Day +650 : Back to KL (1)

I am fine today.

I boarded an AirAsia A320-200 Airbus from Miri to KL at 7:00pm today. This was the first time ever I boarded such an aircraft. It is configured with 180 passenger seats with an all-economic layout. The aircraft is very new compared to those existing AirAsia Boeing 737.

The journey was very smooth and I managed to reach home at 10:30pm.

I spent a busy day in Miri visiting friends and places before coming back to KL. My wife’s brother-in-law, James, took a day off today to bring me around Miri. After having breakfast, we went to Miri Marina Park, a river mouth project based on reclaimed land. The developer had been talking about the project while I was in Miri more than 10 years ago and finally we see some form of concrete development happens there.

A big seahorse statue erecting at the park. View of Miri town from the park.
The Marina Seafood Restaurant The Balinese wood carving wall of the restaurant

We proceeded to Canada Hill after visiting the Marina Park. I believe the first oil well ever explored in Miri is on this hill. I don’t know what has the hill to do with Canada until the people had to name it Canada Hill. “Could it be because it was the Canadian who first discovered and drilled the oil well here?” I asked. “I don’t know,” answered James.

A view of Miri town from the hill.
The Grand Old Lady on top of the hill – the first oil well in Malaysia. “Let me help”
What is this? I don’t know :-( Probably another oil well.
Time capsule on the hill; launched in 2005 and will be opened in 2015.
Petroleum Museum on the hill, but I don't have time to visit it. To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +649 : In Miri

I am fine today.

I had a breakfast with my old-time classmate who is a senior pastor of a church in Mei Ann Methodist Church, Miri. He is also currently the 教区长(regional head) of Miri. We chatted for more than 2 hours.

He introduced to me the benefit of using GPS (Global Positioning System) while traveling. He brought along a GPS enabled PDA phone when he was having holiday in New Zealand last year. With the help of GPS, he managed to drive freely and smoothly there. The GPS system would tell him where he was, which route he should take, when he needed to turn left or right or made an U-turn and many other useful instruction and information.

For those PDA phone without built-in GPS support, just purchase a GPS receiver, and download necessary software and maps to the phone, then the phone is now GPS enabled. According to him, we don't even have to connect the receiver to the phone as it will establish a wireless connection automatically. Therefore, we can place the receiver anywhere near the phone.

This technology is extremely useful for people who always have difficulty in getting to an unfamiliar destination, and I must admit that I am one of them. As such this technology is a big blessing to me :-) I shall try it out as soon as possible.

A photo with my classmate and his wife My wife's brother-in-law James brought me to eat the famous Rojak (a type of fruit and vegetable salad dish) and ABC in Krokop 5, Miri. They are very delicious :-)

The Rojak The ABC
After that James brought me to a small home based biscuit maker to buy biscuit.

Fresh out of the oven "Pong Bian" - 蚌饼？
Dou Sa Bian - 豆沙饼

Preparing the biscuit fillingBusy making the biscuit
James treated me a delicious dinner ordered from restaurant :-) As usual, I could not resist myself from sharing with you the dishes that I had. "I got to document this," that is what I told people when I take photo of the dishes.

Honey braised pork leg
Bean curd - 招牌豆腐
Yam bird's nest
Spare ribs Oatflake prawns
Home cooked Kangkong - not bad :-)
I visited my cousins (children of my mother's sister) at night. The one next to me is of the same age as me but weights over 100kg. He is an extraordinary filial (孝顺) son who took care for his paralyzed mother side by side for more than 10 years. The second one from the left married a young Kayan girl. When I asked him when she came from, the answer is "don't know." "Far far away in a very remote place," he added. He never visits his wife's place and his wife also never visit her kampong after married to him.
The two cute children - Daniel (left) and Nini (right)
See you next post :-)

Day +648 : To Miri

I am fine today.

Richard and I went to the Sibu airport early in the morning. His flight to Kuching was rescheduled from 8:30am to 9:30am, but my flight to Miri at 9:05am was on schedule.

The airport security staff was a little bit confused when Richard showed them the web check-in boarding pass as they never encountered any passengers using it before.

After some explanation, they remembered that in fact AirAsia did give them a sample of the boarding pass which was sticked on the nearby partition. They let Richard to the boarding hall after verifying that the boarding pass was the same as the one given by AirAsia.

