A Short Trip To Muar Johor

The last time I remembered visited Muar was when I was 12 I guess. 18 years later, I came back to Muar and have another experience there. Here's a collage photo I've taken using my Sony Xperia X10 Mini smartphone camera:



Interesting highlights (disclaimer: My own observation and personal experience) during our short trip:

• There are only a few hotels in Muar and most of them especially during the festive season will be full. Make sure you book your hotel as early as you can.


• Muar drivers are speed demon during the day and especially at night, be sure to give room for them to overtake or you'll get your car rear being kissed (our car got scratched on the bumper by some crazy motorcyclist who saw us giving signal and brake light but kept on swerving).


• There is literally no night opened mamak restaurant during my trip there at 2am in the morning.


• The beach in Muar is a no go. However, Singaporean people still love the awful scenery at Tanjung Mas.


• Mee Bandung Fuad is the best tasting mee bandung I've ever tasted.


• Service at Fuad Mee Bandung (opposite the main entrance of Sekolah Menengah Sains Muar) is super fast.


• There were so many stalls selling 'Kupang' on the side of the road during our journey back.

My Holiday Trip To Patong Beach Phuket Thailand (Jan 2011)

Earlier this year, my wife and I was surprised with a complimentary ticket given to us by my cousin. He couldn't make use of the free complimentary ticket and gave away the ticket to us because the ticket expiry date was getting close. By then, we only had less than a month of preparation for this trip.

Anyway, cut the story short, we have managed to get all the arrangement done in time. This include, gathering all of phuket and patong beach information blog various blog and websites, getting a reasonable accommodation place near to Patong Beach, my wife's international passport and most importantly information about halal food to eat when we reach there. I skipped 2 items, one is to arrange taxi from Phuket International Airport to Patong beach and two, arrangement for tour during our short visit at Patong Beach. I'll let you know why afterwards.

Here's a full gallery of our trip to Patong Beach, Phuket Thailand (271 photos divided into 3 days):



Alright, firstly if you pre-arrange your taxi, you'll probably would have paid 200 baht more. I only paid 500 baht to the taxi driver. There is one thing which was quite scary, the taxi drove 120 - 130km/h and this was on a normal road since there were no highways in Phuket. I was sitting on the edge of my seat the entire journey..goshh..Secondly, tour package is available everywhere in Patong Beach. There was like a stall or a booth everywhere I walk at the stretch on Patong Beach streets. During my first day at Patong Beach, I guess I walked almost 10km, took a tuk-tuk ride, slept in the hotel because of exhaustion until the evening, searched and found the most talked about Malay-Thai Kusuma Restaurant (the best tom yam soup I've ever had in my life) and had my feet massaged by the end of day.



During the second day, went for a cruiser trip to Phi-phi Island. Came back and had tom yam and seafood again at Kusuma Restaurant. Went shopping a little bit, took pictures and walked along Bangla Road.



Final day before returning home, we hired this Malay speaking taxi driver, went shopping for souvenirs and took the flight home.

It has been 14 years since I last boarded a flight. It was one of my most memorable experience travelling to a foreign country together with my loved one. I'll sure be coming back to Phuket whenever I get a chance to go there again.

My Trip To Pulau Tioman (Feb 2010)

In December 2009, I finally got married. I didn't blog about it because my father passed away on the same month just 10 days before my wedding. I lost interest on writing blog after that and it took me several months to recuperate myself and my family having to replace my father as the head of my family.

In February 2010, since my wife and I didn't go anywhere for honeymoon yet. We organized a last minute 3 days and 2 nights trip to Pulau Tioman. We selected a 3D/2N package from an advertisement on 88db.com and booked a return ticket Transnasional bus ticket from KL - Mersing. The hotel resort we booked was a RM700 budget package for 2 person from Sun Beach Resort Tioman Island. My only comment for the resort is to change their bed. I can feel the spring inside the mattress. One more thing, the room doesn't have a TV so be prepared to do your own activities inside your room there.

I'm not going to write in details of our entire journey and activities so I'll summarize in using a slideshow below:



Overall, it was an unforgettable honeymoon and we are looking for more trips for the next coming years.

A Night At Tune Hotels Penang

Ever since Tune Hotels established 3 years ago, I have been wanting to try and stay there just to experience how the hotel is. Last September, I had the time and the chance to go to Penang after Hari Raya Aidilfitri to visit my mother's relative up north. One room was booked and paid online 3 weeks earlier at Tune Hotels Downtown Penang which total up only RM70++ per night. Arrived and checked-in at the hotel at 10pm after being stuck in a one hour jam just before boarding the ferry services.

