Synergy Garden

Updated news by July 8th 2009; house sublot no. 22, a double storey terrace corner in Synergy Garden is re-open for booking. The earlier booking-person has some problem with his/her loan application. Some how, it’s a good news for me. Hoping at least one of my next-door neighbour celebrate Chinese New Year.

The house is 98% complete (July 8th 2009).

For more detail, please click here.

The Art of Living

My trip to Kota Kinabalu recently was not just for holiday. I’m helping my friend to do house’s survey, and at the same time I’m looking for any new concept for interior design.

Our first destination was a new housing area at Taman Bukit Sepanggar, Indah Permai. I stayed in Indah Permai for 3 years during my study time. The benchmark of Indah Permai that time was a green beautiful hill named Bukit Sepanggar. During my final year, developer has started cutting down the trees and reconstructed the hill to make it layered. I thought they were making a tower for network communication or for electricity supply.

Surprisingly… it was not a tower! Today, Taman Bukit Sepanggar is among the beautiful living area in Kota Kinabalu with the view of Sepanggar bay, universities, One Borneo Hyper Mall, and the beautiful upgraded Indah Permai ‘town’. Emm… the best illustration to represent Taman Bukit Sepanggar is the well-known planting area in Cameron Highland, Pahang. In Bukit Sepanggar, houses were built in a proper horizontal level, layer by layer to cover the whole Sepanggar hill. I love the idea.

Come I bring you to the kitchen. [The show house unit at Taman Bukit Sepanggar]

My friend said the ‘heart’ for every family house is the kitchen. My friend said kitchen with nice interior design complete with modern facilities will motivate the wife, mother, sister, and daughter to tidak sabar-sabar balik rumah after office hours because they will always thinking of utilizing their kitchen. My friend said even yang tidak tahu memasak akan pandai jadi pandai-pandai masak, buat-buat tahu memasak and of cause they will try their best on what ever in cooking.

That’s what we called “Family House’.

Taman Bukit Sepanggar is a housing project by Wah Mie Group (http://www.wahmie.com/). They describe Taman Bukit Sepanggar as “Imagine homes that offer endless possibilities, design with waking up to an awe inspiring view of tranquit serenity of the nature that complement the elegance and sophistication”

Double Storey Semi Detached House Type D.E. – RIA 2, price from RM591,418.00.

Double Storey Semi Detached House Type D.F. – DAHLIA 2, price from RM591,418.00.

Backside compound of Type D.E. - RIA 2

Double Storey Detached House Type A, price from RM788,000.00. I repeat: Seven Hundred Ks’, almost Eight.

Double Storey Detached House Type B

Suitable for gardening, landscaping or even as a place for GOLF training.


Rich people and business tycoon in Malaysia particularly, tend to buy two semi detached houses that attached between one another, and then make it as a SINGLE detached house. That is normal. Now, how about the idea of buying two semi detached houses which are not attached together, and make it as a concept of Petronas’s KLCC TWIN TOWER house?

Double Storey Semi Detached House Type D.A. – RIA 1, price from RM570,000.00/unit.
In this case, the owner was buying the TWIN TOWER from RM1,140,000.00 (catalog price) not including the cash for sky bridge’s installation.

Our second destination was a housing area somewhere between Putatan to Penampang; the Sri Bukit Mas. It is on the right after you passed the tunnel near the old Queen Elizabeth Hospital heading to Kepayan.

There are two options: The TREE storey or the TWO storey detached house.

I told my friend that if I have another chance to buy second house, I will choose this one, the THREE storey corner. Day Dreaming!


The third destination: Penampang!
I learn something new about Penampang. If a guy is in relationship with a local Sabahan girl particularly from Penampang, he should make a visit to the girl’s house. Not to propose, but to do counting on their house’s main pillars (Tiang rumah!). The more you count the more cash you can predict to pay. It’s OK la...

Let us count…

The three storey detached house at Taman Padi New Villa, Penampang… what a name!

KPLI 2009

I would say, the most holy job in this world is a teacher – teaching. Disagree with me? Without teacher, there will be no doctor, nurse, soldier, police or ustaz. In Malaysia for example, the biggest group in government servant is definitely a teacher (without counting the numbers of lecturer and tutor). Malaysian teacher can be a graduate from University teaching faculty, from Teacher College of diploma, and from DPLI or KPLI.

I still remember the time when I received an offer to enter KPLI (Kursus Perguruan Lepasan Ijazah) about 3 years ago [in 2006]. That was my happy moment, really. Happy and funny when thinking of my playful way of answering in M-test, and my ‘tidak jujur’ with ‘cakap-tak-serupa-bikin’ punya answer with flowering-words of explanation during the interview. I rejected the offer, BTW. I know, MOE has blacklisted me. Never mind, I already confirm (disahkan jawatan) in MOA.

