Was trying to activate international roaming on the current network I'm using, Digi. It's normally a very straight forward process. All the network's want is money anyway. But this is what happens when you're using the cheapest network in Malaysia. 

Step 1 - Prompt Menu at *128#

Step 2 - Select option.. in this case Roaming.. nice and clear for me to use.

Step 3 - Select Country? Okay, I don't see why it matters. But alright. 

Step 4: Specify country. 

Step 5: Select network

Step 6: Select Service

Conclusion: What the crap....?! Why not point in the right direction in the first place instead of wasting my time??

Bravo Digi. 

"Please think out of the box".

I get irked hearing statements like this. Especially when someone tells it to another as though they belong to a group of social elites who reign above the "narrow-minded" peasant mass. It's different when this statement is used in seminars or leadership workshops - after all it is a good piece of advise to consider things not tried before. But when some are deliberately trying to say "you're too square".. that's something else. 

Here is my response to the phrase - there is no such thing as thinking out of the box. Some may like to think they can think out of the box, but guess what? They're still in one! It may be a bigger box (assuming they're really smart), but it is still a box.

Your ideas may simply be the best option at present, but it doesn't give you the right to downplay others. We're all human with limits. And we also can be wrong. 

Still wanna get me to think out of the box? I'm trying.. but it's never ending. 

Had this conversation with Mr Cheong Sing Yuen, the KL State Commissioner (Boys' Brigade) almost two months ago. This should be a BB post, put I'll post it here anyway. We were talking about hiring a new Full Time Officer for the State to manage State affairs. 

Cheong:  I don't think a full time Officer should be attached to any Company. If I were in-charge and hiring, that would be a main requirement. (I am still serving in 3rd KL though attached with National Headquarters)

Voon: What if I raised my own funds? (We were aiming to raise several hundreds of thousands to buy a premise and sustain the FTO's salary for three years) Would you allow me to be attached with a Company?

Cheong: No. How much can you raise?

Voon: If I raise RM30,000 by myself (that's like a year's salary worth in Malaysia)? Sell away my car and stuff.. 

Cheong: Oh. If like that I sure can allow.

LOL!

Woke up one morning and lazily prepared for work as usual. As I talked out of the once I noticed several pots a beautiful flowers on the ground. Perhaps they were there since last night but I was too tired to notice. My dad just came back from a trip to Cameron Highlands the day before and I guess that's when the flowers were bought. My parents like gardening. If you've visited my house 

before, you'll know that my little garden patch is dense like a forest. My mom's kindergarten is more decent to look at as my parents spend most of their time there. But not bad, my dad bought lots of flowers for my mom.. like ALOT of flowers (aww).

Thank God nowadays girls are more practical and don't really fancy flowers as much as they've used to.. looks like quite an expansive deal (feel free to correct me, ladies). 

Roses.. used to be able to get them for "free" in Melbourne.. just steal from some house.. haha. 

I was in Ipoh, the capital of the State of Perak on the 24th July 2010 to conduct a training session for new BB Officers. I normally won't go for these sessions, but because it involved the formation of two brand new Companies.. it was something I didn't want to miss out on. The only thing I hated about the trip was waking up in 5am - especially me, a guy who likes to sleep in. It was a two and a half hour drive from KL, excluding a breakfast stop and needing to fetch my colleague Rick. 

Other details of the training can be found in my BB blog. The purpose of this entry is to talk about Ipoh. I've been there twice this year before this trip, but what I always miss out when I visit Ipoh is actually seeing the place. 

After the training Johnny, one the potential Officers and most likely the future Captain of the BB unit in SMK Menglembu, brought us to an obscure coffee shop for some white coffee. It didn't seem like much from the outside.. looks like any other coffee shop from the inside and outside. But apparently this humble coffee shop is the first and original Old Town White Coffee. No, it didn't have air conditioning, wifi access, touch screen cashiers not classy furniture. Strange that there's not much of the logo and other franchise material around. Hopefully Johnny didn't trick me..

