Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Training Week 3 : Alone

It was quite a pretty lonely week for me during the first couple of days as Pei Chin was on leave and I was the only trainee around. Ah Hew was also busy and I did not see him much. I ended up being alone most of the time, eating alone, doing my work alone with minimal conversation to the people around me. Loneliness had crept within me. It was not a big problem for me as I have done things on my own on a number of occasions. However, you do feel lonely especially when you are in the midst of work and at times boredom overwhelm you that you wish you had someone beside you to talk just to give you that extra motivation to do one's work.
The atmosphere in the office was pretty tense this week. There were numerous meetings going on from cubicle to cubicle. I could feel the stress in the air through loud interaction between collegues and also over the phone. It was pretty interesting to sit on my side of the cubicle and eavesdrop on others on how the dealt their peers and also subordinates over the phones. Mr. Yap was the loudest and every word that was spoken could be hear very clearly. The famous title that he normally used to address people over the other end of the line was "Chief". I wonder what does that entails.

A lot of people were very busy this week as many were discussing on various issues namely materials specification, organising the jobs for their people and planning measures to take to curb a problem from happening. Meetings were at his peak this week. It was an a tense and active enviroment. I finally found out the nature of such activeness when Mathhew came over on Friday to check up on me. It had been a busy week for him and many others. This was because a number of their products were rejected by their customers and had to be analyse to determine the problems and cause of such measure to be taken. They had to recall the products which had been produced for that particular date and time. There was no conclusion at that moment as they could not determined the real problem as the line were checked to be in good condition. I asked Matthew what the problem was and he mentioned that it could be due to various reasons that I was not familiar of. It was interesting to see the office come alive when such an emergency like that happened instead of the routine of seeing the engineers having quite a relaxing time sitting infront of their computers analysing data and completing documentation.

I had an oppurtunity to meet one of the six big names at PSS. This guys are the ones who report the progress of their divisions to the General Manager, Mr. Theo directly. I was not aware of his status and looks when he came over one afternoon and sat with me, Pei Chin and ....... for lunch. He seem like a very ordinary guy who was really fair like a Hongki. We began to have a conversation and introduced ourselves. His name was Mr. LT Chan.I asked him his nature of work here and was surprised to know that he was the Engineering Department Head and was my supervisor, Mr Soo's boss. He seem to strike out as a a very friendly and concern person. He asked me of my stay here and I told him that I am currently programming the Yield Tracking System which is something not really relevant to my field considering that I am going to be an engineer. However, I mentioned to him that I planned to finish my program as soon as possible and hope to venture into a more hands on enviroment.

He said that many people at PSS change division quite frequently and it depends on one's innitiative to do so. I made a comment that manufacturing line seems pretty monotous and routine and asked about his views on that. He mention that although it may look monotous, there was a whole loads of other things which can be a challenge at times. Our conversation took us to the employment oppurtunity for fresh graduates at PSS and I was surprised to know find out that they hired about 8 engineers this year, two in which I had became aware earlier were MMU students. The starting pay for fresh graduates seem reasonable at RM2300-2400 considering a small town like Seremban where the cost of living is much lower. I did mentioned that most of the semiconductors and manufacturing companies like Intel and Agilent are all situated in the north where starting pay for fresh graduates is around RM2800. Mr. LT Chan mentioned that PSS is growing and has become one of the top 10 companies in semiconductors though Intel may range in the ranks of one to two.

It was interesting to know that Seremban have a number of reasonable semiconductor companies besides Philips such as Samsung and On Semiconductors. The thought of working in a semiconductor or manufacturing company has never cross my mind at this stage as I would have the mentality that it was a routine field to go into. I have yet to fully understand the whole structure for now but may go into this if this would be the only job that would be available once I graduate. For now, I would prefer to look out for computer related companies where I would be able to practice what I have studied and at the same time venture into networking and systems.

On a more serious note to work, I manage to complete the necessary forms that would be my interface for my program 30 forms that comprised of a main, six Register forms, four Settings form and and 17 View forms compared to the previous program that comprised of 17 forms in total. Most of it has not be thoroughly checked and approved yet but am currently making the necessary changes that has been asked by Mr. Soo. It was quite a challenge to find the best looking interface that would be easy to navigate for the user. There were many considerations to be made and I spend countless hours sitting down and visualising the idea in my head before sitting down and making the interface. Finally, I manage to complete the overall forms and would be making various changes depending on the needs of my supervisor. I planned to settle the interface before starting the background programming as the supervisor would normally pay more attention to.

Training Week 2 : Yield

There was a day less this week as Monday was a public holiday for Negeri Sembilan in conjunction with Ishak and Mikraj. Negeri and I think, Perlis are the only two states that have a day off. Work started as usual with more reviewing of the codes of the Yield Module. I was going through the codes for the modules and tried to relate it back to the forms that were created to see the relation between them. Initially, I was having a hard time understanding them and decided to do it on the first day this week. I have roughly understood the relation of the module and work at trying to tie everything together.

Philips would be having an internal IT auditing session during this past few days. As it is a multinational company, staff from other countries would be making their way here to check on the IT facilities in the Seremban factory to see whether it meet the standards set upon. Computers would need to have legal software installed. The network would need to check to see whether intruders are able to penetrate into the companies files and data. According to Mr. Elfiz, one of the way this is done is to set up a ghost in the network to check the system and also to trace any illegal files besides the manual check on the computers itself. The auditing team comprise of staff from Hong Kong and Norway. Seeing that it was a thorough inspection, I decided not to bring my laptop to the office to do my work as illegal softwares were applenty in my computer. Besides that, Pei Chin and myself decided to shift our computers to the maintenance department in the line for safekeeping although I did not use mine due to lack of keyboard and mouse. It was better to be safe than sorry.

As there was not much that I could do without a computer, I decided to take a step of courage to approach my "Boss", Mr. Soo for work. I had been more in touch with my supervisor, Mr Elfiz compared to Mr. Soo as he seems to be a more friendly and sitting nearer to me. On the other hand, Mr. Soo seem to be a very busy guy and who does not seem to be as friendly from the response I receive to the smiles given to him. Mr. Soo is considered more in authority compared to Mr. Elfiz as he is the Quality Assurance (QA) Session Manager but both of them are actually working on this module which I have been assigned to. Therefore, I have two supervisors during my internship here at Philips.

I waited for him to come into office on Thurday morning to approach him as I was not able to do so the day before as there were alot of people around him. My initial reaction of an unfriendly encounter turned out the opposite as he seem to be very much obliging when I asked him for work and also updated him briefly on what I have been doing during the pass week. At that moment he had not much of work that he could give me to do except told me to do some research on other programs that are out in the market to get a general idea of how to improve or implement an interface which would be user friendly and easy to use by the customers. Customers seem to be the term use to indicate the people who would be using the program. This would include people from the engineering, manufacturing, QA and logistic department of the company. He gave me an overall description of the whole project and explain that the Yield Module would be solely done by trainees and he wanted to implented a handshake system whereby trainees are able to pass down the work that they have completed to the next person to continue as smoothly as possible. Mr. Soo indicated that the entire project will be develop in the span of 2 years before it is tested and implemented in the line. If the project is successful, there would be no need for operators to record the amount of input and output on pieces of paper before keying them in manually into the computer for record keeping. Engineers on the other hand would not need to go into the line to obtained information that they need which are not provided in their daily report of the line. Data on the input and output from every machine at every phase of the line would be fed into the database and recorded. The Yield module would be directly connected to the database and engineers would only need to open up the program and extract all the information they need regarding about the yield from the database to their computers. This would reduce the number of manual keying in of data and increase the efficient of obtaining the an almost perfect data without any error that may be cause due to workers negligence.

