Hiking at Bukit Tabur, Taman Melawati (18 May 2008)

My friend introduced me to a good hiking destination - Bukit Tabur, which is located at Taman Melawati, nearby the Zoo Negara. From the photos he shown me, this Bukit Tabur has a very beatiful and scenic view of KL city and large lake view, as well as the Klang Dam view. Being attracted by it, Boon & I decided to go for this adventure. We came across this website for information about Bukit Tabur: http://munkeatho.multiply.com/journal/item/7 Thanks for the author for giving us such informative and helpful guides to get to the destination easily. We spent about 4 hours to climb up and down from Bukit Tabur. We did not reach the peak of Bukit Tabur as the sky started to look darker. We decided to go back to the starting point before raining. Yet, we felt that it was worth for this adventure hiking as we abled to catch the sunrise view and clear weather for photography.

Tanjung Harapan, Klang (17 May 2008)

Boon was planning to take photograph on fishing village. The ideal place in his mind is Klang. So we drove from home to Klang about 4pm to look for any fish village for photographing. As we were not familiar with Klang area, so we headed toward Port Klang. We saw a sign board named "Medan Selera Ikan Bakar" and was thinking if it's nearby the fish village. Then we came to this place known as Tanjung Harapan which is next to Northport. We saw a lot of cars and people there. So we parked our car at the roadside and went down from the car to see if there is any beautiful scenery. Wow! What a beautiful sunset view here! It was almost 7pm and we could catch up a breathtaking sunset view at this Tanjung Harapan. Boon quickly took out his gadgets to start shooting on this beautiful scenery. It was a windy place for relaxation although there was too many crows making noise. I saw a lot of families were there and most of them went to the "Medan Selera Ikan Bakar" for dinner. The restaurant was crowded with people. Although our target was not the sunset view but fish village, we would still happy with our discovery this time. This discovery was open my eyes as it was my first time to see large cargo ships at the port.

Working Trip to USA (30 March - 14 Apr 2008)

