Trip to Hatyai

Here are some nice pictures from my holiday trip to Hatyai last year.

This is Dr Nara's Clinic. This is the famous clinic for those who wants to change their gender in Hatyai. If you know what I mean.

There are a lot of food stalls outside Lee Garden Plaza during night time. You can eat tom yam noodles, koay teow th'ng, leng chee kang, etc.

This is the Fish n Chips I ate at Sizzler inside Lee Garden Plaza.

Regency Hotel is located just nearby Lee Garden Hotel. I stayed for two nights and if I remember, it's about 1200 Baht per night. Not bad but it's an old hotel.

This is the ice skating rink at Central Festival Hatyai. This is a nice and big shopping mall at Hatyai. It's the latest shopping mall in Hatyai.

A Thai Buddhist temple somewhere at the outskirt of Hatyai at the hilltop.

This is a Chinese temple near the Thai Buddhist temple.

You can see the entire Hatyai from the temple at the hilltop.

How to drive to Cameron Highlands?

How to drive to Cameron Highlands using the Simpang Pulai way?

I hope this post would be a helpful guide to those intend to drive up to Cameron Highlands using the Simpang Pulai new road.

Assuming you are driving from the north along the PLUS highway, you have to turn in to the Simpang Pulai interchange (Exit 137) just after Ipoh. In fact, the signboard is clear enough.

After turning in, you will drive through a toll booth. Immediately after the toll booth, you will come to a T-junction with traffic lights as shown above. Turn right at this T-junction. There is a sign board just at the background.

After the turning right, just drive straight for about a minute and you will reach a cross junction with traffic lights. Turn right at this cross junction.

After turning right and as you drive along, you will come across a signboard indicating Cameron Highlands is up ahead. This is to assure you that you are on the right route. Just keep driving straight all the way....

On the way up, you will drive along some beautiful scenery. Some parts of the road are wide enough (with two lanes) for you to overtake some lorries, buses, and annoying road hogs.

You will also pass through the Perak-Pahang border with a huge sign on the slope (as shown above) welcoming you to Cameron Highlands.

After driving about one hour, you will reach a T-junction. Turn right to go to Cameron Highlands. Driving straight would lead you to the Blue Valley Tea Plantation and if you keep on driving, it would lead you to Gua Musang in Kelantan. So, remember to turn right at this junction.

After turning right, just drive straight and you will reach a small town, Kampung Raja for another 3 more kilometres. In fact, by now you have already reached Cameron Highlands.

Soon, you will reach Kampung Raja. You will hit another T-junction up ahead just below the yellow building (with a coffee shop at the ground floor) as shown above. Turn left at this T-junction to continue your journey up to the peak of Cameron Highlands. There is a signboard after the junction and look up for the towns Brinchang and Tanah Rata instead of Cameron Highlands (because you are already at Cameron Highlands). Just keep on driving and you will pass through another two more small towns (Kuala Terla and Tringkap) before reaching the peak of Cameron Highlands.

Keep on driving and you will see a significant landmark at the peak of Cameron Highlands. That landmark is Equatorial Hotel. By now, you will know that you are at the peak of Cameron Highlands.

The entire journey should take you about one hour and a half from Simpang Pulai to the peak of Cameron Highlands.

Learning OER

I just attended a workshop on OER (Open Educational Resource).

What is OER? OER is some sort of free online education made available to any Tom, Dick, and Harry around the world. Wikipedia does a good job in explaining what is OER. Click here.

You may want to watch a video on OER below.



Below is the presentation slides of the presenter, Zaid Alsagoff.

The OER 101 Workshop

View more presentations from Zaid Alsagoff

Research paper accepted for conference

I received an email this morning stating that my paper has been accepted for presentation at the International Conference of Education and Information Management (ICEIM) which is to be held in Istanbul, Turkey.

I co-wrote the research paper with my supervisor and we sent the paper to be peer-reviewed to the organiser just a few days ago. The paper was acccepted with minor revision required.

Who wants to fund me to Turkey?

Places to eat in Ipoh

Here are some of the so-called famous food outlets to visit when you are in Ipoh.

Kong Heng Coffee Shop in Jalan Bandar Timah in the 'old town' of Ipoh. I tried the meatball noodle soup and it was the best meatball noodle soup I have ever tasted. There are also other food in there like the pork satay, wan tan mee, popiah and many many other food.

Woolley Food City is a foodcourt located in Lengkok Canning. This foodcourt is open during lunchtime and also dinnertime.

Kam Wan Food Court is located just next to Woolley Food City. Between the two, Kam Wan has more variety. There are more stalls in here. Kam Wan opens only at night. I tried the popiah in Kam Wan and it is one of the best popiah I have ever tasted. It is quite different from the popiah we have in Penang.

Golden Point Food Court is located in Persiaran Bercham Selatan 20. It is located on the other side of the PLUS highway. This is the foodcourt with the Langkap Pau. If you have not tried the Langkap Pau, you should try it. The char siew pau is quite different from the one we have in Penang. They also have all sorts of flavours. Chocolate Pau, Strawberry Pau....you name it.