The entire project seem to very interesting as it would be a fully computerized module to obtain the yield. However, I would only be working on the interface of the program to make it more user friendly. Other trainees that would come after me would have the priviledge to improve on the current database and interface the machine with the database and link the program with it to obtain the information needed, most probably in real-time. I decided to start work on going through the report again and to see which part of the current program that I could change to make it more user friendly. At the moment, I did not have a solid interface idea that I could implement it from scratch. However, I planned to use back the current interface at the moment and try to add some new features that would allow the customers to obtain any information they need from only a click of a button. Mr. Soo asked me to obtain the sheet of data that the engineers receive every morning from Kak Zura. I obtained the daily and monthly data for her so that I could go through the types of data that were relevant to the customers needs. Besides that, he also ask me to approach people from different areas of the line the type of information that would be useful to them. I decided to ask Mr. Elfiz who was nearest to me and he mentioned that the program must be able to assist them to obtain information regarding about the yield from every machine or anywhere from the line.

After obtaining all the information needed, I began to work on the current interface starting with the the main menu and trying to add more data that the customers will be able to obtain that would be similar to the daily data sheet. My initial plan to do the interface face complete with roll over which was similar to what has been seems to be in vain as the codes seem to encounter some errors. I though for a while on it and decided to only concentrate on the interface or how the program will look like before I add in any fancy approach to the program or write the codes for its function. My plan is to come out with the interface of the whole project and present it to my supervisor for his views and recommendation before starting work on the technical side of it. This was to reduce any redundacy that may occur in completing the program. My supervisor had not given me a clear idea of how he wants it to function and the best that I could do is to do snap shots of the program and explain it to him the functionality of the project so that he will be able to visualise it and have an idea of the program before giving me his idea. Working without anything visually can be difficult and for now I planned to meet what the eye sees before what the program should to to meet the eye's needs.

Work ended slightly early on Friday as the company was going to have a annual dinner that night. Besides that, the production line would be stop. I was suppose to go for the dinner in the beginning after getting approval from the person in charge, Kak Tarmiza. However, after much discussion, they told me that I could not go and appologise to me about it. I must say that I was little disappointed as I was looking forward to attend my first company dinner after Ah Fong told me about it. Anyway, it was not a big thing for me to not go although going would be an added advantage for me. Everyone seem to be pretty excited over the whole affair ever since I step into Philips two weeks ago. Clerks beside me had been busy talking about the prizes for the lucky draw and what they wanted to win if they were lucky ones selected. Other than that, work seem to come to a standstill after lunch as most of the workers were already hanging around and talking among themselves about the dinner. Some of the higher rank personnel had already gone home after lunch. Those stayed back were just visiting each other cubicle and enjoying a hearty conversation that caught my attention. There was not much to be done as the line was close and it was much more sensible to return home rather than do nothing. On the other hand, I was busy with my work and stayed up till 4pm before I left back home in the midst of a drizzle.

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

A Short Trip, A Long Adventure

Negeri Sembilan would have a priviledge as compared to other states to have a holiday on Monday (13 September) due to the celebration of Ishak and Mikraj. My mom decided to book a place at Prince Hotel in KL to spend a night there on Sunday. Mom had been a member of the Prince Hotel membership and was waiting to use the vouchers that were given with the package. Our plans to stay in one of the six deluxe suite in the hotel was in vain as all the of it was fully booked. We ended up staying in the deluxe executive requesting for the same room my relative from UK had stayed during their visit. It was a side room with a huge side window overlooking Hotel Nikko and the Orange Club below us. Glimpses of KLCC could only be seen at the end of the the stretch of windown pane. We manage to pack the five of us in the room with two queen size bed. However, I had to sacrifice comfort and ended up sleeping on the floor with a comforter as my base. It was not all that bad as I manage to sleep through the night soundly. The room was relatively big and the toilet was extremely humogous. You could imagine yourself dancing or maybe having a stretching session in it. It had a separate shower area and bath tub which I always took advantage if such a chance came. It was always relaxing soaking my naked body within the warm water as I lay my back against the tub and just rest. My indulgence in this soaking ritual makes me feel a little guilty at time considering the amount of water that I would be flushing down the waterpipe later. I did not want to take such a long time in the toilet although I have a record of being the longest person in my family to stay in the toilet. Toilet, a relatively clean one always seem to be my comfort zone. I would take my own sweet time with the big business, a warm shower and perhaps, a bath tub experience. Sometimes, I even imagine how my future bath room would look like. I guess not only the looks would be important but the feel of it as well.

Night came and we got ready to venture into the hustle and bustle of the big city to fulfill our inner desire. FOOD. We made our way to Jalan Alor to see if there were anything worthwhile to savage upon. It was my first time in this area although I have heard much about this place. My imagination of a cram and dirty area with table and chairs lining up the walkway allowing only a small path for people to walk by. Myriads of shops that lined the walkway sold the best food in town that we Malaysian can be proud to associate with. Char Koay Teow, Roasted Chicken Wing, Ipoh Kuay Teow and Tau Fu Fah, just to name a few. It seems that my imagination were always to the extreme as there were alot of shops but with ample place for people to walk around and even cars to drive through. It seem much more spacious compared to what I had imagined earlier. We stop at one of the many restaurant to have our dinner as we were all hungry and rice seem to be the best remedy to silence the rumbling stomach. It was interesting to notice also a group of Hongki having dinner at one of the table near us. There was a wide array of seafood spruned out over their table and it did not seem like a cheap one also as I notice one of the man at the table forking out six pieces of RM50. It was pretty interesting to see the man carrying no wallet but just a bundle of notes which he carried around, taking them out when necessary. Besides, the Hongkies were seemingly a much more louder crowd as their conversation was clearly heard over at my side of the table. Their Cantonese was much more refined as compared to mine and many others as their speech was as fluent as flowing water.

My tummy had began to play naughty with me as I was beginning to feel much pressure at the end of my body. Air was beginning to build up as indigestable remains was at the verge of popping. I made a plea to my parents for a potty stop and decided to return to the comfort of my hotel which was a couple of metres around the block. It was simply a relieve to be able to empty my remains to allow the food that I had taken in previously to find its place. It was still very much early to return to our rooms and very much late to visit any shopping complexes around Bintang Walk. We decided to drive around KL and visit the many spectable places that were around the area. Our first stop was to be the ever crowded and full of activity Petaling Street. We did not spend much time over there but mainly walk through the many stalls that were opened to the other end of the area to pack some mata kucing drink. It was located at a cross junction at the end of the line of stalls. My dad decided to wait for us at that end near Hotel Malaya to pick us up. It was interesting to see many interesting shops that sold many interesting and expensive looking fake goods. It seem like a haven for people to come and buy designer wear goods at a very affortable price. There were also many VCD operator armed with walkie talkie getting down with business selling various DVD titles and also mingling with the crowd to sell porn. I caugh a guy showing a catalogue of porn flicks to a single adult man. Foreigners, white skin and those from the Middle East were seen having a ball of a time purchasing "Nikes", "Rolexes" and blockbuster movies. I on the other hand was trying to spot an Arsenal jersey. The place was very much alive with activity and bright lights making it an interesting venue for people to walk around and buy "Malaysian" goods. My sisters and I wish that we could have stayed longer to see the place but my mom hurried us back after buying the refreshing mata kucing drink as she did not think it was save to be in this part of the area.
We climb into our car and make a journey around KL city.

I personally like to see KL at nights as I find it very beautiful especially with its bright colourful lights adorning the trees that stood in between the concrete jungle and hanging over the streets illuminating the nightline. KLCC seem to look like a giant lightbulb that shone the brightest as it stood magisticly as the tallest building in KL. Our journey did not cover KL city alone but also the adjacent spot where nightlife seem to be at its peak. We travelled then to Bangsar to see the interesting cafes and pubs that seem to come alive when the sun goes down. It was always interesting to see a variety of dimly lit restaurants where each is individually decorated with an interesting interior that I came to take notice of everytime I am around this area. The atmosphere had yet to take flight as it was still early for a party to begin. However, traffic was beginning to build up in this area as the traffic was at a crawl especially at Telawi 2 and 3. My sisters and I began to notice a difference in this area. Some restaurants and cafes that we used to see around here had closed or was taken over by another proprieter. However, it was also refreshing to see new things especially in an area where changes is a must to draw in the crowd.