It was quite a long time didn't have a chance to travel oversea for so far. I still remembered the last time I had a long flight to Accra, Ghana (stayed there for 2 months) during work in my first company, Infopro. Even it was quite a long time ago (more than 3year already); I still remembered the journey as that's the first flight in my life some more had to travel so far alone. The flight departure at midnight, 2 or 3am, I took the LRT and exchanged KLIA Express at KL Central and reached to KLIA by 12am... Opps… this post should be about US trip perhaps I should have another post for Ghana, perhaps... Anyway, it was a good experience to flight and stay in Accra... OK... Why do I have such a good chance to US? Thanks to my company, Wappsol Solutions, which work exclusively for a US company, SchoolDude.com, located in Raleigh, North Carolina, a company that providing web services and major market on Schools and colleges. 7 colleagues were invited to attend their Annual Big Event, DudeU Event (where conferences, seminars and lab training and etc activities will be organized by SchoolDude just for their value clients http://schooldude.typepad.com/sdu/ ) in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We going to have opportunity to meet & deal the clients. And, also work together with the US team colleagues as well. The trip was about 2 weeks. At first, heard that only 5 persons were invited to US, after some times 2 more are invited for the trip due to some changed, at the end, I was invited also, I felt so surprised since I just joined this company for few months at the time they invite… Anyway, I just accepted the offer as I understand that US visa is not easy to get, at least for a normal worker, unless you have very strong financial profile to support you else the immigrant might think you intend to illegally working or even illegally immigrate to US. I still remember the time I was interviewed by the immigrant and be treated me so due to the answer and information given by my previous colleagues not tally with me since we have no proper communicated before interview. I remember he said “Our job is to make sure no one illegally immigrate or working in US. You know, everyday there are so many people trying their luck to get the visa to go US, my job is to catch those people…” by the time he said so, he looked at the people sitting behind me, even not very loud but his voice was clear enough to be listened by them. I understood, that is fact, they are many Malaysian trying to work illegally in other country even immigrated… but, I never thought of that at the point even now (eee… not so sure for future…) Can’t he just go and check or tell me that if my document not enough to support or to convince? That’s should their jobs, right? Anyway, some immigrant are just nice, some colleagues just passed the interview so easy. I’m always the unlucky one… hahahaha…. Most of my colleagues already set some expectation to have a crazy shopping there since the electronic gadget (iPod) and branded product such as Nike, Levi’s and etc are very cheap there compare to Malaysia. I didn’t set any expectation for the trip, just wonder took the chance to explore myself. Ya, it was a good experience also. I did explore something. People there are friendly and nice and the state (everywhere I been) also very clean not like Malaysia, felt so shame, people look educated and polite but like to little everywhere and no manner and selfish especially on the road. I believe some of the reasons are due to the “clever” governor & “strict” officers... Malaysia will be better if everyone really play their role and responsible to himself, family, friends and country. Do you love Malaysia? What contribution have you done to your country? I might have no contribution to the country for now but at least I trying to not spoilt our country… If you are not going to love your country yourself, who will going to?? Ooo.. out of topic again… 7 of us were separated into 2 groups, first group (4 persons) will be departure on Friday whereas the second group (3 persons) will take the flight on Sunday, I was in the Second group. My flight was from KLIA to Los Angela and will transit at TaoYuan (Taipei, Taiwan), then take another flight to Atlanta then only to Raleigh. The total flight time is about 21+ hours (whole journey about 30+ hours). It was long and boring in flight since there were only 3 things u can do: sleep, eat and watch movies… Lucky, there were some transits in between where we can have some walk on the airport and take a look around the airport and the shops there as well. Not much things we can see in the airport during the flight to US since most of the time we transit is either midnight or in early morning most of the shops were not opened. Among the airport that we been, I think Atlanta Airport are more impressed me since it is not large but huge and the airport look new. There are few concourse (A-D and T http://www.atlanta-airport.com/Default.asp?url=sublevels/terminal/termmap.htm ), each of the concourse look like a long and big corridor, you can see plenty shops a long the concourse. There is a big corridor connected each other at the middle of the concourses and underground there is a train for you to transit from 1 concourse to another. Train there are really punctual, in each station you can see a display board showing the time of train that arriving, it is count in second, by the time you see 0 second the train door will just open. This is amazing, just wonder why Malaysia Public transport so lousy and many terrible buses still on the road. If Malaysia public transport can be improved until this level and the network is broad enough, I believe there will no JAM in KL. No one willing to JAM few hours in traffic everyday somehow we have to. Those “governors” will never understand since they have traffic police open the way for them… We reached Raleigh on Monday early morning, our Department Head, Lynn, already waiting there before we reached. After collected our luggage, she drove us to the Hotel and let us to have some break and shower. During the noon, we went to the SchoolDude office to meet the 1st group ppl and then we went to a restaurant for lunch. Can’t recall what restaurant name, but it is different from what expectation since most the restaurant I knew from movie are either fastfood or set by set but here the foods were served like our mixed rice in Malaysia, where various foods are placing on a long counter and there were some staffs serving you, you just have to pick then they will pour for you and all the soft drink & sweet tea were refillable. Time by time, the waitress will walk around and refill for you once they saw your glass almost empty. One culture you should aware when you in US, there is no service tax charged in your bill but you should pay the service tips (10% average service and 15% for excellent service). This not only apply to restaurants (except fast food restaurant since you need to tidy up table and throw the paper bags yourself, I like this culture hope Malaysia can imply it) but every servicing fields, even cab, we took a cab to airport at the last day we going back, the driver asking for 15% services tax even he didn’t serve us, we picking/loading the luggage ourselves. I not really agreed with this but we paid for it at the end not because this is their culture but also to not shame Malaysian face. We are not stingy but just wonder don’t this should be their job scope? In Malaysia, there is a service tax charge apply and it is fixed not based on the level of services you provide, and i think