During my time, the result was announced about 10 days before the registration, which I think it was a very short time to settle everything. You need to do medical check-up, facing the stupid and slow working of hospital staffs, go to District Council Office to angkat sumpah seranah, go to post office to buy postal-money-order(s) which you need to Q long-long together with bill’s payer, go to the bank(s), making photocopy of hundred documents and find officer to certify the copies, print passport-size photo(s), and fill so many form. All must be settle in 10 days including Saturday and Sunday. It becomes worst for those teacher-wanna-be who works in company. It’s not easy to hand-over your previous job in few days or with 24 hour resignation notice. All these include in the 10 days before KPLI’s registration.

This year 2009 KPLI intake even worst. The result was announced 4 days before the registration. The management people of MOE really crazy, yet asking the candidate to fill up so many forms and completing so many requirements. Yet, the online checking only available on the first 2 hours on the morning of the first day of the result. The website was down for the rest of 24 hours, meaning to say the candidate only have 3 days to settle everything. # All the forms and the offer letter... need to download from the website.

I guess I better write in Bahasa Malaysia because there are so many si ma-lai-sia teachers die-die want to protest PPSMI. I believe more than majority of Sabahan and Sarawakian teachers agree with PPSMI (using English in teaching Mathematics and Science). Of course la, our earlier King was Ang-Moh. For si ma-lai-sia teachers, they protest PPSMI kononnya to protect their mother language, but they actually don’t know how to teach in English. OK, Cukup! Cukup!

Pengumunan keputusan kamasukan ke Kursus Perguruan Lepasan Ijazah ambilan tahun 2009 sememangnya berita yang ditunggu-tunggu oleh calon yang telah hadir ke sesi temuduga pada bulan April yang lepas. Namun ada yang merasakan bahawa tarikh pengumuman yang terlalu dekat dengan tarikh pendaftaran (4 hari sebelum pendaftaran) telah memberi banyak kesukaran kepada bakal penuntut KPLI. Bayangkan dalam masa 4 hari termasuk hari Sabtu dan Ahad, penuntut terpaksa menguruskan banyak urusan yang dikehendaki oleh Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia. Urusan berkenaan bertambah sukar dengan masih wujudnya karenah birokrasi dan kurangnya kecekapan pada pihak tertentu yang menguruskan pemeriksaan kesihatan, pengeluaran wang pos, pengesahan sijil, dan urusan angkat sumpah. Sudah pasti ada penuntut yang hadir untuk pendaftaran tetapi tidak selesai dalam urusan-urusan tertentu terutamanya dokumentasi. Keadaan ini dikuatiri boleh mengurangkan minat dan semangat bakal guru di KPLI itu nanti.

Ada baiknya sekiranya pengumuman keputusan dibuat seperti yang dibuat dulu iaitu dalam 12 hingga 10 hari sebelum tarikh pendaftaran, bagi memudahkan bakal penuntut menyelesaikan segala urusan dokumentasi.

Tempoh masa 4 hari ini sebenarnya adalah lebih singkat bagi calon yang tidak berkesempatan untuk menyemak status kemasukkan mereka ke KPLI sejak awal lagi, melalui internet. Ini kerana pada tahun ini laman web MOE hanya dapat dilayari pada 2 jam pertama bermula dari 8 pagi pada hari pertama pengumuman. Laman web http://www.moe.gov.my/ kemudianya tidak dapat dilayari selama hampir 24 jam selepas itu. Ramai yang tidak mengetahui bahawa semakan KPLI boleh juga dibuat melalui http://apps.emoe.gov.my/KPLI/twrkpli/ (saya baru mengetahuinya setelah usaha cuba-jaya malam tadi dengan berpandukan surat tawaran KPLI saya pada tahun 2006, untuk tujuan membantu seorang ‘rakan baik’).

Umum mengetahui bahawa bakal penuntut yang ditawarkan ke KPLI, sebahagian besar daripada mereka adalah pekerja dan pemegang jawatan tertentu di syarikat atau jabatan lain. Masa selama 4 hari untuk mereka melepaskan jawatan dan dalam masa yang sama menguruskan dokumentasi kemasukkan KPLI adalah sesuatu yang amat sukar. Ada di antara mereka terpaksa membayar pampasan kepada majikan lama atas sebab meletak jawatan secara tiba-tiba. Sedarlah bahawa ramai rakyat Malaysia yang sanggup melepaskan jawatan mereka yang sedia ada sekiranya berjaya ditawarkan ke maktab perguruan. Berilah mereka sedikit ruang dalam bentuk MASA dan TEMPOH yang berpatutan dan boleh masuk akal untuk menguruskan segala yang perlu sebelum mereka menjejakkan kaki di dunia perguruan.

I hope she can melepasi segalanya dalam tempoh pra-pendaftaran KPLI ambilan 2009. Good luck! Good to know that you are not going out from the state. I guess I need to go back to my fu-mu house more frequently for the weekend. At least my siong-ti and mei-mei are available for me to quarrel and to talk with, and I don’t have to go alone to Sunday mass.