Our next stop was perhaps Bangsar's rival which is Sri Hartamas. Hartamas is another area which is similar to Bangsar. The business here thrived upon a community of rich people and expatriates who live at the posh and prestigious place of Mont Kiara. Cars were beginning to pour in as the activity were beginning to pick up. Mom began talking about the incident that happened sometime ago where a law undergraduate from UK was killed in a row with some foreign migrants. I felt that the atmosphere around here was not as intense as compared to the last time I came around here which was on Friday. Roads within the compound of a row of shop house were close and converted into a private parking space where an exhobitant price of RM5 was charged to those who entered. This I did not see today as pass by the area where I was practically rob of my RM5 when me and a number of people had decided to stop over for supper after a trip to Starlight Cinema at Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club.

Night was beginning to loom past 10.30pm and we decided to head back to the hotel. We washed up and my sisters and I manage to catch an interesting show "One Hour Photo" by Robin Williams, one of my favourite actor on Star Cinema. The show seem to like like a dilussional psychotic triller but it was far from that. It was an interesting show to watch although I would prefer a better ending to this movie. The director apparently allowed the audience to make up an ending for themselves that can be either thought provoking or simply meaningless.
We rose up the next day and began to get ready to pack up. My younger sister had plans with her friends from MMU today and my dad fetched her to KL Sentral where her "gang" would gather before going to Sunway Lagoon.

We checked out of the hotel and were making plans to drive up to Genting for lunch and also spend the afternoon there as it only takes an estimate 45 minutes to reach the peak of Genting. Before we left, my mom manage to make arrangement with one of the hotel staff to view the apartments and hotel rooms as she decided on getting her membership renewed. Mr. Ken Takamura, a Japanese who has been working here for the pass 4 months after having spend some time in Japan and Phuket brought us on a personal tour to this rooms. We visited the one room service apartment, deluxe suite, deluxe executive suite and the presidential which was perched up the highest part of the 28 storey building. As we began to tour each of the rooms, they were getting to be much more nicer and classier one after another. The best room was indeed the presidential suite which was a combination of a deluxe executive suite and a deluxe executive room. It was simply impressive and mind blogging to step into a room where the Prime Minister of Japan and Malaysia had stayed in before. There was an open concept toilet at one end of the room connecting with the master bedroom and office space equipped with an oversize jacuzzi bath tub that I was begining to picture myself having an afternoon dip in it. The view from out the window was simply breathtaking as it provided a full view of the KL city overloaking the city centre. We did not seem to want to leave the room so quickly and took some time to digest and to enjoy being in a place that we can hardly afford to stay in. Mr. Ken mentioned that it takes 3 hours to clean the entire room and it is normally vacant. This year they would be expecting two guest to book into this RM4000 per night room.

Amazing Hallway
Sensual Bathtub
Enormous Bedroom
Beautiful View

After that impressive tour, we made our way up the mountain tops. It was beginning to drizzle and the wind was beginning to take speed. We had lunch at our favourite restaurant in Genting, Loong Kee. Our dishes include Steamed Tilapia Fish with Brown Sauce cook in deep fried pork cubes, Crunchy Short Beans fried in garlic, Fried Pork Slice cook in Sweet Sauce and Soft Round Taufu cooked with Sea Cucumber served in a bamboo case. Our hungry stomach was simply over satisfied as I could hardly move from my seat. We travelled up to the top of the mountain and mist was beginning to envelope the whole hill. Visibility was low and my dad decided to follow other cars up the top. The wind was relatively strong and we were not equipped with the necessary overall for protection as it was a spontaneous rather than a planned one. I was dressed in my shorts and I was banking on my overall body fats to warm me up. The weather was very nice as it was very cooling and refreshing. My dad always enjoyed coming up here once a while to breath the fresh air. Although Genting is fast developing all the time and it would seem the Las Vegas on a hill, nature is still preserve as forest are still applenty in this area and the air is still very much fresh and cooling. Mum on the other hand prefer the machines that were found in the three casinos there. People seem to throng to Genting to make a quick buck. My parents on the other hand mainly plays for the fun of it at the many slot machines. I could not go in to see although I had reached 21 as I was dressed in shorts and collarless T-shirt.

My sisters and I decided to roam around the many theme parks, boutiques and cafes around the place. We were not very keen on playing the rides that were available. Besides, we had to keep indoors most of the time as the weather outside was unbearable due to the lack of suitable clothings. Other than that, it was drizzling. We decided to walk from one hotel to another as all of them were connected by long streches of covered walkway equipped with escalators. I met a couple of friends there namely Pevin, who was here on a spontaneous stayover with his friends and will be trying to transfer to Cyber from Malacca. Furthermore, I had a pleasant surprise to bum into former alpha mate couple, Lai and Justin who was going to be here for the next couple day after graduating on the three and a half program. It was good to meet people from Malacca. People who I had known and enjoyed being in their company yet seldom have a chance to meet up due to distance. Meet ups like this keep us in touch with one another and I hope that meet ups like this will not be the only way for me to keep in touch with them.

My sisters and I rejoined my parents after 3 hours and quickly ask how they fared with the machines. Mom had initially won around RM200 after half and hour inside but decided to play on as it was still very much early. However, this prove to be a gamble and her gain ended up her lost as it was soon finish in the end. The only good news was she did not loose any money. It is not easy to come out from the casino winning something. The temptation is far greater inside. Winning causes you to win somemore. Greed is very obvious in this place the money you win, the more money you would like to win. It is an endless affair and some people go to the extreme of having an empty pocket to stop their play. It would seem like a more sensible to learn to gather enough strength to leave immediately after winning something. This is perhaps the weakness of many and its no wonder Mr. Lim is earning so much from people's weakness. Therefore, it would be wise to take whatever that Mr.Lim has given to you and leave immediately. My dad mentioned that even with the money you have obtained from winning, it is not "halal" money or clean money.

Clear Blue Sky

As the sun began to set, we made our way down and headed to the KL city one again. We paid a visit to my uncle who was still working at his office to collect the road tax for the car that I am currently using. Most of the car at home belongs to my uncle and we have been blessed to use it. It is not everyday that we are able to meet my uncle who is always busy with work as he is the managing director of a electrical power trading company that my uncle currently owns. We spend the next couple of hours speaking to him. It was interesting to know and I fully give my full respect to my uncle who has risen to become a very succesful businessman even with limited education. Such feat is hard to achieve and I hope to sit down with him one day to ask him his much valued experience and advice of setting a company such as this. He has always encourage us to study hard and is willing to go the extra mile in supporting us to further our studies to do masters. I am quite adamant over this offer considering my current academic achievement.

My plan is to work and if there is a need for me to study further to progress will i take up this challenge. Its been a challenge for me to sit in front of book and absorb the huge amount of facts and vomit it all out during the 2 hours exam. It seem meaningless to do such feat as most of the time we are unable to learn much or anything at all. I seem to have a difficulty in retaining information especially in tense environment such as preparing exams and sitting for them. Most of the time, this information or data would only occur to me after the exam. I am the type of person who would prefer to learn by practice, doing project or certain task that incorporates such knowledge. Though I know my capabilities in studying, it may be an excuse I place myself in. Interest seem to be a deciding factor for me to spur me to do well. My initial intention of studying architecture than engineering would probably allowed me to achieve much more but what are the chances of doing so as I have not step into such a position. I have plans to work a number of years in the engineering field and go back to studying something like architecture which is closer to heart. However, this is just plans that I have in my head that are not within my reach at this point of time. Who would know that I would have develop a passion for engineering in the future.

I would prefer to see my other two sisters continue their studies is they are able to do so. My sisters, one naturally hardworking and the other naturally smart would be a better candidate than myself. This are just ideas as I would call it rather than plans which I have thought about but have not wrote down that I may determine concretely what I want to do in my life. I do believe in planning for the future and achieving something in the end rather than depend on blind faith alone which many Christian do most of the times. I do not find myself trusting God in a divine intervention without me doing anything at all. God help those who help themselves. This is my believe that I have learned thus far as God provides the path but we have to walk that journey.

