Subang Airport Shuttle Bus Service

Today I made my way to the Klang Valley again for the Goods & Services Tax (GST) Agent examination to be held at the Putra World Trade Centre.

If last week I took the bus, this time I chose to fly with Malindo Air. Despite the current weather it was a rather turbulence free flight and I arrived at the Subang Airport on time.

Unfortunately mate Nasser could not pick me up as scheduled thus a change of plan was necessary.

I decided to head for kL Sentral to have lunch there before checking in at the Plaza Hotel in Jalan Raja Laut.

Now there is the Airport Shuttle Bus service that will take travellers to two destinations, the LRT Station in Kelana Jaya (RM4) and the other one is to Pudu Sentral via Sunway Pyramid, Bangsar LRT Station, kL Sentral and the KTM Old Railway Station (RM10).

If you take the cab it will cost you around RM40 for a single trip to kL.

The journey to kL Sentral took around 30-45 minutes in smooth traffic.

The shuttle bus service is operated by Konsortium Transnasional Berhad (KTB) which also has Nice Executive Coach, Transnasional and Plusliner under it's stable.

Chonburi Revisited

How so many things could change within a year.

My first visit to Chonburi was almost exactly a year ago, covering the Asian Youth Trophy (ACT) 2013 match between the home side Chonburi FC against Frenz United B.

At the time I was still the editor of the Dunia Sukan magazine.

Last Sunday I found myself travelling to the tow 100 km southeast of Bangkok again for an assignment which almost mirrored the one that I carried out last year.

However this time, I was travelling for asiana.my which had been engaged by the ACT organiser as their official photographer for the tournament.

Air Asia was still the official airline for the tournament and I departed to Bangkok's Dong Meuang Airport with the rest of the media group and after an hour journey arrived at the Chon Inter, the same hotel that I stayed last year.

Then I found out that the senior side were playing that night against Thai Port Authority in a Thai Premier League match at their stadium. It was an opportunity that did not come all the time, to capture the actions in the best league in South East Asia.

With a little assistance received from the home side I managed to get by the pitch side.

It was a fast and thrilling match in which the home side needed to win in order to continue their challenge for the league title.

They managed to take the lead on the hour mark but the visitors levelled not long after, thanks largely to a mistake by the home side goalkeeper.

It was a pleasure for me to be able to cover a match in another league which gave me the insight on how much better the organisation of the match-day operation at the club than the one we encounter in most local matches.

The next day it was the match that I was assigned for with Harimau Muda C taking on the host Chonburi for a place in the final.

The Thai youngsters who were trailing 3-1 after their first leg defeat did not put much fight after the Malaysians scored their first goal of the night and went down 3-0 for the Young Tigers to go through on a 6-1 aggregate win.

The next day there were talks that we would have the time to go around Bangkok before catching the flight back home.

Unfortunately the hope went up in smoke when the driver pulled into a familiar looking building along the way to the airport, an IKEA store!

Well, taking the infamous Bangkok gridlock into account it was perhaps a good decision as we need to catch our flight back home soon after.

I had been to Thailand twice now but still to visit the country's capital, Bangkok.

The Day with the Elephants

It was our last day of our sojourn in the Klang Valley. Unlike our previous visit here, we decided to get out from the Valley early this time.

Why?

Mostly it was due to the elephants.

To be precise, the elephants of Kuala Gandah.

It has been our intention to visit the sanctuary for quite some time now and today was just as perfect as any other day to do so.

Thus we departed around 11.30 am and after a brief stop at Batu Caves for lunch there was no further stop.

At least that was the plan.

However as we approached Karak suddenly Cha vomited. Thus instead of going to the Lanchang interchange we exited at Karak to get the youngest AKS clean up.

After everything was cleaned up we were on our way again. I decided to take the old trunk road.

It certainly brought back memories of driving to and from the Klang Valley before the existence of the East Coast Highway.

The road to the sanctuary was quite winding and it could be quite dark during the night.

We reached the sanctuary at around 2.30 pm and after the formality of registering ourselves at the welcome centre we went to the pen.

Our timing was not good as the show by the elephants was ending by the time we reached the pen.

But the timing was right if we wanted to watch the elephants having their bath.

After the show the older elephants were brought to the area while for the bath, two younger ones were brought to the stream.

I was thinking of taking part in the bathing with the elephants but it seemed quite late when we arrived thus I did not register myself for it. By the way it cost RM30 per person to take part.

Thus we watched the two young elephants taking their bath and the public who had registered to bath with them in the stream.

It looked like a lot of fun. Thus I am determined to come back and do just that in the future.

After a while we decided to go back to the pen where an older elephant was being fed by the visitors.

The sugar cane cost RM3 and we had fun feeding the elephant.

So that was about it, the day we visited the Kuala Gandah Elephants Sanctuary.

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A Doggy Issue

Ever since Maznah Mohamad Yusof's video of her celebrating Aidil-Fitri with her three dogs, there has been numerous views about her, about dogs and their standing in Islam.

I would not dare to volunteer my opinion because I am not really knowledgeable on these matter.

However, from a few short researches on YouTube (The one by Ustaz Azhar Idrus is the easiest to understand) and reading a number of materials on the net, I came to these conclusions.

Dogs are not forbidden in Islam. A muslim can touch them without having to cleanse oneself using six parts of water and one part of earth EXCEPT when they are wet or one comes into contact with their saliva.

