It’s the first Cultural World Heritage in Malaysia, in addition to the two Nature World Heritage we already have (Kinabalu National Park and Mulu National Park).

While some folks are celebrating the occasion, I wonder how many Malaysians really know what World Heritage is about. Both cities are certainly going to benefit from extra tourism activities, but do mind that World Heritage is not a tourism project, but meant to protect the natural and cultural heritages around the world.

I hope that related bodies will continue their hardwork to keep these two places intact, and congratulations for all the effort to getting the recognition.

The show will be running on August 12/16/20/24/29, with teams from Malaysia, China, Canada and Spain participating. Check out more details on MIFC’s website, and also check out some pics from MIFC 2007.

Malaysian F1 Grand Prix 2008 (Image from MalaysianGP)

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen claimed this 2008 title, which also saw BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica finished on the podium… the first podium for the Petronas sponsored team at the ‘home race’.

The 2008 Malaysian F1 might be the last daytime race in Sepang, as race organisers Sepang International Circuit (SIC) is eager to stage their first ever night race as early as 2009, two years ahead of schedule… another kiasu rivalry against Singapore that are going to run the night race in September 2008.

Malaysian press are rather quiet about this.

It would be a good thing for Malaysia if the plan becomes a reality. It will boost our tourism, offers job opportunities and raise our country’s name internationally.

Malaysia should be a good place for Disneyland to startup; we do have the crowd and Malaysians do like theme parks in general.

I am a bit skeptical on building it in Johor though; I am not really sure how Johor is like in recent years. Perhaps it could be a better place than Klang Valley, but I think building it somewhere near Kuala Lumpur is a better option.

This route is now dominated by Malaysia Airlines and Singapore International Airlines. Singapore’s low-cost carrier Tiger Airways would also reportedly be able to fly the route. [Bernama]

Good news for me at least… I could visit my relatives more often if the ticket price is significantly reduced. MAS, SIA and some bus operators might not be too happy though.

Here are some MIFC fireworks’ photos and links from various bloggers and netizens…

Italian on August 25 (Image courtesy of Kuanchong)

Heart shape firework… that’s cute (Image courtesy of Kiwi-bird)

Italian on August 25 (Image courtesy of KC Leong)

Australian on August 22 (Image courtesy of Englp)

(Image courtesy of Fattien)

More pics from Jason, Weng, David, Kenny, KC Leong, Budiman, Adrian, Alan, Lynn, Lzyan, Michelle, Ah Kwong, Anston, Nabil, Edmund, Idham and Eelynn.

Japanese is next on August 30 (midnight), check the rest of the schedule.

It sounds like a fun event… I am quite surprise that the organizer didn’t try harder to promote the show; perhaps they are focusing on foreign visitors instead. After all, the ticket isn’t cheap (RM38.50- RM181.50).

Amazing fireworks (Image from MIFC)

I don’t think I will want to buy the tickets; but I believe we can see the fireworks from distance… so I will be going to Putrajaya for one of the show. The schedule of the show according to MIFC’s website…

August 18 – Team Malaysia (Opening Ceremony)
August 19 – Team Global
August 22 – Team Australia
August 24 – Team Global
August 25 – Team Italy
August 30 – Team Japan
August 31 – Team Global
September 1 – Team Global
September 2 – Global/Pyrofest Canada (Grand Finale)

Update August 19 – seems like MIFC is doing better than I thought. Bernama reported that 100,000 people were in Putrajaya to see the show.

Government has put high hope for the 30-million project, but it is apparent that the landmark is not as popular as they wished. The operation of the Eye was awarded to a private company MST Ad Suria, which is probably losing big bucks at the moment… but no worries; the government is spending millions of Ringgits to rescue them.

It’s good to do business in Malaysia… you get to know somebody from the government, you will get a project that will make big money… and if the project fails… you will still get the money because government will pay you regardless. You sure win, IF you know the right person and right channel.

We are in Malaysia, you can rest assured that no action will be taken to investigate the ministry and the company involved, and even if there is any investigation… our government will probably order to close the case when the investigation is still in premature stage like what we did in a number of corruption allegations.

The main media will not (dare to) report or follow up on the case as usual… and it will become another tiny dust under the carpet. Welcome to Malaysia.

I have thought of going to the event, and was surprise by the amateurish standard of MIA’s website (the website is completely gone as of Feb 2, 2008) when I first visited it a couple of weeks ago. I have a bad feeling that the show is not going to meet its expectation and have given up my thought of visiting the show… but seems like the situation is worse than what I anticipated.

I pity those foreigners that have make the arrangement to visit Malaysia and the event at this period… hope that they are not too disappointed and can still find something interesting in Kuala Lumpur without the show.

Publicity

I have read an article from a foreign journalist about his (I assumed) experience in KL… he mentioned that he saw lots of billboards everywhere in the city, but saw nothing about the Asian Cup; he had a feeling that he was at the wrong city for the games… I guess some Malaysians shared the same sentiment too, I know I do.

I can’t recall the organizer taking aggressive methods in pulling the crowd and selling the tickets, or to promote the event. I felt that the Malaysian organizers are taking the event too lightly… for goodness sake, it is one of the largest sporting event in Asia, the world (or at least lots of Asians) are watching the competition; it is a good chance to show how good we are in hosting a major sporting event, or how bad instead.

The Crowd

I think there was around 30,000 people in the stadium watching the game; not really a proud figure (couldn’t fill half of the stadium), but still better than what I expected.

Most of the crowd were well behaved, kudos for that… there were some crooks who threw water bottles to the field though, luckily no one was hurt.

One thing that I think Malaysians need to learn is to respect other’s national anthem. It’s fine to jeer, boo or even curse the opponent during the match… but when a national anthem is played, we should at least have the courtesy to keep quiet.

The Match

Malaysia is thrashed, as expected. I was hoping that they could keep the deficit to 2 goals, but our national team ended losing 1-5 instead. I am not too disappointed though… I kinda accepted the fact that Malaysian football is in a pathetic stage in recent years.

Most of the other fans didn’t share my thinking obviously… there was a point that some Malaysian supporters chanted “China, China” and cheered for the opposition instead. You could imagine how frustrated they were with our players to push them into supporting the opposition.

Luckily we managed to get a consolation goal, the crowd celebrated as if we won the match… Malaysians are easily pleased aren’t we?

[Visit my personal blog to see some photos (14 images) of the event and other extras]

The AFC Asian Cup 2007 has kicked off! This is probably the first ever major sporting event around the world to be co-hosted by 4 countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam)… the first match in Malaysia will be held on Tuesday (July 10) at Bukit Jalil Stadium, with Malaysia playing against China.

I felt that the publicity for the event is quite poor in Malaysia; I don’t see many banners around the city, and I don’t see many advertisements about the tournament on TV or newspapers. Hopefully the stadium won’t be too empty during the matches.

Below is the schedule of the matches (in Malaysia)…

July 10 (2035) – Malaysia vs China (Bukit Jalil)
July 11 (1820) – Iran vs Uzbekistan (Bukit Jalil)
July 14 (1820) – Malaysia vs Uzbekistan (Bukit Jalil)
July 15 (1820) – China vs Iran (Bukit Jalil)
July 18 (2035) – Malaysia vs Iran (Bukit Jalil)
July 18 (2035) – China vs Uzbekistan (Shah Alam)

July 22 (1820) – Quarter final (Bukit Jalil)
July 25 (1820) – Semi final (Bukit Jalil)

Try going for a game a two if possible and show some support for our team and to show our hospitality as a host for the game.