suspect the culprit for my illness to be the food they served during our department party. Every few months we have a party to celebrate the birthday's of those born in that month. I think the satay sauce did me in. It was also the mixture of a peanut butter sandwich I had later in the night... SO NOT A GOOD COMBINATION!

 

The worst part is, I'm supposed to be in Kuala Terrenganu today. I had to SMS everyone I was sick. Postpone everything until tomorrow. The doctor gave me one day of MC for slight fever and food poisoning.

 

I had a meeting in KL yesterday, on the way back I was already feeling really weak. I hardly get a fever so it's not easy to identify it when I do get a fever. I got home and pratically slept the whole day until this morning.

 

I can't eat anything now, I'm afraid I'll have an accident. I best stick to eating bread.

Wrong key

I finally got a locksmith to come over and get the lock open. It turns out the keys the previous owner gave me, the key that was supposed to open that particular lock didn't match. The locksmith said it was difinitely the wrong key. I took a closer look at the door and it was a little cracked on the side plus the locksmith said the lock wasn't of the same series as the other locks in the apartment. The rest of the locks in the apartment was silver color while the odd one out without the key was gold in color.

 

I think what most likely happened was the tenant of the previous owner, at one time or another, probably got himself locked out of the room and broke the lock, hence the damaged door side. After that, the guy replaced it with an identical lock... only he forgot to return the new key to the previous owner.

 

That so pissed me of. I spend a few hours trying to get the lock open. I even sprayed it full of WD-40 to lubricate it. Damn it.

 

I think I'm going to make a bonfire with all the previous tenant's old mail.

locks,keys

 

 

 

New Apartment

A few days ago, I got the key to our new apartment. Me and Chui Yan when to see it all excited. We've only seen it once when we first bought it, even then, it was at night. This time around, we when in the day time and the view was even better... fantastic!

 

It was a little dusty and there were stains in the toilet. Nothing that a mop and my high water pressure gun couldn't clean. We took some pictures of the view and it was great, I can imagine myself staring out of the window almost everyday while I work on my PC.

 

We when over again today to put a padlock on the front door just for extra safety percaution. When I tried to unlock one of the bedroom door this time around, it wouldn't unlock. It just refused to turn. I have a feeling one of the tumblers in the lock got stuck the last time I locked it. I don't think picking the lock would even fix it now... even the key couldn't open it... Unless I put some WD-40 in it. I'll have to dig out my WD-40 and see if I can fix that tomorrow. Pump it full of lubricant crap.

 

The worst part was, while we were fooling around with the lock, I dropped the key and it bounced of my shoe and right under the door. What the hell... I thought this only happened in the movies. Good thing I had another spare key... anyway, it doesn't work also. Not so good luck today.

 

My brother came by later to have a look. Since he's in the Interior Design profession, I thought I'll get his expert opinion. Most of his ideas were a little too wierd for our liking although he did have some very good ideas for the partition.

 

I hope the WD-40 works, otherwise I'll have to find a locksmith to open it. I don't want them to break down the door.

 

apartment,renovation,locks

 

The Backward Economy

Today I when to Midvalley Megamall to pick up a video light I had ordered. Weekdays are the only time I go to this place, on other days, the place is virtually impossible to park.

Even today the parking was horrendous. All the parking bays were full, I suspect it was mostly taken up by those working in the area. I had to park under The Garden and walk all the way to North Court through the basement. Not a short walk I tell you.

When it comes to parking, my philosophy is pretty simple. I drive to the location where I think parking would be easily available and park there even if it involves walking further. Like today, instead of parking at level 1, I drove straight to level 2 and drove right to the end. I figure instead of circling around on level 1 and trying to find a parking... I would have made up the time by walking to where ever I wanted to go already.

It's the same for One Utama. I almost always park my car in the same spot, in the new wing on the 4 or 5 floor right above Parkson. That way, I always remember where my car is and those areas are never full on weekdays.

However, when I do go out with Chui Yan, she would always insist I park closest to the lift or the escalator. We'll spend a few more minutes circling around. Me, I just hate circling around for parking.

While I was walking around midvalley, a lady asked me where Boulevard Hotel was. I pointed her in the direction of the hotel. I looked around and there were a lot of foreigners, tourist I assume, walking around shopping.

That got me thinking about shopping holidays. Here, the in thing now is to build a hotel next to a shopping mall. Look at Jalan Bukit Bintang, One Utama, The Curve and Midvalley. They all have hotels in walking distance.

