The Nomadic Life of Rich

One of my favorite food: Indian Mamak Food

2010-07-30T08:22:00.006+07:00

During my semester break, I went back to Malaysia for a month. I managed to enjoy some of my favorite food and one of them is called Indian Mamak Food. Indian Mamak food is very popular in Malaysia and the food comprises of Nasi Kandar (yellow spiced rice with a variety of side dishes such as chicken curry, fish curry, mutton curry and beef curry that you could choose from), tosai (pronounced as "toe-say" : thin soft and crispy bread), roti canai (crispy bread with curry), mee goreng mamak (fried noodles), naan (toasted bread) with tandoori chicken and roti tisu (extra thin, crispy and sweetened bread). There are plenty of different mamak food chains in Malaysia and the following are a couple of shots from different shops.

Take note of the writings below the TOSAI word. Yes, it says TOSAI ANACONDA SPECIAL! I did not know what the heck was an ANACONDA tosai until I asked the guy. He told me that it is an extra long tosai bread, just like an anaconda snake! I did not order that tosai because we could not even finish our various different dishes on our table. Perhaps I will try it next time when I return to Malaysia.

Here is a photo of the Roti Canai that I mentioned earlier. They are basically made of flour and toasted on a hot plate to make it crispy. Similarly, by adding eggs the Roti Canai will become Roti Telor. Murtabak is made with beef and onions inside the bread.

The following photo shows you how tall a Roti Tisu (thin like tissue paper). The guy had to sprinkle some sugar, condensed milk and honey around the conical structure before laying it down on 2 plates prior to serving it to customers.
This Original Penang Kayu Nasi Kandar was one of the earliest shops to be established in Penang. When we moved to Klang, they also had branches there. I am sure the franchise has spread all across west Malaysia by now.

I am pretty sure the profit margin of these mamak shops are good because most of the different variety of food are mostly made of flour. Flour is cheap in Malaysia and these shops charge a couple of dollars for a dish. Mamak stalls reminded me of one of my ex-colleagues who used to eat dinner there every night (without fail)! This single guy spends most of his after work hours watching football on the mamak stalls' flat screen TVs (one of the methods to attract crowds).
After posting this photo, I realized that this mamak stall actually had a plastic bag to wrap up the leak on their water pipe! Noticed the red bag in front of the stall?....LOL!

Missing In Action

2010-06-21T15:25:00.004+07:00

Wow! It has been such a long time since I put up any posts on my blog!! Anyway, I was very very busy with my full time studies for my Masters in Integrated Water Management from the University of Queensland.

Studying never used to be so tough. Despite doing the course full time, I never had the privilege of the full time student benefits such as what I used to have during my undergrad studies. Officially, I am a full time student but I still need to help manage 2 kids (a 6 month old and a 3 year old). However, I was fortunate to live with my in-laws and they really helped a lot in terms of giving me some spare time to study. Normally my "study time" at home is from 8pm-11:30pm when the kids are asleep. I have never read so much literature in such as short period of time in my entire life. However, all the information about water is so interesting. Studying in this course feels as if I am trying to take in as much water as I could from a water hose shooting into my mouth (quoted by some former student of the course)!

Anyway, let me try to load some photos to remind myself what have I been doing for the past few months that I did not have time to blog....

Ah, this was a nice shot of Brisbane city from the City Cat catamaran that ferried us from our field trip back to the university. The Brisbane River is so amazing. Every time I cycle past the river, it gives me a sense of serenity and joyfulness.
This is the Wivenhoe Dam, approximately 2 hours' drive away from Brisbane. It is one of the major dams that provides water supply to the Southeast Queensland region.
Brisbane had its annual Dragon Boat race back in April. 20 over teams from all over Brisbane came to compete in this event. I was there with my eldest son to watch the event during that weekend.
Besides the dragon boat races, they also had dragon dances as well. My boy was pretty fascinated by the "dragon" since he always listen to stories about these mythical creatures.
Lastly, North Stradbroke Island... located off the coast of Brisbane, NSI was the location that all of the integrated water management students spent 3 nights (our 1st field trip).
I have to catch a flight later tonight, so I will stop here and perhaps continue after my one month break! Stay tuned...;)

Photos of the month - Feb'10

2010-02-26T18:18:00.004+07:00

Once again I apologize for not blogging for such a long time. Time flies! Especially when we have plenty of activities and visitors around. My wife's aunt and my wife's friend came to stay with us in Dec'09 and Feb'10 respectively. With a blink of an eye, it has been 3 months since I moved from Palembang to Brisbane and now I have 2 kids! Perhaps one of the reasons I failed to blog was the lack of internet time as well. In Brisbane, I had to share the PC with my wife at night and most of the time it is limited to 1 hour. Sometimes we had to catch something interesting on TV or some of the downloaded series like Gossip Girls, Desperate Housewives or Brothers and Sisters... Anyway, here are some shots with comments to summarize what happened for the past few weeks:

We started to let our 3 year old son attend gymnastics sessions. 45 mins per week of instructed "play" to test the toddler's "stretchability" has been the weekly Wednesday morning activity. I am one of the only 2 fathers bringing our kids to the session. Majority of the mums were there as their dads all go to work! Lucky me for being able to fit this father and son session into my non-classes day.
We also brought our son for swimming lessons. He used to be very confident in water. In Cairns last year, he even dived into the pool without any goggles. However, this year he began to fuss more about water entering his eyes. He even refused to attend one of the swim lessons until mom stepped in and brought him there every week (plus a box of orange juice from the swim school every time he goes).
I managed to bring my son to Sea World Gold Coast a few weeks back. We managed to get the 6 month multiple entry ticket for $100, which is very worth it as every normal entry would cost $70. Here's a shot of him with the polar bear.

Of course, we won't miss the main event which is the dolphin show. Too bad there's no Shamu or Killer Whale shows like the ones in Orlando. However, I read that some rogue whale killed its trainer last week.....

Since the arrival of our 2nd son, his elder brother has been very excited. The elder one keeps asking us to carry the baby (which worries us!). Sometimes, he just gets too excited and acts rough towards the baby. So we always need to keep an eye on both the BIG and SMALL babies!
Other than nights with intermittent sleep (waking up every 2 hours), we have days where the baby take us by surprise! Leaky nappies and thunderous farts just make the day very interesting!

We enjoy good food especially when my wife's friend who stayed with us for 3 weeks decided to cook a few meals for us. Yummy yum yum chicken rolls....

Figs - my first time eating figs was a very palatable one!

Living life is about experiencing events & how we make a difference in other people's lives. Pessimistic people see life as boring and routine. That's why we need to consciously make it more eventful instead of let life pass you by. Routine is sometimes good but never too long. See you again in March'10!

Photos of the week - Dinosaurs & Crazy Sales

2010-01-23T19:42:00.003+07:00

The museum had this DIG DINOS event and one of the attractions was the LIVE T-REX. It made roaring sounds that scared the shit out of my son - look at the lady's legs!

Boxing Day Rush - everybody had to queue up to get onto the escalators and there were wardens to monitor the "boarding" process so that it won't break down.

A storm was brewing sometime before Xmas day...... wished we had more rain this summer. It's getting too darn hot!

Milton Park - 5 mins ride away from our house. The place for my son to play train master!

Cycling - the most common activity for father and son bonding.

Brisbane City

2010-01-23T19:24:00.003+07:00

Brisbane, the capital city of Queensland Australia, is my current stop. We should be staying here minimal for another 1.5-2 years, so I should call it HOME for now.

This 2 Million population's city has a very good bicycle path. It takes me only 15 mins to ride along the Brisbane riverside to the City. Driving to the city often incurs hefty parking charges. Therefore, cycling is the best mode of transport (FOC). Other means of getting to the city include via the City Cat ferry, by train or by bus if you do not want the hassle of looking for car parks.

In Brisbane, people seldom need to go to the city because every suburb has its self sustaining facilities like shopping malls, parks and shops. So far, I have cycled to the city to visit the museum, the man-made beach, government and banking institutions. Below are some good shots of Brisbane City downtown. The photo with the multiple colored buildings is the City Council Library. The one with the old architecture is the Treasury Building where the city's Casino is located. City buses and City Cats could be seen as well. I was really proud of these last 2 photos as they looked like post card shots! I took them from my bike on a 30C sunny afternoon.

Santa Brought Us A Gift

2010-01-15T18:13:00.004+07:00

Sorry for the long absence in blogging. I was pretty preoccupied with Santa's gift in 2009 until now.

We were expecting our new child sometime early Jan 2010 but my wife started to have contractions on the early hours of Boxing Day. I have always thought that the Boxing Day (day after Xmas) was related to the boxing sport until I finally had time to google boxing day. It is a day whereby the old Victorians used to put gifts into small boxes to give to workers like postmen, garbage collectors and other public servants.

Boxing Day is also the day where huge sales are everywhere. There were really people who lined up from 5am outside the department stores waiting for them to open at 8am. Initially we were also planning to get to the shops for some loot, but the plan was slightly changed with my wife's contractions that started at 4am. We were packed and ready to go to the hospital but the contractions slowed down. My wife rang the hospital and the staff advised her to wait. In the end we decided to go shopping instead. I was a bit worried that she might give birth at the mall! I had a pen and paper with me recording all the times of her contractions while we walked and shopped.

After lunch, we had to drive to the hospital because her contractions got more frequent. However, as soon as we arrived at the hospital, the contractions started to slow down again..... I waited with her until I got kicked out from the hospital at 10pm. I managed to get some sleep until 1am on the next day when she called to say that she is about to give birth. I rushed to the hospital to find that she was already at the delivery bed. Within 30 mins, she gave birth to a charming baby boy! We really thanked and praised the Lord for giving my wife a safe delivery to a healthy child.

The next day, we informed our family members and they brought along our 3 year old son to see his baby brother. He was pretty excited to see and hold the baby. This is the start of our "new" life with an additional family member. Stay tuned for more news to come and what happened between 27th December and 15th January....;)

SAHF

2009-12-20T17:43:00.004+07:00

I am sure many moms are familiar with the term SAHM because it stands for Stay-At-Home-Mother or moms who work at home. They could be housewives or moms who has a part time business.

Since leaving Palembang, I have been a SAHF (Stay At Home Father). Initially, it was a blow to my morale since I was the major family income provider for the past 6 years. Suddenly, I felt as if I was no longer contributing to the family cause, plus there were so many new things to learn about living in Brisbane and Australia. Experiencing a new environment change is never easy. After 2 weeks of struggle and support from my wife, I finally found my footing and also bearings around doing things in Brisbane.

Life suddenly became full of purpose since I now have more time to spend with my 3 year old son and my wife. Teaching my son, reading to him, playing with him, taking him out for a ride or run in the park.... nothing beats spending quality uninterrupted family time. Now, I have ample time to learn about being a stay-at-home father, at least until uni starts again.

Entertainment That's Worth The $$ - The Wiggles Concert

2009-12-15T17:52:00.006+07:00

Many of you might think that $35 Wiggles Concerts were only meant for kids but you were wrong. We managed to buy last minute tickets for the Wiggles Concert 2 weeks ago.

The event was held at the Brisbane Entertainment Center. We drove off 1.5 hours before the event and were surprised by the number of cars entering the car park. We had to line up for almost 30 mins before we could get a car park and it costs $10!

I did not have very high hopes of an entertaining event because I thought that it would be more like a kids event whereby the Wiggles (Sam, Murray, Jeff and Anthony - the yellow, red, purple and blue Wiggles respectively) provide kids with some sing-a-longs. We managed to get front row seats which were just 2m away from the stage.

The concert had a big round platform in the middle, trapezes and swings hanging from the roof. The show started with the circus ring master Ringo introducing the Wiggles. Acrobats and gymnasts came out performing their respective feats and created a circus-like atmosphere. Of course there were singing, jokes and performances by all the Wiggles.

I was surprised that many adults were as excited as the kids when they saw their favourite Wiggle perform on stage. We also knew many songs that they performed and had a great time as well. For sure, the $35 front row seats were definitely worth it for the 1.5 hour concert!

New Chapter in Brisbane - starts with free, free & free concerts

2009-12-08T17:35:00.006+07:00

I have finally settled down in Brisbane for good (at least for the next couple of years). Leaving Palembang was difficult but I have finally started my new chapter in life in Brisbane.

Not having to work until school starts next year means everyday feels like a Sunday. Sometimes it is hard to even keep track of the dates and days of the week. Due to the many activities being lined up, I seldom have time to even log on to the internet or use the computer!

Summer is starting in Australia now, which also means we are gonna have a HOT Christmas in a few more week's time. All the places are decorated with xmas ornaments and xmas trees. It also happens that the city of Brisbane starts to organize free concerts. For the past 5 days, I have attended 3 free concerts: The Lord Mayor's Xmas Carols Concert, C&K Children's Concert and the City Hall's Senior Xmas Concert.

The Lord Mayor's Xmas Carols Concert was held at the Botanical Gardens. We were there 2 hours before to reserve our seats but the place was almost jammed packed by the time we got there. We managed to find a place along the grass slopes by the side of the concert stage to place our picnic spreads. It was fun to be in a picnic cum concert atmosphere like this.

The C&K Children's Concert was held at the Brisbane Convention Center. They had a small animal exhibit (a bilby - see above photo, and a slink), play sessions with kids with the C&K staff (C&K is a kindergarten chain) followed by the concert. The City Hall's Senior Concert was held at City Hall. Supposedly meant for seniors but we booked tickets for the whole family to attend.

So far, my new chapter in the world down under is filled with concerts and days out. Have not had a stay without any events or stay-at-home days yet.... which is good! It's gonna be a HOT HOT Christmas!

Short Trip Back To Malaysia

2009-11-29T11:07:00.004+07:00

Finally I left Palembang (the place that I used to call home for the past 3 years) and headed back to Malaysia for a short trip before leaving for Brisbane.

My wife was a bit upset when she got to know that I had my "holiday" in Malaysia while she had to manage my active toddler son at home. Anyway, I got to meet up with many childhood friends (up to 25 years of friendship) and former colleagues.

I spent most of the time with my dad as I stayed with him. We had almost every meal at Penang's famous hawker food stalls nearby my place. I managed to slot in afternoon tea and supper with friends while major meal sessions were "reserved" for my dad and my relatives.

"Brisbane" will be the beginning of my new chapter in life where I shall become a dad for the 2nd time and go back to school to further my studies. I am still anxious to be unemployed and had to stay with my in-laws (not that I've never done it before but this time is for a longer period of time). Will I be able to turn on my "study brain" after so many years? Will I be able to cope with studying, take care of a toddler, take care of a newborn and manage a good family relationship at the same time? It looks as if I have too many balls to juggle at the same time.... Nevertheless, I am still positive about my new life in Brisbane and what lies ahead of 2010.

Interesting Indonesian Language

2009-11-16T17:54:00.001+07:00

After 3 years in Palembang, I could speak and write Indonesian "dikit dikit" (a little bit). Here are some of the alphabet pronunciations that are different from English:

A - ah
B - beh
C - chey
D - day
E - er
F - eff
G - gay (no kidding!)

H - ha
I - aye
J - jay
K - ka
L - el
M - am
N - an
O - oh
P - pay

Q - kee
R - ar
S - ass
T - tay
U - ooo
V - fey

W - way
X - axe
Y - yay
Z - zet

Try to sing the ABCD song in Bahasa Indonesia....LOL!

When I first arrived, I was pretty "bingung" (confused) when somebody mentioned to me that he drives a "Fey-Way" car (VW = Volkswagon)!

Despite the fact that Indonesia was never colonized by the British (30 years under Dutch's rule), the Indonesian language has a lot of terms similar to English (just to name a few):

Halte (hall-ter): bus stop, from the word halt.
Helm (hell-lem): helmet.
Amplop (aam-plope): envelope.
Baut (ba-oot): bolt.