The Fokker 50 - a propeller powered 50-seat airline. It flies at a speed of 460km/hr at a altitude of about 1300 feet. It takes about 1 hour to fly from Sibu to Miri. A Boeing 737 normally flies at a speed of 800km/hr which is a lot faster than the Fokker 50, but unfortunately, due to low volume of passengers, it is not economical to use Boeing for the flight. Most of the time, the flight path to Miri followed the coastal line.
Skyview of the green land of Sarawak.
These are Twin Otter in Miri Airport, 20-seat aircraft for inland flight. My wife and I together with Daniel and Joseph (Adriel and Aaron was not born yet) on board on this type of aircraft to go from Miri to Mukah and then from Mukah to Sibu in 2003. The flight was very shaky and bumpy. Sometime it even drifted with the wind. We chose a seat near the pilot and managed to see completely how the pilot maneuvered the aircraft.
The ground staffs were busy loading baggages into the Twin Otter
My house in Miri. It is a single storey semi-detached house. Next to my house is my sister-in-law house (my wife's sister house). My wife and I stayed in the house less than 2 years before we shifted to KL. It is now rented out to an expatriat who work on the oil rig. This is the first time ever I meet him since he rented the house almost ten years ago. He is a good tennant :-)
In the afternoon, some relatives from my wife's side treated me with a very delicious lunch in a hotel in Miri town. We took a photo after the lunch. I saw this giant mango in one of the Miri markets. I guess a piece should weight about 2kg.
Dinner with Dr. Choo and his family. Dr. Choo is a dentist who treats me like his brother. While I was working in Miri, he used to treat me and my wife with delicious seafood and venison(野味) :-) He is a highly respected and committed Christian. On my right are his wife and daughter.

I attended the Sunday service at Mei Ann Methodist church in the town - a church that I attended and served while I was staying in Miri. I am so grateful to God that I am alive to worship in this church, and this is the first time ever I attended the church service since I left Miri.

See you next post :-)

Day +647 : Back to kampong with web check-in

I am fine today.

I took an AirAsia flight to Sibu at 6:55am this morning. Travelling with me are my brother Richard and nephew Heng Yew.

We reached the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) at 6:30am which was only 25 minutes before the departure. As the check-in counter closes 45 minutes prior to departure, you might worried that we would be late for the flight. However, this is not the case as we already check-in through the web a day earlier.

The web check-in service makes it very easy for a passenger to board a plane. One no longer needs to queue up at the check-in counter for check-in. Holding a boarding pass printed through the web check-in, a passenger can just proceed to the boarding gate before 20 minutes to the departure. Thus the service not only reduces the trouble of over the counter check-in, it also saves time. But you must be reminded that this service is only good for passengers without check-in luggages.

According to Richard, AirAsia provided the service first that allowed a passenger to check-in through the web 12 hours prior the departure. When Malaysia Airlines (MAS) saw this, they also provided the service but allowed a passenger to check in 24 hours before the departure. Checking in 24 hours prior to departure is definitely more convenience than checking in 12 hours before departure. When AirAsia saw MAS gave 24 hours, they allowed a passenger to checking in 48 hours or 2 days before departure :-) You see, competition is good :-)

One shortcoming of the AirAsia web check-in is that no reprint of boarding pass is allowed. Once a passenger checks in through the web but fail to print out the boarding pass due to whatever circumstances, there is no way for him/her to reprint the boarding pass. This happened to Richard and he called and demanded AirAsia to email him the boarding pass, but AirAsia advised him to do a normal over the counter check-in which Richard angrily declined. He insisted that the web check-in service should allow a passenger to reprint the boarding pass.

The support staff said that the reprint feature could not be provided due to security reason, but Richard argued that the feature has nothing to do with security. Indeed, it has nothing to with security. People can print or photocopy as many boarding passes as they want.

In the end, Richard took my boarding pass which bore the same flight information apart from the passenger’s name. He printed his name and sticked it over my name and then made a photo copy of the boarding pass.

He boarded the plane successfully with the fake boarding pass :-) This proves that AirAsia should provide the reprint feature for the convenience of passengers so that they don’t have to take the hassle to DIY (Dot It Yourself) the boarding pass, as what Richard did.

That's all about the web check-in and now I would like to share with you some photos of today's trip.

Looking at the cabin, AirAsia must make a loss (rugi) for this trip :-(
Above the cloud 九霄云外 :-)
Winding rivers of Sarawak
Skyview of Sibu town
The first thing to do in Sibu - swallowing a plate of Mee Kampua (干盘面) as breakfast
My third sister Sie Chuo who was my stem cells donor treated us a very deliciouos home-cooked dinner. As I like to eat so much, I can't refrain myself from sharing with you the dishes that we had :-)

Mixed vegetable
Fried spare ribs
Canned corn
Sweet and sour spare ribs
Foochow fried mee
Fried cellephane noodles (炒冬粉) - this one by my niece Jessica
Healthy kampong chicken
Steam fish
Finally, a group photo of those who attend the dinner. Sitting in the middle is my mother.
See you next post :-)

Day +646 : An extra large T-shirt (2)

I am fine today. Continue from yesterday...

On way to make the T-shirt fit me nicely is to “grow” myself to become extra large. I should eat a lot, and eat frequently, and eat fatty food, and should not exercise and … After sometime, my body will “grow” extra large until the T-shirt fit me perfectly.

But doing this:

• I will destroy my health.


• I will lose my happiness because eating too much is definitely very uncomfortable.


• I won’t be able to wear all existing clothes, except this new extra large T-shirt.