Selamat Pagi Cik-Gu!

Tokey Belanja

Swimming pool at the Four Points Hotel Kuching


Tokey is happy, so we all kena belanja :-) Buffet

Eatery @ the Four Points

My First TV Talk Show

My department organized an open day and a launching of Test-Bed recently, and guess what... we received more than 1,400 visitor although it was on Tuesday. Special thanks to Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) that helping us in doing the publicity in radio and television.

A week after, my director, my colleague and I, together with a lady-entrepreneur, were involved in recording for RTM’s TV talk show named Kuppa Kopi. The host for this programme was a young lady, Hazel Desmond.

The studio

RTM staff doing an adjustment on the light setting before recording

Inside dress-up room

Don’t you think his face shows a thousand of happiness? It’s for a TV show; for people to see and to watch. Appearance with ‘gimmick personality’ is important for those who involve in the show. Even a men like us cannot be excuse from getting a simple touch up and make-up by the RTM crew. It took about less than 3 minutes to make-up man, compare to almost 20 minutes for the lady.

They put it on me too... no choice. Sitting next to me was the programme’s host, Hazel.

My director ready for the interview

The first session of the interview was between Hazel, my director and my colleague. They put on a small recording microphone for each of them by clipping it near the first button of the shirt. You will never hear your voice come out from the loud speaker because it’s only a microphone for capturing and recording your voice. No matter what, you need to talk loudly, just forget about shyness.

People always commenting on those performers in TV show, drama, what so ever. Do you realise that people will tend to be different when they are in action in front of video camera? Even an experience lecturer can act like a form 3 student if he/she is not really prepare for the TV interview. Hey... it’s not that easy to perform well in front of video camera OK.

The host; Hazel

My director

During the first session of the interview

The second session of the interview was between Hazel, me and the share holder of MUM Deli Bakeries; Mdm Jamilah. It was my first appearance for the TV show. I told myself to keep on smiling and make it easy. Luckily Hazel is a non-Chinese, otherwise I might be speechless. Hahahahaha...

By looking at the playback of video recording in my digital camera which was taken by my colleague, I better close my face using both my hands when I see myself in acting and action. Gosh! Is that me? I think it will be the worst TV talk show produced by RTM just because of me. Why my face expressions look like that? Why am I talking in that way? Why? Emm... A face of typical Bidayuh boy! Yearrrrrrrrr......

Notes: latest news by June 25th 2009 - there is a MAJOR technical problem in editing, the show is CANCEL

Could be The End

I decide to stop blogging, may be for months, years or forever.

TESL (dated May 24th 2009)

My sms to her...
Langit d kchg sgt terang penuh dgn bintang. D kawasan perumahan sunyi sepi biarpun jam 8 hujung minggu. Ada 2 kali cahaya meteor melepasi dgn laju dan begitu cantik. How beautiful this world.

And she replies me...
Despite all the negative energy we’re being constantly bombarded at, it’s such a relieve to find ultimate peace in utter silent n magnificent wonders of beauty... Savour the moment xxxx. Peace doesn’t come by easily.

Waaaaa.... this is the way a TESL teacher replying sms. And it makes me open a dictionary. Yes... English dictionary cause my enGRish really ‘hen luan’ :-)

I feel Sad (dated May 21st 2009)

We always feel sad for anything unlucky/bad happen to us, to our own. And... how many times have we really care for other people’s sadness? If that happen, that person must be very close or someone important to us. Friend... don’t think too much about thalassemia, and Friend... don’t think too much about government.

Sincerely,
Nicholas Daniel

I’m Off for 5 Days

My usual working traveling tidak boleh tidak must fly with Malaysian Airlines or MAS Wing. Sometimes when it was too frequent, my face will look like :-( every time flying with them. As what my friend said “Kalau selalu makan bak kut teh saja walaupun nyaman, kadang kadang mau juga merasa laksa kah, mi sapi kah…” Hehehehehehe..

That’s why… sometimes when I have a chance to see, to talk and to fly with The Red cabin crew; it will make my face ;-)

I’m off for 5 Days, leaving all my office work (I don’t care), let my brother gasak my car, let the cat and the birds mengotorkan my house, and I hope my fishes can survive if the auto timer food feeder is out of red pallets.

I miss everything, everyone…

Stalin & Janice’s Wedding

[Click the photo to enlarge]

Six years ago...

This is what my friend Stalin does; photoshoped our photo which make my face and my head look like a down syndrome kid, the same goes to Tze Liang. His own photo looks bright with nicely photoshoped and makes him look like a super hero.
And he used this photo as background for his presentation. Imagine! How dare you Stal... Hahahaha

Six years ago...