We made a stop at the usual wantan mee stall on the way back to Seremban for dinner. I took over the wheel from my father after he had spend the entire day driving to and back from Genting while I slept peacefully in the car. Reached home around 10 something and did not sleep till after pillow talk at 12.40am eventhough I had work the next day. By and large, it had been a short and interesting family vacation though such outing would be a rare occasion when my sister and I begin work after graduating.

Training Week 1 : WOW!

It was the first day of 3 months working experience at Philips Semiconductor in my humbly hometown of Seremban. I had to sleep much earlier that usual instead of the usual late nights as I had to awake at around 6.30 am the the next day. This was because I had to be up earlier to travel to office as I was not familiar with the traffic to my workplace. Traffic seems smooth and it takes around 15 minutes to travel from my home to the workplace which is near Senawang, the industrial area for Seremban. Philips Semicon is situated ajacent with many companies where the most familiar name would be Samsung.

I made my way into the grounds of Philips and was immediately approached by a guard as I tried to find a parking space near the permanent staff carpark which had stickers on them. He then told me to go to the guard house to register and parked my car at the other end which was nearby a field. I made my way thereafter and registered myself. The guard then explained to me that outsiders who come into Philips or to any other factories would need to register themselves at the guard house before going into the building. I was obliviously to this as I had never set inside a factory except the opening ceremony of my friend's father's factory when I was still in primary school. I signed in a log book and receive a temporary trainee tag and was asked to to wait for Puan Junaidah, the person whom I had contacted earlier about the industrial training and who was in charge of trainees coming into Philips to train. There was a sitting area in the guardhouse itself where I believe new workers would wait before being brought into the building. I was the only one waiting to be brought in that very morning.
Puan Junaidah came thereafter and escourted me into the building to the HR department. The place reminded me a little bit about MMU. The office space consist of cubicles where workers can be seen indulging themselves in their work. I notice a familiar face in that office as I had seen this guy in MMU or could have fetch him back to Cyber before when I was car pooling with Steven. However, it took me some time to finally realise that it was him as I had not seen him much after the lift. I was then ushered to an empty cubicle where I had to filled in and signed three documents that consist of an agreement document, code of ethics and a comfirmation documents which states my duration of training and the amount of the monthly pay that I would be receiving. After I had finish filling in the documents, I was then lead by Kak Intan, who was a trainee herself from Koleg Negeri to the store room which was situated at the inner part of the factory where I got a plastic overall and a pair of shoes. This are the two items that I would be wearing when I entered inside the production line which was declared a semi-clean area. This attire is to maintain the cleaniness of the area where the production line is so that it would not affect the semiconductors which was being produced. I was then given a locker in the changing room where I would be able to keep my overall and shoes.

After that, I was then brought to the Engineering Department to meet my supervisor, Mr Soo. However, he was not around at that time and I was shown to a place where another trainee was at. There, I met Pei Chin, a computer science student who had already been training at Philips for the past 6 months and was approaching her seventh. She brief me a little about the working life here and what are the times that we should remember for breaks. I was surprised to know that we have 3 breaks per day which is 9.30 am, 12.30 am and 3.30 am. Breakfast at 9.30 am and tea at 3.30 am would take around 15 minutes while lunch at 12.30 am takes around 45 minutes. Work starts at 8 am and ends at 5.30 pm. Overall, workers spend around 9 hours and 30 minutes of the day at Philips whereby 1 hour and 15 minutes would be spend on breaks. It just sums up that it takes about 8 hours and 15 minutes of working time. However, this duration of time would be the maximum for anyone as many people take more time on breaks. Its quite a relax an environment as there you work for about two and a half hours and then a break.
I entered into the cafeteria for the first time for breakfast and saw the place almost pack to the brink. The guy whom I recognise earlier at the HR department joined us and he seem to know Pei Chin. I soon found out his name was Ah Fong and he then brief me about the working environment in Philips considering the amount of knowledge he gathers at HR. It seems that my prediction were right and that working in Philips seem like a breeze for many. He told me that it is quite relaxing to work here. Besides that, Philips seem to have a policy of not firing people unless they have stolen something or are caught sleeping while at work. One can practically sit around, do nothing and chat around and still able to obtain a paycheck at the end of the month without getting the axe. It seems pretty odd for a multinational company like Philips. I guess European companies seem to be more lenient about the employees. Speaking about leniency, workers at Philips do not need to check in and out everyday. They just enter in and out from their workplace at the specific times.

I got to meet another engineer by the name of Mr. Elfiz at my cubicle after breakfast who seems to be my second supervisor. We introduced and I told him that I was waiting for Mr. Soo to report to him. Mr. Elfiz was apparently one of the module head and was reporting to Mr.Soo. Both of them are currently working on a project together which I would be undertaking, succeeding the work of a previous trainee by the name of Woon who happened to be from MMU as well but in Malacca campus. Mr. Soo arrived shortly and we introduced brieftly and he then explain to me briefly the nature of the project that I would be assign to. It seems that I was going to be doing some programming and had to learn Visual Basics and database. I was then given two weeks to get familiarise and learn about VB and database before I was given my next task. Pei Chin then pass me a VB book to read up.

This would be my assignment for the next couple of days. To study and to get myself familiarise with the new programming language before I start work on the real thing. It was pretty boring to stare at a book and try to read everything especially for someone who have a relatively short memory and was more inclined to practical then theory to learn. I then brought my laptop a few days later and installed the necessary software so that I was able to familiarise myself with the whole new programming environment. I went back home to download some online tutorials from the net to assist me in my learning. VB seems a little different then other programming language that I had studied before such as C and Java which were more code based. On the other hand, VB is a program that consist of a template with buttons and things to choose from. All I need to do is to drag and drop the things that I want on a template called a form. However, there was still codes involved in it as I had to state the functions of a particular button or template. This was the part I still had to practice. My supervisor would be trying to obtain a PC for me to get my hands on it but at the mean time, I would be bringing my computer to try out. Practice makes perfect.

The environment of the working place is quite condusive as all the computers were only connected in an intranet and there was no internet except for a few people who were given access to it. I did not seem to mind not having a connection or a computer for that instance. It seems like I have outgrown connection although spending a huge amount of my uni days having the internet at my fingertips. Without the internet at home does not seem to matter any longer as I seldom go online when I am back. There are more other interesting things to do like watching TV, reading newspapers and sleeping than onlining. I gave up the idea of installing Streamyx knowing that I would not be going online that much and am not a heavy user of the internet that would cost my phone bill and internet account to explode to reap the value of broadband.

The people in Philips seem to not be on the more friendly side especially to people who are new like me. I had expected at least a warmer welcome from those around me but it seem like smiles that I give as an introduction of myself seem to be in vain. They noticed my presence yet do not seem to try to connect. However, I guess it takes time to familiarise myself with all of them as I had yet to work or talk to them regarding about work which would seem like an appropriate ice breaker compared to a smile. I was fortunate to meet a fellow church member, Matthew who is working in the same department as I am and is one of the module heads. He was nice to have come up to me on the first day and volunteered to bring me around the production line to see how each part of the factory functions and what they produced. It was a very educational trip as I got to know alot about the factory. However, there was so much datas and facts to absorb that at the end, my brains were so full that I could not digest it. Figures after figures, graph after graph, reasons after reasons. It seems like a simple layout whereby the production only produced a type of product with that are of 3 types with myriads of models yet it exhibited a huge amount of data that I find it hard to cope with. However, this was the only time that I had spoken to Matthew besides the usual smiles and waving of hands as acknowledgement of one's presense. He seem to be occupied with work and could be seen going out with his other collegue that I do not wish to disturb though I know him.