Some slight difference between Indonesian and Malay terms (just to name a few also):

Karna, Karena - Kerana (Malay) - Because (English)
Bisa - Boleh (Malay) - Can (English)
Butuh - Perlu (Malay) - Need (English)
Becak - Beca (Malay) - Trishaw (English)
Wewenang - Tanggung-jawab (Malay) - Responsibility (English)
Sendok - Sudu (Malay) - Spoon (English)
Cangkir - Cawan (Malay) - Cup (English)

I guess that's all for my limited Indonesian translations. Tomorrow will be my last day in Palembang.... # leaving on a jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again #. Palembang will always have its place in my heart despite all the power problems. I am sure that sometime in my life, "I'LL BE BACK"! Adios Palembang!

Geisha - Indonesian, Not Japanese

2009-11-15T09:36:00.008+07:00

For the past month that I was in Palembang, my cable TV was disconnected and I was forced to watch local Indonesian TV. I discovered this band called GEISHA that has very nice songs. The female vocalist's voice reminds me of the group HEART. My friends kept saying that I am intoxicated by Indonesian music after 3 years here but I still love it.

Here are some of my favourite songs from Geisha with their MVs:

Jika Cinta Dia - If you love her

Takkan Pernah Ada - Never Have Been

Selalu Salah - Always Wrong
(this song does not have the original music video)

Leaving With A Price

2009-11-08T17:10:00.002+07:00

I have submitted my resignation from the company last month but the company did not have any replacement identified for me until earlier this week.

I was glad that I was finally able to leave Palembang since my family is already in Brisbane. Thanks to the internet, I was still able to chat using Skype and Windows Live Messenger with my wife everyday and also see them via video once in awhile.

It has been tough for my wife to take care of my energetic son by herself. I decided to request for an earlier departure. My employment contract states that I will need to provide 2 months advance notice prior to departure. Therefore, I have to stay until mid Dec'09 which is too long for me a wait.

I talked to my GM and also MD in a nice manner about this dilemma. My MD did not get angry during the conversation and said he will discuss the matter with my GM. Later that day, I received a call from my GM saying that the company has given me permission to leave by middle of this month but will not be paying me 1/2 a months salary because I broke the employment contract. However, I need to work until middle of the month. He said that the company could have taken legal action against me for my premature departure and should take on this "small penalty".

At first I wanted to appeal but in the end I figured that the company needed a way out and they need to do something in order to prevent people from leaving the company at a short notice.

Is 1/2 a month's work without pay justifiable for earlier freedom?

A Baby's (Not Mine) Day Out

2009-11-02T09:57:00.010+07:00

Last weekend I invited my driver Iwan and his wife Ida to visit the museum in Palembang. Iwan did ask me whether it is ok to bring along a 6 month old baby and I agreed. He told me that this baby belongs to Ida's aunt who has 7 children. Every weekend Iwan and Ida will babysit the 6-month-old boy overnight. Iwan said that that baby is very easy to handle and does not REWEL (make a fuss).

I was also anxious to see how a 6 month old would not make a fuss if taken out for a day.

The baby's name is Satria (aka warrior). The couple dressed him up in a thick furry jacket on that hot Sunday morning. Satria also had a singlet covered by a red and white shirt. Iwan was dressed in black (2 layers) while Ida was in tudung (head dress) plus a jacket. I could not understand why they mentioned that they are afraid to catch a cold in this hot weather!

We spent approximately 2 hours visiting 2 different museums at the Ampera bridge area (both within walking distance). They fed the baby milk in a bottle (mixing sachets of milk powder with normal temp water). Satria did not make a lot of noise, only soft grunts and burps. He does not like to wear shoes. So he often kicks his shoes off.

After the museum, they smelt something foul but realized that they did not bring any spare nappies! Iwan said, "he normally poops in the afternoon". It shows that they still need some training before they get to know how to handle babies...Scout's motto, "Always be prepared"!.....LOL!

Therefore, we had to drive to a sundry shop to buy PAMPERS for Satria. Nappies in Bahasa Indonesia are called Pampers irregardless of whether it is Pampers brand or not. After Satria was cleaned up in a public toilet nearby, we headed out for lunch.

I took them to the famous MI CELOR stall in Palembang. Mi Celor is a noodle dish with thick coconut gravy. Iwan held Satria with one hand at the side but the baby kept wanting to pull the plates and spoons from the table. In the end, I finished up my mi celor quickly and temporarily baby sit Satria while the 2 dug into their noodles.

After lunch, we headed home. The A/C in the car was so comfortable that Satria fell asleep. As you can see from the photo, his arms were bent like a bow facing upwards as he snoozed throughout the way home.

It was an interesting day out for us. Not so much of the contents inside the museum but because a 6 month old baby was tagging along. The weekend stay for the baby should serve as good practice for Iwan and Ida but I warned them not to expect the same of their own newborn when Ida delivers sometime in March next year. Every baby is different.

Until now I still have Blog formatting problems: everytime I insert photos, my formatting will get screwed up. I have looked in the FAQ sections of Blogger but could not find a good solution for my formatting problems yet. If you have any ideas on how to resolve it, please let me know.

Photos Of The Week - Tofu & Trucks

2009-10-29T13:55:00.005+07:00

2 weeks ago I taught my maid to steam tofu. Obviously she has never done steaming before with a steamer, so I told her to put the square soft tofus onto a metal plate and steam it for 10 mins. When I came back I was surprised to see the following dish on my table!

This was her steamed tofu dish with fried garlic on top.....but it was all mashed up and out of shape! So the next day I asked her what happened and she told me that she steamed the tofu for >1 hour!!

No problem, she was on her learning curve. However, last week the steamed tofu dish came out to be like this....

I was surprised again. Not only the tofu is all mashed up, it was perfectly round. I ate half of the tofu dish and asked her what happened the next day. She said, "I used a plastic container to close up the tofu and steam it".

I almost fainted when I heard that she put a plastic container covering up the tofu and put it on a metal plate to steam under the >100c steamer! The plastic would have melted and I would have eaten all the toxins from the heated plastic container. I have been poisoned by my maid.... She was banned from steaming tofu from that day onwards.

In Palembang, all the trucks that carry fertilizers into the estates are only limited to 8 tons compared to Malaysia's 20 tons due to the bad road infrastucture. Any trucks > 8 tons will not be able to enter the dirt roads.

They have funny funny writings all over the trucks and this is one of them.... KEKASIH HALAL - literally it meant LEGAL LOVER. So what does Legal Lover mean? I am sure it does not mean THE WIFE.

What Is A MOCAK?

2009-10-28T18:37:00.009+07:00

Yesterday afternoon when my driver came to pick me up for lunch, he told me that there was a power outage at home. Therefore, I was not able to heat up the food from the fridge and had to buy some take-away food. I wanted to try this Mi Aceh (Aceh noodles) from a nearby shop, so we drove there. It was pouring. When we got to the Mi Aceh stall, we saw a MOCAK (sounds like "mow-chuck") or Motor-Becak (Motorized-trishaw).

The Mocak belongs to the Mi Aceh guy. He is from Aceh (northern Sumatra) and claims that he brought the mocak to Palembang by bus. It was dismantled into smaller pieces then put on a bus. When it got here, he re-assembled it back. He said it is very popular to have mocaks in Aceh and it is legal. The Palembang city regulations prohibit mocaks to be driven but I guess he is still driving it illegally around this area.

If you examine the mocak carefully, you can see that it can take on a total of 7 passengers - the bike rider and pillion rider on the bike section (2), plus 3 leaning back at the carriage section and 2 more facing opposite the 3 persons!

The Mi Aceh guy stir fries the noodles then use a lid to cover them up and steam it. It is a spicy dish. If you look properly at his stall, you can see a piece of beef hanging there. Other than the Mi Aceh, I also took away some BATAGOR which is something like dumplings and fried tofu (see photo below). I would not say that the Mi Aceh & Batagor were nice but at least I got to know more about the MOCAKs.

I Work At Home

2009-10-27T18:34:00.005+07:00

Everyday passes really slowly especially when my wife and son are away in Brisbane. I am alone in the house after work. I managed to go through some of the photos that my wife took in the laptop.

I recalled my son telling me that he works at home when I told him I was about to go to work in the morning.

Exactly what work does he do??

1. He cleans the dead leaves and twigs that falls into our fish pond at the back of the house. This is normally our driver's job but my son likes to help adults do chores. Maybe I can get him to wash the plates next time!...LOL! Washing plates is my most hated chore as both my brother and I were forced to wash up after dinner every night (we had to rotate everyday)!

2. He pretends that he is an excavator digging the soil that we put into this cut-into-half oil drum from my work place. We had to plaster the sharp edges of the drum so that he does not get cut.

My son normally would find worms and caterpillars and cut them up! We tried to let him cut the caterpillars only because they eat up my wife's plants whereas the earth worms help loosen the soil for the plants to grow better.

3. He is also the construction team coordinator. He instructs his shovel to scoop soil into the dump truck. The soil we have on the ground is mostly clay, so it is hard to dig and gets messy when it is wet.

We thought of building him a sand pit. However the thought of cats doing their business in the pit put off our idea. My friend also just reminded me that it would be very difficult to find clean sand in Palembang.

Wishing that I could reunite with my family in Brisbane soon, all that I could do now is to continue to browse through the many photos that my wife took throughout the 3 years we were in Palembang. I never really had time to go through all of them when they are around. Yes, 3 year olds do work at home!

Dismal Display At Anfield

2009-10-26T14:43:00.013+07:00

The Liverpool-ManUtd match yesterday was a disappointment for United fans. ManUtd lost 0-2 to the "wounded animal" Liverpool who desperately needed a win to overcome their 4 loses in a row crisis.

I drove to the mess to watch the match at 8pm WIB (Waktu Indonesia Barat - west Indonesian time) only to know that the live match will only start at 9pm WIB. The schedule provided by the local newspaper was inaccurate.

After the start of the match, frustrations mounted as Utd struggled to dominate the mid-field area and the first half ended 0-0. Thinking that the second half will turn out to be better for Utd, came the Liverpool goal where Spaniard Fernando Torres (aka El Nino) outpaced out-of-form England and Utd centerback Rio Ferdinand to shoot past keeper Edwin Van Der Sar. 1-0 down, Utd tried to fight back but the introduction of former Liverpool man Michael Owen did not provide Utd much magic that we hoped for. Nemanja Vidic (Utd) and Javier Mascherano (Liv) were both sent off after 2 bookable offences. After added time beyond the 90th minute, Liv scored again and my heart sank.....

After a whole week of taunting and exchanging "fire" with my Liverpool friends on Facebook, I had to swallow the bitter pill. Can't stand my friends keep talking about the "you'll never walk alone" crap (motto of Liverpool), so I called their home site ANT-field instead of Anfield. The "Liver-POO vs. Manure United" rivalry will have to wait till the next match at Old Trafford in 2010. Funny how the people give names to the players and teams of their rivals.... the best is still "ARSE-Shavin" playing for "ARSE-Anal"! (Andrei Arshavin playing for Arsenal)....

The Reds deserved to win at home against a woeful United side yesterday. The win also temporarily delayed the crisis call at Liverpool and their manager Rafa Benitez' job is gonna be safe at least for a few more games. It was also time that Utd lost their 11 game unbeaten streak so that they could bounce back in the next few games esp the tough test at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea on Nov 7, 2009.

I hope this is a blessing in disguise for United as last season they also lost both games to Liverpool but ended up clinching the ultimate prize - being the Champions of the English Premier League!

THE Match Preview - Liverpool vs United (25/10/09)

2009-10-24T19:58:00.006+07:00

Many readers do not like to read about my Manchester United posts but tomorrow is a BIG match where Liverpool hosts Manchester United at Anfield.

Liverpool has had a 4 consecutive match losing record coming into tomorrow's game while United (current league leaders) are seeking to avenge their double loss to the reds last season. Liverpool is weakened by the absence of their influential skipper Steven Gerrard while United will be without their star striker Wayne Rooney who is still out injured.

I will need to watch the match at my colleagues place in the company's mess because they have Indovision cable TV (the new EPL match broadcaster). I am sure Liverpool will want to use this opportunity to bounce back with a win over their arch rivals. I am anticipating a 2-2 draw but as a Devil fan I hope former Liverpool star Michael Owen (photo below) will tip the scales with a last gasp goal for United against his former club.

Can't wait for the cracker match tomorrow! Go Red Devils!!!

A Visit To Our Former Maid's House

2009-10-23T08:25:00.018+07:00

Last week, we received news that our former maid has delivered a baby boy. My wife has been to her house in Mata Merah last month to visit her but I have not been. Yesterday after work, my driver and me went to pay her a visit.

Mata Merah is 10 mins drive away from my work place. I thought it would be a "poor" area but the houses looked pretty nice and well maintained for Indonesian standard.

Aini was our 2nd live-in maid in Palembang. She was one of the hard working ones that we have had and my wife also liked her because of her pleasant personality. She was so efficient and throrough in her work that we let her study in the afternoons (to finish high school). After she got married and left us, we still kept in touch with her.

Aini looked pretty happy when we met her. She was carrying her 10 days old baby boy. His name is Ruslan, named after his great-grandfather. According to customs of people from her husband's hometown in Kayu Agung (2 hours drive from Palembang), their sons and daughters are named after their grandparents. They said this custom will enable their ancestors to be remembered.

In fact, the elder Ruslan is just staying a few roads away. According to Aini, he is 80 years old and having some mobility problems. However, the baby's great-grandpa is still quite healthy, eats well and still smokes 1 pack of cigarette a day! Unfortunately, the 2 Ruslans still have not met one another yet. Aini's father still has not visited her and her newborn yet. So I felt priviledged to be one of their first visitors.

Aini told us that her baby is a deep sleeper. He seldom wakes up despite loud noises and only cry when he is wet or hungry. She said her baby kept wanting to get out from the swaddle... I could imagine how uncomfortable it is to be swaddled up under these hot Palembang weather!

She only started breast feeding her baby 2 days after it was born. She had a natural birth and was happy not to have a C-section because they would still have to pay for 50% of the medical cost despite being subsidized by the government. She delivered her baby (3.3kgs) in a mid-wives' home (BIDAN) instead of a hospital. Most of the people living in this area go to a BIDAN instead of a doctor. Therefore, there were many cases where they could not accurately predict the delivery dates of the baby because they did not have any ultrasound scanners at the BIDAN's place. Aini's baby only came after 3 weeks of her expected delivery date.

Aini stays with her in-laws now in a house with 6 occupants. Her father in-law has 12 brothers and sisters! He was there to chat with us as well and said he was very proud to have his first grandchild as a boy. I guess people here prefer to have boys over girls (same as other parts of the world). I told him that as long as the baby is healthy, the gender should not matter. He had to nod his head in agreement after I stared at him for a few seconds...;)

We brought Aini some baby clothes, nappies, nappy cream and a baby soft toy. We only stayed at her place for 30 mins and left after bidding farewell. She was appreciative of the gifts and even sms'd to thank me for it later. Hope that Aini would be happy enjoying her new life with her newborn baby.

Photos Of The Week - Ampera Area

2009-10-22T11:14:00.008+07:00

As mentioned in my previous posts, my driver and me both took the local bus to Palembang downtown and here are some photos that we took:

The following photo was taken on a pedestrian bridge with the Ampera Bridge and Palembang's water fountain round-about at the background. My driver Iwan is still not smiling...

This pedestrian bridge is called Jembatan PUSRI because it was built by Pusri (Pupuk Sriwijaya), one of the largest urea producers in the world. Supposedly there are a lot of pick pockets along this bridge but we did not encounter any incidences. Palembang is also full of satellite dishes (look at the background) because there are less government restrictions on their installations as compared to Malaysia. Once you have a dish installed, you can get any channels around the world. However, it was not something that we wanted to invest in.