Stalin, Ronald, Malvin, me and Ah Kheong during Christmas eve mass in Secret Heart cathedral, Kota Kinabalu. This photo was taken by Stalin’s girlfriend, Janice June. If I’m not mistaken, ex-girlfriends of Malvin and Ah Kheong were also present that time.

I knew Stalin and Janice (we called her Jane) since the beginning of their relationship. There are both born with mix blood; Stalin with Bidayuh-Iban, while Jane is an Indian-Chinese. Counting with my fingers, I think it’s only Stalin and Jane who’s among my best friends that successfully maintained their university-time-relationship until now. Both of them decide to tie the knot this year, and their wedding ceremony and reception were in KL last week.

Their second wedding reception dinner was last night held in Grand Continental Hotel, Kuching Sarawak. Stal... nasib baik la dianjurkan this week, cause if dibuat next week, I’m not around... going for holiday to Kota Kinabalu. You keep on asking, why and why I always go to Sabah for holiday. Emmmm... one day I’ll let you know. Hahahaha...

The one walking behind Jane is her twin sister. They are 95% look the same in appearance.

Thanks to Stalin for the table number 3. Our table was just behind the main table (bride, bridegroom, and families), which were among the two most in front tables.

Stalin and Jane acting cute and playful as usual.

Live performance by the band boy from Serian.

I never saw Stalin with short hair. Never! May be this is his new image as a husband. Stal.. you look round, man. Hehehehe...

Malvin gives some tips of words to Stalin.

Malvin and Ai Hua giving cheers for the new-wed-couple.

Malvin in action.

On this event, by saying “No, I’m driving” cannot be used for excuse. Wine, brandy, and whisky were among those liqueurs used for the force-and-must-drink type of cheers.

Jane, Stalin, Wayne and Jane’s twin sister (people also called her as Jane... which make me confuse of both the person and the name).

Emmm... I think we have this same type of pose and standing arrangement in the photo taken during our faculty’s annual dinner about 7 years ago. Ya I still remember, cause there were only four of us Sarawakian boys in the same faculty.

You must work hard brother.
Wishing both of you (Stalin and Jane) happy forever.

# Stal... I gave you double ang pow since there was an empty chair at table No. 3; you were being too kind for sincerely reserve one place for my partner. Thank you Stal

Housing Area with Better Access and Infrastructure (Nedded)

Perbendaharaan Malaysia has paid 80% ++ from the total amount approved to the appointed lawyer firm for my house at Synergy Garden. The house is expected to be complete by the end of 2009. Hopefully the new federal highway connecting Matang - Samariang - Sarawak State Stadium - Bintawa is ready before I moved in, because I don’t think it can be a nice morning driving from Batu Kawa all the way to Matang Jaya since parents are sending their children to school by their own, driving their own car, and sending only their own children, which contribute to a heavy traffic jammed every morning.

Housing project can be found everywhere in Kuching town area, or even as far as Synergy Garden, Sri Moyan and Taman Malihah which located about 25km from town. More people are staying outside Kuching now days to avoid traffic jammed, however the situation never change since infrastructure improvement for transportation is very slow or never.

Oh please... Do something to this area! Now, tell me where are those people who always said that they are working for the rakyat? 6th, 4th, and 7th miles of Kuching – Serian road are getting better than before, after opposition party took over Kuching division few years ago. Even BDC getting a new flyover while Bulibat and The Spring are among those complimentary for the people of Kuching South.

Red Roses and Candles

Any courier, fast food delivery and incoming letter to our department will directly go to the receptionist Mdm Sariah. Today, the unknown florist suddenly appeared in front of my room and makes my heart stop pumping for about 2 or 3 seconds. Thought somebody proposed herself to me! Hahahaha....

Those red roses were actually for my senior officer for his birthday, sent by his gym’s best friends. I’m the one who gave the address to them via email and during the coincidental met-and-saw each other which I actually do not know them. They request, I just simply gave. I thought they want to send an aquarium with African rare turtle, crystal stone or a weird type of pets/fish/frog/algae/plant as a birthday present. Who knows, they send red roses!



For this year birthday, we came out with idea of flaming the exactly numbers of candles according to his ages. Let us count; on the left side 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...., and on the right side 21, 22, 23, 24, 25....

Happy birthday Mr. Senior Officer.

German Days in Kuching

The event of ‘German Days in Kuching’ was officially opened today after the opening ceremony at Sarawak Museum, Dewan Tun Abdul Razak by the right honourable chief minister of Sarawak, Pehin Sri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud. Among those VVIPs present in the ceremony were German ambassador Dr. Gunter Gruber, UNIMAS vice chancellor Prof. Dr Khairuddin Abd Hamid, deputy chief minister Alfred Jabu, state secretary Wilson Baya, and Y.B. Larry Sng.

Germany is the home of Albert Einstein, also famous for their great cars like Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Porsche. I managed to come early for the opening ceremony and I saw many people with blonde and white hair with familiar face like KFC’s Mr Colonel, Micheal Shumacher and Micheal Ballack. Majority of them dressed and look like Dr. House (Astro AXN famous drama series) and Micheal Oven.