the reason to have this tax is to cover the cost for operation or to pay the workers. I admit that the way giving tips can improve the quality of services of the servant. Perhaps I’m wrong, look back to Malaysia waiters or promoter, it is hard to have a good service even just a smiling face also hard to see, especially government department not only muka masam and some will scold you. Just wonder Japanese's culture might be better… After lunch, we went back to the office and start work. SchoolDude’s Office is big and great, there are few pantries, meeting rooms, conference rooms and printing area with full of equipment such as microwave, coffee machine, freezer, etc… the more nice thing is everyone have their own room… no wonder awarded with one of “The Best Place to work”. The weather here was cold but not too cold. Just like at Genting Highland or a bit colder some times. The environment and scene here are nice, plenty of trees (even some trees are different colors) and flowers. Traffics here are good even during working hour or after working hour. Not like in Malaysia, hazes and jam, jam, jam… But, the area is lack of public transport, there is no LRT or not much busses or even cabs you can see on the road (most are highway). You can see most of people here driving their own and most mini van, MPV, 4 wheels drive kind of big cars… A bit disappointed since I can’t travel my own, it is unlikely to walk out myself since out of the Hotel area, there was highway which need to walk for 15 minutes then able to see few shops, and you won’t see much tall shopping complex like Time Square or Mid Valley. I would say here more like a rural life style… emmm something like Langkawi, but of course the road, infrastructure and the building including the houses are much much better than those Langkawi kampung rumah. One thing you will notice that almost every house have their own yard and there is no gate/wall surrounding, there are peace and safe where in Malaysia, even a small flat also might need to have few stainless steel door/windows gate and with few locks to keep your property and your family to be safe. We are just hopeless with our government and policemen. There are some activities planned by US team just for us, we had some team lunches and diners together with different departments, play bowling, shopping & etc... Unfortunately, I miss out most of activities since my position is different from them (they all are PM which doing coding and I’m IT Admin doing Support). I joined Meech, John and some CSC (Customer Services Centre) team member down to South Carolina at the morning for loading the equipment and setup for the DudeU. It is about 3+ hours to reach Myrtle Beach from Raleigh office. About noon time, we reach in Myrtle Beach ( I was told that Myrtle Beach are well-known in golf course training, ya, I saw lot golf court there), some how the track still not yet reach, hence we had lunch at a fastfood restaurant, Bojanglos, you can see many different fastfood restaurant everywhere, most I saw will be Burger’s King, Wendy’s and Bojanglo… After the lunch, they went to wal-mart for some drinks and stuffs for the next few days in the hotel room. After that we went back to hotel (Kingston Plantation - www.kingstonplantation.com ), We check-in the room and put our staffs into our own room. The hotel is look like a village resort with different kind of room styles/themes. It is really nice place to have vacation the room there are full with facilities, not only the spoon & fork or kettle but even freezer, washing machine, dryer machine, plate washing machine & DVD player also, but only some rooms have wireless internet access. We took about few hours to unload the equipments and setup the demo servers in the training lab, around 7pm, we decided to go for diner, and they decided to have diner at a restaurant called Hooters ( http://www.hooters.com/), the environment of the restaurant is not bad and there are only waitress with sexy uniform (single with short pant) . They told me that the selling point. I and 2 colleagues had ordered 50 pieces of spicy wings), to me it was not that spicy and noticed that in there, spicy is not that spicy like the samba in Malaysia, spicy with some sweet, but their spicy is little spicy with sour. And seldom see chilli sauce in restaurant there also but tomato sauce. Next day, I woke up early at 7am and went to the training Lab to continue the setup. At night, we went to a western food restaurant called T-Bonz, it is a nice place also and the food there is nice and not that expensive... too bad that I didn’t take any photo there. During the DudeU event I was standby at the IT booth at the corner of the Training Lab, time by time, I stand up on the chair and take our my camera to practice some shooting since this will be a first time shooting for and event. Try to catch the best moment if possible. Some how, my view have just limited since there is a big hall a bit far from my area (I had to use zoom lens to ) and the viewable angle is limited, my skill was not so well and have to standing on a chair which not so stable to stand on, hence only able to took few “ok” photos. During the days in Myrtle Beach, we have some Laser Tag, and visit to Ripley’s Aquarium. I had sacrificed a diner event to grasp a chance to walk around the area and shopping. I went out from 5+pm and went back to the hotel room around 11+pm. I bought pair of shoes for myself and girlfriend and some shirts for my sisters and sister-in-law. The shoes there are really cheap compare to Malaysia, USD20+ can get a pair of Adidas/Nike shoes. After the event, we back to Raleigh and work as normal. We went to a place called Downtown to have lunch, that place look like KL city (of course is clean than KL 10000X ) where you can see lot of high building surround (that’s the place I wonder to at least I can walk alone myself), some how we didn’t have chance to walk around since during lunch hour. I only able to take some photos there and after lunch back to work again. At the last day work in US, I was joined my colleague, Andrew, to a Fitness Centre for Basketball game during the lunch time (skip my lunch again) Cool… there are 2 indoor full basketball courts and with few hundred of basketballs there ready for use. O no, in Malaysia, the larger fitness center (California) that we joined, there is only a half basketball court (smaller than a standard basketball court), not only outdoor but build outside the building and some more under the staircase and air-con must be very careful when playing not only beware of the staircase but also beware of the ball fall down to the highway (since just few steps distance and not gate cover) hai…. kns… Ya, it is nice game playing with them even I was not performing on that day. Thanks to Andrew! On the last day noon time, we look so busy at the hotel lobby while waiting for someone to pick us to airport, 3 of us look so busy, busy taking the photos before we left. Hahaha….. We wait till no mood to take photos (after few hours shooting), we are been forgotten, forgotten that we (3 of us) are still in Raleigh. It is ok for us, we felt so guilty to her also as she took all of us travel to work, hotel, shopping and diner and many places also during the whole 2 weeks. At the end, we called a cab to take us to airport and we spent sometime in airport to walk around and take photos. Beware, some of the restaurant or place you can’t simply take photos as they might claimed that you offence the copyright of their idea of design. There are some photos took during the airport as well. Enjoys viewing!!!