That was close...

Bangkok hasn't been the safest place on earth in recent years. With the Red Shirt's protests and the clamp down of it this year, coupled with the burning of few good buildings (like Big C and CentralWorld in the heart of Bangkok city for instance), we haven't been able to pay our trade visit to Thailand for a long while.

Then when the dusts finally settle down, we seized the opportunity to visit Bangkok last week. Well, we used to stay at Pathumwan Princess Hotel, which is great as it's a very nice hotel with beautiful breakfast, and what makes it more lovely is the fact it is connected to MBK mall! Genius.

But, of course, there's always a 'but' - the fare is actually, not quite within our budget.

So we found this new lovely hotel called the Pullman KingPower Hotel. Well, the name is kinda funny and unusual, but it's new and, to be frank, very elegant and beautiful. Right next to the hotel is a nice huge Duty Free Shopping Mall called the KingPower Duty Free Shops, where tourists from overseas can shop for duty free items and collect them at the airport before you depart the country.

Furthermore, the hotel provides free 'tuk tuk' service to fetch its customers to its nearest BTS station, which is the Victory Monument Station. Well, it only takes about 5 mins walk to reach the BTS station, but, the hotel decides to pamper you with alternatives if you're just too lazy to walk.

So here we stay, did our work and enjoy our stay there. There's this road called Rang Nam road, right outside of the hotel, is where my colleague and I loitered the most for the short 3 days visit. We were walking up and down, looking for massage parlours and some nice dinner places, only to find ourselves eating at one of the many 7-Eleven along that road and a superly overpriced massage place which was highly recommended by the concierge... Despite all that, we still think that perhaps, we can make this hotel as our first choice going forward.

Then, the following week, this news startled us

"Grenade explodes near shopping centre" - BangkokPost

"The grenade blast in the heart of Bangkok early Friday morning was clearly an attempt to discredit the government... the grenade, which was put in a plastic rubbish bag and dropped on a pile of garbage in front of a house in Rang Nam Road opposite the King Power duty-free shopping centre, went off about 1.30am..."

That was close...

Guess it's time for us to find ourselves new hotels to stay in, if, we are going there anytime soon that is...

Some Old Blogs - 一个字

一个字

好久都没用中文写布落格了.
无他, 只因一个字

懒.

懒归懒, 但别人一问我, "你最近在干嘛?"
我总会答

忙.

忙与盲之间,总能挤出一点时间来八一八天下大事
结果看到的是一个字

乱.

乱的,不止是疯狂的金融市场,还有戏剧性比溏心风暴更戏剧性的政治闹剧
偶尔的闹剧还好,但一旦看多了就会

腻.

腻的感觉,以前好像只会在吃太多后才出现的
但最近感觉总比较容易腻,可能是我已

老.

老朋友们都陆续结婚了.看着照片时,心情总有点复杂,充斥着开心,兴奋与失落
失落的是因为我都因工作而没能出席,但开心的是看到朋友们都能聚在一块.

来.

来得快,去的也快. 我说的是珍贵的周末时光.
星期五总会为周末编排节目,但周末一到,却只想当宅男. 只因我

懒.

懒是因为我太忙了.我忙因为这世间太乱了.
乱是因为某人腻了现状,腻却是因为东西老了.
老是因为时间来的太快,去的也快...原来,我的时间被懒掉了..

Imagine...

Imagine, if there is a regulation in the country requires every single offspring of a politician to be educated in our country only. I.e., the children of all politicians in the country are required, by law, to go to a Malaysian school for their primary till tertiary education, I think, that will solve a lot of the problem that we are facing right now.

First of all, the quality of our public education will have to improve. I mean, I don't think they will want their children to be less competitive right?

Secondly, there will be less likely for them to park their money overseas as there's no "incentive" to buy fancy houses and cars in London nor Australia anymore.

That, in turn, will help to reduce corruption (if there's any that is), and will induce and encourage them to spend within the country. I mean, of course, undoubtedly corruption is bad, but even worst is if they corrupt and the wealth of the nation got channeled out of the country. That's sad.

So, better local education system and standard will raise the Malaysian's quality of life, lesser corruption and better economy as more money being spent domestically, wouldn't it be great for all?

Maybe should employ someone to do the inception on them... Hm...

Travelling

Because of the nature of my job, i do travel quite a fair bit, especially within the region of South East Asia (or in short, ASEAN).

I must admit that it is quite tiring to cover so many grounds within short periods of time, but comparing myself with other profession like ... pilot, i consider myself quite lucky.

Interestingly, most of the countries in ASEAN region are, well, cowboy-state, if you may. It is quite an experience to see mega shopping malls in Jakarta co-exist perfectly with the more traditional wet market (or wholesale market, which is commonly refer to as "pasar" in Bahasa Indonesia). With the big fat gap between the rich and the poor, two separate types of trade exist to maintain the balance in the society.

When you talk about Jakarta, undeniably, the first word that pop up in most people's mind is "Traffic Jam". There are just so many vehicles on the road and so many people live in the city itself. There is over 20 million people living in Greater Jakarta region. That, my friend, is just about 6-7 million shy of Malaysia's total population.

20 million people, that's approximately 10% of the country's total population, living in the capital city of the "thousand islands country". Interestingly, somehow, the 10% rule holds for most countries. For instance, there are about 2 million people lives in KL (about 8 million for Greater KL), that's about 10% of Malaysia's total population of 25-27 million people.

With a total population of over 60 million people, Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, provide homes to approximately 6 million people (12 million if you refer to the Greater Bangkok region).

Enough of biased and skewed statistics. Well, to end this chapter of one of my many lousy blog entries, I would like touch on one of the most interesting destination which my job has brought me to. Myanmar.