Chief Minister visiting the ‘100 Best Posters’ exhibition.

All the posters are designed by the graduates from Geothe-Institute Kuala Lumpur, one of the famous German’s worldwide organization which deal with promotion of the German language and culture. A total of approximately 300 German companies are now directly represented in Malaysia, while about 70 of them run production facilities here.

To show the full support of Modern Germany has to offer, the German Embassy in Kuala Lumpur proudly present the German Days in Kuching from 22 to 24 April 2009. This great event has an integrated approach encompassing business, science and technology, politics, cultural events, German language and information campaigns.

The main ain of this event is to acquaint students, universities staffs as well as the business community with the various aspects of German activities in Malaysia for academic exchange, development and research concerns as well as business opportunities.

There will be fifteen German companies involve in this event namely (1) Allianz Malaysia Berhad, (2) Bayer Malaysia Sdn Bhd, (3) B. Braun Medical Industries Sdn Bhd, (4) DAAD Information Centre, (5) Deutsche Bank Berhad, (6) Diethelm Travel Sdn Bhd, (7) German-Malaysian Institute, (8) Goethe Institute, (9) Malaysias-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, (10) Mercedes Benz, (11) Schenker Logistic, (12) Siemens Malaysia Sdn Bhd, (13) SGL CARBON Asia-Pacific Sdn Bhd, (14) Q-Cells Malaysia Sdn Bhd, and (15) University of Duisburg-Essen.

Among the interesting programmes during the 3 days event are;-

• Business / Education fair & presentations in UNIMAS.
• Lectures / Presentations on German dual education system & vocation training in Swinburn University of Technology (Sarawak campus).
• Presentations: Renewal energies and services in UNIMAS.
• Presentations: Engineering / Logistics / Automotive in UNIMAS.
• Presentations: Industry, education, and culture in UNIMAS.
• German Food Festival in Hilton Hotel Kuching.
• German Film Fest presentation in UNIMAS.

Eh, the poster exhibition is inside the museum. Whether camera is allowed or not, I don’t care. Here are some of ‘100 best posters’ from German’s Geothe-Institute.

Registration Numbers

When I saw those fancy cars like Toyota Wish, Camry, Alphard, MR-S, Subaru Imprezza, Mitsubishi Evo, Nissan Skyline, Fairlady 350Z, Honda Integra, BMW Series, and Mercedes Benz with cin-chai cin-chai registration numbers (what so ever the number is, it doesn’t matter); I thought the owner is crazy or blur-blur-type of person. It just like looking at the red hot latest Ferrari with registration number PCK 4140, or something like JJL 3411, or QAA 9210 what so ever. Come on lah… Got money to buy expensive car; sure got money to pay JPJ’s tender number ma. Those numbers like QAA 1111, TAN 9999, JJJ 1, PCH 7, AEC 13, or MAT 1, sure got people tendered it at the price of up to 5-digit Ringgit Malaysia.

I have no idea who’s the owner of this lorry.

How much do you think for the numbers 1717?

Belacan Bintulu

I was allergic to belacan last time because any little consumption will contribute to my body’s itchiness. I think there are many more people out there who face the same problem like me. Well... in Malaysia, belacan is a common ingredients used in Malay foods. Bad news; it also used in the making of Kuching’s famous Laksa. That’s the reason why I don’t like Laksa very much.

Living in Kuching and to enjoy the foods has really trained my body to get immune and tolerant to belacan-itchiness-syndrome. Good news; I’m OK now and I love ‘sambal belacan’ in Malay foods, but still... I don’t like Laksa.

Belacan (in Malay language) is actually a shrimp paste product. It is made from fermented ground shrimp, sun dried and hard-pressed into cakes. The fermentation process takes about 2 to 3 months. Normally, it is not used for immediate consumption since it is raw, and has to be fully cooked prior to consumption as ingredient in dipping sauce for fish or vegetable, or eaten on its own with rice. As I said, I love sambal belacan; the paste made by mixing toasted belacan with bird-eye chilli, minced garlic, soy sauce, and sugar and then fried.

Belacan is commonly in a rectangular-block shape. Some are in cylinder shape like a sosej/frankfurter. This size of belacan is normally at the price of less RM3.

In Sarawak, production of belacan is still using a simple method in a small industry, majority done manually. Production is only during the shrimp season which is usually twice a year. For the past few years, belacan’s producers in Sarawak facing a problem in getting enough supply of shrimp when the population of this creature is getting low. One day, it could be not even single shrimp found in Sarawak’s sea.

In that case, who dare to buy this RM170,000 fully set of automatic belacan maker machine?


This machine is available in Sabah, not even one in Sarawak.