Muslims are encouraged to keep them for the following functions:
1) Shepherd dogs
2) Guard dogs to farm/orchard
3) Hunting dogs
4) Security dogs to property

Muslims can keep dogs as pet. However, by doing so they will lose their 'pahala' (rewards for carrying out God's command) by one qirath for each day they allow dogs in their home.

Thus it would not take too much intelligence to figure out which action one should take in this matter.

In Malaysia, especially to most Muslims, dogs are a sensitive issue.

Those Muslims who keep dogs as pets should be more sensitive to this and not add fuel to the fire. Keep your dogs and care for them but do not flaunt them in front of others who do not share your idea.


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Happy Birthday mad redo1!

Today mad redo1 turned 42.

However the room-mate was away in the south, attending a workshop.

It was a surprise when the AKSes brought out the birthday cake when we were having a late supper at Katana with Poppy last night.

The next day of course the four of us were hungry and without anything on the stove we decided to go out. mad redo1 headed to the Muara Cafe at the Felda Residence.

As usual, he ordered his favourite: the Hong Kong style Yee Mee. A simple birthday lunch.

Afterwards it was time to cut the cake and of course to the forefront was Lisa. Nevertheless, it was a good birthday do surrounded by loved ones and remembered by the one far away but remained close at heart.

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Wet Weekend in Gambang

It was a wet weekend for mad redo1, Linda and the AKSes as they spent their time at the Bukit Gambang Resort City - Waterpark Resort. It has been a while since they last went for a holiday.

This time they were joined by Poppy, Bu'Ain with the baby Qai and Atuk and Nenek. Cik Oni joined the party later when he arrived from kL via bus. After the good experience while staying at Ryo's homestay the last time around, they decided to stay there once again.

Unfortunately during the journey there, Che Mat's air-conditioner went bust and later found out that the compressor had ran it course. More RM flying away it seemed.

Nevertheless, after a good night sleep everybody was in the mood for fun in the water. 

The entry was smooth and they rented a gazebo nearby the pool to put all their things. As usual, Lisa was quite apprehensive before entering the pool but once in the water it would be very hard to get her out from it.

They tried all the rides from the tame to the extreme. Though after a couple of rides the thrill diminished and it was quite tame for mad redo1. After that it was the race on the water slides. With his weight exceeding the 80kg mark, mad redo1 had to sign an exemption form but his weight turned out to be his advantage over the AKSes.

Despite giving the much lighter duo ten seconds head-start, in the end mad redo1 with all the 95 kilos of weight on him always passed them near the finish line. It was so much fun flying through the air after going through the slide's dips.

mad redo1 must have gone up at least ten times to ride the slide but the AKSes beat him with more than thirty rides between the two of them.

The youngest AKS enjoyed here time immensely on the kiddy slide which had her laughing all the way down. In fact it was Linda who screamed louder than her daughter.

It was quite late when we got out from the park. After checking out from the homestay the party moved to another homestay in Balok so it would be nearer to Kuantan. 

For dinner, they went for the famous Ana 'Ikan Bakar' in the Tanjung Lumpur area. However due to mis-communication it was the outlet that mad redo1 wished to have his meal at. But still, he managed to enjoy the steamed fish specially ordered for him.

At this juncture BuGie and her family arrived and joined everybody for the rest of the meal. The hubby Azlie would be making his way to kL for the Malaysia Cup final between the Armed Forces and Kelantan.

After dinner they proceeded to the homestay in Balok to rest their tired limbs.

The next day was spent at the East Coast Mall way mad redo1, Linda and the AKSes had their lunch at Black Canyon Coffee outlet. While they did not disappoint with their Asian cuisine mad redo1 felt they could do better with their western fare which he did not think worth the amount they paid for.

Still, it did not ruin the wonderful weekend they had and the journey back to kT was without any untoward incident, event without the air-conditioner it was still quite comfortable.

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Team AG:eing Champions!

On Saturday mad redo1 travelled with the Team AG:eing to Perhentian Island to take part in the Heritage Bay Cup - Perhentian Challenge in conjunction with the Perhentian Island Challenge competition.

They arrived at the Kuala Besut Jetty at 9am after departing from kT an hour an a half earlier, with brief stop at Abu's house for breakfast. The journey from the jetty to the island took an hour.

Upon arrival the familiar face of David Mills greeted the competitors and after a brief rest teams were down at the beach for the boat draw. This time Team AG:eing drew the TM boat with Nurul Ain as their coach.

After a brief photosession they were off to the sea with the windy condition giving the team the challenge to work efficiently on the boat. After just over an hour of tacking and jiving under the sun it was time for lunch which was served at Bubu, a restaurant located on the Perhentian Kecil Island.

Then it was time to play.

This time the team donned their orange and black strip for the first time and everyone looked smart. It was a three race competition on a leeward and windward course with three other teams: Piranha, ABMT and the favourite Ri-Yaz Heritage Sailing Team.

The first race saw everyone clicked into their roles with the constant wind helped the race to get off on a flying start. Nurul was spot on with the timing and after two laps Team AG:eing crossed the finish line in first place with Piranha in close second.

The second race was another close one but this time Piranha managed to edge Team AG:eing into second place. Thus it was the third race that would decide the winner and everybody was fired up. They only needed to finish in front of the Piranha to emerge as champions for the first time.

The start was again a good call by Nurul and Team AG:eing shot into the lead and everybody was determined not to lose it this time around. It was like an eternity going to the finish line as it felt like the opponents were faster than us.

But their luck held on and it was Team AG:eing who were crowned as champions. Certainly the trip to Perhentian was one to cherish.

CAMPEONE!

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