I am moving to a new house this coming weekend.
One of the problems… no house phone is available yet. Telekom told us that we will have to wait until 50% occupancy at the area before they install the phone line; or we can choose to pay for the installation fees to get the service.
Ok, we can still survive without a fix phone line; we are using mobile phones mostly… but it is quite a headache for not able to access the internet at my new house. It’s particularly disastrous for a person like me who works online for a living.
I am not sure how the telecommunication in other countries works… I felt that a phone line is a basic infrastructure these days. It is ridiculous that the service provider has to think twice before providing a line at a new housing area… we might expect these situation 50 years ago, but not in the 21st century.
Considering the monopoly of Telekom in Malaysia… we could do nothing much besides waiting. There goes our government’s ambition to increase the broadband penetration in Malaysia… we don’t even have a fix line in Kuala Lumpur. Sh!t.
Update - got our phone line in Dec 07 despite having less than 50% occupancy; thank goodness that logic prevails.
Went to MATTA Fair at PWTC on Friday (Sept 7, 2007) to book tickets for our Hong Kong trip in October… crowded as expected.
Hadn’t been to this travel fair since late 2005. One thing special about this latest event was the participation of some official tourism board, from Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and Macau etc.
I was hoping that those official boards could provide me more info about their country (Korea in particular), such as backpackers information, but their info was quite limited to organized tour packages.
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Went to Putrajaya last Wednesday (August 22, 2007) with KC to see the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition (MIFC). Australia was the team in action.
I am quite amazed by the number of crowds; set aside the traffic jams, this could be one of the most successful tourism events in Malaysia for 2007.
It’s tough to get a decent photo of the fireworks; I preferred to record in videos instead… but then, it’s tough to get a decent video as well…
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My mum’s Indonesian maid has ran away this morning after working for close to 3 months. My mum is quite disappointed (or angry perhaps) because she has treated the maid quite well and didn’t expect the maid to run away.
Some friends and relatives have pre-warned us that Indonesian maids tend to run away after working for around 3 months… sounds like a taboo.
I don’t quite understand the logic yet, but I was told that some Malaysian maid hiring agencies are encouraging the maids to do so because the agencies could profit from it… I guess it was the reason why some of the agencies were blacklisted by the Malaysian authorities a couple of months ago.
It took a full afternoon for my sister-in-law (my mum is staying with my brother) to lodge a police report and settling the issue with the maid agency… she would have to pay around RM1000 (~USD300) to get another maid from the same agency. Actually it might not be a good idea to get a maid from the same resource again… but hiring a maid from different company would mean extra costs.
I hope that my mum’s (former) maid was fully aware of what she was doing and not cheated by people who intend to use her for illegal activities, like prostitutions etc. Despite the havoc she caused, I don’t wish to see her being a victim of some illegal syndicates.
No thanks for all the troubles though.
Just came back from the Asian Cup match which Malaysia was humiliated 1-5 by China.
I am not sure why I went to the match; I am not that much a soccer fan actually. The last time I went for a live match was more than a decade ago, in Malaysian Cup final which was won by Perak…
I guess some part of patriotism in me had urged me to go for the game, not just to support the national team, but to help filling the huge stadium as well.
I am glad that I went for the game though; it was quite an experience. Here are some photos - before, during and after the match at National Stadium, Bukit Jalil…
The ticket
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Went to Zoo Negara on June 2, 2007.
It was our king’s birthday and a public holiday; my sister (with hubby and kids) from Prai took the chance to visit us in Kuala Lumpur. Where else could be better to bring a bunch of kids for family outing besides the zoo?
I can’t remember when my prior trip to Zoo Negara was; it must be more than a decade ago. I was surprised that the zoo was in good condition… I always thought that our national zoo was poorly managed. It’s probably still far from being world class, but it’s good enough to provide a decent experience for visitors.
Welcome to Zoo Negara
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Kuala Lumpur International Motorshow (KLIMS 06) in May 2006 at PWTC. The main attraction that got me to the auto show was the ASIMO robot from Honda… that alone was worth the visit.
Most people who went for the show were not looking for the cars, but the showgirls. The girls looked great indeed, but I was expecting more exotic cars… most of the cars were common models that we could find in normal show rooms.
Still, it was a cool event; they should organize it annually instead of every 3 years.
Ferrari Formula 1 racing car
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