I involved in Majlis Pelancaran Belacan Bintulu Sebagai Produk Signature Bintulu recently (launching ceremony of Shrimp Paste as Bintulu’s signature product). Neh, the one with exhibition and seminar on Good Friday this year. Good lah, many people can come since it was public holiday. They should do Majlis Pelancaran Kueh Cap Sebagai Produk Signature Serian on Hari Raya next time.

People are getting creative now days. Sometimes, it can make us confuse between belacan and chocolate because it comes with special shape and packaging.

Visit to Bintulu

My trip to Bintulu a day before Good Friday was not that good. I’ve banned Bintulu in my list of favourite destinations because my ex is from Bintulu. Everything related to her will definitely out of my intention. Gosh! The empty place is still visible, waiting for proper development for replacement.

I missed this year 2009’s Good Friday mass and my favourite candle-playing-Easter Virgil. However, thanks to MasWing pilot for willingly flying the Focker 50 in the dark, back to Kuching a day before Easter celebration.

I think my colleague from Bintulu office knew how moody I am to have a working trip during this time around. My face expression may look like yang berhormat Nizar Jamaluddin or yang berhormat Khir Toyol when they were forced to resign last time. In order to rise up some happiness in my face, my colleague allowed me to have a test drive on the latest X-trail. (Please don’t let my boss know)

Pity me, because I need to choose and blinded off my eyes from taking a meat and fish cake for my Good Friday’s meal. There are many Chinese shops and stalls here; offering wide selection of special foods which some of it only can be found in Bintulu. I also went to Pasar Malam, just next to Bintulu’s previous old airport. Huu... there were so many things to buy and to try.

My officer-friends recommend me to stay either in Riverview Hotel, The Regency Hotel or ParkCity Everly Hotel Bintulu. My office drivers said, “you better try Mastama Inn, sure happening and you will sure love Bintulu”.

So I stayed in Mastama Inn. This hotel is just nice, quite simple, no harm to stay for 2 or 3 nights. Located near to Pasar Malam, near to City Point shopping complex, next to The Regency hotel, and surrounded by shops, food stalls, bakeries, reflexology centres, pubs, and supermarket; will make everything convenient to you.

There is also free wifi internet excess.

And free 24 hours channel 12!

Don’t worry, there are also ASTRO channels HBO, AEC, Star Sport, Ria, Aruna, Travel & Leaving, channel Indosiar (Indonesia), channel Brunei, and also Malaysian family channels TV1, TV2, TV3, and ntv7.

The Heritage

The Heritage residence, tower and village in Sri Kembangan, Selangor is just opened to the public for dining, eating, and shopping experiences. For the past two years during construction, I thought this building will totally be an exclusive condominium.

During my visit last month, free car parking for non-residence was part of promotion for their new restaurants, shopping outlets, and beauty centres. Security in this area, although it’s useful for The Heritage’s residents, but it comes to something less-pleasure when the Bangla/Pakistani/Indian-looked security guards everywhere asking me whether I am the resident. How to do happy-shopping if like that?

The Heritage is located near to The Mines Shopping Mall with 1 minute walking distance. In comparison with The Mines, shopping and dining in The Heritage is more peaceful with less crowded people and beautiful lake view.

Here in The Heritage, some of the restaurants do serve non-halal food. Good news; at least there is an option rather than going to the 3 extremely expensive Leong Ya’s seafood, yong tau fu, vege restaurants nearby.

I think it’s not easy to find Pan Mee/Rice with Mushroom Salted Pork in Kuching. You can have a try in The Heritage’s village restaurant. The price is much more reasonable than the Leong Ya’s.

They do serve Kueh Cap too...

My Best Collection (Part 1)

I’ve been blogging for a year since April 2008. Special thanks to all the readers, friends, and blog’s contributors who have give their support to http://www.nicksuneo.blogspot.com/. Those comments in every blog entry are kindly truly deeply appreciate.

I took thousand of photos in the past few years during my working trip, daily routine, holiday, and in special occasion. Sometimes, I even have no idea to write and tell the story behind some photos. Sometimes, I need to think twice or more on my writing before published because my bosses also reading my blog (just knew it recently). I told my bosses that I never blogging during office hours (can check the time of publishing – always at 7pm to 2am night, and if you noticed any topic published in daytime, it must be on Saturday or Sunday). Sometimes, I need to edit the content after some comments from the readers, even thought the topic was published for few days or even few weeks. Photo tells everything. Here are some of my best selections.

The two black Giordano missing in Perjudis Island, Negeri Sembilan

Man and woman

Traffic jammed a day before Chinese New Year

Wind struck

Please don’t tell the pilot

Rejected music video - Jay Chou’s Spirit of Paddy

Tapekong – tourism attraction

Nothing I can do after see him holding a big knife

Nothing I can do after he start slaughtering

Nothing I can do after he start selling the fresh meat

Real short gun pointing to my .....

