Roaring Forties

There is a Chinatown in most cities in the world and Kuala Lumpur is no exception. It was a place which was familiar to all who grew up in the capital city.

Petaling Street, the Malaysian Chinatown was always known for its great food and bargain buys. It was a kaleidoscope of colours and a meeting point for the locals, where the Chinese, the Malays, the Indians and Punjabis gathered. It was also a place where the Mat Salleh (Caucasian) tourists dared to venture out to experience the local lifestyle.

With fond memories of Petaling Street or Chee Cheong Kai as the locals call it, May & I ventured out to check out the place last weekend. Our main aim was to savour our favorite Assam Laksa stall which was located right in the middle of Petaling Street at the mouth of Madras Lane. Knowing that the area was notorious for its lack of parking spaces, we decided to park at Jalan Raja Chulan and take a short walk there. As we headed towards Petaling Street, we decided to walk the lane behind Kota Raya where we were faced an ocean of people. There were people everywhere. But they were all foreigners. There were Bangladeshis, Indonesians, Vietnameses, Filipinos, Indians, Nepalis and Myanmaris. There were hundreds of them and I just couldn’t find any locals.

When we finally got to Petaling Street, it was different. The locals are gone. It was no longer where the locals go to for bargains. At least 90% of the crowd were tourists. The outstation tourists form the bulk of the visitors, followed by tourists from mainland China, Hong Kong, Thais, Middle Easterns, Indonesians and lastly the Caucasians. The crowd was there, the colours and the lights were there. But it was different. It was definitely not the Chinatown, I knew.

What most shocking was that at least 50% of the vendors were foreigners? You will find Bangladehis trying to promote the fake Rolex watches and Indonesians haggling with the tourists over the price of a Calvin Klein T-Shirt. It was a cultural shock for us. Chinatown? What Chinatown? It was nothing more than a tourist trap now.  There foreigners and outstation visitors far outnumbered the locals.   

We could not find our favourite Assam Laksa stall. It was closed. But to our relief, some of the old establishments were still there.

The best Longan in town still ply their trade at the corner of the crossroad. It tasted just as good and they are definitely the best Longan in town and I would also rate them as one of the best in Malaysia.

Across the street the famous Hokkein Mee are working their mean stuff. Arguably the best in town, the best time to savour the delicious black stuff is midnight after the crowd has gone. You could really relax and enjoy the noodles with tea.  

Along the street, Sei Ngan Chai (four eyed boy) still sell his famous roast ducks but he has a full head of white hair and he is probably pushing sixties.  

(Uncle Sei Ngan in the background)

Two stalls away is our regular pancake seller. He makes the best thick peanut pancake in two. We naturally bought four pieces for ourselves and we were not dissappointed. The taste was exactly as it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately the next generation would rather sell doughnuts in a Starbucks than to be caught selling pancakes in Chinatown. I guess it is only a matter of time before Uncle Duck Man and Uncle Pancake Man bid their farewell and take their recipes with them. 

Sadly, Chinatown isn’t a real Chinatown anymore. Petaling Street is no longer the place I knew but I will still go back there periodically as long as I can still get my Longan, my Hokkien mee, my roast duck and my pancake there.

Weddings are supposed to be special occasions not only for the bride and groom but more often than not, they can be very memorable occasions for the guests as well. I can’t recall how many weddings I have attended but I have gone through my share of memorable weddings, sometimes for the wrong reasons.

My most memorable wedding experience was:-

How I spent the night in the Honeymoon Suite – Not many guests get to sleep in the honeymoon suite together with the bride and groom that why this was truly my most unforgettable occasion.

It was Alex and Ran’s wedding where we were loitering after the dinner because K. Lan was waiting for her husband to pick her up. We all couldn’t bear to leave her waiting alone, so we, KT, Gwen, FT, Casey, May & I waited with her.

Alex then asked us to help finish the barrel of beer which he had bought for the dinner and when we started, we couldn’t stop. Young took his time picking up K. Lan and he reached at 11.00 p.m. By then we were pretty high and Alex made the mistake by insisting that we follow him to his honeymoon suite. We initially agreed that we vacate by 12.00 a.m.      

In the honeymoon suite, one by one started to knock out. At 11.30 p.m. one of us slept in the spare bedroom in the two room suite. At 12.30 a.m. another one of us ended up hugging the bidet and refused to leave the toilet. By 1.30 a.m., two more were taking turns to puke into the kitchen sink. Only Gwen and I remained sober. By 3.00 a.m. it was clear that we will not be able to make it home.

We finally make it out at 6.00 a.m. and we spent the whole morning taking turns to calling the bride and apologising. No amount of apologies could make up for the rudeness of overstaying our welcome. But Alex and Ran truly have hearts of gold and they are truly our friends until today.

That was my most memorable experience in a wedding.

I have had other great wedding experiences amongst which were how I caught the bride’s garters thrown by the groom in church, how we had a beer only (no food) wedding dinner, how Samy Veloo came up and shook my hand, how I danced to the Bhanghra Music with Nyonya Chef Auntie Florence in a Punjabi wedding, how we drank alcohol in a conservative Christian teetotaler wedding or how I attended the wedding of a total stranger just for the dinner. But I fear all these stories would take too long and will be too long winded.  

