Handphone Etiquette

This hilarious 6-minute video, popularly known as the "Hong Kong Bus Uncle", had been circulated online for a while now. It was so popular somebody remixed a rap song titled "Bus Uncle Song - Diu". The video was about this young guy telling off a middle-aged Hongkie coz he spoke too loud on his handphone, and ended up being harshly tongue-lashed by the latter. The conversation is in Cantonese, but there are Mandarin and English subtitles.

To listen to the song, click on the play button below!

Superbike Licence, finally...

Finally, I got back my JPJ test card and managed to get my full licence yesterday. Applying for the licence at the JPJ office was hassle-free fortunately. I now have Class B (bike 500cc and above) and Class D (car 1,000bhp and above [kidding]) licence. Due to my superbly clean driving record for almost 8 years, I was able to extend my licence expiry date for both classes for up to 10 years! But I didn't bring enough cash, so I have to renew them come end of year 2010. Happy enough already!

Taman Negara, Pahang

Rachel was assigned to audit Mutiara Taman Negara Resort last week. Being in the "Visit Malaysia" spirit, I took a day off on Friday and embarked on my first journey to Taman Negara National Park, Pahang.

Rachel arranged my transportation with Ping Anchorage, which consists of a 3-hour bus ride from Crowne Plaza hotel to the Kuala Tembeling jetty, and a subsequent 3-hour boat ride from the jetty to reach Taman Negara at Kuala Tahan. The bus rolled out from Crowne Plaza's lobby at 9.00am sharp and took the Lebuhraya Bertingkat highway to reach Karak Highway. It stopped briefly at Lanchang at 10.30am, before resuming the journey 10 minutes later via the East Coast expressway to reach Jerantut town.

[Do click on each of the images for a blow-up view!]

We reached Kuala Tembeling at 12.30pm. I jumped off the bus excitedly and ran towards one of the boats at the jetty but ended up being told that the earliest boat ride for the day was at 2.30pm. Dejectedly, I crawled into the Mutiara Resort office at the jetty to register myself, paid RM1 for the entry permit to Taman Negara, and a RM5 fee for bringing my camera. I then slouched on one of the waiting chairs and sulked, staring into blank space to pass time.

Come 2.30pm, my name was called and I hopped into the boat (which was essentially a very long sampan with wooden flooring). The first few minutes of the boat ride was exciting, but after a while it was downright boring. The persistent roaring motor, the mundane water plus the hard wooden flooring which necrotises arse-cheeks made me grumpy and restless. I fell asleep, and woke up to a moderately heavy rain. Damn!

I reached Taman Negara at about 5.00pm. Taman Negara was gazetted in year 1938, it has become Malaysia's premier national park and the largest primary forest in the country, spanning across Kelantan, Terengganu, and Pahang.

Mutiara Taman Negara Resort is the only resort at the entry point of Taman Negara. There are however more resorts scattered around Kuala Tahan. One of them is Nusa Holiday Village, which is just 5 minutes boat ride away from Taman Negara.

Located in close proximity to Kuala Tahan, Taman Negara is reputably older than Congo and the Amazon rainforests, dating back about 135 million years old and house a diverse flora and fauna.

If you wished to save your butt-cheek from a 3-hour painstaking boat ride, you could take a right turn at the Jerantut town junction (instead of left to Kuala Tembeling), and take a 1-hour drive to this Jerantut jetty, which is just opposite Taman Negara.

One of the first things you notice when you walk up from the jetty is the Mutiara Resort front office. This is akin to the lobby of other hotels, where checking-in and out takes place. You also send your laundry here.

The one and only restaurant in Taman Negara is the Mutiara Restaurant, located closest to the jetty. The restaurant serves buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner, priced at RM40, RM45, and RM50 respectively. It also serves ala carte dishes and has a bar serving alcoholic beverages. You could opt for cheaper food by taking a RM0.50 boat ride to the floating restaurants across the river.