Fried worms from Thailand

When sago worms dancing in a row

BBQ – sago worm dancing

Ministers drafting a speech before press conference

When a little boy gives beer to a sick man

Tea break – the failure of lecture

The smile on visitors face when Mahsuri doesn’t rest in peace

My boss cannot hide. Gotcha!

Who dare to offer job to this guy?

Sarawak’s new car registration number

Silver Daihatsu Sirion in Brunei

Red Daihatsu Sirion in Brunei

Could be the 7th Prime Minister of Malaysia – Tan Sri M.Y.

Unlimited eliminated edition of FAX

My flight carrying Toyota Vios

When resident angry for the mistakable placement

Caught by the Gutter Paparazzi – photo taken from the 20sth floor

(Photo - deleted by the author)

Hidden camera in spa / sauna centre

Tragic! Emergency Room

I went to Sarawak General Hospital’s emergency room a night before my flight to Kuala Lumpur last week. It was my grandma who once again having the same heart problem as happened last year. As the last person coming that night, I’m in big speechless because I was really on-time when the doctor started explaining to us one by one.... ending with conclusion that my grandma was OK but she still need to stay in cardiology ward. Then, my aunty uncle cousins and I started smiling and joking with each other.

Our joke ended when a sound of more than 3 people crying suddenly came; running behind a trolley rushed by hospital staffs into emergency room. The trolley stopped just next to me and with no proper space’s divider, I looked at the patient and start thinking what actually happen to him. The doctor keeps on asking the women (family members to the patient)...
“Dulu, dia selalu minum alkohol kah?”
“Dia ada hisap rokok?”
“Dia pernah ambil dadah sebelum ini?”
“Pernah ada penyakit asma, tuberculosis atau peparu berair?”

Guess what? The doctor was planning to become like an old time musketeers warrior by pulling off the sword from the victim’s body. In this case, it’s involved the skin, nerves, ribs, lungs, and heart. One thing for sure; this man (the victim) wills really looking for donated lung if he survived.

[Click the photo to enlarge, followed by zoom]... and you will notice that there is a steel rod at the victim’s chest, making him exactly like a satay. According to the woman, the incident happened during their house renovation, when the victim felt down from the first floor to the ground in his perfect horizontal body position directly pined-up himself onto a steel rod.

Few minutes later, the doctor requested for more morphine after the patient start talking, crying, and screaming. Ordinary painkiller is no more useful for him, I guess. Within one hour, nothing much the doctors and nurses can do besides doing X-ray screening, discussion among themselves on the X-ray photos, and keep on talking (don’t know what things) to the family members. Steel rod was still there. I think they were waiting for a senior experienced doctor to deal with this case.

I plan to post this photo to The Stars newspaper for competition, but... better don’t.

Aging

My next trip to Kota Kinabalu will be in May.

I choose May coz people called you

Mei May instead of your real London Chinese name.

So… when are you going to Kuching?

I can belanja you grape wine!

Some people are obsessed with physical fitness, daily workouts,

vitamins, organic food; just because of the fact that our body keep ticking away.

In our twenties and almost thirty we think we are invincible, but

in the decades from now, the eyesight start to go, then the wrinkle,

knees, then the mind.

Believe me… it is impossible to get better with age,

unless if we are really looking for work retirement.

Many of us fear aging (I’m doing research on aging of Bario rice

sample now – which makes me so familiar with the word “aging”)
…. fear aging with all trouble it brings. But when we are
gradually stripped of

everything that worry us up, whether wealth, career, health,

dignity, beauty or relationship, we can invest more and more time in

our spiritual well-being.

We will see the payoffs now and later. The older we get, the
better we can become.

May… I have one pantun dua kerat for you.

"Always pray before planning…"
"Always love people more than things…"

Happy Birthday!

Ba’kelalan Trip : (Part 2 - Apple Lodge and Apple Orchard)

[Belog Jemputan – by H.P. Chua]

Bakelalan is located in the highlands and valleys of northern Borneo, at the intersection of Kalimantan Timur, Sarawak, and Sabah. One of the defining characteristics of the highlands is its relative isolation from the rest of Borneo. The name Ba’Kelalan is derived from the ‘Kelalan River and Ba’ which means wet lands or paddy field in the Lun Bawang language.

Building with red roof : Apple Lodge
Next to Apple Lodge : Ba’kelalan airport runway. Can you see the crashed Twin Otter aircraft maskot parked just near to the lodge?

The backpacking plus homestay hotel that we stayed, if compared to most homestay long houses in Sarawak, should already been given a ‘5 Star’ rate since it’s equipped with Astro Satellite TV, solar powered hot water and shower, flush toilets, clean kitchen, huge dinning (plus seminar) hall, clean bed sheets, natural air-cond (air from windows) and supprisingly very few mosquitoes (So far I didn’t get bitten but Md Noor did).