This is Mesjid Agung Palembang (Palembang's Mosque) located right next to the Ampera Bridge. The horns on the roof came from a mix of Hindu and Chinese influences.

Across the mosque is this MONPERA monument. MONPERA stands for Monumen Penderitaan Rakyat. It is a monument to commemorate the suffering of the Indonesian people under the rule of president Soekarno in the 60's.

The front gate of the Palembang mosque.

Unique Palembang architecture and decorations.

An "angkut" or mini van is Palembang's other most common mode of public transport other than the BUS KOTA (city bus).

Busy street away from the Ampera Bridge just in front of the Monpera monument.

Water fountain round-about right before crossing Ampera bridge to the other side of Palembang (Plaju area where Pertamina's refinery is located). The city council only turns on the water fountain at night. They also have colored lights shooting at the fountain. The houses at the background have been painted in multiple colors for the Visit Musi Year 2008. I still remember donating paints on behalf of our company for the event. Supposedly all the houses facing the Musi River were all painted with these rainbow colors in 2008.

Taking The Bus To Town - Part 2

2009-10-19T20:55:00.005+07:00

Continuing from my previous post... I boarded the next bus from the national mosque (mesjid agung) area heading to Perumnas. Similar to the previos bus, the one that I got on has all the wondeful hippy colors and decors all over it.

This is a photo of the inside of the previous bus. You can see the Jamaican flag with Bob Marley hanging on the ceiling. This photo was taken right before it became packed.

Ok, the following photo is the one that I boarded on the way home. It has flowers all across the wind screen. I would have felt very cosy if I were the driver. Look at all the different colors on their seats.

This guy below is the bus conductor who collects money from the passengers. He will go around showing his "grabbing hands" (open and close quickily) to all the passengers demanding for payment as he walks around the bus. I can see that he does not keep track on who he has taken money from and who has not because he came around asking for payment from me twice in the past 15 mins! He also acts as an usher, shouting at the potential passengers at the bus stops to board the bus. He also bangs the bus' back door whenever passengers have gone up to bus to tell the driver to drive off. In order to get down the bus, you just have to knock on the top of the bus' ceiling and the driver will stop (I have not seen any bells on the bus though).

Along the way home, I saw the following interesting event happening along the streets in front of Cinde market. People are actually having their arms tatoo'd along the dusty streets!

It looked as if someone was taking jabs of drugs but was a more legal activity. Blood, paint and dust... yucks!

The following photo shows 2 entertainers coming on to the bus. One guy carried a guitar and has a mike on his headset with amplifiers at the side. The other guy carried his drum set which consists of a 6 piece joint percussion equipment. They started to sing and play DANGDUT music (popular Malay-Arabic-Hindustani music with strong drum beats & synthesizers). They performed for a mere 5 mins on the bus but they were pretty good. Therefore, they earned my Rp1000 (RM0.35) before they left for another bus.

After a bumpy 30 min ride, we finally got back to Novotel where we parked the car and went home. It was an interesting 1.5 hour excursion despite the heat and deafening atmosphere. Now, I can proudly say that I have gone on every mode of transportation in Palembang....;)

Bus
Ankut (mini van/truck)
Becak (trishaw)
Perahu (boat)
Mobil (car)
Keretapi (train)
Pesawat (plane)

Taking The Bus To Town - Part 1

2009-10-19T14:07:00.012+07:00

Last weekend I decided to take the Bus Kota (local bus) to downtown Palembang. The locals call it "bis kota". My wife and son have both taken the local bus before. Even my father in law who seldom comes have taken it when he came 3 years ago. So I HAD to take this opportunity to try out the bus.

I invited my driver Iwan to tag along. I was taken by surprise when he came in his nice black shirt (he normally wears T-shirt - see adjacent photo). I asked him why he dressed up but he just denied it. I thought to myself he must have thought that this was "a day out with the boss", so better dress nicely!....LOL!

We parked our car at Novotel and crossed the road to take the bus. Iwan chose one that had "good music". My legs were too long to fit in between the seats, so I had to sit sideways. I guess they designed the buses for people less than 1.5 m to save space?

The music in the truck was deafening.... oops, did I just write "truck"? Maybe because it felt like sitting in a truck. They have no cushions. Only a PVC sheet covered wooden seat. Back to the music.... it was so loud and the bass was so extreme until I could feel my arm hairs vibrating! The seat was vibrating too.

After a few stops, the bus was packed like a sardine can. Iwan did warn me about pick pockets, so I only brought along some cash and ID with me. A bunch of students came in and they all started smoking in the bus. They are only primary school students! Along the way also came some "entertainers" with their guitars hoping to make a living from their 1 minute on the bus performance.

We reached the Ampera stop after half an hour of sauna, 2nd hand smoke and ear drum bashing. I have nowhere specific to go, so I decided to walk around the Palembang national mosque (which I will blog about in detail next time).

Then we went to the "bus stop" opposite the mosque. Iwan decided to buy me a drink and insisted that he has to pay. We drank this orange cordial cup drink called "Ale Ale". Normally I would not buy drinks from the road side but since it was in a sealed cup I thought, "what the heck"! Iwan does not like to smile when he takes photos, not even on his wedding day! I had to force him to smile but asking him to hold up the "Ale Ale" drink and pretend that he was promoting it. Out came this photo with his "smile" and I told him nobody would ever buy this drink anymore....

The buses in Palembang are actually color-coded. They have red, blue, beige, yellow and green colors. If you are not a local like Iwan, you would have no idea how to catch the bus! It only costs Rp2500 (RM0.90) to hop on and you can go from Simpang Patal (junction next to Novotel) to Ampera bridge (1/2 hour ride).

We had to wait at this bus stop for 10 mins because I had to wait for Iwan to finish his cigarette. While waiting along the sidewalk, we saw students across the road. Iwan said that this is a place where student gangs hang out. When they see other gangs coming, they will fight. Just as he said it, we saw a group of students chasing another group down the road.

Then our bus came and I had to continue the second part of my "adventure" in another post....

TO BE CONTINUED.

Driving Tests in Palembang

2009-10-17T10:37:00.002+07:00

Yesterday I talked to my driver Iwan about how strict the driving tests are in Australia. I was surprised to learn that people do not even need to do ON-THE-ROAD driving tests!

There are 2 ways of getting drivers license in Palembang. One is to go through the PANSOS (drivers association) where they train you for a few months then you sit for the written and practical tests. So the PANSOS style is similar to what we have in Malaysia except the testers are from the transport dept. The other way is to go through the traffic police department.

With the traffic police, you still need to sit for a written road rules test and they have 100 questions to be completed in 1.5 hours. However, the surprising thing is you DO NOT need to drive on the road! The traffic police department opposite Palembang Square has a SIMULATOR. I was in shock when I got to know that Palembang has this kinda technology. Iwan said it is like a video game where you sit inside the simulator. You have a couple of "LIVES". If you die in the game that means you fail the test!

I was amazed and puzzled at the same time after listening what Iwan told me. I was thinking to myself how would anyone know how to react on the actual road when they pass their tests using video games? Anyway, Iwan said only 20% of the people who took the simulator tests actually pass. The rest had to pay off the traffic police to get their licenses.... LOL!

Someone did ask me whether I wanted a SIM (Surat Izin Memandu - Indonesian Drivers Licence) when I first came to Palembang. They requested Rp1,000,000 (approx RM360) but I found the price to be too steep. After almost 3 years, I discovered that the 1 million rupiah was well saved because even though you have any traffic violations you will still need to fork out money irregardless of whether you have a SIM or not. Moreover, a new SIM only costs Rp300,000 (less than Rm100)!

Things That I Will Miss In Palembang

2009-10-16T10:51:00.020+07:00

It has been almost 3 years since we moved to Palembang. In my previous posts, I have blogged about things that I hate or dislike about living in Palembang. Besides the negatives, there are also positive things about Palembang and I will mention about the things that I would miss the most upon leaving.

Of course, the first will be the people in Palembang. We have made a number of friends in Palembang throughout these 3 years. We spend almost every weekend hanging out with some of them. So it will be truly sad to leave them behind because our friendship bond has strengthened tremendously throughout these years. Next will be our house and the routine activities that we do.

When I first arrived, I went looking around for a house so that we can have a comfortable place to stay when my wife and 6-month old son join me. We did not want a double storey house because it is a bit dangerous for young kids. Finally after plenty of negotiations with the company regarding rental cost and furniture, the company finally rented a semi-furnished house for Rp30 million a year (approx RM1000/month).

This is not the biggest house in the housing area but definitely one of the bigger ones. It has a garden and a fish pond at the back. My wife and toddler son spent more than 90% of their time IN THIS HOUSE after they moved here.

My wife started to plant flowers and vegetables in our garden. We have okra (ladies fingers), kecipir (four angled beans) and potato leaves as our weekly supply of vegetables. My toddler son helps my wife water her plants. Digs sand and plays with his toy trucks at the places with soil (mostly clay). Every morning, the "taufu-man" will drive past in his bike selling tofu and my son will tell him that we don't need any tofu (because we normally buy our tofu from the market). Sometimes, the lady that sells vegies and eggs will drop by. Sometimes we hear the clinging and clanging of bowls and kitchen utensils, indicating the "tekwan-man" selling noodles and Palembang dumplings is near.
In the evenings, our neighbor's kids will come out and play badminton along the road. Certain times, children will walk past our house in groups heading towards the concrete field where they play football with their bare feet. My son will try to talk to them in Indonesian with his hands holding along the fence like a monkey in a cage....;)

Besides the garden, we also spend a lot of time in the fish pond area. There's a bridge across the pond. Our son would try and help us dish out the leaves and twigs that falls into the pond. He said it is "his work". When he was still 7 or 8 months old, we used to put him in a rocker next to the pond. He tasted his first durian and rambutan in front of this pond.

In our dining room, we have some odd authentic Palembang designed cupboards that we use to keep our cooking utensils and food storage. We used to spend almost an hour every meal waiting for our son to finish eating his food! The white board at the back is used for me to draw things for him as he eats his food. He likes me to draw his favourite TRAINS.

We also have this picture of EEYORE the donkey (Pooh & Friends) from my son's 2-year old birthday party. I drew it for the neighbour's kids to play "place the tail blind folded" during the event.

Due to weight limitations, I don't think we will be able to bring my son's TRICYCLE back. I got my maintenance crew to weld together some galvanized pipes so that I could push my son while he rides along the road every morning before I go to work.

The living room in our place is quite big. It has 2 sections. One is for watching TV and the other one is for my son to play. The TV section is only used for watching TV (obviously!). In the photo you can see that the computer table has been shifted in front of the TV. This rearrangement only happens whenever my wife is not around. Most nights she will occupy the laptop but when I am by myself, the new arrangement enables me to multi-task... LOL! Another plus thing is I could get more direct A/C.

In the photo that shows my son's play area, you could still see streamers hanging on the chandeliers. We were too lazy to bring them down, so they have been left there for ages! At the right hand side of the photo is a door connecting to the fish pond. My wife spends a lot of time sitting next to the door reading to my son. Sometimes we eat there because there is a pillar to lean against and the ants around will come and pick up the crumbs on the floor (friendly black ants). On the left hand side partially covered by the standing fan is my son's playhouse. My wife used our fridge's carton box to make it into a house with doors and windows at the side. Sometimes my son and me used to lie in that box pretending that we were asleep.

The room next to the towel rack is OUR BEDROOM. It is the coziest part of the house because of the air conditioning and the foam mattresses. We do a lot of reading in the bedroom. We do not have any beds except 3 mattresses laid next to one another. We have one queen size bedsheet that has underwater fishes. So we do "swim in the sea" a lot too!

Palembang does not need a lot of fancy things for us to miss. It is the small small nostagic things that we will miss when we eventually leave this city. Palembang is my son's "hometown" despite being born in Kuala Lumpur because he spent most of his infant and toddler-hood here. Plus, he likes PEMPEK (Palembang fish-cake/dumpling)!... only a true Palembang person likes PEMPEK!!

Our Blooming Adeniums!

2009-10-16T10:36:00.004+07:00

The world is really strange. When you want something, it is always very difficult to obtain it. When you are not asking for things, they will come naturally...

My wife has been planting Adenium bonsai plants at our garden for almost a year. The plants grew but they never flowered. Before my wife went to Brisbane, she gave one of our friends an Adenium plant. After 2 weeks, it started to flower.

Guess what? This morning when I went to check our garden, I found the following beauties basking in the sun!

ER in Palembang

2009-10-10T20:13:00.006+07:00

The medical facilities in Palembang is less advanced compared to other places that I have known. Many people from Palembang seek medical attention at hospitals in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore via direct flights when it comes to critical or urgent cases.

Yesterday morning, my supervisor's finger was injured by one of our pneumatic equipment. He had a deep cut on his pointer finger and had to be rushed to a nearby hospital's UGD (Unit Gawat Darurat - Emergency Room).

When he arrived at the ER, the doctors did not treat him immediately. Instead, they asked him to sit down and fill up some paperwork instead! Then they asked whether he has any "letters from the company" to prove that the company is going to bear the medical cost?? We had to prepare a letter and bring it to the hospital for him. What if the accident happened at night? Who is going to prepare the letter??

Anyway, after the doctor examined and X-rayed his finger. The doctor said my supervisor needs to be admitted and wait until the afternoon shift where another doctor can stitch his wound up! This is an ER and they do not have any qualified personnel to do stitching??? I am also puzzled why they even need these "doctors" in the ER??

We could not wait, so we got a referral letter from this hospital to go to the Palembang GH (General Hospital). Supposedly we could get faster medical help. My supervisor's finger has been confirmed to be fractured from the X-ray results. The "doctors" did not give him any pain killers nor any anesthetics but instead just wrapped it up with a bandage. Then, we took him to the Palembang GH which is approx 30 minutes drive away.

When we arrived at the GH, my supervisor told us that it was almost time for SHOLAT (Muslim prayers). I figured that it is an ER in a GH, therefore the doctors COULD NOT POSSIBLY have all gone for their prayers. My supervisor was right. There were no doctors in the ER!!!

There was a "queue" in the ER with 5-6 persons waiting to be attended to. While waiting, we registered and filled up paperwork for my supervisor again. Then we saw a doctor walking out of the room holding his briefcase. "Why is the doctor leaving?", I asked. The people in front of us said, "It is just the change of shift". Phew! I thought we were not going to receive any medical attention!

After awhile, it was our turn. A young doctor took a look at my supervisor's wound and said, " You need to buy some needles, thread and syringes". Huh??? I almost fainted! "Where can we get them?". He pointed outside. We had to walk to this pigeon hole to buy the stuff that the doctor requested.

The attendant looked at the list that the doctor wrote and said, " We have everything here but not the thread that was prescribed". "We only have this type of thread". Panicking, we rushed inside to check with the doctor to see if the thread type is fit for use and luckily he nodded. After buying the medical supplies, the doctor finally stitched up my supervisor's finger.

After all the fiasco, we finally realized how poor the medical support is in Palembang. I am sure it is the same as any other billion-population cities in Indonesia. We were blessed not to have to experience any mishaps that required admission into the ER and hope we won't have to as well in the future. Especially after this incident!!

Weekly Indulgence

2009-10-10T10:44:00.010+07:00

Despite not having many things to do in Palembang during the weekends, the city does offer indulgence in terms of reflexology and massages. One of our friends recommended us to Tao Garden massage center and we have been there almost every weekend.

Tao Garden's massages are normal traditional ones similar to other places in Indonesia but their reflexology session is the best that we have ever tried in Palembang.

Initially, I was not a fan of foot massages and in fact I feel very ticklish whenever somebody touches the base of my feet.

After a few weeks of reflexology with my wife, I find the process quite relaxing. Tao's reflexology is held in this dim area decorated with Ancient Chinese furniture. It is so dark that these photos that I took could barely show what is in the room.

