indonesia

i remember when i posted my very first photo album on indonesia in facebook, someone remarked or asked - how's the situation in indonesia? better now?

situation? what situation? the only bad situation i'm faced with on my first trip to indonesia is the traffic situation. i still don't get it why at the traffic light the drivers there prefer to stop on the line, instead of in between the lines. funny. nevertheless, it's a nice country, with a lot of nice places to go to.

my current work has taken me to a lot of cities in indonesia. i've covered more cities in indonesia, i think, than majority of the indonesians. and i loves every part of it. ok... perhaps, except batam. if not for work or a one day cheap stuff shopping, i don't think i'll ever set foot on batam again.

my first trip was way back in early november 2008. to palembang, the historical city once a buddhist kingdom of srivijaya and also where parameswara comes from.

this is the very first picture that i took of palembang.


look at the traffic. it's pretty bad when you're there to experience it. people don't give way, and short honking can be heard from time to time.


i stayed at the aryaduta hotel, in palembang square. it's just a stone throw away from the shopping mall. not the big ones with lots of nice shops, more like the shopping mall that you normally finds in small towns. and it has carrefour as its ancor tenant.


this is the jembatan ampera, on sungai musi. it was built by the japanese as a gift to the people of palembang (what the..??) before they surrender during world war 2.


lastly, this is the ayam bakar that i so damn like, ok. and nope! this is not the local food which is famous in palembang. the famous local food of palembang is called pempek.


i didn't take any pictures of the pempek, as i did not bring along my camera when we went out for supper that night. pempek is actually fish cake and available in varieties. i tried all, some tasted nice, some tasted ok and one sure tasted weird to me tho. i think it's call pempek panggang.

palembang, aside from being a historical city, there are nothing much to offer from a tourist point of view. it can be a pretty boring place as there are not much tourist sites, except the musi river? oh... there's another mosque that was built looking like a temple.


anyway, i went to palembang twice, and i think i'll be making another trip there soon. looking forward to meeting my indonesian friends(from work) there tho.

new leash of life...

wow... my last post was way back in nov 2008 and that's more than 4 months ago! i can't believe how fast time passes by just like that and that was posted when i was in palembang, my first working trip. the past 5 months has been nothing short of a life changing experience for me.

joining a new company, something that probably not what i would have expected after 4 years in the previous company, so comfortably wrapped around in my comfort zone. maybe might not be so accurate to say it's something that i do not expect, as i have been contemplating on a move for a while before i finally updated my resume and started hunting for a new job.

interviews were not hard to come by, surprisingly. and i was surprised even more that i have quite a number of offers in the bag, even from the mncs! since my graduation, i had not been to much interviews, let alone sending out tonnes of letters with resumes. my first job was sealed even before i go for the interview. the manager of the headhunter company likes my resume that she highly recommended me to the company. well, the first job lasted me a good 8 months before i quit the IT field for good, venturing into a totally different field.

excited. met a lot of people, both in the industry and other industries as well. it opened up my eyes to the world of businessmen and how deals are done. knowledge? it's important, but networks and friendships play an even greater part!

it's inspirational when you have direct access to the people who are part of the founding members of the company. how long have they come... how much hard work had they put it to get to where they are now. how much have they improved. imagine someone who started work at aged 19, and can't even speak a word of english. now he is the leader of a publicly listed company and speaks fluent english.

somehow, towards the end, things didn't really work out. some people get stagnant and prefer to stay the same and not fix it if it's ain't broken. i almost fell into that category, and it makes me feel kinda miserable. i hesitated, but i am really glad to finally forced myself to update the resume.

my new job has given me a new leash of life. new industry. wider scope. bigger responsibilities. and worst of all... a target to meet. kpi. dem.

update more later...

4th day in...

why it's so difficult to call airasia call center

finally! i found out the reason why!!

i booked two air tickets to jakarta last week, for working purposes and silly me, i clicked on the "i'm flying" button. so all my info are automatically inserted into the guest 1 fields. hassle free ma.

it's only after the flight tickets and payment has been confirmed that i realised my name is recorded as with my english name, instead of my name as per my identity card! damnit.

after 2 or 3 unfruitful calls and waitings, i managed to speak to a personnel from the call center. i am supposed to fax in a copy of my passport to allow them to change my name to as per my identity card or passport.

the vert next day, i immediately do what is required, and guess what... for 2 days, i couldn't get thru. the staff in airasia call center, sounds like they are perpetually busy and on the line. mind you i wait for more than half an hour all the time!