It was nice to meet another guy who seem like the most friendliest guy toward new trainees like myself in the whole office. His name is Ah Hew and he comes up to my table once in a while to ask me how I was doing and to chit chat a little. He brought me and the two other trainees out for lunch at the end of the first week to Senawang. Food does not seem to be all that bad at the cafeteria though it was Malay food. I had grown accustome to the food back in Cyber which tasted far worse than this. Besides, the food is relatively cheap in here as a huge portion is sponsored by the company. A plate of mixed rice with two chicken and a vegetable cost only RM1.60. A similar plate like this would cost be double or even tripple in Cyber. It is the cheapest meal that I had ever had considering the amount I usually take that would normally top the list in terms of price as compared with others who eat with me. We decided to eat out that day as there was not much food on displayed. This was quite common sometimes at the cafeteria. Ah Hew seems like the most knowledgeble guy about food in Seremban whom I had met so far. My information on the best places to eat in Seremban seem to increase everytime we are out for breakfast, lunch or tea, be it in or out. I could now say that I relatively know the best and more places to eat in Seremban besides the usual beef noodle, yi tau mai and hakka mee which I would normally bring my friends to eat when they pop into Seremban. It seems there is an array of food that I have yet to sample such as lo shi fan that comes in the short or long one, hainanese chicken rice, pork porridge, bak ku teh and a whole lot more that can be found all around Seremban.

It has been a swell one week at Philips although there is a relative amount of boredom or "sieness" due to the long working hour and worst still, sitting around and doing nothing. If you ask me, I do not mind working long but not working at all.

Old Paulians Assosiation (OPA) Dinner (4 September 2004)

I decided to attend the yearly old boy's dinner after receiving an announcement from Yew Cheong who is currently informing us about updates regarding about OPA through our Yahoo groups. Such groups help us keep in touch with the recent news regarding about our former alma mater. On the other hand, I am currently managing my class Yahoo groups though I have not been diligently connecting my former classmates about up to date news as compared to Yew Cheong. My announcement about the dinner came a bit late, about a week before dinner. However, I was pretty glad that my announcement allowed Li Han to know about the dinner. The dinner was held at Restaurant Ming Kok which is situated near Taman AST and was sheduled to begin at 7.30pm. This restaurant was an uncle of my ex-classmate Pick Yaw's uncle who was brutally murdered in front of his house few months ago.

The Atmosphere or Brotherhood

I reached the place 10 minutes after 7.30pm but was surprisingly early as the dinner had not started yet and many people were still mingling outside. I met my friends outside as well who were standing and waiting for the rest of the company to arrived. Yew Cheong manage to gather 3 tables of people from the class of 99. One of the many people I was glad to meet was Shey Lay who was back from Germany for the holidays and also Hong Huat who has became a full time issurance agent after completing a business degree from UTM. He came along with his girlfriend, Pei Pei and a friend. Both of them are still going strong until now after leaving school in 99 when he was in Form 5 and she in Upper Six. Talk about secondary school sweetheart.
Hong Huat, Pei Pei, Pei Pei's friend (can't recollect her name) and Shey Lay sat in the same table as me together with Kim Yen (the first in my class to get a job as an accountant), Soon Keong and Yew Cheong (both room mates and bed mates, as they share a masterbed and both from Uniten), Yeng Weng (a Uniten student who was in my school until Form 2 but still regarded himself a true Paulian even after shifting to ACS), Vishnu (another Uniten-ians who is currently working in Samsung, Seremban). Uniten just had their convocation on the same day and most of the Uniten "kaki" just arrived back. Most of friends seem to studying in Uniten and it was no surprise that I would have joined if not for the bad impression I got when I attended their Open Day as my initialy Engineering choice would have been E&E. It was good to meet all of them and those from other classes. The table on my left comprise of fellow school mates who were ex-prefect but had a neck for drinking and smoking. Bottles of liquar, cigarette and not to mention, cigars were applenty there. On the other hand, the table on my right were mainly school mates that I was not really close to. It was good to see Kim Jian after such a long time.

My Table mates (from left : Yew Cheong, Hong Huat, Kim Yen, Soon Keong, Shey Lay, Yeng Weng, Me & Vishnu)

I was quite pleased with the food that was served. The last time I was here was during Matthew and Min Chee wedding and had a good time enjoying the food as well. There was a band comprising of an Afro hair guy with a band that played the golden oldies. Our table was near the speaker but I pitied those who were sitting the closest to the speaker as they had to endure through the night the loud music and speeches. Yew Cheong, who was sitting beside me could not stand it anymore and decided to pluck the chords to the speaker at the end of the dinner to the delight of those who were sitting in the nearby tables. What a relieve to be able to have the noise level muted.

Table on my right, The quiet bunch

Besides the food and the company of friends and fellow old Paulians, the highlight of the dinner would have to be the singing of the school athem and the cheer. It reminded most of us about our time in school where we used to stand in the assembly and sing the song with a monotonous tone without much expression at all. Singing the song after leaving school ignited a spirit that we Paulians have been proud to have and everyone was singing their hearts out, especially those who were under the influence of alcohol. Smiles could be seen in their faces, hands were raised with enthuasiasm and cups were toast in the air signifying the pride of being a Paulian. The moment was increadible as I began to soak in and witness for myself the Paulian spirit in the eyes of those were there. Groups of student began to make their way to the stage celebrating their silver and diamond jubilee after leaving school. There was one group who brought upon stage and making a toast to their teacher who had taught them before who was more than 90 years old.

Table on my left, Smoke and Drinks

Such moment like this is rare and hard to imagine until you have reach where this people have already gone through. A reunion of fellow Paulians who had left school to pursue separate lives and different endeavour yet be able to come to come together once every year to meet with one another. Despites the age different and the different backgrounds, there was only a common trait that each of us shared whether we had left school in the 50's or the 90's, we were indeed true Paulians. I would try to attend the OPA dinner and hope to be able to rope in more people of my year to join in and attend the dinner next year and in years to come.

My Sarawak Love Affair Part 4 : Ain't Done With You

A new day awaits as we woke up a beautiful morning overlooking the wide open sea. We had expected much from the sea and beach, picturing clear blue sea and white sparkling sand. What was before us was moody looking sea and rocky beach. It seems like PD faired much better. We made our way to the restaurant where breakfast was served. Hoping for the best, we were disappointed again as the array of food that had been spread out was not worth RM24 which my sisters and I had to pay separately because the room that we had booked covered for both my parents only. Fortunately, being student comes in handy and we manage to obtain a discount. The spread that was laid out was not as interesting as the breakfast we had in Kuching. Flies could be hovering over the food, landing on places where I would not touch.

Besides an unsatisfying breakfast, there was a power cut in the room when we return to our rooms for about 15 minutes. The amount of disastifying encountered make us filled in the comment form and pledge that this would be the first and last trip to this place. My mum decided to not waste time and make some arrangement to have the uncle who picked us up the day before to transport us to the city do we could hang around a little before heading to the airport. Our bad experience was forwarded to the man who had been helpful to us and we got a rebate for our stay there. I could see that this hotel was suffering as they were short of occupant due to its rival at Damai Lagoon which is much newer. Besides that, the lack of occupant had resulted in the hotel to be not at its top. Its really hard to bring about consistency to a hotel such as this and it takes good management and also good recommendation by others to keep things going. I do hope that the new front manager would be able to whip up some good ideas to bring about revival to this place.

Strike a resemblance? Koley Chemai Jaya, Kuching or MMU Malacca?

We were really greatful to this uncle who was ever so willing to ferry us around. Though it was already included in the package that we had paid for, but he was willing to take great effort to bring us here and there even when we extended a day in our trip which was not in the package. He brought us to have a light lunch at one shop in Chinatown which sold fishball noodles which I must say, the best lunch we had so far in Kuching. We were tend chaffeur to the middle of town where he left us there to walk around and buy some stuff before he picked us up in front of Holiday Inn at 3.30pm. My parents decided to spend their time away from the sun in shopping complex while my siblings and myself decided to go out in the open and see the row of shops that we had missed previously and buy some souvenirs that we were deprieved of the day before. On our way, we made a stop at the nearby Chinese Museum which was a small place that house some relics and information about the Chinese community in Sarawak. We then made our way to the opposite of the road where we paid a visit to Ramsey Ong ArtAdventurous shop. It was a shop or so called a gallery which house works of local artist. There were many beautiful painting that I wish I could purchase or even accomplished such fine works that would indeed be a suitable decoration that for a house. The worker of the shop was friendly and invited us to take our time as we stroll thought the well design shop that had a little pool in the middle of the shop.