Me and Md Noor kongsi one bilik with one king bed. (RM60 per room per nite only). We all shared room because only the king-bed-rooms have attached bath room. Furthermore, we all got to save cost since the allocation isn’t that much. Kan gawat?

The room. Hidding away is Md Noor.

The dining hall. We had our breakfast, morning tea break, lunch, afternoon tea break, dinner, night supper and also meeting and discussion here.

Discussion about research project. See, we are very serious when come to official work. No play play one you know...

The bathroom is equipped with hot water supply. Mind you, this solar powered heater system bukan calang calang punya solar heater hor. It was actually officially opened by His Excellency TYT the Governor of Sarawak Tun Datuk Patinggi Abang Haji Mohammed Salahuddin and his wife Toh Puan on 31st March 2006. See...

Guess everyone must sing the Sarawak’s state anthem IBU PERTIWI KU every time taking bath here.

This is the most economy official opening signboard I have even seen. Can still see the remainder of torn ribbon on the top left edge of the signboard.

If you also want to install one in your house, can visit here for more info:
http://www.microsolarsystem.com/bakelalan.htm
(Microsolar, can I have some commissions for introducing you here please?)

A guest hall is located upstairs. Looking at is Mrs. Tagal, Yamu. We all call her ibu. She is one of the most faithful Christian I have ever met. She told us, ‘Dulu ibu anak yatim, tapi ibu sangat rajin berdoa kepada TUHAN. TUHAN kasihan ibu, jadi DIA bagi ibu suami yang baik dan anak-anak yang pandai”.

Camwhoring with ibu while waiting for dinner.

Trying her Lun Bawang/Kelabit caps made from antique beads. Forgot what the cap called...

Teresa Anie Meng

Zul

It is nice to wear but definitely not easy to take it off. Coz the beads will tangle with your hairs. Ouuuch...
We start our excursion by visiting Pak Tagal’s apple orchard located just beside the airport runway.

To get to the orchard, we first need to climb over two chain-link fences.

I wonder how did His Excellency TYT and other VIPs get to the orchard during the opening of Apple Festival last year. Climb like this ka?

Some say even though Ba’kelalan lacks in modern infrastructure, it has some worthwhile offering i.e. the special apples.

However, too bad our trip was a bit too early and the apples fruits all haven’t jadi yet. Most apple trees are still in flowering stage. But atleast we still can see the flowers la. Neh, come I show you.

This is how the apple flowers look like. Beautiful aren’t they?

Here are some photos taken at Ba’kelalan apple farm.

Don’t know why, the apple flowers seem reminded me of a sad classic mandarin song. The lyric goes: .... (mandarin chinese character - can't understand) Copy-and-paste on www.babelfish.yahoo.com then click “Chinese-trad to English” and see if you can guess the meaning)

According to various sources from the net, there are 4 varieties of apples grown here.

1. The Manalagi (Golden Delicious), has been renamed the Ba' Kelalan Apple. The fruit is greenish-yellow in colour and tastes sweet and crunchy. It is suitable for apple pie and fruit salads.
2. The Anna, which is red on top and yellow below, is sweet and sour and feels soft.
3. Rome Beauty is green with a reddish tinge at the bottom. It is similar in taste to Anna but feels crisp.
4. The Granny Smith is green and tastes sour. It's the apple for cooking and making cider.

Let’s see in the future if Pak Tagal needs our help to process the apples. My first choice: apple pie! Yummy...

For more info one the orchard, go visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrqK-5wli1E&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK0yW7U_ddQ

For those can read mandarin, you can visit:
http://www.astro.com.my/motosikal/blog.asp?an=245&bid=2476 It is a blog written based on Astro AEC’s travel program named Motosikal 2.0 (Channel 310, 6pm Sunday)

Free Gift for My Son

Shell is now doing promotion on their V-Power racing fuel oil and Shell Helix motor oil. For every pump of RM40 Shell fuel oil, customer is eligible to buy Ferrari model cars; the FXX, 612 Scaglietti, 360 GTC, 599 GTB Fiorano, 430 Scuderia, Enzo Ferrari, and F2008. This is not the first time Shell doing this kind of promotion.

Every time when the Shell station’s worker asking me “Mr., which model you want to buy?.” ... and my answer always the same; “I think my son prefer this model.”

Last few years, Nestle also doing a promotion for their cup ice-cream by giving a ‘bonzai Ultraman’ model as free gift. There are 7 models all together which Nestle have such a simple brilliant idea of making people keep on buying the ice-cream. The concept was ‘you buy the ice cream, eat the ice-cream, then you know which model you get’. Possibility of getting the same model again and again for every purchase was high.

Every time when the cashier asking me “Mr., are you sure buying this all?” ... and my answer always the same; “Yes, cause my son like this ice-cream. He loves Ultraman as well.”

I still remember my friend (girl) wearing a t-shirt with wording “Boy is a Toy”. Ooooh No! Correction; Boy always loves toys.