It might be surprising to some, but most people mistakenly think that the capital city of Myanmar is Yangon. However, it is not, well, at least since 2006 it's not. Naypyidaw is now the capital city of Myanmar. Why, how, what, where, when? (well i just said, 2006) Well in short, the government has decided that it is in the people's best interests to move its capital to a new vast land far far away, so that the new city with all government offices can be more organized, more well-structured and... better looking maybe. Sounds very much like Putrajaya to me actually.

The infrastructure in Yangon is in the state which will make a person appreciates and feels contented with what we have here in Malaysia. Well, it is a beautiful country with vast resources, and land, but, not very well-managed. It's kinda pity though...

草木誌

前記﹕草木誌>是以半自傳式的方式來描繪人生中許多常被人忽視的人生故事。

[上]

我叫曹木。我活在公元199年。

自娘胎出生以來﹐我一直都是活在戰火裡。

在這一個兵荒馬亂的時代﹐很多東西也都不比主公的野心來的重要。

人命根本不比一寸領土值錢。

我﹐曹木﹐在這一個烽火連天的年代﹐要活下去﹐唯有當兵。

反正﹐若不從軍﹐也只會流落為山賊﹐或成為被軍閥榨干的農民。

今天﹐我被派駐守東門。結果﹐中午未到﹐敵軍大軍已殺到了。

我的理念告訴我﹐我得忠心衛國﹐視死為榮。

憑著這信念﹐當敵軍大將攻城時﹐我想也不想就沖上前去殺敵。

不是我螳臂擋車﹐而這是活在這時代的無奈。

結果﹐吾劍未觸及敵軍大將時﹐我的故事就結束了。

對於歷史來說﹐我的英勇﹐根本連一個字也不值得記載。

人非草木﹐曹木卻連什麼也不如。

[中]

我叫草暮。我活在公元1699年。

我的國家叫做東瀛。我的族群是活在影子中的一群。

縱然我的族群領袖是大長老﹐但真正掌控我們人生的是我們族群的僱主。

我們的工作是為僱主執行任務。殺人﹐竊聽或護主﹐我們﹐身不由己。

人們都稱我們為忍者。

身為忍者﹐自己並不重要。最重要的是﹐我們有沒有成功的完成任務。

對於忍者來說﹐我們的生命﹐根本不比任務來的重要。

我﹐草暮﹐一生下來﹐就註定是忍者。別無他的﹐因為這是我族姓氏所揹負的命運。

自懂事以來﹐我的任務就是好好訓練自己﹐為的是他日好好達成任務。我根本不知道人生除了忍道還有什麼﹐因為我﹐根本沒有得選擇。

那一天﹐我的任務是刺殺一名武士。我不認識他﹐也根本與他無怨無仇。他﹐應該也不曉得我是誰。

他﹐肯定不知我是誰﹐因為就連僱主也不曉得我是誰。

一片弒殺之後﹐我記得我躺在一淌血泊中。身首異處。

結果﹐我﹐從人生開始到結束﹐根本沒人知道我是誰。

因為﹐我到了最後﹐仍是蒙著面。

人非草木﹐草暮卻連什麼也不如。

[下]

我叫曹暮。我活在公元1999年。

母親為我命名為暮﹐應該是希望我能象陽光般大放異彩地生活。

諷刺地是﹐我的職業是在地下停車場裡當警衛。基本上﹐我的人生﹐是與陽光無緣的。

除了在上班與下班時遇見的人潮比較多之外﹐平時﹐偌大的停車坪﹐只有我一個人類。

我﹐曹暮﹐知道我的工作是偉大的。因為有我﹐停車場內的治安會比較好﹐因為有我﹐人們才會安心地留下車子去忙他們的。

偶爾當人們開車經過我時﹐會向我揮揮手﹐打打招呼。當然﹐我也會禮貌上向他們回禮。

無可厚非的﹐這短暫的一刻﹐是我一天裡最為人性化的一幕。但﹐當車子離開後﹐遺下的除了淡淡的臭氣﹐還有那瞬間攻心的落寞。

那怕有一天﹐人們厭煩了揮手打招呼﹐那﹐我的存在感是否變的更為薄弱﹖

車子與人們只顧一瞬即過﹐完全無視于我的存在﹐那﹐我曹暮與路邊的草木又有何別呢﹖

我想﹐不同的是﹐我是會致敬揮手的草木。

人非草木﹐曹暮卻連什麼也不如。

[完]

My Blog

I have been writing blog for like... 5-6 years now. It was at Xanga at first, then i migrated to blogspot, and it stays till now.

The problem with me, or blogging in general, is, it's very hard to be disciplined enough to keep the writing going. After a while when you realized that no one actually read your blogs, you kinda...got discouraged and not really motivated to blog so often anymore.

Secondly, when you blog too often, the contents get kinda cheesy, too lame or too commercialized.

Until recently, someone whom i got to know for not longer than half a year told me that she finds my blog interesting. I was like "you are referring to my twitter right?" (as a matter of fact, a no more than 160 words micro-blogging tool is naturally more appealing to a lazy dude like me...) and she goes "no, i mean your blog. It's good!"

and that's the main reason why you see this entry here today. It's just an appreciation to everyone of you who have been reading my lousy blog entries all these years and particularly this lame entry itself.

Nonetheless, if possible, you should be able to see more entries going forward...


i think.

China

Here are some interesting videos about China. Produced by a very talented friend of mine.

Check it out!

Young & Restless: China's Graduate Dilemma from SOOKSTV on Vimeo.

Weekly Update ep. 1 from SOOKSTV on Vimeo.

Ari Gold!

Ari Mashup