Day +1183 : Taxi fare to KLCC or KLIA

I am fine today.

My brother, Richard, compiled this list for your convenience. Please note that this is applicable for those who stay in Puchong or may be Klang Valley. Don't call them if you are staying in Sabah or Sarawak :-)

Booking Taxi from Puchong to LCCT or KLIA. Highlighted is the cheapest fare.

Driver	Contact/ Booking no.	Day fare (6:00am-11:59pm)	Midnight fare (12:00am- 5.59am)	Note
Mr. Yin (Chinese)	016-3678622	RM 64.00	RM 64.00	Drive very slow, almost 60 minutes to reach LCCT
Mr. Mathaven (Indian)	016-2525326	RM 64.00	RM 80.00	Very punctual, speed average, 50 minutes to reach LCCT
Mr. Yan (Malay)	019-2041918	RM 60.00	RM 80.00	Can drive very fast 35 minutes to reach LCCT. Usually also take 50 minutes to reach LCCT.
Airport Limo (No fix driver)	03-9223 8080 (8.00 am–12.59 pm) 03-8787 3030 (12.00 am-8.00 am)	RM 56.60	RM 83.60

Important note:

Need to book at least 6 hours in advance. Book one day before is the best.

For AirAsia, we need to reach the boarding gate 20 minutes before the departure time.(New rules)

See you next post :-)

Day +1182 : Express bus - What an experience! (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

However, we got a refund and managed to purchase a ticket at the first ticketing counter that we had approached at RM 31.10 only. The bus departed at 5:30pm as promised.

I tried to file a complain after the incident but I found out that there was no company to complain to as there was no company label on the ticketing counter. So to whom should I complain to?

There was no bus company name printed on the ticket. What was written on the ticket was the bus plate number only. Apart from this, nothing was written. A proper ticket should have company name, bus plate number, the seat number and departure time. Without the company name, one can only liaise with the counter for any business related to their service; provided it didn't disappear before we get there.

My friend told me last time that a lot of ticket counters actually are not from bus companies. There are agents to another up-line agents and the up-line agents in fact are agents to another up-line agents. And finally, it reached the bus company after so many layers.

In fact this is another type of “yellow cow ticket(黄牛票)”. So should anything happen, the authority will never handle the case. Even a Consumer Tribunal would not want to hear a case like this.

Lessons that we learned from this incident:

1. Never purchase a bus ticket from any agent beside the bus company itselt.
2. Purchase the ticket from a well known bus company like Transnasional, Sri Maju, Causeway Link and other well-known bus company. If you do that, I am sure the Customer Tribunal can protect your interest should a dispute occurs.
3. The best bus company I found so far is TRANSNASIONAL (a member of KTB group). You can get the following advantages:

• You can check their schedule and ticket price at their website http://www.transnasional.com.my/
• You will certainly not overpaid for the bus ticket even during the "cow season".
• You can purchase the ticket in many Petronas station such as Petronas Kinrara BK5. This means that they are open 24 hours/day and you would have your ticket ready before you go to the bus terminal.
• If you miss the bus, the ticket is still valid. You just need to pay some penalty. My nephew Ting Heng Wei missed the bus last time and that was how they handled the case. (For your information, this nephew always miss this and that. He also missed the air flight. Just hope that he won't miss his girl friend or wife later :-))
• You will never need to liaise with a gangster. Ticketing lady can become a fantastic gangster that is worse than a guy.

Transnasional is certainly your preferred choice!

See you next post :-)

Day +1181 : Express bus - What an experience! (1)

I am fine today.

The following was my brother, Richard's experience, regarding express bus service.

On the 21 September 2009, I brought my relative to the temporary bus terminal located at Bukit Jalil at 3:30pm. He would like to return to Johor Bahru (JB) after enjoying his holiday here.

For your information, the temporary bus terminal at Bukit Jalil was set up during festive holiday only; for example during Hari Raya, Chinese New Year and Deepavali.

We approached a ticketing counter and we were told that the next bus leaving for JB would be about 2 hours later; that was on 5:30pm. I noticed that this ticketing counter was labeled with a proper bus company name and I felt that this should be a proper bus operator.

However, we felt that waiting for 2 hours was too long for us, so we approached another ticketing counter. The ticketing lady said that the bus was waiting outside. If we purchased the ticket now (3:35pm), then we will be able to catch the bus that would be leaving at 3:40pm. What a good timing!

We paid RM 35.00 for a ticket, and someone from the counter led us to wait at the bus parking area. We were quite confused as there was no bus waiting there and we saw a group of more than 20 people were there before us.

We waited and waited. At 4:00pm, we didn't see any bus coming; 4:30pm still no bus coming... 5:00pm no bus coming... and at 5:15pm, the bus still didn't appear.

We felt that we were cheated. So we rushed back to the ticketing counter and demanded an explanation from the ticketing lady. Drastically, she showed another face to us; very rude, worse than a gangster. This was the first time I saw a lady being so rude. She could pull your hair and threw a dustbin to you...

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +1180 : Setia Eco Park – 2nd visit

I am fine today.

I visited Setia Eco Park with pastors and church members after the church service this afternoon. Setia Eco Park is a big township development project by Setia Alam which covered an area of 791 acres.

We had our first visit to this place last Sunday. The purpose of the visit is to see if there is a possibility of planting a church here :-)

A Tesco hypermarket is in business here, and Giant hypermarket, which is situated just opposite Tesco, is under construction. We were told that a mall – Setia City Mall - will be constructed very soon.

There is also a Chinese primary school here with about 1000 students and the number is growing as more people are moving into this area.

We like this place very much and at the same time, also see great potential in this place. However, more work need to be done – including praying – to determine if this is the right place we should move in.