The masseurs would soak your feet in a hot bowl of water with some salts and pebbles. Then they will start massaging in the following sequence: your head, neck, shoulder, arms, back, thighs, calves, foot, arms and fingers. At the end of the session, they will use a bag of hot sea salt (chunky ones) to rub your lower section of your leg. Sometimes I find it tough to have my leg hairs being extracted from that process!

This foot massage is actually a whole body massage from head to toes except for the chest, abdomen and pelvic section. It is so relaxing that sometimes we fell asleep! No wonder it has become so addictive until it became a weekly activity for me and my wife....LOL!

Welcome To The Cuttlefish Room!

2009-10-08T15:11:00.009+07:00

The title says it all....LOL!

This is a room where they store dried cuttlefish snacks in one of the shops located in the Kuala Lumpur LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) airport.

The name of the shop is called Country's Tid-Bits & Candies Cottage.

It sells all sorts of different tid-bits including dried marmalade skins, dried cuttlefish, dried fruits and all the sweet and sour stuff that ladies love. Everytime we transit at LCCT, we are sure to drop by to buy some tid-bits back to chew on while watching TV.

In the cuttlefish room, the had a wide range of dried cuttlefish including spicy ones, sugar laden ones, barbecued ones and plain dried ones. They need to have a separate room to contain the smell and stop attracting flies. Not many foreigners could stand the smell of dried squid but I loved them, especially the barbecued ones!

I am not getting any royalies from this shop but it is definitely worth a visit for testing your taste buds whenever you are in transit at LCCT.

Look What I've Bought.....Again!

2009-10-08T11:44:00.006+07:00

Remember I previously blogged about how ugly the new 2009/10 Manchester United jersey was? I still had to buy one when I was in transit in Kuala Lumpur prior to my trip back to Palembang.

I was shopping for some computer hardware in Low Yat Plaza when I came across the replica. I could not resist asking the seller how much it was. The guy said RM60 but I thought it would be too expensive and started to walk away. It was starting to drizzle and the man pulled me back to negotiate on the price. In the end he said RM45. I thought the material and badges were really authentic. I never liked wearing rough textured synthetic material jerseys that feel hot. However, this one is as smooth as silk.

I had to eat my words because in the end I bought the jersey with the "V" across the chest. Even my mind does not think it looks as nice as jerseys that Man Utd had before, it was my passion for the team that drove me to spend RM45 for that outfit. My wife will definitely grumble at me again saying that I already have so many jerseys but seldom wear them....LOL!

Miniature Steam Trains

2009-10-08T10:07:00.009+07:00

Our toddler son is crazy about trains. When we were in Brisbane, we found this place where the Lions Club had their minature steam trains operating and bringing people along for rides. It was heaven for our son.

The train rides are available every last Sunday of the month in one of the parks. The railway tracks go around the park. There were a total of 5-6 mini steam trains in operation and each of them could carry passengers up to 8 persons. The steam trains had to stop to load coal and water upon completion of one round around the park. Despite their miniature size, they could move as fast as 10km/hr with passengers!

The queue was long when we arrived and had to wait for almost 20 mins before we could get on. The Lions Club sold donuts, hotdog sandwiches and refreshments. They also had tents selling handicrafts as well.

We had much fun riding on those trains. Our son managed to get onto 3 rides. He was happy just to see his Thomas and Friends chuffing along. They had "Salty", "Emily", "Thomas", "Donald & Douglas", " Annie & Clarabel" and "Henry" in operations that day.

Queensland Spanner Crabs

2009-10-04T10:54:00.003+07:00

I had lots of nice food when I was in Brisbane. We ate some good authentic Hong Kong Dim Sum from Landmark, Sunnybank; good steaks at Normans Hotel but the best is still the delicious spanner crabs.

Spanner crabs are named after their spanner like claws. They are mostly found in the sandy beaches along Queensland, NSW and South Australia. Unlike mud crabs, spanner crabs could walk foreward and backward (not sideways) plus they are already reddish orange even before they are cooked.

Below are some photos that show how big they are and their unique shell designs. I am sure future sci-fi movie producers would use their figures for some alien characters.

Photos of the week - Brisbane Activities

2009-10-04T08:51:00.004+07:00

Miniature train rides (organized by Bramble Bay Lion Club - 4th Sunday of every month).

Picnics along beaches of Redcliffe (not the Chinese movie RED CLIFF!)

Sandcastle building at South Bank's man-made beach.

Playing "excavators" at the back yard.

Fishing at Redcliffe's pier

Stationary Thomas train rides at Indoroopilly Mall.
(we are not stingy but we don't want him to have a habit of asking for rides)

Reading Thomas books in a bookstore until people stare at us.

Fishing at the marinas around Raby Bay (near Elaine & Scott's place)

We only caught these pest fishes the whole day (donated much of our bait)!

Cycling along Brisbane river

Visting the City Library.

Back in Palembang

2009-10-04T08:34:00.003+07:00

It has been 3 days since I came back to Palembang from Brisbane.

When I first arrived, I could feel my ears burning as the heat was scorching! It happened to me everytime I come out from the Palembang airport. Maybe it is the temperature difference between Kuala Lumpur (my transit airport) and Palembang? It would normally take me a day before I get adapted to the heat again. Of course, a cold shower helps....;)

2 days prior to my arrival, Padang had an over 7.0 Richter Scale earthquake that killed almost 150 (still counting as of today) and buried thousands. Kuala Lumpur and Singapore also had aftershocks. My boss sms'd me to ask how was Palembang. When I checked with the locals, they mentioned that they did not even noticed there was an earthquake.

However in 2007 when the quake hit Bengkulu (western Sumatra as well but nearer to Palembang), I felt the ground shaking and felt as if my head was spinning. There were no damages to Palembang but Bengkulu suffered.

In mass today, the priest gave a sermon stating that we should not hestitate to do what we feel like doing (but not being impulsive though). He stated that after the quake hit Padang, Australia immediately dispatched vessels to Padang to provide help. Aid reached Padang after 6 hours but it took the Indonesian government 1 day before help was dispatched. Isn't it ironic that foreign help reached Padang at a faster pace? I think the priest was pretty witty to take a swipe during his sermon at the local government for hesitating on this matter.

Anyway, we pray that the casualties from this disaster do not pile up and pray that all anxieties experienced by the people in Padang could be reduced. God bless.

Photos of the week - poses and facial expressions

2009-09-18T10:01:00.005+07:00

Before I leave for Brisbane this weekend, thought of sharing some of my toddler's poses and facial expression photos....

Greedy for some cold and creamy indulgence!

This is how he will look like sporting a Santa Beard.

Doing some yoga in his sleep...

Drooling on his sleeves

Sleeping beauty??

"Beauty mate?"... as what the Aussies would say in their broad Ozzie accent...;)

Perumnas Market

2009-09-18T08:47:00.005+07:00

Perumnas market is the wet market that we often shop at for our daily vegetables. Perumnas is short for PERUMAHAN NASIONAL, which meant national housing area (build by the government). It is one of the cheaper wet markets in Palembang. Vegetables from this market cost up to 20% less compared to the wet markets in town.

Since we gave up on having a live-in maid 6 months ago, I have been doing all the grocery shopping in this wet market. Normally every Monday I will bring my toddler son to this market to shop for the following items for the week:

Tempeh (soya bean cake - I like it when it is sliced thinly and deep fried).

Onions, ginger and garlic

Vegetables - Katu, Kangkung, Kobis

Kacang panjang (long beans)

Tofu

Bananas - for breakfast with oats

We seldom buy meat to eat but get our proteins from tempeh and beans. We also have some okra (ladies fingers) plants that supply us with once a week of vegetables as well.

In the market, they also sell fishes for decorations, just like this shop below. My son loves to stand around those tubs to watch the fishes swim back and forth. Sometimes the sellers will have a bunch of worms thrown into the tub for the fishes to feast on.

One day we came across this box that had moving creatures inside.... they are crickets! These crickets were meant to be food for the bigger fishes. They were all in the box eating away fallen leaves but surprising enough they did not try to escape from the container?

Hazy Week

2009-09-18T08:30:00.005+07:00

Last week, the haze situation was terrible in Palembang. It was the worst since I last experienced so much pollution here in Palembang when I first arrived in Oct 2006. We have been turning on our air-conditioning for the whole day and yet the smell and some fine particles still came through.

The roads leading to my work place are hardly visible from 3km away. Normally we could see the urea factory's cooling towers from this distance but not throughout last week....

Here are is a photo showing the haze particles that landed on our ceramic floor outside the house. I don't think exposing ourselves long term to this polluted situation will be good for our health, especially when it is an annual event! For the past few years, my wife and son would travel to Australia before the "haze season" starts. However, this year because we wanted to travel together, we decided to "stick through" the haze period.... did not seem to be a correct decision!

Luckily for the past few days it rained and cleared up the haze. We are all set to leave for a 2 week break in Brisbane on Sunday. Hopefully the haze won't be back when we come back as the rainy season is supposed to start anytime now.

Toddler Hair

2009-09-05T12:28:00.004+07:00

Since my son was born, my wife has always opposed to cut his hair. She said she likes his hair long. I always tell her that if we were staying in a colder country it would be ok but Palembang is very very near the equator!

Anyway, for the past few weeks the weather has been a bit hot and yet my son's hair has reached his eye brows already. Hence, my wife decided to tie my son's hair up like this!

My little toddler does not seem to mind what his mom is doing to him (maybe when he grows up he will!). Therefore, every evening I will see him sporting this SAMURAI hairstyle.

He said to me, "I like to look like a whale shooting water from the top of my head!"

Train Drawings

2009-09-05T12:15:00.003+07:00

My toddler son has had this "train infetuation" since he was 2. He has never been bored with his Thomas and Friends toys and loves reading about T&F stories. He also watches T&F DVDs for an hour everyday. The following are some of his "master pieces" from this 3 year old:

He uses like 10 pieces of A4 paper everyday to practice on his drawings. Fortunately I get to bring back lots of recycle paper from work. It is still too early to call him an ARTIST but at least he is developing his artistic skills (must be a trait from his old man, ha ha!).

Daze Over The Haze

2009-08-27T14:53:00.003+07:00

Open burning in Sumatera has been causing haze in West Malaysia and Sumatera itself. Malaysia has been complaining about the pollution caused by Indonesia for years but there are still no drastic actions being taken. Partly is also because most of the estates that used open burning to clear their land belong to wealthy Malaysian palm oil plantation companies.

Since my son was born in 2006, we have had several hazy situations in Klang until my wife had to bring the baby to Ipoh. During my first trip to Palembang back in 2006, the haze situation was so bad until the visibility is only 10m! Throughout 2007-2009 there were not many "hazy" occurances in Palembang except for last week.

Open burning is still very prevalent in Palembang. We have neighbours who burns their rubbish and trees in the open without considering that the smoke is flowing into to others' house. This is very similar to the smoking situation where the inconsiderate smokers puff their second hand smoke in your face!

My son started with a fever during the weekend. This was followed by a bad cough that lasted until today. My wife is starting to have itchy throat and complained that something is irritating her nose. She has been having sniffles since the weekend.

We tried to give our son Echinesia (a herb & root extract that helps boost the body's immune system) and my wife cooked herself some garlic & ginger drink (kills germs). Coughs and colds are common in areas that has haze. We just have to drink lots of water and pump ourselves with vitamin C to overcome the effects of this haze season (normally occurs during the hot season). Supposedly the rainy season will only start in October but it poured quite heavily last night. Hopefully it will wash away the hazy elements in the air.

Living in a 3rd world country, you will have to sacrifice quality of water and also AIR!

Images of the skies across the straits of Malacca

2009-08-25T10:57:00.003+07:00

Here are some shots from the plane of the skies and cloud formations when we flew from KL to Palembang.

Indonesian Independence Day

2009-08-24T16:48:00.005+07:00

The Indonesian Independence Day falls on Aug 17 every year. 2009 is the 64th anniversary of Indonesia's independence from the Dutch. Every year, sporting events and games will be held in schools and also in housing complexes. The common activities include:

tarik tambang (tug of war)
bakia (multiple persons wearing one set of big slippers)
walkathons - normally around the housing complexes
lomba makan kerupuk (cracker eating competition/race - as shown below)
lomba kelarang (spoon race. "Lomba" means race or competition)
Panjat pinang (palm tree climbing)

Same as last year, I took my son to participate in the "lomba makan kerupuk". Every is supposed to just chew and nibble off as much crackers from the string without touching their food. The fastest will win. However my boy still wants to hold it and eat it.....

The rest of the kids competing are older, so I had to line up for mine to register for the competition.

What a big bite!

Don't know why my son likes to put his hand on one of his friend's shoulder? He kept his hand there the whole time when we were watching the "panjat pinang" event.

A group of men tried to climb up this palm tree which has presents dangling at the top. The palm tree trunk is covered with grease. I think they all tried like 20x but still not able to get to the presents. In the end of the day, they had to bring down the tree to get the presents.

PhotoBlog - Toddler Birthday Party

2009-08-19T09:38:00.006+07:00

Birthday boy with his presents:

Construction Vehicles

(Can't really tell if this is a fake smile or not?)

Birthday Party with games... so hard to round up everybody!

The Menu:

Black forest cake
KFC
Pempeks (fish/flour local delicacy)
Home made Spaghetti

The decorations: many thanks to our driver for helping out

Futsal on National Day

2009-08-14T11:47:00.003+07:00

When I was still working in Port Klang, the factory staff always organized futsal competitions on the National Day because that is the day that all employees of the factory get a day off together. Along with the futsal event, we normally have drawing competitions for their kids (no games for their wives though!).

Therefore, for the first time since the Palembang plant has been commissioned, I proposed to the staff for something similar to what we had in Malaysia.

The last time I played futsal was almost 3 years ago (see photo). Don't know if I still have the stamina to play. So I told my staff to put me as one of the reserves in case I collapse...;)

Everyone from the company was excited and looking towards this even except for the admin staff (majority ladies). However, I managed to throw in a couple of traditional Indonesian holiday games on top of the futsal event so that the kids can have more fun:

Coloring competition

Spoon & marble race

Cracker eating competition (crackers hung on a string and kids had to eat them up as fast as they could without using their hands)

So far we had a projected attendance of 120 heads. Hope that they all could come on the National Day (17 Aug 2009) to participate in this event.

Getting On My Nerves

2009-08-07T11:12:00.004+07:00

Me & my wife both came from "traditional" families where our parents used to spank or cane us when we were kids. It was believed to be the most effective disciplinary method according to old timers. However, after years of research and analyses, physcologists discovered that corporal punishment might lead to the development of "rebellious traits" when kids become teenagers. Spanking is believed to make children think that problems could be solves through violence.

We do not normally spank our toddler son but sometimes he just gets on our nerves. We read that warning them verbally "1-2-3" before spanking them like how our parents used to do to us in the past does not really help. Therefore, we had to resolve to a softer approach, which is coaxing. Sometimes he will listen. However, when he wears his "rebel hat", his cheekiness + refusal to follow orders + whining could drive us in sane!

I could still recall bending and hiding all my parent's canes when I was young so that I could get rid of the "pain punishments". We used to "run away" from the canes but they kept landed on our backsides no matter where we hid. My wife told me that she also did the same too and his brother even threatened her mom that he will report her to the authorities!

My parents never let us learn martial arts when we were young. They said we might mis-hit our kids but I think people who learn martial arts will be able to control their actions more?

We do not want to use the cane as a disciplinary tool, so we don't have any at home. We tend to give in to him often and not spank him (but not pamper him). We used to use our hands to spank him but thought it might land too hard on him. In the end we resorted to using a wooden spoon (used for stirring in a pot) in place of a cane. We want our son to treat us with respect and not fear. Whenever he acts mischeviously, I will warn him that it is not good to do so. If he still does not listen then I will try to use persuasion (sometimes a little bit of bribery & threats) & taking away his priviliges (keep his toys on top of the fridge or pretend to give them away).