The air-conditioned chalet I was staying in (pictured above) costs RM450 per night. Open the door of the wooden hut-like structure and a comfy queen-sized bed greets you with all the wooden-ish furnitures. It is really a basic accommodation with a slight tendency towards the luxury side. Surrounded by woody furnitures and covered with attap roofings, the chalet never really lets you forget you're still in the jungle!

One of the rare things you don't get to enjoy in other resorts is that you get to sleep in close proximity with monkeys and wildboars. They loom around the chalet as though they were your pets. The monkeys would knock on your door and laugh at you when you come out expecting someone on your doorsteps.

The wildboars linger around the front garden and in the bushes behind our chalet, always giving out some weird rustling sound while they're doing their business. These are cocky creatures, they would distance themselves when you approach them to snap photos.

Unspoilt and undisturbed, Taman Negara is a very very very relaxing place to be for those seeking a respite from the concrete jungle of the city. And there are plenty of exciting activities to participate in too!

But since it was already late evening when I reach Taman Negara on Friday, Rachel showed me around and together we explored the nooks and corners of the resort that she didn't dare to explore by herself earlier in the week, before heading for dinner at Mutiara Restaurant. Needless to say, we had buffet. I was too famished to snap a photo of my dinner plate, but I included the empty plates that I devoured for the night in the pic above. We had an in-house Scrabble board game and watched Astro before heading back to our chalet. No prize for guessing what happened later that night!

Pictured above is the bar serving all sorts of alcoholic beverages in the restaurant. I noticed they have a selection of hard liquors, like Henessy V.S.O.P., Henessy Cordon Bleu and the likes, but most are empty bottles!

Saturday morning, we went for jungle trekking + canopy walk after a hearty breakfast. Look at the fatty beef bacon man, really fuel the 3-hour jungle trek up Bukit Terisek.

Our tour guide, Mr. Along, was showing us all sorts of plants and trees in the jungle. He was holding the gigantic leaves known as elephant's ear in the photo above, purportedly used by the aborigines as paper and food wrappings.

He then proceeded to show us the usage of damar (resins) produced by the meranti tree. The locals burn it to produce smoke which could repel mozzies, and the latex produced from the heat were used to glue sharp objects to their blowpipes.

A small plant which leaves give out a fluorescent bluish-green hue when exposed to sunlight.

The small flower known as one-night-stand. Haha...

This is the Liyana tree, curvy and gnarled.

The first 30 minutes of the jungle trekking was introduction to some interesting flora of the rainforest. We then headed up to the Terisek Hill for its scenic view.

The trek up the hill was as good as the Summit Trail of Mount Kinabalu - some sections really steep and challenging, requiring careful footsteps and good physical fitness to catch up with Along. We were supposedly able to enjoy a panoramic view of Mount Tahan, but unfortunately there were mists covering the summit. Nevertheless, the view was good! Having had a tad too much of drinking water while resting, I pee-ed in the 135 million year-old rainforest TWICE! I got caught by a Korean tourist the second time so you may notice a wet streak of urine across my pants in some of the photos. Hehe...

We then descended down the hill, which was equally challenging, and headed for the canopy walk. The Canopy Walkway is touted as "The Longest Hanging Bridge In The World". The whole length of the bridge is over 400 metres, but we only managed to do half of the distance as the remaining sections of the bridge was closed for maintenance. It was a great experience as you could have an eagle's view of the rainforest, as some stretch was really really high. So high to a point you see human's head the size of small ants underneath you! Traversing the bridge is a wobbly affair, and at any one time, only one person is allowed on the bridge and separated from the second person about 10 metres away.

The whole jungle outing took about 3 hours and costed us RM35 per person. We headed back to our chalet to wash up before ordering two beef burgers for lunch in the Mutiara Restaurant. The burgers were gooood, priced at RM15 and came with an egg and fries. The patty was thick but a bit overdone. A glass of apple juice (costs RM14) to down the oily burger and fries was heavenly!