After coffee we started the 2.5 drive home. The drive was stunning, with mountains similar to those in Quilin. Dozens of lime stone mountains, some with temples built into them. 

Unfortunately, that's just a glimpse of what I can make out of Ipoh. A clean town, a place with great potential where tragedy struck 2 years ago when greed and corruption stole the peoples mandate away. 

Will be back in Ipoh again some day. Hopefully to have a holiday! 

It's been one month since my last blog entry and five days till I reach my fifth month at the job. At the moment, it seems I'm failing to uphold my oath of blogging about important life events - the busy-ness at work really takes time away. Still, let's try be stubborn.

So far, I gotta say I'm enjoying my job. Almost living a dream - seem myself wanting to work here for too long. Hopefully, I won't make a mess out of the ministry while I'm here. My work's pretty much admin, but that's what I like. Meeting people and going around has been quite a regular thing for me as well.. all adding to the fun working for The Boys' Brigade, though I am very concerned with my organisations direction, especially the whole gender crisis. My main job focus is on Training and Extensions, the latter being something I've been itching to jump on since uni. If all goes well, we might be seeing 8 new BB Companies popping up in Peninsula Malaysia alone. BB Malaysia has been growing at a rate of 1 Company per year prior to this. Let's hope at least 5 Companies will be successful by the end of the year. So yep, been enjoying the job. My personal life is another story. Too many complications occurred since I got back. Too many circles to reconnect. Too many friends to keep up with and unfortunately I'm sadden to see once solid friendships turn sour over things that isn't directly related to them. But I guess that's life. With work, life does move onto the fast lane. If anyone though student life is fast with comments like "Wah, so fast one semester/year finish already!" - they are in for a shocker when they start work.

In a manual car, when you drive downhill the car tends to go fast even before you can hit the accelerator as a means of control. I guess life feels like that for me now. But I can't hit the brakes now. Hopefully, I won't run into trouble and will be able to navigate around obstacles while moving fast.. though realistically if I keep it up.. I'll eventually crash. I can only rely on God to guide us through with His guiding hands.

I've always wanted to see this - how do I sleep.. and snore. My friends always complain of how loud I am, making me even more curious.

I dunno if this explains why it always seem like I don't get enough sleep.. snoring looks tiring. I do find it quite disturbing, particularly a few parts were I seem to struggle to breathe.. at time looks close to choking. I wonder if this is how Marcus died.

Sigh. Sleep also need to worry. What is life coming to.

My second trip to the East Malaysian state of Sabah brings me to a town called Tawau, located at the tip of the State, right at the Malaysian-Indonesian border and a three hour flight from KL.

Tawau is primarily famous for diving and seafood. Tourist heading towards Sipadan and it's islands need to land in Tawau Airport first before making a two hour journey to Semporna, then another few hour long boat ride to paradise.

Unfortunately, I wasn't headed there for a relaxing holiday - quite the opposite. The Boys' Brigade in Malaysia, the entity which I work for in its headquarters, held their national EXCO meeting and annual Brigade Council Meeting this year in Tawau..

We landed a day before on the 15th April 2010 to set up and "acclimatise". Got to know the BB members in Sabah, mainly from Tawau itself and Sandakan who formed the main working committee. The meeting was held at MB Hotel, located right smack in the middle of town, within 5 minutes walking distance to the Filipino market and other attractions.

Brigade Council Meeting 2010 Delegates

The meetings begun on Friday first with the EXCO, who meet 3-4 times a year. The committee is made out of Officers from all over the country. Due to some issues, I will not disclose my opinion of the meeting. Following this meeting, several workshops were conducted, opened to all Officers and delegates from all over Malaysia. These delegates represent Officers, especially Captains from all over the country as well. The main meeting was held on 17th April 2010, with the BCM proper. Again, I will not comment my opinions of how the BCM went for the fear of loosing my job, thought I will say that 7 hours to have a meeting involving over 100 BB Companies is surely not enough. In OCF, we had meeting's lasting 2-3 days for just over 20 centers and even that was barely enough to realise a vision and direction.