If all necessary measures have been taken but he still refused to obey, I had to smack his backside with the wooden spoon (not too hard though). I know that it is not painful but he will always break into tears. Sometimes we hit him with the wooden spoon on his palm.

I hope he does not use this post againts us in the future as proof of receiving corporal punishment from his parents!

An Interesting Day In Court

2009-07-30T14:03:00.007+07:00

This morning I had to attend a court session together with 3 other employees of my company at the SOUTHERN SUMATERA HIGH COURT in Palembang City. We had to testify as witnesses for last year's fertilizer adulteration case where one of our transporters had used our fertilizer bags to store "fake" fertilizers and sent them to our customers.

This was our first time going to court. After waiting for almost 1.5 hours, the judge came into the court room which was open aired (but they had a fan and an air-con which was not turned on).

I was surprised to see a Christian holy water container (without any holy water) attached on the left side of the room's wall. On the right side of the wall, they had 2 pictures of the Taoist Goddess of Mercy and a small joss-stick holder with 6 unlit joss-sticks inside!

Finally when the main judge came into the room, he took his "hammer" and banged on the table and said, "court started" in Indonesian. Then he looked around and asked whether all the witnesses and accused parties have arrived. One of the accused person was still not in the court room yet so we had to wait for another minute. After the guy came into the court room, the main judge had to repeat the "hammering" process all over again.

After my 3 Muslim colleagues took their oaths with someone holding the Quran above their heads, it was my turn. The judge took out a bible and asked me to put my left hand on it and raise my right hand. I was told to do a "V" (peace) sign with my right hand!

I was totally confused, so I looked around. The judge quickly consulted his assistants and corrected me saying, " Sorry, for Christians you have to put 3 fingers up, not 2!". Then he showed me how to do a scout's sign with my right hand!

I could not understand why we can't just do it like how the people do it on TV?? (See Obama's picture).

After that I had to follow his words in Indonesian to swear that I will tell only the truth (or something like that). The 4 of us had to squash ourselves into a 2m long wooden bench throughout the process.

Can you believe all of these happened at the HIGH COURT of Southern Sumatera??

3 Photos of The Week - HAIR, PEMPEK & TRAINS

2009-07-27T16:47:00.006+07:00

HAIR: Kids love to immitate adults especially in the activities that adults perform like cooking, driving, building houses etc. It reflects in the games that they play everyday too.

Somehow my son likes to comb my wife's hair. He could comb it for a long long time. Maybe it is a sign of affection and also "doing things to help" the parents?

Of course my hair is a bit to short for him to continuously comb. However, seems like mama does not mind having being pampered!

PEMPEK: One day I took my son to PTC Mall to do grocery shopping. His mom did not come along, so we had a father and son outing. I asked him whether he wanted to have some "perkedels" (fried mashed potatoes) and he nodded. However, halfway eating the perkedels he felt that they are a bit spicy, so I suggested him to go have some "pempeks" (fish cakes).

Straight away his face lit up. Now I know why Palembang people like to eat pempeks! Because they eat it from young. Not many people like these floury fish cakes but it is rather famous in Palembang and majority of the Palembang people love pempeks. So from these photos, you can tell whether my boy is a Palembang boy or not!!...;)

TRAINS: My son also loves trains. His english and chinese characters on his white board is always "TRAIN" and "HUO CE" (mandarin for train). I have taught him many chinese characters but he would only write his favourite one.

Sharing

2009-07-21T14:33:00.003+07:00

Sharing things is something rather difficult to teach kids. We have told our toddler son many times before we visit friends houses how to behave and he was rather receptive except for the SHARING part.

It is normal that he is possessive with his own toys but sometimes even when visiting other friends' houses, he tries to OWN toys that belong to others.

However, it was strange to find that he was willing to SHARE this toy car with his friend and play in harmony. Look at this loving photo. Hope he has learnt the art of sharing and REMEMBERS to share in his upcoming visits!

Water in Palembang

2009-07-21T14:14:00.003+07:00

Since yesterday, we had dirty water coming our from our house taps. We checked the water storage tank and discovered that the whole tank is filled with brownish water. Normally we can see straight to the bottom of the water storage tank but not today.

In Palembang, most of the houses in the housing areas have a water storage tank. I believe we could store 1,000 m3 of water in the tank. It is located underground in our garden. The walls of the tank is laid with ceramics. We used to clean the tank once every 6 months. It takes 2 guys 6 hours to empty the whole tank, scrub the tiles/creamics and get rid of all the sediments inside the tank.

Looking at the situation whereby the affected houses are only our immediate neighbours, we concluded that it was due to burst pipes from the water department. We have lodged a report but still have not heard back from them yet.

Plans: tomorrow we are getting our driver and one of his friends to clean the water storage tank and fill it with clean water (from water storage trucks). As for later this evening, we might go for a swim in the Novotel swimming pool and take a shower there.

Last year we used to have water supply problems at our housing area until we need to order in fresh water from water storage trucks. Hopefully the suspected burst pipe problem does not last long.

Maid Dilemma

2009-07-11T10:38:00.002+07:00

Every household in our housing area seemed to have at least one maid to help out with their chores. Most of the maids here are PP (pulang-pergi) - meaning come in and leave (do not stay in).

Recently, we employed a maid that we need to pick her up on the way when I go to work and also send her back when I get picked up from work. I believe this is the best arrangement any PP maid would ever have. Normally they arrange for their own transport.

Due to the fact that we were maidless for more than 3 months, we had to "succumb" to this situation in order to get someone in to help out in the house.

This maid is 17 years old. She has stopped schooling and her parents encouraged her to start working. Her father is a becak-man (trishaw peddler) and her mom works in a school as a cleaner. She has 2 younger siblings. They all live in a wooden house not far away from my work place.

My wife had to teach her from scratch since she does not have any prior working experience. Every little thing that she does, my wife had to "supervise" and make sure that she does not make any mistakes. After a week, she is still not performing up to par (keeps forgetting to do the things that we have told her to do, does not do a thorough cleaning job and does her work very slowly).

I could understand how frustrating it is having to tell someone repeatedly about their mistakes and spoon-feed them every little thing that needs to be done. We tried to treat her nicely but sometimes she just gets on our nerves. Our previous maid has more initiative to do things and cleans very thoroughlly. She even had time to study after completing all her tasks. However this one lacks initiative and we don't know whether she is really that slow or just pretends to be slow so that she does less work?

Anyway, it is a true dilemma for us to decide whether we should sack her or not. Where do we draw the line? I have to put into consideration how hard it is to find maids (that are thorough and trustworthy). She is our 3rd maid that managed to work more than 1 week.

Penthouse at Novotel Palembang

2009-07-10T11:21:00.005+07:00

A few weeks back we had a company event at NOVOTEL Palembang. Our director brought his family over so we booked a penthouse for them.

This was my first time visiting NOVOTEL's penthouse. It consists of 3 rooms - one master bedroom with a king sized bed, a walk-in dressing area before a bathroom that has 2 toilet seats, one shower area and a bathtub; and two double bed bedrooms.

The balcony oversees the hotel's swimming pool. They have a small kitchen with all the necessary appliances and a dining table next to the living room. The total square footage of the penthouse is as big as my entire house!

The corporate rate for the penthouse is Rp3.5 juta a night (~RM1200/night). Non-corporate rate is Rp8 juta/night (RM2700/night)!

Staying there on a non corporate rate would be able to pay my driver's 1/2 a year's salary.

With this amount, it could also pay my driver's 3 years rental in a house like this one below:

Ugly Devils

2009-07-10T11:15:00.002+07:00

The 2009/10 EPL season is about to start in August. I am sad to know that Nike has picked such an awful design for the Red Devil's home strip!

Putting a big V above the AIG logo is just tasteless..... Even as a supported of Manchester United, I would never buy the replica for the upcoming season.

Funny Maid Stories

2009-07-03T14:59:00.006+07:00

Throughout my 2.5 years in Palembang, I have heard many stories (funny/sad/horror) about maids. Today I will blog about the selected few stories about the funny things that maids have done.

THE DEEP SLEEPER:
This incident happened to me. We have just started this new 16 year old maid for the 3rd day. She has never worked before, so her first job at our place is I would guess rather tiring. At noon she went into her room for a nap. After 1 hour I wanted to talk to her, so I knocked on her door. There was no answer after 5 mins of continuous knocking on her room door. We thought she might have fainted. Therefore, my driver and me both went out to her window outside the house to check. Luckily we heard snoring noises! Then we continued to shout and knock on her window but she was totally K.O'd! In the end we managed to wake her up after my driver climbed up the chair and called out to her via the air vents above the door. She said she did not hear a thing! I am not sure if she could survive a fire if she slept like a log? Anyway she quit after working for a week.

INSTANT NOODLES:
My company has a mess that has a 40 year old maid. She is a very experienced cook and supposedly have worked many years being a school cleaner. One day my colleagues wanted her to cook a pack of soup based instant noodles. After 10 mins, they found out that the maid had cooked the noodles but dumped away all the soup! They had to eat the dry tasteless noodles because the maid thought that it was supposed to be instant mi goreng (fried noodles)! I still could not believe a person that has lived so long in Indonesia and yet still does not know how to read instant noodles labels.

TOILET BOWL CLEANING:
One day my colleague went home for lunch. The bathrooom was occupied by his maid who was cleaning the toilet. After waiting for almost an hour, the maid came out and said, " Sir, I could not get the water from the toilet bowl out. I keep drying the inside of the toilet bowl but water keeps coming out!"

Photos Of The Week - 1st Week Of July'09

2009-07-01T17:14:00.006+07:00

A shot of my son's face after he took a bite off a J.Co donut. When his mother knew that he had donuts from his dad, she said, " donuts are bad! It will make you die!" I think once in a blue moon is still alright though....;)

Broken grasshopper leg. I caught a grass hopper that was only 2" long but one of its legs broke off. I think it is one of its survival or "escape" mechanisms because everytime I catch a grass hopper, it only has 1 hind leg. Playing with grass hoppers helps my son learn how to handle with animal gently.

You must be perplexed after reading this sign?

SOFTEX = sanitary napkins

CLOSED = toilet bowl

"Do Not Throw Sanitary Napkins Into The Toilet Bowl"...got it?

Eating By The Roadside

2009-06-10T19:07:00.005+07:00

Today I had dinner with my driver. A couple of days ago, he said he would take me to eat some delicious fried noodles (mi goreng).

He claims that this place along the Universitas Iba (IBA University-business school) has the best mi goreng in Palembang and lots of couples like to visit that place for a meal. He used to bring his wife when they were dating to the place too.

We were there early at 6pm. The sun had just started to set. There were not many people sitting along the wooden benches yet. Many cars and bikes were still driving past as the hawker fried his mi goreng. They had a bucket full of prawn crackers for us to feast on while we wait for our food. Free water was provided but I dare not have a drink there.

Next to me was a bucket full of soap water and some clean plates. I thought to myself, "thank God we were the first ones here". I would not want to eat on some plates that were washed by the roadside. Behind me was a small drain with stagnant water. I could not see clearly what was in the drain but I was sure it was not clean. I also got a mosquito bite on my elbow during the wait.

Shortly, the noodles were served and it was delicious! It smelled and tasted very good especially with the fried egg on top....yummy! It was pretty satisfying.

I only had to pay Rp12,000 (RM4) for the 2 plates of mi goreng. I don't think I would go back there again to eat because of hygienic reasons but at least I have tried Palembang's famous mi goreng for dating couples!

Blackouts, Power & Palembang Dislikes

2009-06-04T20:09:00.015+07:00

My wife had just blogged about how she misses Palembang while she was back in Malaysia. Something just reminded me about one of the things that I dislike about Palembang.... As I was about to have my shower after a few rounds of push-ups after work, everything went pitch dark and my emergency backup light came on.

It was one of the regular blackouts in our housing area....AGAIN! This is the 3rd time that blackouts happened this week. It lasted for only 1 hour (better compared to the 2 hours a few days ago) but I could not wait anymore. So I drove out to a nearby shopping mall PTC to have my dinner. I was dirty and hungry. No electricity in the house means no water too because all our water is stored in an underground tank. Every time we turn on the tap, the water gets pumped out from the tank. I could not microwave my dinner from the fridge too.

My company would not get us a generator because the frequencies of blackouts happening (in a year) does not meet the justification. It would cost us too much to buy one on our own, so we had to BEAR WITH IT. The company also would not upgrade our house's power capacity to higher than 2200W (FYI, 1 HP A/C takes up ~600W). This means we could only turn on 2 air conditioners without any other "heating elements" at any point of time. Sometimes we forgot to turn off the hot water heater and caused the circuit breaker for the entire house to TRIP.

During the past few weeks we could not even turn on 2 A/C. The staff from the power company came to check and told us that the incoming power is less than 2200W (what we paid for). When asked how he could fix the problem, the guy just said "that's the best I could do for you". I just have to keep complaining to PLN (Perbadanan Listrik Negara), the one and only government owned power company......until they restore our house's power capacity back to 2200W.

My top-of-my-head below are some of the things that I still dislike about Palembang:

Insufficient power supply - have you ever heard of PLANNED BLACKOUTS in different housing areas because of power shortage?? Welcome to PALEMBANG!
Mosquitoes - they are everywhere! I get bitten almost EVERYDAY....sometimes by really small ones.
Corruption in every process - MONEY IS EVERYTHING
Smoking and spitting - huffing and puffing but they are not trains
Littering - it IS a norm to just throw a plastic bottle out from a car after you finish it
Inferior quality products - everything is cheap but never durable
Open burning and haze - continue to destroy our environment
Habitual lying
People sucking up to the rich
Taking advantage of every single good opportunity being given

Mad Day of Departure

2009-05-31T19:40:00.006+07:00

On Friday morning, I took a bus back from Ipoh to KL (LCCT airport) to catch a flight back to Palembang. I left Ipoh at 9:30am but halfway up a hill after Gopeng (30 mins away from Ipoh), the bus broke down! All the passengers had to come off the bus which emitted burnt rubber smell. It seemed like the timing belt of the bus broke. The driver called for help and he told us that there will be another bus coming to pick us up soon.

After 45 mins, a mechanic came on a bike to check on the situation. He told us that the office did not have any spare timing belts, so we had to wait for the bus which was supposed to be here in 30 mins according to the driver. Everyone was restless as time passed. Fortunately we had some shade at the side of the hill. Some people had to take a leak near the bushes along the hill.

After 1.5 hrs, a replacement bus finally arrived. There were a couple of empty buses which stopped for us but they were going to downtown KL and not the LCCT airport.

The replacement bus took off at 12 noon and reached LCCT airport at 2:45pm. I was really hungry because I did not have any lunch. I quickily rushed to the check in counter but was surprised to find that the Palembang Air Asia counter was no longer there.... they have combined all INDONESIAN destinations to one area and only had 6 counters. Of course there were long lines but luckily there were other PLM passengers. At 3pm the Air Asia staff finally opened a separate counter for PLM passengers. However, the stupid check in staff would not let me off the hook for a mere 1kg overweight baggage! He insisted that I could not take anything out from the luggage because there isn't any time left. Therefore I was forced to pay a RM20 overweight charge.

Upon completing the check in process, I rushed to the immigration area only to be stopped by another Air Asia staff who told me that my hand luggage is overweight! I was very pissed off and took some stuff out from my hand luggage and put them into a plastic bag. Then he told me that I was only allowed to take 1 piece of hand-carry. I pointed at the many passengers who had more than 1 piece of hand-carry walking past me and asked him why they were not stopped. In the end he gave in and let me through. By the time I reached the seat on the plane, it was already 3:25pm (my flight departs at 3:35pm).