Next up, after lunch, we decided to head into the jungle again on our own! This time, the destination is Lubok Simpon, about 600m from the resort and a place ideal for skinny-dipping (so we thought). Since our intention was skinny-dipping, we wore sandals. And it proved to be a very grave mistake in this trail (the same trail to Gunung Tahan, 55km).

The whole trail leading to Lubok Simpon was muddy and slippery, interspersed with sections full of small leeches. I got a few in on my toes and managed to flip them off a few nanoseconds before they try to sink their teethless suckers into my skin. Rachel on the other hand, got two fat leeches hidden in between her toe webs, and only discover them later in the day during shower. And we decided not to jump into the water of Lubok Simpon, as the water appeared stagnant. We didn't want the risk of parasite infestation!

I wanted to join the trip to the Gua Telinga cave exploration, but Rachel wasn't impressed with crawling on bat's dropping on narrow slippery rocks. She said it's like crawling into a shit hole, so I had to nap with her in bed. We woke up to a serene drizzle, and enjoyed the view on the chalet's veranda.

This place really, was a mesmerising, relaxing haven for those who want to unwind and uncoil from all the stresses in life. And besides Jungle Trekking/Canopy Walk and Cave Exploration, there were other fun activities too, such as Nite Jungle Walk (RM30/person), Picnic Trip to Lata Berkoh (RM160/boat of minimum 4 pax), Rapids Shooting (RM40/person), White Water Rafting (RM65/person), Nite Safari (RM40/person), Visit to Orang Asli Settlement (RM50/person), and a trip to an Evening Market (RM30/person, Wednesday only).

My time here was limited. My wallet was of limited thickness too. Therefore I head to the restaurant again for my final buffet dinner of the trip. I downed all sorts of finely prepared cuisines, and went to sleep. The next morning, I downed another round of buffet breakfast before having a 3-hour butt-necrotising boat ride back to Kuala Tembeling.

I would like to thank Pn. Nasa, the accountant of Mutiara Taman Negara for sponsoring my accommodation and providing me unconditional free flow meals at the Mutiara Restaurant simply because I was a "friend" to Rachel, who was auditing the resort. It is time like this you appreciate the friendliness and love of people that is scarce in the concrete jungle. This trip was simply shiok!

PASSED JPJ !

"P" stands for Pass! "P" stands for Professionalism! "P" stands for Powwah! Yes, I did it! I finally passed my bike test (open category) after weeks of waiting for the bike to be repaired! But this morning's test wasn't totally uneventful. As expected, the one-and-only prankster Yamaha Virago decided to pull tricks on me on my big day so that I'd look silly in front of all the 100cc bikers!

I reached the test ground at 8.30am, and there was already a guy on the Virago doing his last practice lap. I was later told that there would only be three person (that's including me) sitting for the open category bike test. The rest (about 60 odds) were all going for below 250cc category. The instructor stopped the guy on practise and asked me to do my final two laps before the JPJ officials step in at 9.00am. The moment I climbed astride the Virago's saddle, the guy who was practising earlier told me I would need help starting the bike's engine. And I thought they fixed the fucked-up bike!

"OK then, tolong tolak belakang!", I told the Malay guy hoping he could help me push and jumpstart the bike.
"Tak boleh... kena guna batu!", he retorted.

What the fuck? Why would anyone use a rock to start a bloody bike?!! By then, the instructor was already walking towards us, holding a fist-sized rock. Using the rock, he knocked very gently on the engine part right below the exhaust manifolds, and at the same time pressing on the Start button. And the Virago wailed an asthmatic vrooomm.

