Trip to Thailand - Day 1

Went to visit Thailand last weekend. Organized by my dear Anis. It was 5 of us, Anis, Marco (Anis' friend from Italy), Fahizam & Erman. The following are the travel blog of the visit

Departed from LCCT on Air Asia flight to Krabi. Actually it was my first time going overseas, well not counting Singapore which I visited looooonnnnggg time ago, when I was still a small boy. So obviously, I was a bit excited and nervous at the same time. My first time going to a foreign place.

The flight was delayed for about 30 mins but after just about an hour we were already in Krabi! So excited. Immigration was a bit slow, since it was just a small airport, but we all got through without any hassle. The only thing I regretted was not putting the bag covers on, as a result I lost a few small items which were placed in the bag side pockets. Oh well.

Right at the exit, already tour agents were calling us promoting their tour packages. After a short survey, our tour organizer quickly sorted out transport to Krabi jetty. We took a 1/2 hour bus ride and then we were dropped off to wait for connecting transport to the jetty. We were on our way to Phi Phi Island!

The boat ride was smooth and the sea was calm. In fact we just stayed on top of the boat, outside to enjoy the scenery and cool wind in our faces. I just wished it went a bit faster. After 2 hours, we reached the ever famous island. To our surprise, there were tour agent booths right at the jetty. All were promoting accomodation package on the island. Apparently there are tons of resorts and chalets strewn all over Phi Phi Island! Maybe like more than 30, really. The tour agent booth save our time and effort from walking from one place to another. They all have pictures on the wall of all the resorts available and we just need to choose which one that suited our budget. We decided on a budget chalet, Phi Phi Don Chukit Resort, facing the main beach with a superb sea view. We paid at the tour agent booth and they quickly arranged for people to transport our bags in wheel carts to the resort, which was about 10 minutes away on foot. No cars on Phi Phi Island, only on two wheels.

Later at night, had seafood dinner, since that's about all that we can have. Even though we were told the island is a Muslim island, we still had some doubt on the food so we were sticking to seafood. After dinner we just spent some time walking along the main 'road'. Seeing the nightlife on the island. There were quite a number of bars, dive shops and souvenir shops along the walkway. Then we all retreated back to our chalet to rest.

Taxi to LCCT - RM65 (for 3 of us)
Bus transfer and ferry - THB400
Tit-bits - THB70
Accomodation - THB700 (twin sharing)
Dinner - THB420
Toiletteries - THB220

Map of Phi Phi Island

Where else can you find this?

It says, 'All items are free'!!!

This is at SAS training center, plaza sentral. Been there few times for training these past few weeks. And of course, the machine will be the center of attraction at every tea break we had hehehe

Search di Awan Biru @ Bukit Kiara

Was offered free ticket to the above concert. Since I have never attended a paid concert, decided to go. There was way too many people, especially worrying with H1N1 spreading fast. But some of them are quite young, which I would think are not really from the 80's 'rock kapak' generation. Quite surprised actually.

The concert started an hour late. Search themselves were caught in traffic to the venue. Lucky to the fans who were struggling to get in. Traffic and crowd management was very bad. Had to literally squeeze to get through the entrance. A lot of people were complaining about the congestion.

And in the first song itself, there was a 5 minutes blackout on stage. Preparation seems to be lacking. In fact, it was the bad sound system that was the highlight for the rest of the night. The guitars were not balanced. Bass guitar overpowered everything. And the guitars come and go as it wish.

Amy was just being him. OK, but not outstanding, not at his age now, but clearly still have a lot of influence with the audience. Half way through the concert, Kid joined the stage. So at one point, they tried to do G3-like guitar solo duel, but that immediately showed their lack of skills and quickly, they ran out of ideas and became boring shred show.

They seemed to focus more on the younger generation and play their relativly newer songs more. But it was obvious it's the older generation that is their bigger fans at the concert. Admittedly, I only knew like 1/3 of the songs played that night. But when the older songs were played like Isabella, Fantasia Bulan Madu, Gadisku, etc.. more people sang along, the screams were louder and the crowd responded better. Especially during their last song, Pawana.

In all, I would only give 5/10 for the concert. Due to the technical glitches and the songs selection. If not because I met another friend there, I would have left early that night. But then, I admit, I'm not really a die-hard Search fan hehehe

Manager interview

I applied for a manager post about a month back or so. And was shortlisted and called up for the interview, 2 weeks ago. Until now, I haven't got the result yet. But if you ask me, I was not fully satisfied. After the interview I think I could've went through it better.

But at the same time, it also made me realise of some shortfall of the system. Now I understand why there's quite a number of managers that I know of, but in my opinion (and others opinion) that they don't deserve to be one. Because it depends a lot on how you talk and how witty you are. People like me who are naturally not so witty and always need some time to think to make sure of a correct answer will be at a disadvantage. Even though you may actually be very good.

