Evaluation Contest Chairperson for Toastmasters Club Speech Contest 2010

Date: 11th August 2010
Time: 12:00-2pm
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It was the 1st day of Ramadan for year 2010 and it was the 1st time I became the Evaluation Chairperson for a Club Speech Contest. What a historic day! There were  many things to learn eventhough I have completed my speech #7. I decided to take up the role when  Jimmy  asked whether I could do it. I was afraid at the beginning but then in my mind, I was asking myself "Why not?!" This is a splendid opportunity to learn the skills of becoming a host.

It was totally a  different  experience for me. There were still "butterflies and elephants"  lingering in my stomach eventhough it was not my first time speaking in front of the public. I guess that is normal whenever we are in front of public. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the contest yesterday and kudos to Jimmy for organising such a fabulous event.
 

Cuti-Cuti Malaysia 2011- Kuching, Sarawak

Date:  March 2011- 3days 2 nights

Location: Kuching, Sarawak Malaysia.


This year my budget for travelling was allocated only for local travel. This time around I visited the land of the hornbill. It was my first time visit and I stayed for 3 days 2 nights. As usual for all my flights and accomodation, I handle it myself (without asking for agent) . One of the factor I decided to visit Kuching was because when I browse through one of the local airlines (NOT airasia of course) was because it got a very good promotion to go to Kuching. I grabbbed 2 seats.One was for my mom.

We stayed in Four Points by Sheraton group inclusive breakfast. The hotel was nearby to the airport (5 minits drive) however, it was kind of far to the city centre for first timer visitor. To me, its fine since the hotel has a shuttle to go to city centre. One thing that I found out if taking a taxi in Kuching was that every taxi will start with RM10, so its kind of expensive compare in KL. This got to do with their association request. I was satisfied with the hotel room but the buffet spread was not that impressive to me. The location of the swimming pool also was not that good in my point of view because it was next to the restaurant.

The first day we visited the "Sarawak Cultural Village" in the morning. The place was fascinating because  we managed to see different type of houses and also an hour of cultural show. Majority of Kuching people are Iban, however I could see that they have more multicultural races compare to us in Peninsular. They are indeed 1 Malaysia first. My 60++ year old mum was more excited than me , she was able to go up and down all the 10 type of houses without even feeling tired. My "Super"Mom ..

We had  lunch in a seafood restaurant on the way back. Very fresh all the fish and the food was delicious. We had around 6 dishes and the total bill was cheap if we compare to Peninsular price. In the evening we took  the boat ride tour of the Sarawak River. It was a 2 hour boat ride. The boat was big and comfortable. They even served us water and some cakes.  It was before the sunset. We could see the sunset while touring. Amazing view. During the tour we got to see many types of scenary and also historical places from the boat.

The second day, I decided to rent a car since the city are not that big and easy to drive. There was an offer at that time from Hertz that any visitor could get a 50% discount rental in EastCoast if travel around that time. So I grabbed the offer and the car that we took was Hyundai Matic. We went for a shopping at the side of the riverfront. We bought mostly the sarawak batik and sourveniours. After that we had a tour around the city. We also had gone to the the Pasar Satok to buy the Sarawak  Terubuk Masin. Its easy to bring inside the plane because they already packed nicely for us.

To me, Kuching is one of the city that I don't mind to go back to have a short vacation. The lives and the scenary are different from Peninsular. Probably next time around I will try to visit other places in Sarawak e.g Miri or Bintulu.

For now I signed off.....

My Mom

2010-AFF Suzuki Cup-Malaysia won at last !!!!

Malaysia winning team-2010 Suzuki cup

For 14 years we never win any football cup match in Asean level. I guess this year's winning is the beginning of the new era (hopefully) for our country football standard. Most of the team players were below 25 years of age. They are very young, energetic and "hungry" for a winning I guess. That's a good attitude to have when they want to win it so bad. They lost to Indonesia at the beginning of the round, but at final they beat them... So how was that possible???  When I watched them played in the final game, I could see the spirit in each of them that they want to win it so badly and that's why they give us a terrific show. When  people saw the "determination spirit" in each of them, that's where the differences were and eventually they won the cup. 