Me, I personally wouldn't choose a shopping hotel for a holiday. It's the type of hotel that would just bleed you dry of every cent you have. You stay there, walk out and it's all sorts of things you can buy.

I walked around for a bit thinking what can I do here that didn't involve me buying anything and I realized there wasn't much. Other than reading free books at MPH, window shopping gives me the urge to buy something.

Looking at all the shops and the displays, I realized that everyone in Midvalley wanted my money, the same goes for all the shopping centres I spend a lot of time in. Heck, even some of their toilets want my money.

At least in One Utama, when I walk over from my office I don't pay for parking as I've already parked at work.

You walk into a shop... let's say MPH and you pick up a book. You turn it over and you see a price tag for the book. My thought process usually goes something like this, "RM146.00 for this book on Photoshop. Hrmm, that's like half of my overtime pay. Was it worth the 2 days of sleepless nights I spend editing? Maybe not".

I relate everything I want to buy to the equivalent amount of time and effort I put in at work. I'm basically exchanging the effort and time I put in at work for the things I buy.

Most people find shopping enjoyable... you pick something of the shelf and pay for it and walk out. Pleasure.

You go to work, spend a few hours slogging over something you'll be doing for a large chunk of your life and get paid. Tedious, not pleasurable if job satisfaction is low.

I think my utopian economy would work like this, you walk into a shop and pick something of the shelf. Flip it over to check the price... RM10.50 for this box of cereal. Walk to the checkout counter, and instead of you handing money to the cashier, the cashier actually pays you RM10.50 to take the box of cereal. Yes, the shops actually pays you take their goods away. It's a backward economy.

So now that you have all these money from consuming goods and don't actually have to spend money to buy anything, what do you do with the money? Well... you can use the money to pay your employer for better job satisfaction.

"Boss, I don't think I like editing this video... here, I'll pay more overtime to the company so I don't have to do this."

Okay, there's obviously many flaws with this backward economy. It's an utopian economy that's worst than communism but wouldn't it be more fun that way? Imagine all the sales sign you see in the shops saying %50 discount. If the price tag is RM10, they actually pay you RM15 to take away their goods. You'll be grumbling to yourself how you spend 30 minutes to find parking just so you have to come to take over their goods. Shopping actually becomes a chore instead of something pleasurable.

One would actually find work pleasurable because you're spending money there to work. All the money you've collected from shopping goes to your company/employer/customer.

Now if I was only the ruler of some island nation I could try this backward economy on.

economy,shopping,parking

It seems the in words for 2007 in the US were the words Subprime and also googleganger. Subprime was from the Subprime loan crisis, while googleganger is when you search google for your own name and find someone else with the exact same name as you. Funny, at least my chinese name is pretty unique... so far out of the 3 parts of my name, only 2 words have matched. Never an exact match for my name on google.

Today has been a long day. I had to lug all my equipment to work for an impromtu interview with Prof Dato Khoo Khay Khim at University of Malaya. Good thing I was using the company transport instead of my own car, the traffic was kind of moving slowly today. Lucky the driver knew where his office was in UM, it was a maze in there.

While I was waiting for the prof, I was looking around the history department and I realized their architecture reminded me of Bukit Aman. They had blue window frames and the buildings are just so... square. Typical JKR approved designed from the 60's I suppose.

If you look at most of the government offices that were designed in that era, they all look drab. Functional designs that were more economical than stylish. The one hour I was standing around in the building and I already felt depressed slightly. It had all the slow lethargic government feel to it. I had a feeling the very buildings that were designed by the government oozes that type of chi.

Okay, I admit... my own alma matter wasn't the epitome of academic architectural designs either. Most of the buildings in my campus was designed in the 70's I think. They too had the same drab feeling.

Anyway, while looking out the window. I saw one of their local students climbing around.

The place was just full of monkeys hoping around in the trees outside. The one good thing about the UM campus I could see was that at least it was quite green. There were a lot of trees around.

Anyway, later in the afternoon I had to attend a company mandated Information Security briefing. I could tell from the memo they left on my desk it was already going to be a sleep inducing briefing. At least it was for my whole department so I had my other colleagues to accompany me.

Basically, it was a briefing about internet use. It's pretty simple, no use of the office internet for personal use. The lady who was giving the briefing had an interesting accent. Everyone was trying to figure out where she was from. After the coffee break, I just asked her out loud since everyone was too shy to ask. She said she was from Bulgaria. Ah, no wonder. My first guess was India. She had that Aryan look.