Nevertheless, I have one interesting a wedding where we had dinner all by ourselves without the bride and groom.

Why?  Read On……

Read the rest of this entry »

Jun 1 - Time flies. What happened twenty years ago felt just like yesterday.

It was a Saturday in 1988, when I accompanied my date, WH to the Federal Bowl. It was there I met May for the first time together with Katerine. Somehow we clicked. After several group outings, after many phone calls, we finally went for our first movie together “Crocodile Dundee” at the Federal Cinema. Somehow the name “Federal” brings us together. That was the start of us.

I am just amazed how 20 years passed so quickly. We have done a lot in twenty years but yet we have not done enough. The experiences which we had will always be the special one thing that only the two of us will share and it is worth all the gold in the world. The crossing of our paths has also enriched our lives in so many ways and with many friends from both sides whom we hold dearly to our hearts. We have also made many new friends together and we have crossed many obstacles together.

Sitting back, I cherish the great moments and look forward to the next 20 years and the 20 years after that.

Jun 7 - What! Another change in the blog layout?! Anyone who has been following my blogs would know that I changed the layout four times within the last two months. Am I fickled? Or am I plain feeble minded?

Darn shit! I am neither! %$^#@&*^ I am just plain frustrated. The WordPress layout has been acting up  on me. The widgets either dissappear to the bottom or eats into the blogs itself. 

Bear with me folks. I hope this time would be the last change.

Jun 4 – The Malaysian Government announced a RM 0.78 increase or 40.6% for petrol to RM 2.70 per litre and a RM 1.00 increase or 63.3% for diesel to RM 2.58 per litre.

The announcement has caused a massive traffic jam caused by motorists who tried to fill up before the midnight deadline. I really don’t understand the mentality behind this. Imagine braving a jam and queue for 30 to 45 minutes, in order to save at maximum RM 40.00 assuming your tank was empty and could take up RM 100.00 for a full tank. The jam and queue would probably have burnt off a significant amount of the savings.

The following day, the was a public uproar all over and the opposition were having a field day bashing up the decision. The government on the other hand were trying to justify its decision and used Singapore as a model where the petrol price is RM 5.20 per litre and diesel is at RM 4.22 per litre.  This comparison naturally brought out the critics as Singapore is not an oil producing nation and would have to pay higher. Critics took the other end of the scale and quote Venezuela where petrol is priced at only RM 0.16 per litre. The question thrown is why should we be paying 16 times more than Venezuela when both countries are nett oil producers? Anwar Ibrahim reiterate in his blog that he will reduce petrol prices if he is in the government. He questions the accountability in Petronas.

First and foremost, we should examine the facts. According to the CIA World Facts Publication, Malaysia is still a nett oil producer. In fact, Malaysia is ranked 26th in the world ahead of Brunei who lies in 42nd spot. We produce 751,800 barrels compared with Brunei’s 219,300 barrels per day. However, Venezuela whose retail petrol is one of the cheapest in the world is the 10th largest producer with a capacity of 2.8 million barrels per day. Interestingly enough, Venezuela has a population of 26 million which is almost identical to ours. With an oil production which is almost four times ours’, Venezuela would be in a much better position to subsidise petrol than us.

Interestingly from the list of major oil producing countries, our government should have used Norway as an example instead of Singapore. Norway is the 8th largest producer in the world with a daily output of 2.9 million barrels, yet petrol cost about RM 4.20 per litre in Norway.

 So where do we really stand in terms of petrol retail prices in the world?

From a compilation of data done by NationMaster.Com, Malaysia lies in 127th place in retail price index for petrol. This data was done in 2004 when our Malaysian petrol cost RM 1.37 per litre. With the increase to RM 1.98 and the latest to RM 2.70 per litre, we would have moved up the ladder some 30 to 40 places but we would still be in the bottom half of the cheaper places in the world to pump petrol.

Check out the statistics here.

After all have been said, we should not be objecting to the increase in petrol prices. We should not be having demonstrations and fuelling the public anger like what the opposition is doing. All this fuss will not get us anywhere.

More importantly, we should be looking at the bigger picture. We should be asking why did the Prime Minister went ahead with the increase in petrol prices? In the current political climate where Dato Seri Abdullah Badawi’s popularity is at an all time low, such an action is almost political suicide. No politician in the right frame of mind would have done it. Couldn’t he had waited? The timing just does not make sense. 

So why did he do it? Is the situation so bad that he has no choice but to do it? Is our country going bankrupt? Or is the current government crumbling and is likely to lose power altogether, so this is a last ditch attempt to raise more war funds for the party to fight another day. Or is it for personal gains. Such thoughts are really worrisome.  

Will Manchester United sell Cristiano Ronaldo in view of Real Madrid continued persistence interest even-though Manchester United had repeatedly told Real Madrid that Cristiano Ronaldo was not for sale. Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon has even gone on the record that they have the cash to pay more than the record £40 million which they paid for Zinadine Zidane.  