In the end, I will be an unhappy man wearing this extra large T-shirt - a man who loses many things for a small gain :-) This is exactly what a Chinese proverb said, 人心不足蛇吞象(People can be as greedy as a snake trying to swallow an elephant).

In contrast, if I give this extra large T-shirt to an extra large person, then I won’t have all the trouble that I mentioned above. The one who receive the T-shirt will be happy too but I will be even happier than him/her, and happiness brings good health, and …

“It is more blessed to give than to receive,” the Bible says. This is very true. I see many who share generously receiving tremendous blessing from God. They become happier, richer and earning respect and trust from people surrounding them.

The XL TechEd SEA 2008 Limited Edition T-shirt. Even though the organizer offer to replace it with a smaller size one, but I decided to give it away to someone with the "capital(本钱)" to wear it :-)
See you next post :-)

Day +645 : An extra large T-shirt (1)

I am fine today.

I registered for TechEd South East Asia (SEA) 2008 during the Heroes happen here event two days ago. TechEd SEA is Micoroft’s premier and largest annual conference which draw crowd not only from Malaysia but many other countries. It is very fortunate that the event is held in Malaysia most of the time.

“This year, you will get to learn, connect, explore, evaluate, problem-solve and ultimately experience and realize the full potential not only of the technology, but of your own!” This is what Microsoft advertises on their TechEd SEA website.

Registering for the conference during the Heroes happen here event two days allow me to have RM50 off the RM699 early bird promotion price and a free TechEd SEA 2008 Limited Edition T-Shirt. I am quite happy with this offer :-) But I was surprised to find out later than the T-shirt that was given to me was of extra large (XL) size whereas my body is of medium size only.

How am I going to wear the T-shirt? Should I insist of wearing the T-shirt, it will either just drop off any time from my body or it will cover my hands until you can’t find them, or you might even mistakenly thought that I am wearing a giant miniskirt :-)

To be continued and see you next post :-)

Day +644 : Visiting Samuel

I am fine.

After enjoying the luxurious lunch yesterday, I called a cab to go to the Paediatric Institute of Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) to visit Samuel who was doing transplant there.

Yesterday was his Day +11 and he was doing very well.

As I blogged about him on my blog Day +632 : Today is Samuel’s Day 0, he will be receiving the drug MTX after the transplant and this drug can cause mucositis. He complained serious stomachache few days ago which was believed to be caused by mucositis and this caused him difficulty in swallowing food and drink. He was given intravenous morphine to ease the pain.

I am very glad that he was getting better yesterday. The parents told me that he was able to eat porridge and the doctor also started to reduce the amount of intravenous morphine.

In addition to this, his blood count is starting to pick up. This is a good indication that the transplanted stem cells from his sister are producing blood in his body, a process called engraftment. If there is no complication, I believe he should be discharged very soon.

I supposed to visit another Leukaemia patient in Gleneagles Intan Medical Centre (GIMC), Ampang but when I finished the visit in HKL, it was almost 6 pm. I have to delay the visit. This patient's relative found me through this blog and has been keeping in touch with me for some time.

Besides this, a friend of mine that I blogged about several times before is finally doing his bone marrow transplant in UH. His name is Mr. Lim and today is his Day -6. You can read his story here:

Day +209
Day +600 : Finally, he found suitable bone marrow for transplant (1)
Day +601 : Finally, he found suitable bone marrow for transplant (2)

Let us always remember Samuel and Mr. Lim in our prayer. May God bless them to have a successful transplant.

See you next post :-)

Day +643 : HEROES Happen Here

I am fine today.

I went to attend a grand Microsoft products launching event called "HEROES happen here" in the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC) today. The products are Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008, and there were 4,000 ‘heroes’ attended the event, the biggest crowd in South East Asia for the same event.

Do you think that the attendees really wanted to get a better understanding of the new products through the event? No, I believe this is not the case for most attendees as there is already tons of information available on the internet. Then why people still flooded the KLCC to attend the event?

I guess some of the following points might explain this.

1. The event is free.


2. Good lunch is provided.


3. Every attendee is rewarded with a free Windows Vista Ultimate, and one year evaluation of Windows Server 2008.


4. They wanted to be Heroes. Microsoft is ingenious of using “HEROES happen here” as the theme :-)


5. A great opportunity to escape from the work, legally :-)

I was a little bit surprised to see my nephew brought his girl friend - a student and most probably has nothing much to do with the newly lunch Microsoft products – to the event. But if we judge from the points that I listed above, it is perfectly reasonable for him to register his girl friend to the event.

My nephew told me proudly that he got two copies of Windows Vista Ultimate. Of course, one of them is from his girl friend.

I must admit that I am a lot less smart than him. If I thought about this earlier, I should bring my wife and the four children, and even our maid and “nenek” (mother-in-law) to the event. With this, we will get 8 copies of free Windows Vista Ultimate and at the same time, let them taste the wonderful feeling of being treated as heroes :-)

Hero with the free Windows Vista Ultimate and other evaluation softwares
Hero pass
This is how Microsoft treats the heroes
See you next post :-)