They even have a policy about blogging. Quite interesting. Looks like I won't be blogging from the office anymore... unless I use my handphone.

Influences

While I was in college, I also considered other career choices. I took classes in psychology as I thought being a psychologist would be cool. Understanding the human mind to me was one of secrets I always wanted to know.

 

However, I later changed my mine after a few psychology classes. Not that I didn't enjoy the classes... I did, I loved studying psychology. I changed my mine because I realized if I when any further I probably wouldn't put my knowledge to any good use. I would most probably use it to manipulate people instead.

 

So I ended up sticking to my plan to study broadcasting instead. I still use it to manipulate people... to a lesser extend that is.

 

As a gatekeeper, I have some limited powers in influencing how people make their choices. According to my professor, the media doesn't make the choices for people, it only gives then an option. For instance, if you saw an advertisement for a new fastfood joint, you now have an option to eat there. No one is forcing you to eat there. You have just been 'influenced' to eat there.

 

So why do a lot of people decide to eat at the fastfood restaurant then? Well... when you're hungry, your brain recalls that advertisement you saw. It's brand recognition at play.

 

In my work, I try to subtly do the same thing too. I offer people alternative choices that I deem would be better for them. I can't really gauge what I do is effective or not. However, judging from some of the personal comments I have received I did manage to make some changes. One mother told me she continued breastfeeding because of an episode on breastfeeding I did. That made me felt happy.

 

 

 

career choices,psychology,brand recognition

Last year, I bought two original software. One was the Windows Vista Business Edition and Norton Antivirus 2007. I figure since I was building a new desktop, I might as well start out with original software after hearing all the hype about vista.

I installed Vista and I discovered most of the old softwares didn't work. My pirated version of Norton didn't work on Vista. So I had make my way back to Digital Mall and purchase an original version of Norton Antivirus 2007. I stopped using Vista for the moment and switched back to Windows XP. I found that a lot of softwares didn't work in Vista very well... so much for buying original.

Anyway, I already had the original version of Norton so I installed it in my Windows XP. After a few months of using it, it worked fine... no problems at all... that is until last month. It started acting up and the auto-protect had errors everytime I start up. I even tried using the online Symantec chat customer service. Some technician (I think the dude was from India) took over control of my PC over the net and started uninstalling the antivirus, he asked me to pop in the original CD and re-install. After all that, it still had the same errors.

Now I've uninstalled the anti-virus. I still have about 75 days left in the activation. I might just change to a pirated version if the next reinstall doesn't work. Stupid piece of shit norton antivirus.

Dear Dr.,

I am sad to see you go like that. Though we've only met once, you were a good man. Thank you for your service to the nation. You were very brave for coming out.

Welcome 2008!

New Year's Eve,One Utama,Fireworks

It has been a good year in 2007. The last few days were a little hectic. I was helping out Steven and Melissa's wedding video. I haven't finished editing that even.

 

The wedding was fun, I got to meet a few old classmates from high school and made some new friends. Although... my shoulder and arms was sore from holding the camera and battery packs for the lights the whole day.

 

I think it's about time I invest in that camera body harness. It looks silly but better to look silly than being sore all over.

 

I just got back from One Utama, I was there with Chui Yan and her family to watch the fireworks. The pass few years what we normally do is we park outside One Utama and watch from the side of the road. This year, we drove up to the old wing's rooftop parking to watch. There were quite a few people when we got there at 11:45PM. Everyone had already staked out a place. It was like a large drive-in movie theatre.

 

The fireworks were really loud. at about 11:55PM, somewhere from the direction of Shah Alam fireworks when of. Not sure where it was but my guess would be Shah Alam firing of 5 minutes too early.

 

Next, it was One Utama's fireworks. It was right above us and it was really loud. Sounded like cannon shells exploding over us. I don't think I've ever seen fireworks exploding so close before. I was actually kind of worried the flames would fall on us. I could feel some pieces of the burned remains falling on my hands.

 

So what's there to look forward too in 2008? Well, normally I just look forward for movies... however 2008 is going to be special for me. Two dates for two venues have been picked. August and September would go down in my personal diary from this year onwards as a special date.

 

Here's to a great year ahead with limitless possibilities!

 

One Utama new year's eve fireworks for 2008