Later on during my practise, the Virago died on me three times on the test track. By the third time, the instructor was getting a bit pissed with knocking the bike gently with a rock, so he yelled, "Main sikit clutch tu, jangan kasi dia mati!". I was like, fuck you, I can ride a bike competently and it's not my fucking problem that the fucking engine died three fucking times and to fucking start it back up you need to fucking knock the bike gently with a fucking rock! But I gulped the frustrations down my oesophagus. When he was done, I yanked the throttle wide open all the way towards the end of the track.

I registered at 9.00am and waited for my turn. I was called for the test at about 10.00am, and it went well. Virago didn't die on me, didn't tip off-sided on the bridge, it behaved. When I collected my test result slips, I was elated. A perfect score of 20/20 for the technical section, and a near perfect 14/15 for the on-road section.

Thinking that was the end of the tiring and messy bike license ordeal, I was happy I passed in my first attempt. All that was needed to be done was to collect my test card and get the JPJ officials key in my victorious data into their sorry computers and get the card verified before going to the JPJ office in Senawang to get my official license. And guess what? The working system of "Malaysia Boleh" don't just let you off so easily. The old-fuck who was supposed to man the test card station decided to go somewhere else for tea, and my test card got ended up in the hands of another brainless chap who doesn't have the slightest intelligence to check if the card he took had his name written on it! And this shitbag disappeared without any trace and couldn't be contacted.

I was fucking furious! Without the card I couldn't apply for my new bike license. No apologies from the management. They promised they will get me back my card by Monday, but no apologies. So I'm here again, waiting. I can't help but think that all these shits, the injured wrist, the fucked-up bike, and all the delays, happened because I dedided to go on with getting my bike license without my mom's blessings. She'd never wanted me to ride a bike, saying that it's safer to drive. But mom, I love big bikes!

JPJ Test Tomorrow!

This Yamaha Virago is sure a pain in the arse. The first time I rode on it, it decided to tip me off-balance and injure my wrist. Then, when the time comes for me to take my licensing test with the JPJ (RTD) three weeks ago, it started to cock-up and not fire up, requiring it to be admitted into the workshop. My test is thus rescheduled to tomorrow morning. I'm crossing my fingers...

Supernatural

This is another silly video from Girls Out Loud (part of Episode 6) on the existence of supernatural. Rosalyn, the other host of Girls Out Loud, hosts a panel discussion involving a sorceror who tries to take a bullet using his "super powers", a practising witch who kept seeing and hearing ghosts, a teenage bomoh who communicate with ghost and thinks he's not crazy, and a skeptic. Best part is during the second half of the clip when XiaXue shoots the sorceror.

Labioplasty

This short video is from one of the episodes of Girls Out Loud, a talk show broadcasted by Channel5 and hosted by Wendy Cheng a.k.a. XiaXue. Watch how silly and immature she was while the plastic surgeon explained why some females needed their genitals reconstructed, a procedure known as labioplasty.

Med Colleges Under Probe

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek said, "After a six-month-probe, the ministry found the lecturer-student ratio of two local private medical colleges to be 1:20 when ideally it should be 1:6 to 1:8". These two medical colleges are under investigation by the Health Ministry of Malaysia for violating regulations pertaining to training of students in the clinical phase of their studies.

The colleges are believed to be taking in too many students and not providing adequate training for them, which is vital before they can be full-fledged doctors. “While Universiti Malaya alone is churning out about 200 students each year, these private colleges, which have been operating less than 10 years, have produced 300 students per year,” he said. Dr Chua said such acts by the private colleges would tarnish the name of the country as a centre of excellence for education.

Health director-general Tan Sri Ismail Merican, who was also at the event, said initial investigations also found that there was no full-time lecturer at the colleges. He said the ministry and the Malaysian Medical Council would send warning letters to the two colleges and their certification would not be renewed if they failed to heed the advice.