He began giving us some details about Malaysian and told us that there he knew of two famous artist that hail from Seremban. My eyes suddenly pop out on hearing that news as I had always thought that Seremban is just some small town where people normally passed by and art was extinct in my place of stay. It suddenly cause some curiosity in me to go and check out the details of artist in Malaysia. We did a great job in taking almost 2 hours to go through almost every shop that we had left out up until Edric Ong shop. I had stumbled upon it the day before and was very happy to found the shop of the person I had read of in the papers before. He is an architect by profession and had venture into designing clothes that exhibited an ethnic feel to it. Besides that, he was one of the participant in the recent KL Fashion Week. There were still much to see but time was running out. We made our way back to the hotel just at the same time the van arrived. Our journey to the airport lasted for half and hour only and we very much early for our flight. We thank the uncle for his kindness and presented him a token of appreciation for his kindness as our journey to Damai and back to Kuching and to the airport did not cost a single cent. Thank God for bringing such good people to help us during our visit to Kuching. We made our way in and check in where we waited for time to pass by before the doors were opened for us to board the plane. The departure hall was stuff as the aircon was down and there was no water in the toilet that we could use to freshen up.

It was time to board the plane and it was a simply happy time for me not because I wanted to leave Kuching so much to return back home but because I was awaiting to dine inside the plane. My first meal was great and I was equally satisfied with my second. I had Beef Friend Rice while the rest of the Wong's decided to have Chicken and Potato. I apparently set beside my mum and got a share of hers as she couldn't finish her tray. I was simply pleased with the service Malaysian Airliine has shown and vow that my next trip to Sarawak would be definitely be with MAS. The landing at KLIA was smooth. There was not a single bump that I felt. After 4 days away on the other side of the ocean, we were finally back home. We got into our car which was stationed there awaiting our arrival and make it for home as we were not hungry due to the sumptious meal on board.

A Cloud of Hope aboard the plane

The trip was indeed a pleasant one filled with much excitement despite encountering a fair share of disappointment. Overall, Sarawak is a nice place to visit and also an excellant place to buy local craft and decos. I hope to make another trip down "Bumi Kenyalang" next year in conjunction with the Rainforest Festival which I hope to joined before I begin my journey to the working world.

My Sarawak Love Affair Part 3 : Culture Shiok!

We woke up as usual at around 7am in the morning before we made our way down to the cafe for our hearty breakfast. The food was not very nice today. After getting it all down the stomach, we decided to make one last visit over the other side of the river bank where the Orchid Garden was situated. We made our way to the Riverfront where we boarded one of floating taxi. It was a fun experience to travel by boat where the water was so close that you could touch it. However, we had to refrain from touching after getting a closeup glimpse to the condition of the river. It seem pretty odd that there was a lot of dead fish floating all over the river. My dad suspected the trawlers that we saw park beside the river the day before to be the one responsible. However, their death could be also due to high level of contamination of the river due to pollutant.


Getting aboard a sampan
In the sampan

After a brief 10 minutes, we finally reached to the other side of the river where the Astana was at. The Astana is the official resident of the head of state. It was a colonial like building which I was told used to be the resident of the Brooke family. Within this area, I could see that this area seem to look like a park. We walk towards the front to be met by an enclose area filled with all types of hibiscus. Purdey mention that this area was given to a fellow Sarawakian, a hibiscus enthusiast who have won numerous awards for his display of the flower. There were so many myriads of hibiscus that displayed a multihue of colour. They were all planted and decorated in various fashion. The entire area was well design and it was one of the best place to take loads of pictures. Besides that, the entrance was free.


In the "Garden of Eden", where hibiscus were in abundance
View on top a watch tower
Monkey Business

My parents decided to go their separate way as they wanted to go across the river and head back to the hotel to pack our stuff before we headed off to Damai Beach for a night. On the other hand, my sisters and I decided not to waste any precious moment and took some of the available time to visit Fort Magharita which was situated along the other end of the Hibiscus Sanctuary. We made two boat trips to get to that place. Things didn't look all that convincing when we saw that we had reached a village. There was no indication at the jetty as to where the fort is. We walk through the village and saw a sign thereafter indicating its location. Our journey to the fort took us pass a primary school and a police base.


I See YOU!!!

It was almost about 10 minutes hike up the hill where the fort was located that we finally manage to reach it. At the entrance, there was a display of old police vehicles ranging from patrol car to jeeps. We made our way further on and finally saw the white building. There seem to be no one in sight but the building. As we entered the building and make our way to the outer courts of the fort, there was a tower that had a mock person standing and an old finder. We decided to take some pictures while gazing out to the Sarawak River.It was a small area to walk around and nothing much interesting to see. I would not recommend visiting this place as it was not worth it if you have limited time unless you are an enthuasiast of old relics.

Time had pass by so very quickly and it was almost time to return back to the hotel to pack our stuff before we leave to Damai Beach at 12.30pm. We made our way back to the Riverfront sitting on the same taxi that we had took earlier. It was surprising to meet the same person everytime we needed a lift back. As time was soon catching up, we quickly dashed across to the other side of the roads to catch up with a last minute craft hunt that we would not be able to do any longer considering we had to go to a different place and not be able to come back to Kuching town. Our short shopping spree ended us getting a few ethnics bracelets.

We made our way back to the hotel to pack and quickly made our way to the lobby as we await the guy who would be picking us up. After settling the necessary checking our procedure and settling some fees, we made our way to the van who was waiting for us. The driver was already waiting on us very much earlier. Our journey to Damai Beach took us around half and hour to an hour as we cross to the other side of town. We passed through many small villages. There was many things that caught our attention along the day. This included an exact replica of MMU Malacca Block B and Hostel building in the vicinity of a local college grounds. There was also the relatively wider and cleaner river that seem similar to Sarawak River in terms of width. Other than that, we were met before our eyes the breathtaking view of Santubong which was explained by our driver as "King of the Wild Boar". Damai Beach would be situated at the foot of Santubong. We reached to Damai Beach and was received by not a very friendly welcome from the reception who should not a hint of a happy face. This was the begining of a bad impression of the place.

The rooms were very much spacious and big that a family of five could fit in well with extra space to move around. However, we encountered some problem when the aircon didn't seem to be working. As time was reaching almost 2pm, we decided to leave the room and inform reception later of our problem when we return. We quickly got ready and make our way to the ever much awaited visit to the Sarawak Cultural Visit. We arrived that at 3pm and were given around an hour and a half to venture the entire area before we made our way to the main hall where a cultural show would take place. At the purchasing ticket counter, we were estatic to find out the priviledges we had as students as we manage to obtain an RM10 entry only for it. It seems like everywhere we went, students were given much priviledge in terms of rebate. My parents who got the normal price ticket of RM45 was given a passport book which had details of the types of houses that we were going to visit and were asked to chop our passport at every houses to keep as souvenier. On the hand, we only had the normal ticket.

Mingling with the local Ibans

We made our way through the park visiting some 7 types of ethnic houses that comprised of Iban, Bidayuh, Orang Ulu, Penan, B..., Malay and Chinese. I simply marvelled at the architecture of each of the houses which seem to differ from one another. Some were big, some were small, some were on the ground and some were above the ground. In each of the houses, there would be a storyteller who would guide us throught the house. Besides that, there was also a welcoming dance at each of this houses except the Malay and Chinese house. I personally like the gradeur of the big houses which stood above the ground. I personally like the B... house as it was simply huge and majestic. The best part of the house was its open area at the bottom of the house which was built on top supported by huge thic wood. That area had a swing and a spacious sitting area for those who would like to spend their time relaxing and chatting with fellow neighbours. Besides that, the area was so cooling that I wanted to stay there even much more longer.