Check out the photos I've taken:


Tune Hotels Downtown Penang


Tune Hotels Downtown Penang lobby


Tune Hotels Room Hallway


Loved the comfortable bed


RM5 toiletries


The stylish glass door bathroom

Unfortunately the room doesn't have a TV, however it wouldn't be worth the resting time if you spend it watching TV. The bed was astoundingly comfortable. I wish my bed was as comfortable as the bed at Tune Hotels. Overall, I give this hotel a 5 stars rating and would love to stay for another night there.

Using Maxis Wireless Broadband in Kuala Terengganu

I'm currently in Kuala Terengganu with my family. My brother just got married with a Terengganu wife and he will be on a 2 weeks holiday after this.

My family at the moment is living at Homestay here at Losong Kuala Terengganu. It has 4 rooms with 3 bathroom and the house is big enough for the comfort of up to 5 families. If you are interested to rent one of the Homestay houses, details are available on the picture below:

D'Losong Homestay Kuala Terengganu 

At Homestay, you won't find any Wi-Fi service available. So, I brought and setup my own Wi-Fi connection using Maxis Wireless Broadband and a wireless router. Here in Terengganu, there are billboards everywhere telling that Terengganu is Celcom territory. So far, almost 4 laptops are now connected and the connection speed is so far quite reasonable. Here is how the setup is being done:

Setup of Maxis Wireless Broadband with Wireless Router for Wi-Fi connection @ D'Losong Homestay Kuala Terengganu 

The ZTE modem is actually a router by itself so there is no need for any configuration except if the network address clashes or something. The internet connection is running on UMTS speed, it's not that fast but so far I've been using Skype with webcam while running Youtube and downloading stuff without any problem.

UMTS Maxis Wireless Broadband connection in Kuala Terengganu 

I don't really trust on bandwitdh test but it is safe to say that Maxis Wireless broadband here in Losong Kuala Terengganu is pretty good.

Joomla Administration Training at UTHM

Two days after I went to Singapore, I headed down south again. This time, I had to drive my own car accompanied with a colleague of mine. I was lucky I managed to fill up my tank with a full tank of petrol the night before the price of petrol increased the day after. Unfortunately, I still have to claim back from my company the same mileage before the price hike.

Anyway, I drive off from Equine Park where my office is located at around 6am in the morning. The journey took 2 and a half hour with a maximum speed of 120km/h with my red Proton Iswara. I arrived at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) Kampus Bandar at 8.40am just 20 minutes before my training session starts. I have never conducted any training session before, the closest I have done was organizing a training session so this would be a great experience.

There were 10 participants in my training class. The best thing about the class is how well the computer training lab at UTHM is equipped. The PC they have are all brand new Intel Core 2 processor with vPro technology. I wonder how much does it cost for just one desktop computer alone. Before the training started, we had an in-house “nasi lemak” breakfast and then to set up the network and computer for a localhost connection with Joomla.


The Computer Lab at UTHM 

At first my partner suggested to install every PC that is going to be use with XAMPP. I insisted that we save up the time to install on every PC to only setup and install XAMPP on one host computer and the rest of the connection is pointed to that PC’s IP address. That would be easier to control and make it almost as the same as a live website. Unlike Wordpress, the best thing about Joomla is the only setting that is needed to make the image, link and database connection is configurable at configuration.php file. After all that is done, I started the class with a brief introduction of why Joomla is suitable to handle a portal instead of a static HTML and the difference and similarities between a blog and Content Management System (CMS) website.

After lunch, sensing that the class was a bit bored over the technical jargon Joomla administration has, I organized an activity exercise which was a competition between the guys and the girls. The objective was to produce the most content entered and the best-looking website into a brand new empty Joomla system one. My partner facilitated the girl’s group while I handled the guy’s group. Obviously I helped the guy’s website look much more impressive than the girls since I know a lot of short-cuts and trade off of Joomla administration.

My objective before the class is to get the participant to grasp at least 50% of what I’ve taught them. From my observation, they have achieved it and I am quite happy about it. Overall, it was a good class and I’ve gained a lot of valuable experience which I couldn’t have got if I only keep the skills to myself.

A Day Trip to Singapore

I’ve been kept busy the past several weeks and it just keeps on getting busier. Thanks to the company, I finally make use of my brand new international passport. Last week, my boss and a few other senior colleagues of mine drove to Singapore to meet with our counterpart in the same industry over there. The journey from KL to Singapore took us almost 6 hours including a few pit-stops along the way. We then used The Second Link Highway to cross the border and made it through the immigration check point. But before that, we had to fill up a Disembarkation/Embarkation Form for Visitors. The form is available free of charge at the R&R just before the Malaysian immigration check point.