so this very morning, i decided to give it a try again. i thought perhaps the line traffic will not be so bad at such early hours. but still i waited a good 25 +- minutes and this time, i do not need to hang up because i am finally connected!!

and here's the reason why it's so hard to get connected to the call center. after explaining to the customer service personnel on my request, i proceeded to fax in my copy of passport. and at the same time, i asked her to hold on the line. i tried to fax in repeatedly. failed. always engaged. tried for about 10 minutes i guess.

pick up the phone, and ask if there are alternative way. she asked me to try again later and call them back !!!!!!!!! i thought, what the fuck in the world are you fucking thinking?? try again later and call back?? does she even know how tough it is to get thru?

finally, she said i can scan and email it to her. great! should have said this much much earlier! knnccb. so i quickly turn on the scanner and the computer, scanned my passport and nric and emailed it to her. that took me another about 5 - 10 minutes i think. a rough figure.

and got my name changed to as per my passport. the whole procedures took me almost an hour to settle. so i guess this is the main reason why the call center in airasia is so tough to get thru, because once you got thru, you wouldn't want to hang up until you get your stuff done!

btw, the email is cactempstaff@airasia.com. if you wanted to make changes to your flight info, make a copy of your passport and nric, and send it to this email with proper subjects and info so that when you get thru, it's easier to get your request done with.

amigos para siempre

most of the time, i think twice before putting up an entry on the blog. i don't have a big readership. i don't think i even have readership. perhaps, just a handful of friends dropping by from time to time, but still i'm kinda careful as i do not want to make anyone unhappy.

for example, recently, i engaged the services of a friend. she is on freelance and of course, she gave me a much cheaper price, and that of cos will be reflected on the service. that is ok with me though.

and because of the cheap price that i was charge, i am supposed to pay for the mileage. i am totally ok with that, but what makes me uneasy is i wasn't charge the reasonable mileage charge.

my car, a suzuki swift, travels at about 19 - 21 cents per km. thus, for a local perodua, i am expecting perhaps 25 cents would be really reasonable. when i was driving a perodua, i remember it cost me less than 20 cents per km. plus, the price of petrol has dropped recently. but being true malaysian, i was told that company nowadays pay out 75 cents per km and i was charged 45 cents per km. dem.

amigos para siempre...

some updates, finally.

ever since i started working, i had not been able to have a constant break from work on Saturday, and this trend does not look like it's coming to an end, though it do have some improvement this time around.

my first job requires me to work on shift, and that means even on weekends, with day off on weekdays. my second job, well, have to work half day on every saturday. that pretty much spoils the whole weekend, much more so if you have a bad day at work. they give pretty ridiculous reason on working saturday.

according to the boss, if he were to allow a five-day working week, the first half of Mondays will be spent talking about what they have done and where they have been over the two day weekends. Real work will only starts on Monday afternoon, that is after lunch time. So half day gone.

then when Friday aternoon comes, employees will lose interests and starts plannin their weekends. where to go, what to do, etc etc. another half day gone.

so, in the boss opinion, half day gone on monday and another half day gone on friday means one day of work is burned. that means we only work for four days a week! what a fcking crap in my fcking opinion.

why can't they think on the brighter side. perhaps a five days week will spurs your staff to get their work done faster to have a peaceful weekend without having to worry about their work? besides, with a longer break, staff will come back to work much more refreshed and raring to go again! anyway...

here i am in a company with a five days working week. but i am required to travel regionally, especially to indonesia for a start. it is nice to be able to look forward to friday once again and perhaps have a great night out. and then can sleep until late on saturday, though i seldom sleep later than 9:30 am on weekends nowadays.

even though the travel distance between home and work has increased tremendously, i find myself looking forward to work much more now than before. i had four job offers back in june, and i accepted one from a multinational financial company. but i was counter-offered. took it.

then in august i got two offers on the table. it was tough to decide which one to take on as both looks interesting and challenging enough. it took me quite a while to decide. one is in cheras. still near to home. can sleep late. another is like so far the nearest route has two tolls. another route with three tolls!! and another one with no toll but have to leave house earlier. federal highway. lol...

i of course took the one which is further. and instantly i felt a new kind of energy flowing in my body...

breakfast for thought

the story of bacon and eggs... on commitments.

the chicken merely involves, while the pig commits.

don't be a chicken.