Absorbing the Rich Culture

Our visit around the whole area was timely as we manage to make our way to the theatre hall much earlier. There were not many tourist around when the show started. Neitherless, we were entertained by the dancers with various ethnic dances and performances that were accompanied by traditional Sarawak musical instrument. I personally was entralled by the sound of the Sapit which was modernly jacked up to a monitor and it sounded simply soothing to hear its melodious rift. The dancers were all drapped in colourful costumes and it each were different in nature. I noticed a particular dancer who simply caught my eye because of her cool nature which seem to exhuberate her beauty. I always known that Sarawak is one of the best places to find very good looking girls and I must say, she was one of those I took notice of. What can I say? The untouched market.

We made our way back after the show as the village was due to close. We all took a bath and rested before dinner time. As we arrived, we managed to lodge our complains to the reception and surprisingly there was a guy who was very accomadating and tried his best to help us, even recommending places which were near to eat. Some of the restaurants provided transport for guest to their restaurant. The technician came later to check on the aircon unit and tried his best to fix but to no avail. Thus, we had to pack and shift to another room.

Arrangement were made for a van to pick us up at around 7.30pm for dinner at the nearby seafood place. We were accompanied by a couple from Australia who were very friendly. The Beach Restaurant was situated beside the sea and boy, was there alot of mossies around. They had to actually burn some husk to wade away these blood suckers. The food came and I would say it was the worst dinner we had so far in Sarawak. What was even worse, the food was not fresh and was most expensive out of the three dinner. Boy, did we feel cheated. Anyway, we return back as quickly as we can and were met by the same Australian. I had a chat with the guy who is a freelancer working offshore in ships doing some engineering business. I was astounded when they told me they were married and had two teenage children, a boy and a girl who were 17 and 19 years old. There simply look far younger for their age and very loving indeed. The lady as I was told by my sister was a hospital reception and I simply enjoyed listening to her talk because of her deep and cool voice that simply sounded like a TV presenter. We exchange stories and the guy was simply trying to find every oppurtunity to speak in Bahasa Indonesia which he had a little knowledge of. A very humerous, friendly and loving couple they were. Most of the guest at the hotel were mostly foreigners who seed to find solace in our country due to the impending winter of their motherland such as Australia. Reminds me alot about bird migration.

As time was still early, we decided to walk around the beach to see the area and also to burn some of those food which we did not want to stay in our stomachs for long. There was nothing much to do at the resort but mainly to rest and relax. This is something that we could not afford to waste our time on as we wanted to visit places or even do a little shopping. It seems like Kuching town was a much suitable place and staying in Damai would not be a choice unless you have all the time in the world. There were not much activity around. We were quite astounded when we were told that we had to pay RM5 to use the Internet for half and hour as my sisters and I were approached by the receptionist in the room where we were. Everything in hotel seem to cost a certain fee. Even extending our stay for a few hours so that we could leave in time for the airport to catch our flight the next day. This were all not present when we were in Kuching though both of them were under Holiday Inn. The people were not very friendly and helpful. This had caused my mum much agitated by their servive and decided to voice it out to the name who was helpful to us earlier. He had also received much complains besides my mum regarding the attitude of the staff there and ask my mum to state her sincere comments of the hotel as he would be promoted to front desk management and needed feedbacks from the guest about their service.

It was not a good stay at Damai overall. We decided to turn off the lights early today and hope for the best the following day.

My Sarawak Love Affair Part 2 : Merdeka! (31 August 2004)

We awoke pretty early this morning for a buffet breakfast at the hotel ala carte restaurant. The food was pretty alright with the usual layout of dishes that most restaurants would prepare. I guess the best dish was the omellette which was prepared with some garnishing that includes onions, garlic, tomatoes and cheese. The outer layer was smooth and well done. It was best accompanied by a hot toasted bread with butter. We made our way thereafter to the lobby where a man was waiting for us to show us the way to the bus which was waiting for us to bring us around on our city tour. We made our rounds in a bus which was not even half filled. We began our journey by travelling from our area which was called South area and travelled to the North. The tour guide mention that Kuching is divided into two parts which was North and South. There were two mayors who were responsible for each of this areas respectively, a Chinese and a Malay. It seems like the North were mostly populated by the Chinese while the South comprised mostly of Malays instead. We could not visit the museums which was scattered around Kuching as it was a public holiday and this is one of those few days in a year where this places were actually close.

Catting around the cats

Our first stop brought us to the Civic Centre which was a tall tower that visitors could travel to the top to get a birds eye view of Sarawak. It was simply the best time to see Kuching at its splendour as the haze had cleared due to the a downpour during the night. The weather was perfect as it was cloudy and refreshing due to the rain. There was no entrance fees to travel up to the top as it was shelves off in the past year due to poor response from the public. The place seems like a white elephant which was upkept. However, it was the best place to see Kuching as a whole. I would not say that it was the best scenery I have seen as there was not much prominent landmarks or spectacular backdrops that I could picture. The interesting part was perhaps a portion of the Sarawak River and the Northern Admistration centre which displayed a certain prominent architecture that was relative to the local culture.

Above the City Centre overloading the vast land of the Hornbill

We made our way thereafter to another area which was far from the city to stop by a local craft centre that deals mainly with birds nest and other local craft. It was perhaps the best place to get some souveniors or gift to be brought back home. Our next stop was somewhat interesting to me as we were brought to a local pottery factory where they had many intricately designed pottery on it. It was really different form other pottery that I had seen as it was more of an art form rather than a pot. The designs at the signs were simply remarkable depicting various scenes and lifestyle of the Sarawak people. My mind began to wander. I was beginning to picture this pottery adorning my future house with lights at the bottom of the pots bringing our life to such extraordinary artworks. The most interesting place that I had seen in that place was a sidetable with three cats mounted at the sides as its legs and a pottery that depict a woman carrying a pot with a relatively retro feel to it. I was so tempted to purchase it but it was RM40 and I didn't have a nice place at the moment to place it. I wanted to take a picture of it but feared that pictures could not be taken in there. However, I manage to get some cheaper pottery that depicted a Sarawak lifestyle for RM4 that would probably be a start to my future collection of pottery artwork. Since there was still some time left, my sisters and I ventured to the neighbouring pottery shops to see what they had in their collection. I came across this place which simply blew my mind in terms on interior decoration items. They had an array of interesting wavy lights, cute little welcome ornaments and other interesting things that would fit so perfectly as decoration or artwork to a house. Besides that, the price was really reasonable as RM40 could get you quite a reasonable deco. I promise myself that I would be back again to this place to perhaps purchase some stuff that I would like to adorn my future dwelling place. Estimated time of visit would be in July next year.

Arm in arm with the Astana

We made our way to our next stop which was old suspending bridge that went across the Sarawak River. It was yellow in colour. The bridge was previosly used along time ago before flyover took over to connect people from one side of the river to the other. It was initiated during the Brooke era and was used mainly to transport water from both sides as well as allowed cars and people to go across. Now, it its mainly used for water pipes. We then headed back to the city where we toured the older part of town. In the distance stood the majestic green mosque which was build in the late 19th century. I could imagine that it was reasonably huge at that time. Besides that, the front portion of the places houses a cementary in a small plot of land which had many bodies in it considering the many tombstones which seem to be simply stuck close by each other. It was interesting to past by this part of the town and also to witness what the local were doing in their normal lifes. There was a myriad of life all around the shops and corners that seem to amaze me that I could not stop taking pictures as rememberance. We reach to area in front of the Tourism Centre which we had walked though the night before. The place was simply filthy as there were alot of rubbish strewn all around due to the huge gathering of ravellers the day before.