Oh well.

Let's talk about the food instead. Tawau's seafood was simply out of this world! We had the usual crab and fish, but what was different was some kinda sea snails and mantis prawns (which triggered my allergy). I've never seen, yet alone eaten these things before.. so dinner was really something. The only problem was that we had the same thing three nights in a row. By the third night, I was hoping for some plain KFC or even indomee. The seafood restaurant we frequented was called Goodview and is located just a 10 minute walk away from the hotel.

Tawau wasn't just famous for seafood. There was also the Mongolian Chicken Rice, which was chicken rice with very sweetly marinated chicken.. with seafood soup - very different. Apparently there was also something called nasi kuning as well in town, but it was always sold out.

So yes, food in Tawau - fantastic.

Left: Ginger Sashimi or "yee suah". Right: Sea snails! An escargot alternative.

On the last day, one of my Tawau friends, Christina Pang (3rd Tawau) brought me around for lunch and to explore one of Tawau's pristine campsites. We talked alot about BB and the issues faced by the State and the Companies in her own town as well as several issues regarding membership in school. I tried advising her as much as I can, but a few factors, usually people, are in the way. Still, I believe God will be faithful to the ministry. A special thanks to Christina for being my "tour guide"! Haha.

Did I mention that Tawau is a hakka town? Everyone speaks hakka! It's like in KL people use Cantonese, but in Tawau, and apparent many other towns in the State of Sabah, everyone uses Hakka. Even the church service was conducted in Hakka. Dammn! Oddly, I felt very at home (I'm Hakka and can fairly speak the language).

Koko. One of Tawau's more delightful exports (apart from boring palm)

At the campsite, with the little time we were there we saw many animals. The flora and fauna was just fantastic. Tons of reptiles, plants and even saw fungus shooting out clouds of sperm. The pictures don't show it but the trees were really tall. Really good place to camp. Too bad it's too far from KL.
  

Both pictures: Spot the lizards?

Overall, it was a great stay in Tawau. A gorgeous town, minus the hundreds of rats and cockroaches roaming the streets(so many rats till one of the Officers simply "stepped unto one" just by walking casually). This place has great potential due to a good layout and foundation laid by the British. Unfortunately, the current government is more interested in Islamising the State by screwing over its resources, ethnic make up and infrastructure for.. well.. nothing really. In the right hands, Tawau can surely strive and become a very attractive tourist stop before heading out to the islands. Please vote this messed up Barisan government out in the next election!

Tawau town from far away. Cossy.

Having lived in his country for over two decades and passing by this massive landmark several times a year when my family heads back to Temerloh through Setapak, I've always gazed upon Batu Caves and wondered what lies beyond those awesome steps.

Finding my way there was easy, just 15 minutes from the city heading towards Kuantan. Only a RM3 parking fee applies. You can tell that some money has been pumped into developing the place.. but I'll comment on that more later.

A grand golden statue of the deity Murugan stands guard to the entrance of Batu Caves which comprise of a great flight of steep steps, nicely coloured and patrolled by monkeys. From a far, it does seem like quite a spot to visit. It's cave of which it got it's name from teasing motorist passing by of what wonders could lie within.

 
 
 
Unfortunately, I will not call Batu Caves a nice place. It was filthy, in a huge mess and just 100% certified that it is not ready to be shown to the outside world. Although this place is highlighted as a major tourist destination, Tourism Malaysia appears to be absent. Sure, the stairs are painted and there are one or two signs around.. but the place just isn't developed and maintained - at all.

As for the the "wonders" I hoped to find in the cave - I expected it to be a long tunnel network, perhaps something as complex as the mines of Moria in Lord of the Rings, but the cave is perhaps only 150-200 meters deep, ending with yet another temple within. I was pretty disappointed.

What an eyesore. Sorry to say, but I was really ashamed of Batu Caves.. especially in the presence of hundreds of tourist who I'm sure was not amused by the mess.

Overall, I guess I was glad to have visited Batu Caves. Do I recommend it? I don't really know.