Why is IMU unlikely one of the two colleges? First of all, IMU had been operating more than 10 years (15 years to date). Secondly, although at some point of our clinical phase we do have a ratio of about 1:14 to 1:18 lecturer-student ratio, IMU did not produce as many as 300 students per year, at most 160. Thirdly, IMU does have many full time lecturers! Then who are the culprits? I personally think AIMST or UCSI could very likely be one (or both) of them! I'm sure in time, we would know which two colleges those are! (must be Manipal!!!) <--- damn another speculation!

Emi Fujita

Emi Fujita is a relatively unknown Japanese songstress whose previously released albums include Camomile (2001) and Camomile Blend (2003). Her renditions of a number of English classics in her latest album, the Camomile Classics (2006), totally mesmerised my ear buds. Of the Easy-Listening genre, ...

... the songs in Camomile Classics are soothing and could easily put one to sleep. I had created a playlist titled "KK Go To Sleep" made up of most songs in Camomile Classics for my MP3 player. Going to sleep had never been the same!

Following are the songs in the album Camomile (2001) in which you could download by clicking the links next to the titles (a choice of MP3 or WMA format). Do sample this album! I copied the Camomile Blend (2006) from someone, so if you're interested go find it yourself scroll down to download :)

1. FIELDS OF GOLD - [MP3] [WMA]
2. DOWN BY THE SALLEY GARDENS - [MP3] [WMA]
3. IN MY LIFE - [MP3] [WMA]
4. UNCHAINED MELODY - [MP3] [WMA]
5. DESPERADO - [MP3] [WMA]
6. RED IS THE ROSE - [MP3] [WMA]
7. TODAY - [MP3] [WMA]
8. TIR N'A NOIR - [MP3] [WMA]
9. THE WATER IS WIDE - [MP3] [WMA]
10. WIDE AWAKE - [MP3] [WMA]
11. MOON RIVER - [MP3] [WMA]
12. DREAMING MORNING - [WMA]

[Update]
Holy fcuks! I just listened to some of the songs from Camomile (2001) downloaded from the links above. The vocal performance just sucks compared to the latest Camomile Classic (2006). The Japanese slang was so damn heavy she sounded retarded at some certain pitches. She had seriously improved over the few years, Camomile Classics is so much an aural pleasure! Listening to Camomile in bed could give you nightmares! Eerie!

[Update 2]
Alright, found you guys the entire Camomile Classics 2006 for download (ain't I nice!). Released last year, I must say this could be the best English album by any Asian vocals. Her voice is refined and Jap slang was still there but tolerable, compared to Camomile. So here it goes:

1. Over The Rainbow - [Download MP3]
2. Melody Fair - [Download MP3]
3. All My Loving - [Download MP3]
4. The Rose - [Download MP3]
5. I'll Have To Say I Love You In - [Download MP3]
6. Lovin' You - [Download MP3]
7. The End Of The World - [Download MP3]
8. Best Of My Love - [Download MP3]
9. And I Love You So - [Download MP3]
10. Try To Remember - [Download MP3]
11. Walking In The Air - [Download MP3]
12. If - [Download MP3]
13. Leaving On A Jet Plane - [Download MP3]
14. Over The Rainbow (Reprise) - [Download MP3]
15. Proud Of You - [Download MP3]
16. Rainbow Bridge - [Download MP3]


And here's the 2003 album, Camomile Blend. I haven't downloaded any from this album, so sample at your own risk. The quality shouldn't be as horrible as her first English (Camomile) album I guess. If you wanna experience the transition on how Emi Fujita had evolved as a total-Jap-slang English-singing cock-up to her soothing mellow renditions in Camomile Classics, this is the album to download:

01. Father by Thy Hand (a cappella) - [Download]
02. First of May - [Download]
03. Longer - [Download]
04. Runaway - [Download]
05. Every Breath You Take - [Download]
06. When I Dream - [Download]
07. Beneath a Rowan Tree - [Download]
08. Eleanor Plunkett (instrumental) - [Download]
09. Once in a Very Blue Moon - [Download]
10. True Colors - [Download]
11. Faithless Love - [Download]
12. Angel Voices Calling - [Download]
13. Home on the Range - [Download]
14. What a Wonderful World - [Download]
15. Good Night - [Download]
16. Father by Thy Hand (scat) - [Download]

Allergic Rhinitis

The term is allergic rhinitis, a condition I suspected I had been having since I was little. Being plagued with moderately severe childhood asthma in my early years, I'm clearly an allergic person! Although the asthma attacks had stop since I was 10, this nose problem I had been having persisted.

