10/18: Okay, my job caught up on me, need to work even on weekends. Well, let me continue blogging on my trip. Sorry guys!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Traffic in Penang

Three years plus ago, I came to Penang to work after graduating from a university in Sepang area. At first I thought it was a freedom from traffic nightmares; but I was wrong. It seems that the traffic in Penang Island was so democratic that you could almost do anything you want with your vehicle.

In general, when you feel like it,j ust park wherever you want, stop whenever you like, ignore any incoming cars by coming out of any junction without paying attention to them (That is what the incoming cars’ brakes are for!) or jump any traffic queues whenever you want (they are trying to improve traffic efficiency because the drivers that gave in usually are slow reaction type).


However, different vehicles in Penang have their own ‘uniqueness’

Cars

Although the cars over here are usually the victims, they are not ‘weak’ at all. There are lots of creative ways to drive a car in Penang.

  • The Swimming Pattern - The car zigzags between two lanes, a good display of freestyle swimming.
  • The Titanic Pattern – They are the ‘King of the world’; they drive in the middle of these 2 lanes, using the centre white divider to calibrate the position of their cars.

  • The US Pattern – Slow lane is no longer left lane, it’s right lane! Our Uncle Sam says so!

Motorbikes
Do not underestimate these vehicles. The riders think that they are driving a car, so don’t scold them when they drive slowly in the middle of the lane. Unless you own the road, else if you scold them, they would say that they pay road tax too!
In some cases, they think that they are both their bikes and themselves are considered as human beings. So they tend to ride their motorbikes on pavements which are meant for pedestrians or even go against the traffic on the same lane!

Lorries, Buses and Trucks
I guess the drivers watch too much of Transformers. In some condition they could ‘transform’ into motorbikes and squeeze through small gaps between side by side cars. In some cases, they think they become invisible and run red lights. For some drivers, they could ‘enlarge’ their vehicles to occupy 2 lanes. For them, no lane is too small, no road is too wide and rule is no rule. Must be Adidas fan – Impossible is Nothing!

Bicycle
There are many Lance Armstrong Wannabe in Penang. They think they could ride as fast as a spending motorcyclist. So don’t get annoyed if you find some bicycles riding in front of you and don’t give way, they could be representing Penang in future!

Friday, September 26, 2008

YAB Lim Guan Eng Was Here!

Our beloved Penang Chief Minister, YAB Lim Guan Eng visited my company yesterday!
And accompanying him is his knights and lady of the round table (Can you tell which are the politician you guys are voting for during March Election?)

And yes, our famous blogger turned politician, Jeff Ooi was also present. I managed to notice one thing - YAB Lim Guan Eng don’t get used to wearing badge.

It was a happy day because everyone in Top Secret lab managed to take photo with their beloved Chief Minister. But can you spot me?

Yup, from the right, at the second row, the second person!

Just want to brag about this - I managed to shake YAB Lim Guan Eng’s hand! Ho ho ho!

So, what should I do with my hand now? My precious hand that shook YAB Lim Guan Eng’s hand…

Wrap it and not washing it for a month?

For those who wish to buy our Chief Minister a gift for Christmas, try considering portable game console.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

China Milk Scandal

Sorry for not being able to update my blog regularly. It has been a hectic week since I arrived Penang one week ago. My life is now limited to 2 activities - Sleep and Work. For meals, I usually takes them at my work place. I arrive home from work at 12.30am everyday and go to work at 9.15am the next day. Tough life!

Lately there is news regarding China Milk Scandal that led to a worldwide recall in China Milk product. Many babies has been hospitalized and some even died. Since yesterday, I have been receiving the same email telling people which items have been recalled by Agri-food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) of Singapore.

However a check at the AVA website, there are only 3 products that have been recalled.

Anyway, I’m sure China is doing their very best to make sure that this thing will not happen again.

So, tourists in China Red Light District, don’t be surprise if you witness this scenario because of China extra measures in countering the Milk Scandal.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Malaysia Sweet Malaysia

There’s a saying that “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence”. After my Bangalore trip, nah, I don’t think so anymore. Everything seems in considerate level here.

In Penang, I rent a room facing the highway as well as the sea. So, once a while, I could hear cars or motorcycles zooming along the highway; but if compare to the endless honking in Bangalore, this is like peanut!

Anyway, I washed all my laundry to get rid of the Masala plus Curry smell that I got from the air of India.

No offence to all Indians, the smell is just not suitable for Malaysian. I don’t want to get mistaken by everyone that I bought and used some kind of Curry or Masala Colognes.

Well, it’s good to be finally home!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Singapore Changi Airport - Two Thumbs Up!

Good news! I’m finally in Malaysia. Bad news! I’m now working on weekend.

Contrast to what I have said about Bangalore Airport, Singapore Changi Airport is what I regarded as the best one! I had not had my sleep for 24 hours when I arrived Singapore; but I still enjoyed my 10 hours in Changi Airport!

I arrived in Terminal 3 at around 6am and the whole terminal was almost empty.


Most of the time when passengers visit Changi Airport they would visit 3 VERY IMPORTANT places!

Alcohol and Tobacco Shop – All brands are duty free! To make it more exciting, you could go for a few round of alcohol testing, but as your face get more red by the alcohol, the sales-lady or promoters’ faces will become more red also!

Chocolates Shop – It’s duty free too! But remember that Singapore dollar of $100 could either get you a big trolley of chocolates or only a small pack of chocolates! I noticed that most of the buyers there are sort of bigger in size.

Perfume and Cosmetics Shop – Except of the promoter that kept following around, this shop offer a big range of perfumes! And you could even test all the perfumes – a good way for me to keep myself fresh after not bathing for 24 hours! Just remember that ‘Pour Homme’ is for guy and ‘Pour Femme’ is for female! Getting them wrong might make the wrong gender attracted to you!

There are some shops that are too luxurious for me, but some people will still be visiting them!

Anyway, with the time I had, I was not interested with these shop at all, I went visitngother places that I usually did not have the time to do so.

Movie Theatre – The movies are not the blockbuster types but a good way for you to switch off your brain and get entertained.

But if you do not like enclosed room, you can watch TV at some areas, or even have a cup of fresh coffee while enjoying the show

If the tv screen is too small just switch to a bigger screen tv.

If the screen is still too small for you, go and watch the window!

If you like music, there are music rooms where you could relax and enjoy some music. I actually saw a guy in tears while listening to Opera, and at first I thought he was a bit ‘cuckoo’!

There is MTV corner too!

For nature lover, there is a big butterfly garden with lots of butterfly. To attract them, the keeper uses slices of pineapple; but my body odor was scaring them away!

For game lovers, there are free game consoles - about 10 Play-Station 3 consoles loaded with different games;

10 XBox 360 consoles;

And a room with computers preloaded with many LAN or online games.

Sadly, I could not find any reason for not working because there was an area offering free internet with desktops and also tables for laptops to get connected to the internet.

For those who love to move around, you can camp inside the inter-terminal transit. The interval for subsequent transit is around 2 minutes, so meaning it is very frequent and on-time too!

If you have 5 hours extra to spare, you could go on a tour around Singapore, just visit Singapore Visitor Center, register your name and then go and explore! When no passenger was around, you could hear them chatting loudly on office politics topic or should I say Airport politic topic. They should look around more when engaging in these conversation. Now I know which pilot was dating with which air-steward! Ho ho ho! Yup, I repeat – Pilot is a guy, air-steward is a guy also! Or should replace 'is' to 'was'?

Anyway, the saddest thing for me was not leaving Bangalore, but leaving Changi Airport!