As a Manchester United fan, I would love to see Cristiano Ronaldo remaining at Old Trafford until the end of his current contract. He is one of a kind and there will never be another Cristiano Ronaldo. 

There is no one currently in the world who can match his skills with the ball.

(Youtube Video uploaded by frazlatan91)

He has also proven that he can deliver with his 42 goals for the 2007/2008 season

(Youtube Video uploaded by cr7ladyproductions)

By selling a player like Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United may as well kiss their 2008/2009 season goodbye.

3 June – It was raining cats and dogs when I left the office at 6.15 pm for K.L. Tried to cover as much distance as possible while there is still daylight as it would be more difficult to drive in the dark in the heavy rain. Traffic was extra ordinary heavy because of the school holidays. Nevertheless, I made good time and reached the Genting tunnel by 7.30 pm.  I should be home by 8.15pm I thought.

It all went smoothly until about 15km from the Gombak toll. I was driving at 95 kph around a corner when I was suddenly hit by a long snake of red tail lights. I hit my brakes and cursed. Cars behind me were jamming their brakes in unison. We all came to a standstill. The traffic was building up behind me. Cars in the right lane where I was started, moving but only a couple of feet at a time. It has to be an accident especially in the heavy rains, I thought.

I could hear sirens from a distance. I looked into my rear mirror to look out for an ambulance but could only see three endless rows of headlights shining through the pouring rain. I then discovered that the sirens were from a fire engine heading the opposite direction towards Kuantan.  I continue to inch my way towards KL. I hear more sirens. This time, two fire engines went past me again towards Kuantan. This is weird! I thought! What’s going on? Why were the three fire engines going towards Kuantan. There couldn’t be any fire in the rain.

I hear sirens again. This time it was an ambulance which sped past me towards Kuantan. Shit! I had a bad feeling. There must be a very bad accident ahead. These fire engines and ambulance must be going up to the Genting tunnel to make a U-Turn. I continued advancing towards KL at 10kph. More sirens. This time it came from two ambulances going towards Kuantan. F**k! for sure something bad has happened. But where are the fire engines and the ambulances? They haven’t reached me. Darn! It must have been the traffic. More sirens! This time it was a police car going towards Kuantan.

Again more sirens! This time it was another fire engine and an ambulance heading towards Kuantan. I have been inching my way towards KL for about half an hour since I heard the first sirens. Finally, I could see flashing lights in my rear mirror and the sound of sirens. This time it was parting the rows of cars behind like the Red Sea. I promptly pulled over to be as close to the divider as possible, leaving some space between my car and the second row. One fire engine rushed past me. Immediately the vehicles get back in gueue covering up the corridor which the fire engine left. Three minutes later, the process repeated itself and this time two fire engines and one ambulance passed. Two more minutes, two police cars and one ambulance passed.  Another 5 minutes, one fire engine and one ambulance passed. Meanwhile on the other side of the road, another ambulance headed towards Kuantan.

It took me another 20 minutes to reach the accident site. The four fire engines where at the side of the road overlooking a ravine. The road barrier at the side of the road was missing. The ambulances were parked further down the road. There were at least three police cars and more than twenty civilian cars parked. There were people everywhere. I could not see the wreckage but from the number of rescue vehicles, I deduced that it had to be a bus. The rains continued to pour.

After I passed the accident site, the jam cleared and I reached the Gombak toll within five minutes but there was an another fire engine rushing past me towards Kuantan. As I drove along Ulu Kelang road, I passed another four more ambulances which were blaring their sirens and rushing towards the accident. My only wish to God was that the fatalities would be minimum. I have never seen so many ambulances and fire engines in my life in one moment. It was surreal.

Picture in NST 4 June 2008 

Anyway, that was my encounter with the Genting Bus Accident. Thank God only two lives were lost. 

Heard an amusing anecdote from a friend, William who has been in the air freight business for three decades. When William started out as a new recruit, one of his first assignment was to arrange to send a dog by air freight to Holland. He collected the dog from an expatriate living in one of the posh bungalows in P.J. He recalled entering into this mansion sized bungalow and the “Ang Moh” went upstairs to one of the rooms to bring the dog down. The dog was then led into a special cage designed for air freight and the “Ang Moh” instructed William specifically that he must feed the dog before the flight.

William took custody of the dog and drove the van to the air freight warehouse in the old Subang airport. After all the documentation was accomplished, William remembered that he was supposed to feed the dog before the flight. So William opened the cage to carry out the task. To his horror, the dog jumped out of the cage and ran. It continued running and headed straight out of the warehouse. William tried to chase but he couldn’t keep up with the dog and soon lost the dog totally.

William was utterly devastated. Being new on the job, he would surely get the sack. He could not air freight an empty cage to Holland. Being young and reckless, William went to the Subang airport car park. There were numerous stray dogs there. He caught a dark brown one which looked like the one he lost. He promptly loaded the stray dog into the cage and sent it Amsterdam.

For the next three weeks, William lived in anticipation of a phone call from the dog owner. He jumped at each call that came in. It was agony. Days turned to a week. Then it was two weeks. Finally after the third week, William could relax. The stray dog has found a new owner in Holland while the runaway must be running with some wild pack in Subang.