Monday, August 13, 2007

Stolen Bus Stand??

Was surprised by this bus stand opposite Faber Towers in Taman Desa. Noticed the missing bus stand that had been there all this while but where was it now. Where will the bus commuters wait for their bus if it rains (it does rain in Malaysia if the authorities don't know that yet).

If not mistaken, the bus stand was in good condition and from the steel markings behind the tiled seating on the ground, it was ensured that the remaining steel was smoothen so that it won't injure people who may kick it. The bus stand was taken off just like that.





Normal bus commuters may not know where to voice out such inconvenience. They just live their life as it is.

Will Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (City Hall of Kuala Lumpur) or RapidKL, the bus operator in the area please explain.
Tags: Bus Stand, Faber Towers, Taman Desa, Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur, City Hall of Kuala Lumpur, RapidKL

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Enjoying Our Dinner at Bora Asmara

Was quite tired throughout weekend. Even though nothing pressurising, late night sleep didn't help. But that's my life, kept busy going out with friends.

On Saturday night we (with friends) went over to Bora Asmara, a Balinese-style restaurant hiding somewhere in Kg. Sg. Penchala.

Where's that? That was what my friends asked when I suggested the place. Located amongst the kampung (village) area, the quietness made it exotic unlike the fast paced city area or the nearby Mont Kiara/Sri Hartamas or One Utama.
If you are coming from SS2/Motorola bridge, take the ramp going up to the Mont Kiara tunnel, right after passing One Utama on your left. Email me if you want to know the exact place.

Good thing I made booking on Tuesday as it was packed yesterday. My friends quoted that the place was quite dark and can't see clearly what was being served especially those with curry paste. The place was arranged nicely as their area was really large thus customers were spread out all over the restaurant.

There was an air-conditioned room and it was reserved for a party. The rest of the seating areas were with the usual tables/chairs settings.

We managed to get a place at the 'bisek' and we were worried that we do not have enough place to sit. It was a small hut area with cushions on the floor and large big bolster-like for you to lean back. I had nothing to lean as I was just sitting at the entrace with the 2 steps staircase behind me.

Never mind, we ate while holding our plates as there were 9 adults and 3 kids. The dishes/drinks occupied the large table already. A bit troublesome for ladies who wear dress/skirt. You literally sit on a flat floor (with cushions) cross legged. I have to kneel, sit, stand throughout my dinner as we really packed that small area given to us.

Nice place to chit-chat after your meal, it was windy that night and surprisingly, no mosquitoes even though there were many plants around the place.

Ordered their signature Otak Seafood dish that came with blazing fire on its aluminium wrapper. This received thumbs up from all of us. Their Kangkong Belacan was solid too.

The food was a bit too pricey for such local malay dishes. Due to that people may not come frequently and the other dishes were not really up to our high taste for food.

As per other bloggers' comments, the food quality doesn't match the restaurant's ambience.





The ambience was quiet, with a group of malay musicians playing the guitar, cello, accordian and a congo drum. The musicians serenaded us with a birthday song (we were there to celebrate a friend's birthday also) and 3 chinese songs. Well done!
Tags: Bora Asmara, Kg Sg Penchala, Bali Style, Restaurant, Food, Otak Seafood, Kangkong Belacan

Next Change - 'Higher Oil Price'

The title was like a message informing us of a up and coming new show. But this new show will affect every single person in the world, whether you like the show or not (in this case, USE).

In a blog posting last year about Peak Oil, it was stated that oil price per barrel was targetted to hit US$100. Good thing it didn't but it did touch US$78 this year. In fact, oil prices have now been on a bull run for four years. This year alone, they are up nearly 30% (Business Week).

Following expected oil pricing:-
* There is market momentum, and the magic number now is $81.
* If we hit that, most people believe it'll head to $91 or higher."
* Some technical charts predict prices could hit $110 or $118 by the end of the year.

With the worldwide stock markets crumbling unexpectedly, interest rates would have to be raised as governments in Europe, Japan & USA pumped fundings to support the stock markets. Japan was supposed to raise its interest rates and with their increase, hot funds would be affected in Asian stock markets that would cause investors from Europe, Japan & USA to conduct profit-takings.

I'm not predicting the end of the world but economics do have its own cycles.
Tags: Oil Price, Peak Oil, Economics, Stock Market

Misleading Air Tickets Pricing

The Office of Fair Trading in UK has imposed some penalties on 13 airlines for their misleading advertisings details especially on the compulsory costs, such as taxes, in the prices they advertised for flights.