Disembarkation/Embarkation Form for Visitors to Singapore 

After everything clears up, we were on the highway of Singapore. Before arriving at the area where National University of Singapore is located, I was greeted by a chain of SMSes which I soon realized that my Maxis prepaid has an automatic international roaming capability. That’s good and also bad. The good is I’m still connected even if I’m not in Malaysia. The bad is for every call or SMS made and also received, the charge is 10 times greater. Luckily I only got one important phone call.


My prepaid phone roaming in Singapore 

The most significant thing about Singapore that I notice straight away after arriving there is how clean the highways and streets are. I am so used to potholes and dirt on side road of Malaysian roads, I can really see the differences from where I am from. The traffic obeys the speed limit thanks to the strict law enforcement over there and significantly, the cars over there look a whole lot better unlike my almost 10 year old Proton Iswara.


Parking Lots in front of Estate Office Drive 

After my boss parked the car inside NUS, we went to lunch somewhere in Clementi by taking a cab. The cab accepts credit card, now that’s something new to me. The price of the food is not much different if no currency conversion is involved.


"Makan" place in Singapore 

We took another cab and went back to NUS to prepare for our scheduled meeting. The meeting was held at The Office of Estate and Development and it was a good one. We’ve learned a few valuable lessons and it’s a good start to a healthy relationship.


The Office of Estate and Development 

After the meeting, we went over to Singapore Polytechnic which was about 5 minutes drive from NUS.


Singapore Polytechnic 

Another meeting was held but it got short because the Singapore Polytechnic team had to rush for another meeting.

I've put up photos I've taken during the entire trip. You can check it out on the slideshow below:

I Am Going To Washington?

Next month, proceeding the pre-training webinar I attended last week, there will be a big event that my company needs to attend to. It will be held at Hyatt Regency Bathesda somewhere in Washington DC. That's like the other part of the world from where I'm standing. Here's a view of the place taken from Google Maps:



Hyatt Regency Bethesda 

Yesterday I just got myself a passport for me to go out from the country. My last time boarding a flight was 11 years ago and that was just a 45 minutes domestic flight. I've heard that to go to Washington would take 27 hours in total of the flight trip. I hope I'll survive that..hehe..

I'm not really certain of whether or not I'm going for this business trip. It is up to my boss to decide (which I currently an influence over that) but at the moment I'm currently on a standby mode at the moment. I'm currently in the process of applying a US Visa. My brother went to US last year's November but only got a 3 months validity period for his Visa. Everybody else gotten themselves 10 years which kind of puzzling everybody that time. He'll be re-applying for his visa together with me since we are going for this trip together.

In my next post, I'll be writing a post on how I got my Malaysian passport on the same day. I need to get myself prepared as well.

A Day Trip To Ipoh

Last weekend, I went to Ipoh for a day trip. I've planned this trip for 2 weeks already however I was kind of in a tight budget so my trip had to be in a minimal cost as possible. I've never been to Ipoh by bus before, I've been on a day trip by bus to Butterworth last year. I've brought along my digital camera so I'll let you see a glimpse of what I've experienced.




My trip wasn't so bad. It cost me RM13.30 for a one way trip using MARALiner Express bus. The seat were comfortable and the leg room is quite big. In my old days, these kind of seats are considered executive seats and cost more. Anyway, I parked my car outside of Jalan Duta Bus Station (there's free parking but you park at your own risk), get on the bus and I'm off to Ipoh. My journey starts at 9am. Almost three hours later, I arrived at Medan Gopeng Bus Station somewhere before Simpang Pulai if I'm not mistaken. I didn't actually arrived at Ipoh town but I was on a mission to someplace else which I have no idea yet because I had to wait for my host to bring me to the place where ever that is at that time. Here's a few shot of Medan Gopeng Bus Station. At least this bus station has air conditioned compared to the other bus station I've been to.




Less than an hour later, my friends and I arrived at Hutan Lipur Sungai Salju located somewhere in Batu Gajah:




We had to climb all away to the top with all of our food before we can reach the waterfall. Seeing the waterfall was a really refreshing experience. Eventhough it was raining a little bit, I enjoyed every moment of it.

We then left the waterfall, had some spin around the outskirt of Ipoh and head back to the bus station for some snack. My bus was at 7pm and I arrived safely back in Jalan Duta Bus Station in KL at 9.30pm. By the way, I took Transnasional express bus and their seats are quite cramped. I pretty much preferred MARA Liner better. Total cost of the trip was less than RM50 which was cheaper than my weekly date trip in KL. I think I should take the bus more often. ;-D