But the system as it is, I think I have devised a few plans for my next interview if I will ever go through one again.

1. Be specific. Identify something specific that I have done and make sure it's highlighted. Should be able to relate the details as well. Telling them that I do a lot of things (simply because I am) without the details will not impress them. So it's better to do just a bit, but make sure I remember it and highlight every details

2. Sensationalize. Just like newspapers. It has been at many instances that people rave about something I did, but for me it's just another task I completed, in a day at work. So I have to learn to identify and 'market' these

3. Complicate simple things. So when being asked, 'How do you solve problems?'. Rather than just say, 'I prefer to discuss in team to solve problem & escalate to higher level for advise & direction' which takes more or less 10 seconds to answer, I should say 'I would analyze the problem. Try to ascertain if the probolem is within my and my team's capabilities and skillset. If yes, work on options to solve it and finally employ the best options. If not, try to obtain assistance from people external of the team. While if still unresolved, to consult higher management for advise and direction on the situation'. That would sound much more impressive! But then, sounding impressive is the name of the game

4. Be compulsive. When they ask, quickly answer with something. Don't pause to think, they'll make faces while I'm doing that.


Hopefully, I can keep all those in mind the next time I'm attending an interview hehehe

Penang High Chapparal

IMHO, this is human greed at the finest.

Think of the following situation, I took a pair of shoes from a friend. The friend knew it, but keep silent on the notion to 'lend it out'. But now, the friend is asking back for the shoe and I'm asking him to buy me a replacement shoe of my choice for the return of the shoe I took? Silly, ain't it? But that's exactly it.

I have a feeling that Kg Buah Pala is a squatter village i.e. setinggan. And today, a government document has been declassified. My feeling was right. Kg Buah Pala is indeed a squatter village. So in a way, they are residing on land NOT belonging to them, it belongs to the state government. But they are demanding the govt to pay for them to move out! Why? Because they've been there a long time.

The document also revealed that these people are offered a RM75k terrace house for just RM1. U read it right, RM1 only, as exchange for them to vacate the land. Not just that, RM1k for moving-out costs and RM750 for renting another house for 36 months! But the villagers are asking for replacement land... even when the current land is NOT even theirs in the first place.

So now, refer back to the friend's shoe example above. Greedy.

Here's the declassified document: Click here

Can't believe it

these are the phones that I've gone though since 2000 till now

1st phone, motorola v2088 with interchangeable front bezel and keypad illumination. i have like 4-5 bezels which i always changed based on mood and situation
ericsson T28. thinnest phone on the market at that time. it's selling point

ericsson T39 after lost the above. chose it since at the time like the flip phone

1st nokia phone, nokia 6510. very small phone. the shortest phone in the market at the time probably

then, nokia 6610 after i dropped the above from the 1st floor of my house all the way down the stairs
after somewhile, back to a basic phone, nokia 2600
then changed brand to motorola, L7 SLVR. the phone that started the ultra slim phone trend. but smallish screen
afer the keypad died on me, changed to nokia 6300. very solid construction. aluminium parts. at one time, at least 3 people on my office floor used this, and a few others around me using it
then changed to nokia 5610
actually bought this twice after the 1st one met an accident and broke beyond repair. then the second one was recently stolen when my car was broken in

now i reverted back to this, nokia 6300

actually was thinking of buying the nokia 5610 again, it really does fit my requirements, very good camera, nice form factor, good looking and not that expensive. but no way i'm gonna buy the same phone 3 times!

until now i still cap myself to below RM1000 for a phone. i really admire people who keep on changing their RM1k+ phones. does it really worth that RM1k? or is it just to be the first kid on the block? and i think there's no way i'm gonna splurge more than RM2k on a phone e.g. N9x series, etc.. etc.. in the end of the day, it's just used to make calls and SMS

well to everyone to their own i guess

Desperate times, require desperate measures...

bought yesterday...
Horley's Ripped Factors. This is a protein formulation enhanced with fat burners. Well, as you might guess, one of it's purpose is to lose weight! Protein is to assist body recovery after an excercise session and this formulation is special that it also contains fat burner. So it's kinda 2-in1.

I need both. Need someting to help me recover quickly after all my sports activities. Feeling a bit lethargic and lazy lately. And my weight is not going down as quickly as planned, so decided on this.

Not cheap though. A 1.32kg tumbler is good enough for only 40 servings @ about RM8 per servings! It better do work! Luckily I can claim this from my benefits under supplements category hehehe

So at least, next time if this do work and someone ask me how do I lose weight, I have that 'secret potion' that people always expect me to tell them hehehe