The symptoms are alternating nasal blocks; sometimes my left nostril is blocked, sometimes right, at times both. This disturbs sleep and made me a mouth-breather.

Being posted in Otorhinolaryngology (E.N.T.) for the past 2 weeks cleared up my doubts. My E.N.T. teacher examined me and said I had a grossly hypertrophied (enlarged) inferior turbinate, in which the mucosa is pale (signifies long-term, chronic allergic reaction).


My nasal septum (the flesh that divides your nostril into two orifice), is deviated to the left. These predisposes me to a great risk of having sinusitis, as an enlarged inferior turbinate and a deviated nasal septum could block the drainage of maxillary sinus, thus causing mucus overflow, infection, and subsequently mucopurulent explosion! I could die!

He also examined my throat, and discovered my posterior oropharyngeal wall is nodular (small lymphatic swellings), a sign of chronic postnasal drip.


I did not know I was so pathological! (whimpers)...

Mazda RX-8 ings+1 version

Released in 2003, Mazda did a great job in designing this middle-range sports car. It looks better than its predecessor RX-7. The Rear-Wheel-Drive RX-8 is available with two engines, a 207hp engine paired with a 4-speed automatic transmission, and a 250hp engine paired to a 6-speed manual transmission.

What I like most about it is the suicide hinge doors at the back which blends perfectly with the front door, giving an impression of a 2-door sports coupé in what in reality is actually a 4-door sports sedan. Most people still label the RX-8 as a sports coupé.

This ings+1 version is currently available at Naza.

The suicide hinge doors open to backseats for two person, separated by a middle console. Having the suicide doors means the front passenger and driver wouldn't need to adjust their seat whenever the rear passengers alight the car.

Bolted on with ings+1 bodykits.

Bolt on the ings+1 bodykit, and the RX-8 turns into a great looking beast which stance is able to chomp down any continental supersports (but don't go run with 'em coz RX-8 is not exactly a thunderrocket!).

ings+1 front bumper

With the famed rotary/Wankel engine with just 1.3L capacity, one could save on roadtax in this Boleh-land too! It has great torque and you can drive all day at 120 or 140 kph effortlessly. What an amazing engine!

ings+1 rear bumper

But being a rotary engine, there are some inherent facts to it - the engine is a bit of petrol guzzer as well as engine oil gulper. It gets lousy gas mileage (15-20 mpg is normal). This will bother every economy-minded buyer, no doubt, but it's a sports car! You do have to fill up often--320+ kms per tank can be a bit annoying. Still, it's the price you pay for a rotary or Wankel engine.

ings+1 rear CF spoiler

Owners need to top up engine oil every now and then. Why? The rotary engine actually burns some of the oil for lubrication so it must be replaced at about one quart every 1,600 kms. This is easy to do, takes maybe 5 minutes once a month. And if air gets into the rotary mechanism, the car lacks power and you've got to overhaul the engine. Overhauling the engine is a bit of a headache too coz you need to find specific mechanics who have the experience in fixing a rotary engine. There are no pistons in a RX-8!

ings+1 CF rear spoiler and CF rear bonnet

With so much unproven reliability and maintenance hassles, it is still a great looking 4-seat sports sedan/coupé. And its price tag is relatively affordable too (in the region of RM140-180K depending on model type and year) compared to, say Fairlady Z (RM220-280K re-conditioned, RM500K+ brand new). With it's look and great drivability, I want one too! The RX-8 ings+1 version!