I was also truly disappointed with the call centers at Air Asia. I had called the number for 3x and 15 mins each time but was always put on hold. If any call centers had to put a customer on hold for more than 5 mins, they should just close down their poorly managed call centers. After the rush, I was truly pissed off but also relieved that I got onto the flight on time to leave for Palembang.

90 & Still Dancing

2009-05-31T19:02:00.009+07:00

I was back in Ipoh to attend my wife's grand father's 90th birthday celebration on May 22. We address her grandpa as Gong2 (cantoneses). Majority of our relatives from all over the world (Holland, US & Australia) made it for the event.

On that day after lunch, we had a brief tea ceremony at home where all of Gong2's children, grand-children and great-grand-children were there to offer him tea and get some ang pows (red packets with money) in return. We also attended a church ceremony followed by a dinner/dance reception later that night.

Gong2 is 90 years old but he still goes line dancing and play mahjong everyday. He had a heart operation last year but recovered very well. He was still trying to re-arrange the seating plans for the event on the night before. I had to learn up some line dancing steps from "Tango with the Sheriff" so that I could join in. Look at the sheriff in RED below:

The dinner/dance party was thrown by Gong2's daughters. Many of his friends, neighbours and fellow line dancers were invited to the dinner. It was fun because besides line dancing, we also had some partner dances and swing music.

You can see in the photo below that my 2.5 year old son dancing with me to the Chubby Checker's "Let's Do The Twist" song and he really enjoyed it. Maybe when he is 18 he would no longer want to dance with his father anymore?!!

Many of Gong2's line dancing "girl-friends" are 20-30 years younger than him. I can't believe there are still so many ladies being attracted to a 90 year old man. See what he got for his 90th birthday??

His wife Poh2 was a bit jealous and decided to take photos with 2 handsome "men" instead....ha ha ha!

Besides the party, we also had a good time eating all the delicious Ipoh food like Ipoh Hor Fun (flat noodles), char koay teow (fried noodles), white coffee (cappucino) and curry noodles. As shown in the photo below, some of our relatives were REALLY HUNGRY!

Family gatherings are always a blast!

Back To Civilization!

2009-05-19T22:54:00.005+07:00

Tonight is my last night in Palembang before I head back to Malaysia for a 10 day break. I always feel as if I am going back into "civilization" when the plane lands back in Kuala Lumpur's LCCT airport.

Actually, Palembang is not such a bad place to live after being here for 2.5 years. The development of the city is rather slow compared to other cities in Malaysia. Only in the past 5 years, Palembang started to have its first fly-over (road), 4 major shopping malls, 2 so-called international schools (primary level only) and less than a handful of hotels (Novotel, Horison, Royal Asia, Classie - just to name a few).

Internet speed is slow in this region. Telkom's "Speedy" internet does not live up to its name. The slightly better service provider that we had is from MDP (Multi Data Palembang) - they subscribed to Telkom's fixed bandwidth line and re-supplies it to other customers like us.

When my director came for a visit last month, his comment about Palembang was, "Palembang is always busy and messy all the time". I am sure he did not mean that the city is dirty. I believe he did not get the impression that Palembang is orderly in terms of traffic control because there are still lots of motorbikes crowding the roads. In other bigger cities like Jakarta or Surabaya, bikes are less compared to cars. Palembang still has lots of trishaws (becaks) and bicycles sharing the road with bikes and cars.

When you compare the hustle and bustle of Palembang's traffic to the peacefulness of the highways in Malaysia (and the less crowded roads), the thought of "civilization" comes to your mind. It always feels like "home" whenever the plane touches down in Malaysia.

I guess I won't be blogging for the next 10 days when I am back in Malaysia (fully enjoying my time off). Until then, hasta la vista Palembang (until June'09).

Something Is Eating My Plants!

2009-05-19T22:37:00.004+07:00

Recently something happened to my ladies fingers (okra) plants. The leaves have been "eaten" by some sort of pest until they appeared "holy". Upon having a closer look, I found small little grasshoppers! These little bugs have been nibbling at my wife's plants.

I do not have any good shots of these little grasshoppers but here's one from my low resolution phone camera which could not focus clearly (especially for macro shots). If all the leaves get eaten up, my okra plants will not be able to give my 5 okras per week of free vegetables anymore! I will need to find a way to get rid of those grasshoppers! Any non-toxic way that you could think of? Feel free to comment.....thanks!

Haircuts In Palembang

2009-05-18T14:17:00.003+07:00

Yesterday I went for my haircut in PTC Mall's Johnny Andrean saloon. A JA haircut (including wash) only costs Rp32,000 (~RM10). However, everytime they cut my hair at JA's, the hair dressers will definitely say, "Oh, you have lots of grey hair, do you want to dye your hair?". This is without fail, different hair stylists make the same comment during my every visit. It made me feel as if I have loads of grey hair!

I have never found a better hair dresser in Palembang until my friend introduced me to this saloon next to a massage center. The price is a bit more expensive at Rp70,000 (double that of JA) but the hair dresser is more professional (supposedly came from Jakarta). The hair washing facility is better as they have this stump from the sink to support the back of your head while they wash (in other places, they just let the weight of your head supported by the neck rest). The environment is also more pleasant - quiet, not so crowded, spacious. The hair dresser is also more gentle with your hair (I don't like those that just snips randomly at your hair with a blunt scissors pulling out chunks of your hair in the process - they say it is called "thinning" - B.S!).

Another interesting thing is I do not know exactly how to tell the hair dresser what kinda hair style I like. 10 years ago I used to like this hairstyle called "Armani" hair style but recently I found out that in Malaysia they no longer have that cut anymore. I took some photos of my past "Armani" hair style and tried to show the Johnny Andrean people. They told me that it is called a "Mohawk" cut. Then when I asked for a "Mohawk", they gave me a "school boy" cut instead! As time passed, someone got it almost close to what I liked and I asked for the name of the hair cut. They said it's called "spike"! Ever since, I have been having "spike" haircuts in Palembang.

If it was not for the convenience of doing shopping after the haircut from JA, I would have paid more to get it from the pros at the massage center place (and also save me the embarrassment of feeling I have lots of grey hair). I hope my wife does not get a shock when she sees my JA "spike" hair style when I return to Malaysia next week.

Manchester United - EPL Champions 3 Years In A Row!

2009-05-17T08:19:00.006+07:00

A goalless draw with Arsenal yesterday was enough to ensure Manchester United completed a hat-trick of Premier League title triumphs. The celebrations were held after the match at Old Trafford.

A win over rivals Arsenal at home would be better but United's attack was toothless. Credit to their defence for soaking up the attacks from Arsenal. Perhaps this draw also helped eased Arsene Wenger's pressure after succumbed to Chelsea 1-4 last week and the humiliated by United in the Champions League semis 1-5 on aggregate.

After Manchester United's coach Sir Alex Ferguson first took over the team in 1986, he vowed to "knock Liverpool off their perch'. The team is now just one league championship away from doing just that. Currently 18 titles were bagged by Liverpool and United respectively throughout the history of the EPL (English Premier League). The target will be a 19th title next year.

After securing the 3rd straight EPL title, the immediate focus now is to retain the UEFA Champions League title by beating Barcelona in Rome on May 28, 2009. May the best team in Europe win!

What Do You Eat When There's Nobody Cooking For You?

2009-05-12T19:26:00.009+07:00

It has been almost a week since my wife and kid left for Malaysia. I am home alone again for 2 weeks here in Palembang before joining them. We have been living without a maid for more than 1 month and my wife has been cooking all my meals before she left for Malaysia.

After my wife's departure, I have been buying "nasi bungkus" (packaged rice). The people who do not bring their own food to work normally order these nasi bungkus. The rice normally comes with nangka fruit (as vegetables), curry and either fish, beef or chicken. They are being delivered via motorbikes to the work place. Each pack costs about Rp8,000 (RM2.80). Not very nutritious but it still fills up a person because of the abundance of the rice.

The photos of these nasi ayam (chicken rice, left) and nasi daging (beef) do not look very appealing because they all look brown and dirty.

After a few days of nasi bungkus, I decided to try a local caterer recommended from a friend. The following photos show the dishes that they served. I had to pay Rp33,000 (RM11.50) per day for 3 dishes (actually 2 dishes with 1 soup). I normally eat half of it for lunch and keep half of it for dinner.

So far, I had chicken+veg with black fungus+corn soup and beef+eggs+chicken soup. The food is definitely better compared to nasi bungkus. The downside to catering is you don't get to choose the type of food you get but the mystery of guessing what is for lunch creates excitement at noon.

Lunch and dinner is pretty much settled for me everyday but breakfast is still pretty boring. We have been having oats for breakfast almost everyday in Palembang. For me, I have had oats since I was young and I hated it. My wife also hated it but it is still the most nutritious food for breakfast in Palembang. We have been trying many ways to make eating oats more pleasant. When we came back from Malaysia during Chinese New Year in Jan'09, we brought back some pork floss to eat with our oats. Our friends also gave us some and it lasted only until Mar'09. After that we have been trying oats with egg & maggi seasoning (see picture below).

I tried to cook something different for breakfast. Found some eggs, tomatos and ladies fingers (left overs), therefore I cooked them up and it looked like this....

It did not taste that good, so I guess tomorrow I will have to buy some nasi uduk (nasi lemak or coconut rice) for breakfast!

Becak (Trishaw) Ride

2009-05-08T17:47:00.004+07:00

One day we saw a trishaw carrying a passenger to a nearby house. So I took the opportunity to take my son for a "Becak" ride (in Malaysian it's called "Beca" but in Indonesian it's "Becak" - sounds like bay-chuck).

My wife used to bring my son along for these becak rides once in awhile but it was my first time trying it. The roads are quite bumpy in our housing area and some areas were a bit uneven. When the Becak-man came to the sloping areas, he would jump off his becak and push it. I felt a bit embarrassed having this skinny guy to push 75kg+15kg worth of weight (not counting the weight of his becak).

I offered to come off the becak but he insisted that we stayed on. It only took him 10 mins to round the housing complex but I would not want him to "suffer" by getting him to cycle/push any longer. Here are some shots taken from the becak. My little one was very happy throughout the ride. I am glad to have some fun time with him. The only bad thing is I had to sit on my back bone as the shed is very low (I looked like a prawn inside the becak!).

April 2009 In A Glance

2009-05-05T20:33:00.014+07:00

I am truly sorry for not being able to put up any post in the month of April'09. Here's a summary of what happened last month:

Jakarta: We went to JKT for 3D/2N. Took a Sat & Mon off to travel to the Indonesian capital for a weekend break since we still have not been there after 2.5 years living in Indonesia. All that we did was walking the malls/shops and we had such a "loot" in JKT.

Here's a photo of one of the malls (we were not allowed to take any photos inside due to security restrictions but managed to "steal" this shot via my camera phone).

I managed to get my replica United jersey (xmas'08 wish), United merchandise, DVDs and clothing for both my kid and my wife. Everyone was happy with the short visit and I have a strong feeling that we might be visiting JKT again! The Manchester United replicas cost me only 1/4 of the original price but the material is exactly the same as the real merchandise.... sometimes you just can't stop being a "pirate"....LOL!

Circus Came To Town:
A circus was held at an empty ground next to PTC Mall. We did not go in because we were a bit skeptical about the safety (from the animals) and the environment (crowd). However, my son did have a close look at the circus elephants.

These 4 giants were just shackled onto a wooden platform and there were absolutely no barriers to keep us away from those beasts. With a bit of hesitation, I approached them with caution and these shots showed the closest we were from them.

What a full load of crap.....LOL!

Easter: Took my son for a flag-hunt (sort of treasure hunt looking for small flags) after the Easter mass. He only managed to find 1 flag, so he only got 1 Easter egg for his effort.

3 Maids In 2 Years

2009-04-11T12:27:00.003+07:00

We have had 3 maids in the past 2 years that we have been staying here in Palembang. It seems like the people here change jobs quite frequently despite the global economic crisis. Below are some interesting facts about the maids that we have had so far.

1st maid:

25 years old - supposedly have been working in Malaysia before for a couple of years.
always had to go home during the weekend to attend to her sick mother.
always sleeping in the bathroom (just woken up face everytime we see her coming out from the bathroom).
1/2 a day's work always take more than 1 day to finish.
lousy cook.
duration working for us: 1 year.

2nd maid:

17 years old - dropped out from school as family could not afford.
we helped her go back to school to study on alternate day's afternoons.
worked for us for 9 months.
good in cooking and has the initiative to learn.
got married to one of our complex's security guards within 2 weeks and never returned to work anymore - claiming husband and in-laws prohibited her from working after she got pregnant!

3rd and current maid:

17 years old - just got her in last week.
sister works 2 houses away from us.
so far so good, hopefully she will be able to last longer than the other 2 maids as she does not have any handphone access!

Cycling In Palembang

2009-03-21T08:21:00.004+07:00

For the past few weeks my toddler always asked to go cycling in his tri-cycle outdoors. He used to cycle only in-doors in our limited living room area but since the day we brought him out to the field with his bike, he never wanted to cycle indoors any more.

This made it a bit difficult for us because in Palembang there are no bike paths. He had to cycle on the bumpy concrete block paved roads to this open area here in the photo to cycle properly.

He insisted to cycle on the road but under supervision. We had to carry his bike home sometimes when he gets tired and his bike also "overturned" one time when he rode too near to the side of the road (sandy part).

The design of his tri-cycle is also a bit weird. I think the position of the pedals obstructs the movement of his feet. Maybe it is the angle of the frame? I hate pushing him uphill on the road (too much of a backache for me because of my height - having to bend down like a prawn)!

Wished we had more gardens and bike tracks here in Palembang for little kids to ride their bikes.

Toddlers & Accidents

2009-03-11T11:19:00.005+07:00

Perhaps when you first read the title of this post, you might be thinking of a post about accidents that could happen to toddlers?... well, it is not.

Since my kid started to watch "Thomas & Friends" the train series, he has learnt a lot about accidents because the stories often have lots of eventful things happening, including accidents. They even have a song called, "Accidents Can Happen"!

At first, he loved accidents because he thought it was part of life to have accidents (well, he was right in a certain sense anyway). After some explanations, he gradually understood that people do get hurt during accidents and everyone should try to prevent accidents from happening.

However, as a kid full of imagination he still likes to "create his own accident scenes" and gets his "friends" to come and save the victim. This photo shows you his story about a train that fell off a collapsed bridge.

So when I asked him, "Did anyone get hurt?" he just answered "no" and continued playing while singing his Accident song," Accidents happen, sometimes just like that". His made-belief accident scene will always come with stories containing the following words:

Crashed
Smashed
Tumbled
Collapsed
Bent
Surprised
Saved
Oh, No!
Help!
Cinders & Ashes! (I don't think I even know how to say that word when I was in primary school)

What Do You Do In A Fertilizer Factory?

2009-03-04T14:44:00.010+07:00

Working in a fertilizer factory is a niche job. There are many types of fertilizer factories in the world. Mine in Palembang happens to be a chemical compound or NPK fertilizer factory.

Basically we blend the different raw materials such as Urea (Nitrogen source), Phosphate Rock (Phosphate source) & Potash (Kalium source) plus other elements like Magnesite, Copper & Zinc Sulphates to the appropriate proportions, then we add water and heat to make them into granular form (oval shaped) then screen them, coat them and eventually pack them.