The 3 storey shop-lot; extra one storey for corner lot. The middle lot is selling at about RM1,000,000.00

We had lunch here
The street where the above restaurant is located
The explorers :-)
The dishes - 5 dishes with a total bill of RM108 including the rice and drink. Cheaper than Puchong.




There are 5 Chinese restaurant along this streets.


Another restaurant on a corner shop-lot on the next street
Talking to property agent
The first floor
Residential area

Shop-lots next to Tesco - higher class one


Back to the 3-storey shop-lot, and found a Methodist church here
Busiest area for the moment
See you next post :-)

Day +1179 : A fraud or mistake? Buy 500g get 386g only :-(

I am fine today.

My niece, Siew Ling, will be going back to UUM, Kedah tonight. Considering that she rarely has a chance to eat pork in this northern part of the country, I decided to buy some roasted pork for lunch.

I went to a stall called Lai Ji Ipoh Roasted Pork and Salted Duck (来记怡保烧猪咸鸭) to purchase 500g of roasted pork. The stall is located in Restoran KH 20 which is situated next to Pizza Hut at Jalan Kenari 20. The roasted pork sold by the stall is very delicious.

Instead of giving me 500g of roasted pork, I noticed on the weighting scale that they gave about 300g only. I complained on the spot, and the guy weighed second time, and added a little bit more of roasted pork this time. I was still doubtful but didn't complain further. I just paid RM22.50 and went home.

I weighted the roasted pork at home on a digital scale and found out that I was given 386g of roasted pork only. And this amount of roasted pork cost RM15.56 only, which means that I paid RM6.94 extra.

In order to make sure that the digital scale is giving the correct reading, I benchmarked it against a 1-kg pack of flour, and found out that it is in fact very accurate.

I photographed the readings and went back to the stall with my camera.

“Is there anything wrong with your scale?” I asked the lady. “I purchased 500g of roasted pork just now but I was given 386g only,” I continued and at the same time showed her the photo that I had taken.

“Sorry!” she responded. “Come! Cut 200g of roasted pork for this gentleman. Cincailah.”

“Cincai” means “not need to be so calculative, or be generous”.

In the end, the guy compensated 260g of roasted pork, which made a total of 646g - thanks to the “cincai-ness” of the stall.

However, “cincai-ness” after being exposed of weighing scale mistake or fraud would not bring any good impression to anyone at all.

Anyway, I still recommend the stall to you because the roasted pork here is really good. However, before you purchase anything here, better get your digital scale ready.

The stall
In this restaurant
The amount that I got initially - 386g
My scale is sincere - giving right reading
I was compensated with this amount of roasted pork
See you next post :-)

Day +1178 : What? Flu shot increases H1N1 risk?

I am fine today.

I had my flu shot on 18 June, 2009 as written on my blog Day +1079 : Chest CT Scan and Influenza Vaccination. The intention of this was clear; to prevent me from getting seasonal flu.

I understood that the vaccination will not protect me from H1N1 at all and this is fine with me. But what startled me was an article on Malaysiakini yesterday that said that researchers found out that the flu shot increases H1N1 risk. That means I am now having a higher risk of being infected by H1N1, just because I went for flu shot :-(

As the research is still in the very early stage, I hope that the finding is not true. And I believe not only me, there are many who had flu shot will have the same wish as me :-)

The article:

Preliminary results from some studies have found that the seasonal flu shot may increase the risk of catching A/H1N1 flu, Canadian scientists have said.

About 2,000 people from four Canadian provinces were involved in the separate studies, which showed that people who had received the seasonal flu vaccine in the past were more likely to get sick with the H1N1 virus, China's Xinhua news agency reported yesterday, citing the scientists as saying.

Researchers know that, theoretically, when people are exposed to bacteria or a virus, it can stimulate the immune system to create antibodies that facilitate the entry of another strain of the virus.

Dengue fever is one example, scientists say.

But experts stressed that these are very preliminary results and need to be validated.

Data can help policy makers

"This is some evidence that has been floated; it hasn't been validated yet, it's very preliminary," cautioned Dr. Don Low, microbiologist-in-chief at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

But these are nevertheless very important data to help guide policy decision, as the time comes for seasonal flu shot, he said.

This latest finding raises questions about the order in which to get flu shots.

Across Canada, public health authorities are fiercely debating the idea of shortening, delaying or scrapping their seasonal flu vaccination campaign in favour of mass inoculation against A/H1N1.

The main reason is because A/H1N1 may be the dominant strain of influenza circulating when the fall flu season hits, meaning it could be a waste of time and resources to mount a seasonal flu vaccine campaign.

See you next post :-)

Day +1177 : Dinner with nephews and nieces

I am fine today.

My nieces Min Hie and Siew Ling are here for holiday. Another niece, Nga Ming, just went back to university this morning.

A few of us had dinner at M1 Café this evening. My wife couldn’t make it due to hives which started after visiting Lake Garden two weeks ago.

So, only Daniel who likes to eat a lot joined us :-)

The group from left - David, Daniel, Soon Hui, Ming Hui, Min Hie, Siew Ling
Mixed Grill
Lamb ribeye
Lam chop
Cheese lamb chop
See you next post :-)

Day +1176 : Taman KLCC (KLCC Park) (2)

I am fine today. Continue to post the remaining photos...

Let's have some 100Plus before playing in the pool
The pool rules - Click to have a larger view
The pool

Adriel and Aaron have fun in the pool


Joseph joined later


Drinking machines available at many places in the park
Moving to Suria
Nice show of water-flow - like glass
Daniel insisted to have a photo here
Lunch at KFC
On the way to the Kinokuniya, we met this Dinosaur in front of Petrosains.

Now the towers of KL




See you next post :-)