This is the over-rated taugeh chicken rice restaurant. Lou Wong is located in Jalan Yau Tet Shin in the 'new town' of Ipoh. It is always extremely crowded to the extent of seeing customers sitting on tables along the road. Come early if you want to have seats. Anyway, nothing is impressive about the chicken rice. I felt the chickren rice just taste normal. Even the taugeh chicken rice in my neighbourhood in Penang taste better.

World TB Day 24 March

Today is World TB Day.

Our Health Minister, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai just announced today that the total number of TB (Tuberculosis) cases in Malaysia in 2011 is 20,666 cases, which was a 7% increase from the previous year.

This is not a good news.

In conjunction with World TB Day, we as individuals can help to stop the spread of TB by raising the awareness of TB.

Stay away from people who don't cover their mouth when they cough/sneeze. And if you cough/sneeze, please practise cough/sneeze etiquette. Also, seek immediate treatment if your cough persists over more than 2 weeks. That's the most important rule - two weeks!

The only cure for TB is by taking antibiotics. It won't go away by itself. Chinese herbs won't cure it either. Be a responsible citizen by going to a medical doctor and not chinese sinseh.

Lost World of Tambun - Water Theme Park

The facade of the Lost World of Tambun is similar to those typical ancient building you will see in 'Indiana Jones' movies. In fact, the Lost World of Tambun is akin to a fort complete with a moat surrounding the entire theme park. The fort looks centuries-old. Yea, even the water in the moat looks nasty and dirty.

But thankfully, the water theme park is clean and pristine, unlike the moat.

Welcome to Lost World of Tambun.

Adult = RM45 per entrance

Children = RM35 per entrance (if I'm not mistaken)

Fortunately, I bought the ticket from Groupon at only RM34 for the adult ticket.

The ticket entitles you to gain entry to every single area in the Lost World of Tambun. There are no other tickets for you to buy.

Dirty moat

The building looks ancient

Entrance to the wave pool

Gathering area

This is the slow river. Look at the pristine water.

This is the Lost World Hot Springs and Spa. The temperature at this pool is about 40 degrees Celcius. I dipped my leg into this pool and I can tell you it is really hot.

The Lost World Hot Springs and Spa is also opened at night everyday. The only difference is that there are fancy lights at the surrounding pools.

Lost World Hotel

About two weeks ago, I saw something interesting from Groupon. There was a Groupon voucher for a night stay at Lost World Hotel for just RM120. Immediately, I decided to buy the voucher.

So, I went to Lost World of Tambun on 1 March 2012 and I stayed at Lost World Hotel. I paid RM120 per night instead of RM200. It also came with 2 free passes to the Lost World of Tambun Hot Springs & Spa by Night and buffet breakfast.

The voucher is for the Exotic room. The view I got is overlooking some housing estate. If you want to have the theme park view, you will have to go for the Classic room. For the classic room, you have to fork out additional RM20.

What I like about this hotel:

- Everything is new inside the hotel because it just opened last April 2011.

- The room and toilet is new and clean.

- The staff are friendly.

- Lots of parking spaces available.

What I don't like about this hotel:

- The sound barrier is bad. You can hear people talking and walking in the corridor and it is rather loud. I believe it is because the room and the corridor are not carpeted.

- You have to slam your door to lock your door if you are leaving your room. After we left the room, we tried closing our door but it couldn't lock by itself. Later, we figured that we have to slam our door hard to ensure that it is locked.

- Since the sound barrier is already bad, imagine hearing everyone slamming their doors. Yes, I could hear that clearly the entire night from the room.

- No covered car park is available.

Nice bed. Notice that the floor is not carpeted.

There is an additional bed by the side of the window.

The toilet is new and clean.

The view overlooking a housing estate.

Registering as a PhD student in USM

I have finally registered myself as a PhD student in USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia). My area of research is in organisational behaviour. I have already developed the theoretical framework and all I need to do now is to strengthen that framework.

USM being an APEX university, is a no-nonsense university when it comes to research. My work will be highly scrutinised by the examiners. Now I have to make sure that my proposal is extremely robust in order to be accepted by the examiners.

I will be facing three oral examinations as a PhD student in USM.

1. Proposal Defence
2. Proposal Findings
3. Viva Voce

Once you have passed through all the three stages and after having making corrections as required by the examiners, you will be conferred a PhD.

Ready for PhD

I checked my application status at the USM Institute of Postgraduate Studies website and it shows that my PhD student application has been accepted.

Great! So, it's about time for me to go over to USM to register myself as a PhD student in Organisational Behaviour.

Also, I have read through a few dozen journals and I have come up with a new theoretical framework which is different from the one I sent in together with my application earlier. I hope my supervisor will agree on this framework or else, I have to come up with a new framework again. That's a usual thing. The framework will keep changing until it is robust.

Ok, it is time to sift more journals.

Constantly taunted stray dogs will turn aggressive

Yay, it was published!

In my previous post, I mentioned that I sent an article to The Star. Hence, it was published today.

You can read it here.

Stray dogs menace or human menace?

I wrote in to The Star again and let's see if they would publish it in a few days time. The last time I wrote in to The Star was last year March. You can read it here.