Below are some most common questions coming from people who are not from the fertilizer or agricultural industry:

What do you do at work? - ensure the people carry out instructions!! If you pay peanuts, who would you get?
How is the working environment? - it is a "sweat shop" because the environment is hot. Air is limited inside the plant because it will cause the fertilizers to "melt" (hygroscopic in nature when in contact with high humidity). The condition in the plant is often "muddy" as when teh products fall off the belts/chutes/leakages, they will become hygroscopic. I should say that it is quite similar to a muddy construction site which is indoors.
Does it smell? - yes, when water comes into contact with urea, ammonia gas will be emitted. so you think you would ever fall asleep at work?
Will it explode? - Ha ha, no....only ammonium nitrate plants in Europe has potential of explosions.
Do you like working there? - It has been 5 years since I changed my career from the semiconductor industry (clean) to the fertilizer industry (dirty). I should say that I am contented with what I have at the moment in PLM, except for the long working hours (5.5 days week), power limitation of my company sponsored house and the mosquitoes (I get bitten almost everyday)!
Would you like to work there forever? - I am entering my 3rd year in Palembang and throughout the 2 years here I have learnt a lot about the Indonesian culture, language and people. If opportunity calls, I might need to make another career change? Life is unpredictable!
How many staff do you have? - 86 permanent plus 100 contractors (forklifts, packers, loaders)
What do you like best about your job now? - expat life. No need to pay for rent, driver or maid.... making me a lazy bum. Sucks when maid is sick or away.....getting too dependent on others to do household chores!

The Best Way To Break Your Daughter's Heart

2009-02-28T12:09:00.005+07:00

We were shell-shocked last weekend when our maid told us that her father had arranged for her to marry someone that she barely knew.

It seems like our maid's father has lots of debts and he was believed to "sell off" his daughter through an arranged marriage with one of the persons who borrowed him money.

Our maid Aini was very depressed when the news was conveyed to her last week. She is dating some guy now but her father does not like her current boyfriend.

After several time-off sessions to go home to discuss with her dad, Aini's boyfriend finally managed to convince her dad to let Aini marry him instead.

Due to too much pride, Aini's dad wanted the wedding to go on at the same date as what was arranged earlier with the other party. Aini said all of her neighbors have known that she will be getting married, therefore her dad would "lose face" and feel embarrassed if the wedding was cancelled. So her dad agreed to swap the groom instead!

As a result, my maid will be getting married in another 2 week's time to her boyfriend. Aini told us that she was not quite ready and would not know what to do as a wife. She is only 18.

I know that I should not interfere with other people's lives but some parents are really so thick-skulled and old fashioned!

When Aini told her dad that she did not want to marry the guy that his dad arranged to marry, her dad threatened to disown her. In western countries I think the daughter would have run away. But in Indonesia, the kids are still very filial towards their parents (even though the parents make silly decisions like this!).

Who Does Your Son Look Like?

2009-02-28T11:55:00.004+07:00

Many friends have been asking me, "who does your son look like?" and I will normally say my wife.

However, from one of the old photos that I've found of my wife and my brother in law, I have found that my son has the most similar facial features as my bro in law.

As you can see in the photos, they both have chubby cheeks and pointy chins (so does my wife). Their hair type are both soft. Hairstyles are similar (snipped above the eye brows and do not need much combing). They both have big ear lobes. I think personality wise they are similar too....both of them tending to be cheeky!! Their noses looked similar but my son's eyes are bigger and not as slanty as my bro in law.

I guess kids will change their looks as they grow up. Hopefully he has inherited my "tall" genes and will be close to a six footer when he grows up.

Photo Of The Week: Birthday Lunch

2009-02-26T12:05:00.003+07:00

This photo was taken during lunch time on my birthday back in Jan'09.

As my wife knew that food is the way to my heart, she gave me this lunch surprise which consists of:

1. Crabs cooked with salted eggs - a delight from "rumah makan Kalimantan".

2. Fried wanton (dumplings) that she made herself.

3. Dried noodles with soy-sauce(called Kon-Low-Meen in Cantonese).

It was a great treat! Don't need to spend millions of rupiahs eating out. I am feeling hungry already and can't wait to have my lunch!

The Wonders of Thomas & Friends

2009-02-24T16:30:00.009+07:00

Thomas & Friends (also called Thomas & the Tank Engines) is an animated children series about trains and engines that worked on the Island of Sodor.

We found the show to be very educational for our 2 year old toddler. He likes to watch the show on DVDs and also Youtube downloads on a daily basis. It keeps him occupied while my wife tries to have some blogging / internet time. We try not to use it as a "babysitter", so sometimes I also watch the show together with him. Our son has learnt a lot of words and phrases from the show. He also tend to speak like the trains, engines and people there, which made life very entertaining. He learnt his numbers from the trains and equipment's numbers too!

For those who does not know who Thomas is?..... Thomas is a cheeky, fussy little engine who wears #1 on his side. Joining him in his adventures on the Island of Sodor are his engine friends:

The cheerful green train Percy,

The moody red train James,

The proud but boastful blue colored train Gordon,

The coaches Annie and Clarabel,

Bertie the Bus,

Terence the Tractor,

Harold the Helicopter,

Jack the Front Loader (Shovel),

Cranky the Crane,

and last but not least, Sir Topham Hatt, the Superintendent of the railroad, is the kindly boss who keeps everyone in order.

There are also many other construction machines and trains that I won't list out one by one. We bought our toddler some of the die cast metal trains. Would you imagine what a fortune we would have spent if we bought them all??!!

Here's a bit about Thomas & Friends' history: The Tank Engine and his friends are based on the Railway Series of books written by an Englishman, Reverend W. Awdry. The stories were created in 1942 to entertain the Reverend's son, Christopher, who was confined to bed with the measles. That Christmas, a simple wooden train named Thomas was made for Christopher. This led to the creation of even more stories about Thomas Train and his railway friends. Reverend Awdry published 26 books before retiring in 1973. In the early 1980s, Christopher continued in his father's footsteps. He began creating Railway stories for his own young son and published his first story in 1983. In all, 40 Railway Series books were published.

Mating Leave

2009-02-21T11:54:00.002+07:00

Yesterday I was a bit shell-shocked when my driver, who just got married last weekend, asked for my permission to take a day off stating that he needs to "do it" with his newly wedded wife!

My driver lives in a very small house with his mother. I have not been to his house but my wife had and she told me that it is just 10m x 4m! His room is separated from his mom's room by a thin plywood partition. He claims that this was the first time for his wife...his exact words were "making love" (he can speak only very little broken English), and he was afraid that it might be too noisy. I almost could not contain my laughter after I heard what he said! He was suggesting to take a day off and rent a hotel room in order to "spread his seeds and legacy". He claims that his wife wanted to have a kid very soon.

What can I say except to agree for him to take a "mating leave". If you have other suggestions on the terminology kindly leave a comment.....LOL!

The Reds Roll On

2009-02-09T10:46:00.003+07:00

Sorry for the long absence as I have been caught up in the CNY (Chinese New Year) mood.

Man. Utd is now top of the EPL table! After the morale boosting win over Chelsea, they strolled on to back to back wins and the defence also broke the record for not conceding over 1200 minutes without conceding a goal.

The table was pretty different 1 month ago where the reds were still trailing behind Liverpool and Chelsea.

But it is still a long way to go until May'09. Man. Utd is on their way to another EPL crown if they could continue the momentum.

Thrashing The Blues At The Theatre Of Dreams

2009-01-12T11:39:00.007+07:00

MAN UTD 3-0 CHELSEA

That was written on the front page of soccernet.com website when I logged on to check the scores this morning at 5am. It was a pleasant surprise and many pundits predicted a draw for these 2 teams. I was not able to watch the match last night because it was shown on TV at 11:30pm and I had to wake up with my toddler early every morning.

I was glad to see the huge score, especially when it is rival Chelsea being crushed at Old Trafford. I will have to watch the highlights later tonight but Vidic, Rooney and finally Berbatov were on the score sheet. According to the reports, it was a convincing win over the blues and Berbatov, who costs United over 30 Million Pounds made a significant impact by creating both the first 2 goals and scoring the last one himself.

So after the match, MU had closed the gap between them & leaders Liverpool to 5 points with 2 games in hand, thus strengthening MU's position towards their 3rd consecutive year of being EPL champions.

What Can You Do In Cairns?

2009-01-08T15:39:00.007+07:00

I had my xmas break for 9 days in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Just happened that my bro in law got a job in Cairns, so we had the chance to stay with him for a couple of days in his apartment a few blocks away from the beach. Here are some of the things that we did in Cairns:

Swimming - the beach is infested with stingers (jellyfishes) and also crocodiles, so the government built a man-made lagoon right next to the beach (Esplanade Lagoon). It has shallow areas & sandy parts for toddlers to play around. The max depth is only 1.5m, so everyone can swim and play in the lagoon that contains chlorined salt water. The place is also patrolled by full time lifeguards. I spent almost all my mornings in Cairns at the lagoon with my toddler son.
Crabbing - termed after the word FISHING, meaning catching crabs. We used a crab pot (don't be mistaken for crackpots!) or crab cage stuck with fish meat or fish heads to lure the crabs along the Esplanade pier into the trap. There will be a follow up post on CRABS & CRABBING in the near future.
Take a drive to Crystal Cascades - 1 hour's drive from the city, there's a small tar road leading to a waterfall with cooling waters.
Port Douglas - this is the nearest town from the Great Barrier Reefs. We did not have time to venture off to the islands off Port Douglas with crystal clear seas. The beaches here were also full of stingers so we only managed to walk along the beach. The views from the car ride from Cairns to Port Douglas is very scenic. We also managed to visit the P.D street markets in town.
Mossman Gorge Waterfalls - 1/2 hour from Port Douglas, these waterfalls have much clearer waters than the ones at Crystal Cascades and the rainforest here is the world's oldest.
Cycling - best way to travel around Cairns city is by bike.
Snorkeling, scuba diving & skydiving- did not have time to try this...maybe when our toddler son is older??

Pictures in sequence from left to right (Crabbing at the Esplanade Pier, Mossman Gorge Waterfalls, Esplanade Lagoon Pool, Port Douglas Beach, Cycling in Cairns).

2009

2009-01-06T13:48:00.003+07:00

Hello and sorry for the long absence. I was kinda still in my Xmas holiday mood and too lazy to put in any posts until today.

Time flies, my hot hot Xmas holidays in Cairns were finally over and I am now back in Palembang with my family. We had a wonderful time in Cairns (which I will put in some posts in the very near future).

Here are some new encounters, happenings and plans for 2009:

I just became older a few days ago - more people remembered my birthday thanks to Facebook!
Met a family from Singapore who had been in Palembang for 3 years. We went out for lunch with them one day after mutual visits (thanks to blogging, my wife was contacted by the couple after her blog was stumbled upon).
Looking forward to go back to Ipoh and Penang during Chinese New Year (3rd & final week of Jan'09).
Will not be expecting any more huges bonuses due to the economy crises.
Buy a Clavinova digital piano for my wife to teach my toddler son. Wanted to get my wife a sewing machine but she insisted to spend the $$ on the piano.....there will be other occasions to surprise her!!
Install INDOVISION satellite TV (replace the discontinued ASTRO).
Attend my driver's wedding in Feb'09.
Expect to be in Ipoh again sometime in May'09 to attend my wife's grandpa's 90th birthday.
Need to make a short trip to Jakarta to (look-see)2 - been in Indonesia for 2 years but never ventured around JKT, what a shame!!
Plan a trip to Bali again in July'09.
Annual trip to Australia again in Sep'09 during Hariraya Aidulfitri holidays.

The company will extend my stay in Palembang for another 2 years (until end 2010) but I am not sure if we will be sent back to Msia sooner if the economy does not become any better.... We just pray that the situation will become better in 2nd half of 2009.

Home Improvements

2008-12-15T06:32:00.004+07:00

When my wife & kid were away I managed to carry out the following home improvement projects:

Repainting of walls (inside and outside of the house) - the landlord was too stingy to cover for this but agreed to keep the rental rates the same for the next 2 years. The paint job will be carried out by my driver.
Relocation of A/C to the play area/computer desk - in preparation for the hot season, I had the idling second room A/C relocated to the area that my wife and kid spends the most time.
No more "dripping pee" hot water! - adjusted the settings at the pump so that hot water could be continuous & strong in the bathroom. Changed the hose that was crumpled (limiting water flow) as well.

Not related to home improvements: one day after Hari Raya Haji my ex-driver dropped the following dish off for my dinner. It is curry lamb! I remembered last year he also gave us curry lamb after mutton and beef were handed out by the mosques during Hari Raya Haji (Hari Raya Qurban in Indonesia).

This will be my final post before I leave for my 2 week vacation in Cairns tomorrow. We be back after Christmas, see you after that and have a very Merry 2008 Xmas!!

What I Want For Xmas

2008-12-13T19:03:00.003+07:00

A picture says a thousand words.... The original costs RM250 but I was too stingy to spend that amount, so I guess a good replica will do (as long as the quality of the material is silky smooth).

Things I Can Do Alone In Palembang

2008-12-12T19:40:00.005+07:00

Next week I get to reunite with my family after 3 month's of being "single" in Palembang. Perhaps you are thinking of reading something "spicy" but these are just the routine things that I have been doing while I am living by myself in Palembang:

Get the whole laptop to myself at home at night - the laptop is normally occupied by my wife 24x7 when she is in Palembang.
Increased blogging time, commenting/playing around with Facebook.
Eat dinner in front of the laptop and TV.
Watch all the Manchester United matches even if it is on 12 midnight during the weekend (English Premier League) or 2am during the weekdays (Champion's League night).
Watch ESPN/Star sports channel for the whole night.
Eat junk food like chips or chocholates on the couch while watching TV.
Sleep for 8 hours & even 10 hours if not feeling well.
Get to watch 2 DVDs straight during the weekends.
Get to sleep on a bed for 3 all by myself - "star shaped" or "prawn shaped" without having to knock anyone in the process of stretching.
Shooting hoops during the weekends.
Staying out late with suppliers/customers without having to worry about being "Cinderella".
I can leave the toilet seat up! ha ha ha!

Anyhow, nothing beats good old family time. After every short separation, I feel like a "re-born person". The time apart gave me time to think about my relationship with my family. It made me realize the significance of their existence and their impact in my life. It also gave me clues on how to make life living in Palembang better (stay tuned to read my next post on home improvements).

1 More Week Before My Holiday In Cairns

2008-12-09T19:01:00.004+07:00

In 1 week's time I will be traveling to Australia to join my family for a vacation in Cairns.

I have been alone in Palembang for 3 months since my wife and kid left for Brisbane back in Sep'08. After this long 3 months of separation, I can't believe that I will be reunited again with my family. I guess the people who "left" will not feel as lonely as the people who were "left behind". Anyway I already had some mental preparation before the "annual separation". I know that it is quite boring in Palembang and 3 months of exposure in Australia is good for my toddler son's exposure. Every time he leaves Palembang, he seems to have grown more.

Prior to my connecting flight to Brisbane, I have a whole day in transit in Singapore. I took the opportunity to make an appointment with my old friend KJ, who was also my college house mate and high school friend. We have not met up for a few years because KJ seldom goes back to Penang (our hometown) for Chinese New Year. He told me that it is better to travel to other countries rather than squeeze his schedule to the CNY rush back to Penang. Anyway, I am quite excited to meet up with KJ although I have doubts on how to fill my time in Singapore despite KJ offering me the job of "Singaporean Tour Guide".

Palembang -> Singapore -> Brisbane -> Cairns. Looks like a pretty hectic flight schedule to me. But I can't wait to hug my wife and son in Cairns and go to the beach. Anticipating a hot hot hot Christmas in Cairns.

Bye Bye Corolla, Hello Innova!

2008-12-01T18:59:00.005+07:00

The company rented a 1986 Toyota Corolla for me and my family since we moved to Palembang 2 years back.

It is a old and not well maintained sedan car. The tires burst twice and the timing belt broke once.

Today came the day where the company decided to upgrade the old piece of junk to a 2005 Toyota Innova.

I am glad that I do not have to ride/drive the car that we used to own in the 90's before we changed to a Honda City back in Malaysia.

Bye bye Corolla! Hello Innova!!!