Will our Malaysian authorities do the same thing too? AirAsia is one company that, in my own opinion, flouts the law frequently. Their advertised pricing in newpapers are prices before any taxes and fees. Even though the one-way ticket pricing would show RM29 in the advertisement, the final pricing could be around RM72 upon confirmation.

Just flip through the daily newspapers and you'll see various travel agencies putting up so-called discounted air tickets/destinations. But they haven't shown the taxes and fees. That would only be shown when you are confirming the whole package. I'm sure many Malaysian would agree with this.

Well ah...... the Malaysian authorities will act if a big shot was an affected victim OR a big shot brought the matter up, otherwise common people like you and me ...... just bear with and be a smart consumer/buyer.
Tags: Office of Fair Trading, Airlines, Misleading Advertisement, AirAsia, Travel Agencies, Air Ticket

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Creating a CON Folder

An Indian national discovered that nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer which can be named as "CON".

This is something pretty cool...and unbelievable... it can't work with Words, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF files.

The whole team in Microsoft, including Bill Gates, couldn't answer why this happened. So, tell all your friends.

Try it now, it will not create " CON " Folder.
Try to rename the New Folder as CON or con, it will not accept ............ ........ .......
Tags: Folder, Computer, Con, Microsoft, Technology

Futsal Competition

Reached home around 11.30pm after a few futsal games organised by colleagues. We played at the Ampang Sports Planet.

There were 4 teams in Group A and B respectively and my team played the 2nd match of the night (all matches on one futsal court). In the first match, even though I did warm up but still not enough, I actually couldn't lift my feet to run as I wanted to. I had a terrible miss of the night when I could have hit a goal but it went way off to the left.

We have to play within our strength as it was a mixture of 3 girls and 4 guys in one team. The goalie must be a guy with minimum 2 girls on the field. The score ended 0-0 against the Orange Team and the moment I left the court, I really started to sweat.

Though the body was ready to react, the Grey Team (eventual runners-up) was better than us and they beat us by 2-0. Our last game against Green Team was dependable on the match just before us. Grey Team has beaten both Green Team and mine. If they beat Orange Team, then the winner between our last match will go to the semis. But if Orange Team was to win, they would qualify for the semis and our last match would be academic. Both teams then said that we would be play like mad i.e. without a goalie and score plentiful (we targetted 20 goals) to enjoy our academic game...hahaha.

Grey won and we had to play seriously. I scored the winning goal and my team, Blue, proceeded to the semis against the winner of Group B (eventual winners of the competition). We tried to play defensively against Yellow Team but alas, we were off guard for a slight second and they scored the winner with less than a minute to play. It was ok, we laughed, we joked, we teased other colleagues who played badly, we enjoyed our matches and it was fun.

Wondering how will my body react tomorrow...... haven't this aggressively for quite some time. Hopefully the past gym sessions would help.
Tags: Futsal, Football, Ampang, Sports Planet, Sports

Friday, August 10, 2007

Foreign Shareholdings in Malaysian Companies

Yet again, another issue about the foreign shareholdings in Malaysian companies. Bureaucracy not related to business, in certain extent, did slow down foreign direct investment in Malaysia.

In certain cases where foreigners wanted to increase their shareholdings in Malaysian companies beyond 49%, such approvals could be only be solved when a ruling states that a company established prior to 21 May 2003 could not have this liberty, is removed.

Different government agencies have different agendas, namely the Foreign Investment Committee and Ministry of International Trade and Industry. How in the world are the foreigners going to set up a business within a short period and thus bringing in foreign investment with the provision of employment opportunities for Malaysians. Malaysia is just not investment friendly compared with Hong Kong and Singapore.

The British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce has to step in in requesting that all Malaysian companies could have a 70% equities held by foreigners while observing a minimum 30% bumiputera equity (another NEP ruling?).

I have a previous contact from France that wanted to set up a food business in Kuala Lumpur. His business was doing well in France and thought of extending his ideas here. After going through so many process which were going at snail's pace and unreasonable requirements, he gave up. He said that although the government promoted foreign direct investment but respective government agencies do not reflect the same ideology at all.

He did say "Why must I give away 30% of my business to someone I do not know?"
This scenario is similar to the ones in the Maybank and freight forwarders cases.
Tags: Business, Politics, Bumiputera Equity, Foreign Equity, Foreign Investment Committee, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, British Malaysian Chamber of Commerce, New Economic Policy, NEP

Pattaya International Fireworks Festival

Pattaya is definitely firing up its presence internationally. Covid19 has hit many nations really hard and Pattaya wasn't exempted from ...