River Cruise with two beauties, my sis Julia and my "sis" Purdey

We reach back to the hotel thereafter after dropping other tourist at their respective restaurant and went back to freshened up before we were out again in search for lunch. The nearest places would be shopping complexes as we were still unfamiliar of the places to eat and decided to hang out at Tuah Plaza for food and shopping. After almost three hours, we made our way back to the hotel to take a bath and rest. Purdey had message me to meet up after her interesting yet delicate session at the spa at Damai Beach. She soon arrived around 5pm where I met her at the lobby before bringing her up to the room to hang out. She looked really refresh after her spa session though I notice that she kind of put on a little bit of weight from the last time I saw her. We chated and then decided to walk around Riverfront before deciding to take a river cruise at a relatively smaller cruise boat as it was much cheaper. Our cruise started at 6.30pm brought us from the Riverfront to the Yellow Bridge and down to Pending before landing back at the Riverfront at 8pm. It was a good time to see the area in a different view and also to catch up with Purdey. However, the trip seem relatively not as interesting as I had hope for considering going for a similar cruise such as this in Perth. The river was simply filthy and dirty. Besides that, I noticed that the sky turns dark pretty fast way before 7pm. I was told from Purdey that Sarawak used to be an hour earlier that Semenanjung and the government decided to synchronise the time for both West and East Malaysia. After the boat ride, we made our way back to Top Spot for another session of seafood and decided to try another stall. The food was much more expensive compared to the day before as we had two fish and a plate of crabs. It was not as nice as the day before as the food was not really fresh. This was maybe because we were much later compared to the day before. The interesting during the dinner came when we saw a local celebrity Camelia sitting down with dinner with her family at a table next to ours. She really looks much prettier in person sporting a sporty look and an interesting body line.
We made our way back to the hotel thereafter after leaving Purdey at Coffee Beans which was situated next door to our place as her sister were waiting for her to bring her back. Her sister did spot some similarities with her in terms of her eyes. We went back thereafter and took a bath and rested in front of the TV. It was a simply tiring and interesting day out.

Relics of the Past still standing strong in the Present

Amazing interiors

My Sarawak Love Affair Part 1 : In a Riot

I arose around 5am on Monday as my family and I prepare to travel to the airport to get a flight to KLIA. We were on our way to the other side of Malaysia which we have heard of many times but have never set foot on it. This was going to be an exciting trip as we would be travelling by airplane. The last time I remember getting into an airplane was the trip my family and I made to Perth, Australia when I was in Form 2. It was going to be a different experience all together in an airplane as we going to travel within Malaysia. It does give me an impression that I was travelling abroad but I was trying to get used to idea that I was still in Malaysia but only the other part of the region. My mom was having hard time trying to convince herself that she was actually in Malaysia as she kep refering to us as Malaysians when actually all the people we met in Kuching were in fact Malaysian.

From the airport to the hotel in a van

We set foot on the airplane with an empty stomach which was constantly pleading for us to fill in the void. We had initially thought that we would not be given any food while on board, the most a cup of orange juice. Our eyes suddenly lit up when we were told that breakfast was to be served after takeoff. Boy, that announcemenr from the captain of the plane was such a breather to us. The trolley soon reached us and I was surprise by the portion that I was to received. It was a tray filled with many assorted things. There was the main dish, side dish, an empty cup for coffee or tea, an orange juice and a pieace of hot bread with butter and jam. The main dish was either nasi dagang with chicken curry or omellette. Both were equally good. Its hard to judge when the food when you are actually hungry and yearning for something to eat, anything goes. Our journey to Kuching took us around an hour and fifteen minutes. The sky was not that clear as haze could be seen hovering over the sky and was in the midst of us when we touch down at the airport. I manage to snap some pictures while on board as I was sitted near the window and could see what was below me. Despite the haze, I manage to snap a long river that was going through the area. Initially I thought it was the famous longest river in Malaysia, Rejang River but my prediction were ultimately wrong when I found out it was Sarawak River and Rejang was somewhere near Miri or Sibu.

View from my Hotel Room

The airport was pretty old in nature and they were undergoing some major renovation to improve and upgrade the airport for international flights. The architecture of the place looks pretty gothic in nature with alot of sharp ends and weird structure. We were greeted by a quite big size man named Andy who brought us to our place of stay, Holiday Inn. Our journey from the airport to the city where our hotel was took us around half and hour. I message my ever so lovely big sister that I was finally in her domain and she called us to find out how we were and where we were going to be. It was good to hear that I would finally be able to meet her. We got our bags out and checked into the hotel. While we were waiting, my sisters and I notice a computer at the counter which had a 100Mbps connection. We were surprised that it was installed with the usual chatting programs and my eyes lid up when I saw a familiar icon that I had been associated with for quite a while, Yahoo Messager. I made not hesitation to log in and message big sister, Purdey who was in office and boy, did she get the shock of her life. One moment I was messaging her on the handphone and now from the PC. At the same time, I made some search on the Sarawak Tourism Board for any information. I had just miss the Sarawak Jazz Festival and was even more surprise that we were going to leave on the eve on Sarawak Regatta Show which would be held behind of my hotel on the Sarawak River. The Regatta was an event where long boats would compete with one another. We had come in between of two major events and miss both of them.

Regatta in Action...Practice Session

We got into our rooms. Yes, rooms as we had two adjoining rooms. I was pretty surprised to hear from mom that it was quite reasonable sum we paid for our trip down here which includes two rooms for two nights, flight tickets, breakfast and a city tour from Holiday Travel that cost us around RM400++ per person. We freshened up and prepared to walk around the places nearby in search of food. Due to our unfamiliarity, we ended up in one of the nearby shopping complexes food court although we wanted to try the local delicacies of this place such as kolo mee and laksa. However, we were told that this signature dish were only available in the morning. Our lunch didn't really gave us a taste of Sarawak as it was horrible. We got some stuff from the nearby supermarket and made our way back. We decided not to travel around for now as the heat was beginning to be unbearable and went back to the hotel for a bath and rest as we waited till dinner time to venture out.

We had heard from Purdey that there was a nearby seafood centre called Top Spot which was situated on the top of a carpark. She gave me directions and I quickly lead my family to the intended place. We had reached the place far too early around 6pm. There was no one to be seen eating, just a couple of early guest like ourself. There was so many seafood stalls in that area and one by one of the operators of each the stalls were out trying to get us to eat at their stall. I was told by Purdey to find a shop with a number 47 but it was no where to be found as the largest number there was 33. We ended up eating at stall 32. At first, we were quite intimidated as there was no one eating at that place and saw another stall which had more people. However, we decided to try it anyway despite our uncertainty. There were some new dishes that was unheard of such as Mongolia fish and paku biling, which was supposedly a famous dish in Sarawak.Our orders also included Ho Chien which was actually crispy rather the usual fried or hot plate style which we seem to enjoy back in West Malaysia and butter prawns which seem to lack on the crispy butter strips which normally accompany it. It was a surprisingly nice dinner as compared to lunch and I was surprise that all those seafood dishes would only cost us around rm80++ for a fresh helping.

With our stomach full to the brink, it was wise of us to get ourself on our feet and explore the city of Kuching. We walk around the towns and there seem to be alot of people around. It was the eve of Merdeka celebration and many people both young and old throng the streets of Kuching. Youths in bikes with the Malaysian and Sarawak flag held on by their pillon driver or tied to their bikes could be seen everywhere. Shouts of the countdown could be heard all around and everyone seem to in the spirit of awaiting that hour where we would mark our 47th Merdeka Day. I was quite surprise to see many young children everywhere. It was also quite intimidating and scary atmosphere as many of them were in big groups of people shouting around and making lots of noise. The whole atmosphere really gave me an impression that a riot was about to take place although this was far from the truth. Our parents didn't follow us all around as they were beginning to get tired and decided to return to the hotel. My sisters and myself made our way to the Riverfront, Padang Merdeka, Little India and anywhere that had a place that we could walk on. There was a huge concert going on at Padang Merdeka and many people were making their way there to witness the cultural performances and also their favourite singers as they waited for the time to struck 12 to shout Merdeka. After a long walk and having a quick stop for ice cream at McDonald located opposite our hotel, we made our way back around 10pm and rested as we prepared for our city tour on Merdeka Day. A nice and interesting day to start out with although much could have been done.

An Alamanda Visit

27 August 2004


Nice place to chill out especially when one is somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Heard there would be a cinema and bowling alley. Looking forward to it. Talking about movies, after my visit here I was down at Mines to catch "The Village". An interesting show though I went in with an ending. Guess, effect of after exams does brings one to anywhere one can go.