The "Yellow House"

2008-12-01T18:31:00.004+07:00

When I first came to Palembang, I went around looking for houses with my father in law. We came across a yellow coloured house that we were very interested to rent but the contract did not fall through because it has been leased by another occupant a month before.

After 2 years, the house became available again and I took a look at it again today. The following are some photos of that "yellow house".

However, that house is smaller than our current house and does not have any "green areas" for plants as the landlord had already made his lawn "concrete". We also calculated again the cost of moving to another place and it seems like it is still worth it to pay for a slightly higher rent with the existing house that is "semi-furnished".

Houses With Big Compounds But Small Rooms

2008-11-30T18:23:00.006+07:00

I have been looking around for houses for the past few weeks because our landlord wanted to increase the rent of our current house.

We had to look for other options but most of the houses in the Kedamayan area do not have any spacious living room (one of the necessities for my 2 year old son to play).

Here are some of the photos that I took of a corner house that has a very big compound. However, the living room and bedrooms are pretty small compared to our current house.

What A Job!

2008-11-27T19:20:00.004+07:00

I have not been feeling well after returning from my KL trip. That's why I was a bit behind on my posts. I came across this advertisement on the internet that states the following job requirements:

Need to cater for production needs 24x7 - this is still ok (meaning on-call 24 x 7).
To be prepared to relocate and live on site at the factory??!!!

This is a real ad. I guess with the economic woes like this, people will be happy that they could get a job. But for sure I know this is a "china-man" company ad!

To KL & Back

2008-11-23T16:37:00.008+07:00

Time flies when you have so many things to do in 3 days & 2 nights. In just a blink of an eye I was in Kuala Lumpur (KL) and back in Palembang again!

Total of 7 of us left Palembang on Thursday noon time. I brought along a fellow Malaysian, 2 Indonesian couples and one 4 month old baby. KL was pouring when we arrived.

After checking in we had some time to browse in the Sunway Pyramids shopping mall before heading for an international buffet dinner. They served fresh oysters, salmon, sashimi, fish and fishes. I was also glad to be able to catch up with some old colleagues from Port Klang, Sandakan, Bintulu, Pasir Gudang and Surabaya. After dinner came the group meeting where our director gave his speech about the company outlook, impact to our company from the current economy crisis and strategies to move ahead in these difficult times. The speech was followed by a motivational video session on "paradigm shifts" and a 15 minute group brainstorming / work session on the application of "paradigm shifts" within our company.

[photos from left: my room in Pyramid Towers (actual), view of Sunway Lagoon from my room, my maintenance supervisor and his 4 month old baby]

On day 2, my Indonesian staff went to visit the Petronas Twin Towers while I had my technical meeting with our General Manager. We had Chinese-style lunch in Sunway Hotel. After that came my shopping opportunity at Sunway Pyramids where I bought the following items:

2 160Gb external hard discs - for my many photos of my son
2 pairs of shorts from FOS (Factory Outlet Shop)
Chinese character picture charts for my son
Gladwrap - bought one just for the "cutter strip" on the box because in Palembang we can't find plastic wraps with built-in cutter strips.

[photos from left: Sunway Pyramids shopping mall, xmas decorations, a restaurant with a familiar name]

After my shower, I went for the Port Klang factory's 10th anniversary dinner. Met more old staff and chit-chat until it was time for dinner. They had lucky draw & 10 years long serving employee awards plus entertainment sessions by some local comedians. After dinner I was invited to one of my old colleague's bachelor's party in a nearby discotheque. I have not been "partying" for ages and I felt a bit awkward joining the group of "young people" (most of them are under 30 years old). Luckily I am only the 4th senior guy in the crowd of 15!

After the late night and early breakfast, we left from KL and now I am back in Palembang blogging again!

How Packed Is My 3D/2N Trip?

2008-11-19T19:19:00.004+07:00

At first I was a bit excited to be able to leave Palembang for a 10th anniversary factory function in Petaling Jaya (Malaysia).

I thought that on the first day upon arrival, I would be able to do some shopping then have dinner with one of my cousins. Then the next day morning I can go visit my former workplace (factory) and colleagues in Klang. After lunch come back and do some more shopping in the adjacent Sunway Pyramids mall, followed by the dinner celebration. On the 3rd day I will need to leave at 8:30am to the airport to catch my 12 noon flight back to Palembang.

But here is the itinerary that was emailed to us:

Day1:
3:30pm - arrive at KL from PLM.
4:30pm - check in at Hotel in Pyramid Towers (Sunway)
6:30pm - group dinner
8:30-10:30pm - group meeting!??

Day2:
10:30am - technical meeting
12pm - group lunch
7pm - 10th anniversary dinner

Day3:
8:30am - depart to airport

Let's see if I could slot in some shopping time on the 2nd day between the group lunch and dinner function!

2009 Wish List - Wii, Clavinova or Oven

2008-11-17T19:39:00.003+07:00

Tonight my wife sent me her wish list for 2009 in Palembang. The options are:

A Nintendo Wii
A Clavinova Electric Piano
An Oven (for baking)

I have been trying to figure out whether our LG TV had the capability to play Wii because it does not have any S-Video Cable slot! I looked up the internet and here's what I found:

No S-Video cables required!! We only need a normal video jack, audio left and audio right jacks (that all TVs have).

As for the Clavinova, I am trying to find a second hand one that will last us another 2 years but I doubt Palembang has any used electric pianos.

As for the oven, our house will not have enough capacity to support an oven. We are only limited to 2200W for the whole house. Currently we can't even turn on 2 air-cons + the microwave at the same time. This will cause our breaker to trip.

Seems like the Clavinova will be our likely choice but I will still need to look around for the piano.

Pyramid Towers Hotel (Sunway City) - My Next Destination

2008-11-16T10:05:00.002+07:00

I will be traveling to Kuala Lumpur to attend a company dinner function coming Thursday.

The company booked us for 2 nights in a new hotel called Pyramid Towers in Sunway City, Petaling Jaya.

A total of 5 persons will be attending from Palembang.

I hope the rooms are as nice as what they show on their website.

I am also trying to overcome flu-like symptoms (sore throat, head and back aches) by pumping myself with vitamin-C and Echinesia (supposedly very effective for cold prevention). Hope I get better before my trip on Thurday.

Photo Of The Week - Palembang Wedding

2008-11-15T15:48:00.007+07:00

I have been to many of my staff's wedding ceremonies in Palembang. This is the first photo from the wedding day that I have ever received.

This photo was taken on the wedding day of my weighbridge foreman (or fore-woman I should say). I went with my Logistics Manager who brought along his visiting wife from Malaysia.

Can you see the melting make-up of the bride under the mid-day heat??

Green Fingers (Part3) - Our Garden After 2 Months

2008-11-15T15:36:00.003+07:00

Here are some photos of our flourishing garden after a whole month of rain almost everyday.
Our papayas are growing very big but still a bit greenish.
Our four angled beans are creeping on our fence.

Below are some long beans and four angled beans in drums.

Ampera Bridge - Palembang

2008-11-14T20:24:00.004+07:00

The Ampera Bridge is one of the main landmarks of Palembang city. The bridge that spreads above Musi River was built in 1965. Ampera Bridge has a 78m high tower that resembles the SanFrancisco Golden Gate Bridge. It used to have a special feature of being able to open and close for vessels to pass through. It was the only bridge with the open-and-closed mechanism in the history of Indonesian bridges.

The word Ampera is short for "Amanat Penderitaan Rakyat". It means mandate of the people's suffering (referring to the anti-Soekarno era in 1966).

These are night shots of the bridge taken when some visitors came from Jakarta. Flickering and different coloured lights decorate the edges of the bridge at night. Palembang does not have any good night scenic places - Ampera bridge is the best that you could get.

Mi Pangsit of Palembang

2008-11-09T11:21:00.004+07:00

Yesterday I went to the market at Pasar Buah to buy fish. Decided to go there for some fresh fishes since the market at our place here does not seel any good and fresh fishes.

On the way home I had breakfast at this chinese style coffee shop called Restaurant 888 - what a typical Chinese good luck number to name the shop. 8 = prosperity in Chinese.

I had Mi Pangsit (in Malaysia it's called Wantan Mee or wanton noodles). It comes with a bowl of dry hand-made noodles and another bowl of soup with Pangsit (wanton or meat dumplings) and Bakso (beef and fish balls). One type of their beef balls is very chewy - texture that bounces back when you chew on it, but not as hard as "rubber"!

I was too embarrassed to take direct photos of the shop, so this is my best shot! You can see that the decorations of the shop are still very Chinese despite being in Palembang. All the people in the shop are Chinese because this Mi Pangsit that they serve is non-Halal (forbidden for Muslims - contains pork).

I plan to bring my wife and kid here next time since both of them have not tried Mi Pangsit yet. Damn, I feel hungry already after writing this post!

Porsche & Modern Talking

2008-11-08T19:31:00.013+07:00

Songs can trigger memories. I was listening to Modern Talking's Cheri Cheri Lady this afternoon and it reminded me of the time when I was in primary school.

My uncle had just bought a red Porsche 944 back then and he decided to take me out for a spin one day in his new car. He put on his shades and told me to hop in. The tape that was playing in his car was Cheri Cheri Lady (Modern Talking's number one hit in 1985).

Wonderful car + Wonderful song: No wonder I never forgot about Porsche and Modern Talking whenever I think about the 80's. When I searched for "Porsche" on the internet, it came out "Porsche - the ultimate mid life crisis car"....LOL! I guess that's why my uncle bought the scarlet car.

If you are too young to remember the song Cheri Cheri Lady, here's a retro MTV of it. When I saw the cellist playing until his cello caught fire towards the end of the MTV, it almost made me burst into laughter. I also like their "so-80's" hairstyles and lead vocals Thomas Anders wearing his "Michael Jackson wannabe" jacket.

Bad Luck Week

2008-11-06T21:30:00.003+07:00

This week was an unlucky week for my driver because of the following events:

On Monday he had to report to his boss (the person that rents the car to our company) that the wiper's rubber had gone bad & needed to be replaced - it actually made scratch marks on the wind screen.
On Tuesday he scratched the side of the car bumper while turning - got an ear full from his boss again after the incident was reported.
On Wednesday the car's tire burst and he discovered that the spare tire has no air! It was raining and we were on the way back from work. We had to leave the car in front of a shop 10 mins walk away from home.
After he walked home with me, he realized that he left his bike's keys in the car. He had to ask for a lift from the security guard to ferry him back to the car from our house and back again.
On Thursday he brought the burst tire to the shop to fill up with air but the inner tube was badly damaged, so he had to get it replaced. But he was too afraid to call his boss again until I had to step in and convince his boss that it was not the driver's fault. I had to pay for the inner tubes and deduct it from his boss' rental rates next month.
He missed his morning school session due to having to fix the car.
When he came back to put the receipt for the job on the magnet on my fridge, he dropped the magnet and broke it by accident. It was a Las Vegas souvenir (magnet with clip) that my wife got - but it was broken into pieces and could not be glued back anymore.

This is really a case of continuous bad luck days for my driver. I hope things would be better for him starting Friday.

Triumphant But Yet Heart Broken - Brazilian F1 Grand Prix

2008-11-03T20:03:00.013+07:00

Ferrari's Felipe Massa passed the chequered flag in the Brazilian F1 Grand Prix yesterday thinking that he had won the 2008 championship. However seconds later, McLaren's Lewis Hamilton overtook Toyota's Timo Glock at the final corner to clinch 5th place and this puts Hamilton 1 point ahead of Massa and became the youngest ever driver to win an F1 championship.

Massa broke into tears as he drove his Ferrari to the base of the podium. Triumphant but yet totally heart broken because Massa won the Brazilian race but could not be crowned 2008 drivers champion.

Massa made a flying start in Brazil by taking pole position in the qualifying rounds and leading the pack all the way to the finish line. However, Ferrari's fuel hose blunder in Singapore really cost him precious championship points.

Ferrari still managed to win the overall 2008 constructors' championship. This is the second year in a row Ferrari won. Looking forward to another exciting F1 championship in 2009. Viva Ferrari!

English Mass

2008-11-02T19:43:00.005+07:00

Today I attended English mass in the evening. In Palembang all the Catholic masses are in Indonesian except for this once a month session in English at the St Joseph Church (largest Catholic church in Palembang).

Not many people attend English mass in Palembang. Normally there are 10-15 persons attending but today there's only me, another lady and 3 sisters. So the males vocalists for the hymns are only the priest and me...LOL!

In today's sermon, the priest touched about Jesus being the shepherd having to separate goats from sheeps before nightfall. Sheeps represented "the good" while goats represented "evil"...therefore, bad and unlucky ones are called scape-goats. Goat-like beings are often depicted in mythical evil characters. I never really realized this until today's sermon. Maybe I have not been reading the bible enough!

After mass I had a quick chat with the priest, Fr. Edi, who happened to be one of the first persons that I met when I first came to Palembang 2 years ago. He went to Malaysia last month for some lung infection treatment but the doctor did not give him enough medication. It is difficult to get certain prescriptions in Palembang so I volunteered to help him get some when I go back end of the month.

When I was walking back towards my car to go home, I saw the 3 sisters that were in church just now. One of them was Sister Marta from Brazil. They normally come by bus. But out of courtesy I gave them a ride back to a house bought by the arch-bishop of Palembang.

Poverty & Pain

2008-11-01T18:53:00.005+07:00

Today I took my driver, Iwan, out for a meal in one of the shopping malls. He told me that he did not feel comfortable eating in a restaurant inside a mall. He claims that his "status" is not the same as others. Iwan believed that he is poor and would not walk into places that he might think others might look down on him.

Another example is at Novotel hotel. I often asked him to wait around the back lobby area while I go for my gym sessions. That location has very few people but he still refused. He claims that staff at Novotel had given him "condescending looks". Perhaps it was coincidental, Iwan also said that every time he wanted to use the hotel toilet the door is locked.

His lack of self-belief and self-confidence is so bad until he had to ask his friend to accompany him when I asked him to check out second hand car prices in the car studio one day! His friend was forced to close-up the shop just to accompany him to the car studio.

My maid, Aeni, also comes from a not-so-well-off family. Her father was ill one day and I asked her why she did not bring her dad to the doctor. She suspected that his dad had some gastric problems until he was bed-ridden. She has 2 elder brothers and 1 elder sister but they refused to come back to attend to their father. Aeni said sometimes she would avoid going home whenever she knows that her father was sick - claiming that "people worry less if they know less"! She also said that if she brings her dad to the doctor, they might discover that her dad might have some other illnesses that might require additional medical expenses.

After I threatened her that her father would die if his gastric was not treated, she finally agreed to take her dad to the doctor's. I really can't believe how people can behave like this??!! Maybe this is how people who live below the poverty line live? That's why we always remind ourselves to do more charitable things for these people and treat them well. God brought us to Indonesia for a reason and we have to make the situation better for 2 Indonesians if we can't help them all.

Palembang Pempek & Ham-Chim-Paeng

2008-10-29T14:36:00.009+07:00

Today I treated my maid and driver pempek for lunch.

Pempek or Empek-Empek is a delicacy from Palembang which is made of fish and sago. Pempek is eaten together with a dark sauce called cuko (vinegar).

I ordered my favorite pempek kulit (made from fish skin) & pempek pistel (looks like dumplings, contains shreded papaya strips) together with some other variety.

Both of them were very happy but only my maid showed her happiness. My driver was a bit camera shy.

One day I also came across one of my favourite snacks from Malaysia....Ham-Chim-Paeng (deep fried dough covered with sesame seeds and mashed red beans paste). I saw a motorbike vendor carrying these HCPs in many transparent plastic containers. I asked my driver and he said we can easily get these ROTI WIJEN (sesame bread) from the nearby market. So I paid him to buy some for me to try. Malaysian HCP is more fluffy (has more air inside) vs. the fully compact version from Palembang.