So after this what's next for our football team? I hope this would not be a one time off again like what our badminton team last time. Before 1992, they have not win the Thomas cup for 25 years. Now its year 2011, nearly 20 years, we did not win another Thomas cup ever since 1992. So are we supposed to wait 25 years every time we want to win something at the International Level? We were so complacent with the winning of 1992, but after that we did not go far. Unlike the Indonesia and Chinese team. Indonesia lost to us on that 1992 year, but after that they rose to win the cup the following years, not once, but  they did it again.. and again and again. So are we going to be complacent every time we won something at International level?? Does the "backup plan" actually works in our National Sports Program???  I wished that this time no more complacent attitude from the backup plan.

My 1st Trip to Hanoi

It was in June 2010, we had arrived in Hanoi for the first time. The city itself reminds me of Malaysia was in the early 1980s of development. As usual Lina and I went on a backpack trip. We had booked a budget hotel in Hanoi through Internet and we met a warm gentlemen the hotel manager Mr Vinh. He was helpful and very accommodating on trying to make the best out of our trip. 

Lina and I started our trip by visiting Halong Bay. It was one of the places that has been named as one of  UNESCO protection site because of the billion years of rock formation created in the area.  It was indeed an amazing sighting. We took a one day trip and it took around 3 hours journey from the city to the Bay. We had our seafood lunch in the boat and we visited some of their communities that stays in the area. 

The next day we went for some city tour. Visited the Ho Chi Minh musoleum and went to see the famous water puppet show. In the middle of their city they have the famous Ho Kiem Lake where mostly people came for some relaxing moment or some activities around the lake. One thing about their transportation that I remembered was that Motorcyclist are the Kings of the road. There were thousands of motorcyclist but its not like in Malaysia, they were well behaved and knew to give way to pedestrian first. We were not afraid to cross the road even though so many of them riding on the street.

We did some shopping but I still prefer to shop in Bangkok compare in Hanoi. Why? Its very tiresome when we need to bargain almost 80%  every time we went to their shop.Most of the shopkeepers when they knew that we were tourist , the price stated was incredible crazy. So I was not really enjoying the shopping part. However we do met some very nice shop that was reasonable in price. It took a lot of hard work by then to find it. In terms of food there were not many halal food in here compare to Bangkok but we managed to find several of the restaurants which were halal. There was 1 vegetarian restaurant that we found too.  

 I guess I enjoyed a lot in the sight seeing part of  this trip compare to shopping, but 1 thing  I was grateful that I managed to see a country that once were considered the communist or very dangerous place in the 70s. What I learned from them was that even though how tough they were oppressed by US/world back then, they managed to bring back their economy, their people's development without loosing their country dignity and I salute them for that... cheers to your development Vietnam !!..

 

My 1st Shopping Trip to Bangkok

Streets nearby Pratunam area

 It was the year 2009 I visited Bangkok for the first time. I followed my friend Lina and the intent was more into shopping rather than sight seeing. We stayed around 4 nights and 5 days. At the beginning, I thought RM1K is enough just for shopping. Well after I stayed around 5 days, it was enough but it was so cheap that I was merely wanted more that I ended up spending another 1K. I stayed around Pratunam area. Its not a 5 class hotel, but for me as long as its clean then its good enough. The hotel that we got called "Rose House" , its a budget hotel and we only used it for our night sleep. Since that Lina knew Bangkok very well, we did not follow any tourist agency. Just used map and we are on our way.  The Pratunam area itself that I went, has a 24 hours night markets that we can buy things all night long. We just walked down from our hotel and the market was just there (below the hotel).For me,it was not bad, with only market standard, the clothes that they sell, did have some good style which I could not find in Malaysia night market standard.

To find Muslim food  was not that difficult in the area because there were many Pakistan restaurant nearby. Well I guess its depends on the individual, if you are the type that wasn't particular, then you will be OK. For me as long as its clean and Halal, then its fine. 

I had the opportunity also to visit some of the shopping Mall example the Siam Paragon. We had some window shopping there. We did went to one of those Fashion Mall near Pratunam area (forgot the mall's name). 

On Saturday, we went to the famous weekend market in Bangkok. It is called Chatuchak weekend market. I was really impressed because thousands of shops and stalls were setup in one very large area. We spent the whole day there, but only managed to cover a quarter of the area. Its dam huge.I like to go to that place because I could see the items they sell, which I cannot see here in Malaysia. It was intriguing to see many unique things sell under one giant roof.  

I had a lot fun there shopping in Bangkok, even though I don't have the opportunity that time to do some sight seeing, but it was fun enough for me just to shop around in Bangkok. I consider one of those shopping heaven place for me. 

One of the stalls in Chatuchak