This time I am writing about stray dogs. Yes, stray dogs again.

--------------------------------------------------------

Referring to a few numbers of recent write-ups about the stray dogs menace in Batu Ferringhi, I am compelled to voice out the other side of the story.

If you had a chance to visit Penang, please take a stroll along the Batu Ferringhi beach and chances are that you might encounter mischievous children and even adults taunting or even pelting the stray dogs unprovoked. Yes, there are even adults who behaved childishly by provoking those dogs.

So, it seems that all these stray dog abuse incidents are never reported in the press and it gave the impression that those stray dogs have to take full blame for their aggression. No, I am not saying that the victims are the one provoking the stray dogs. What I meant is that all these abuses have been ongoing for years unreported and common sense tells me that when a stray dog has been abused continuously, it has the tendency to turn aggressive and might attack unprovoked.

Thanks to us, human beings ourselves, we had moulded those stray dogs into a killer pack by continually taunting, pelting or even walloping them.

I agree that the population of stray dogs should be controlled, at least in an ethical manner but at the same time, everyone should be educated to respect animals. I just don’t’ understand why some people have to taunt the stray dogs even if those dogs are just lying down quietly. Let sleeping dogs lie, shall we?

Singapore: Increase in new TB cases

Thinking of moving to Singapore? Think again...

According to Reuters, Singapore is the 2nd most crowded country in the world. That explained the headline above.

Yes, new TB cases in Singapore are rising. You can read the news at The Star.

Some of the highlights are:

The Health Ministry was alerted to 2,791 new cases last year, a figure 10.9% higher than the 2,517 in 2009.

Last year, TB affected 39.2 individuals for every 100,000 residents here; the year before, it was 38.6 for every 100,000.

As I have blogged before, TB is different from H1N1 or the common cold. The mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes TB can linger in the air for up to four hours after an infected individual coughs, sneezes, laughs, sings, or talks. This is unlike H1N1 (or any influenza/common cold virus) where the virus dropped to the ground after an infected individual coughs or sneezes.

H1N1 (or any influenza/common cold virus) is spread via respiratory droplets while TB is spread airborne. Both are highly contagious and one should not be infected.

Being infected with TB is not nice at all. You have to undergo an antibiotic therapy for 9 months (or even more) just to cure it. You have to eat antibiotics every single day for 9 months. You must not missed a day or you will be in serious trouble (meaning you can't be cured). And these antibiotics are not the ordinary antibiotics you see in the clinic. The side effects are awful.

And again, no Chinese sinseh is able to cure a person from TB. Probably, that's why TB cases are rising. Some infected people keep going to the Chinese sinseh hoping to find a cure but instead they spread their infection to others because they keep coughing and they can't be cured by the sinseh!

So, stop the spread, go to a proper medical clinic, and observe cough/sneeze etiquette!

I came face to face with a burglar just now.

I looked at him and he looked at me. Both of us pretended that nothing has happened.

It was about 7.30pm on Dec 26, 2011 when I heard someone was trying to open the back window. So, I peeked through the backdoor and I saw him. A scumbag was trying to steal something from my house.

I looked at him and he looked at me and he pretended that he was just loitering on the backlane. I pretended that nothing has happened too because I don't know what weapon he has. He was just a foot away from me. I guessed he was pretty surprised to see me standing there looking at him.

So, I watched him walked away and then only I shouted "PENCURI!!!!"

And he scolded something vulgar.... "pkm", and he started to run.

And I shouted even louder "PENCURI!!!!!!"

My neighbour who stayed behind came out and looked too.

And the scumbag ran away.

Phishing scam alert

Look at what CIMB sent me below...

Looks like CIMB has sent me an email requesting me to update my details at cimbclicks.com.my

Hmmm....but it looks fishy to me.

It is because a bank will never never never never send any emails to its customers! So, remember that!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Customer,

Greetings from CIMB Clicks!

Your online banking will expire soon. To avoid any interruption to your service,please log in to your CIMB Clicks account using our website below to updateyour internet banking profile.
http://www.cimbclicks.com.my/

Sincerely,CIMB Bank

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I rolled my mouse over the link and it shows as www.moolah.asia/phpthumb/cache/source/file/activate/Logon.html.

Don't be fooled by such emails.

If you want to go the CIMBClicks website, go to google and type it down the full link yourself.

Also, check the URL address at the top of your browser to ensure it is indeed www.cimbclicks.com.my after you have entered into that website.

By the way, what is moolah.asia?

How to survive in an ODL environment?

Many of us have gone through the conventional learning environment of attending face-to-face lectures and tutorials at universities or colleges.

Many would then ask how is it like learning in an ODL (Open and Distance Learning) environment when hours of classes attended are limited or it doesn't exist at all!

For me, I don't like the idea of attending classes to learn something. I rather read a book on my own and learn it by myself. I prefer reading a book by myself rather than sitting in a classroom listening to some unnecessary dreadful painful lectures. Anyway, lecturers are humans as well just like you and I. If they can master the subject matter, so can you.

The key to success in an ODL environment is self-discipline!

You have to study on your own, practice exercises on your own, and revise everything on your own. If you have questions, just post your questions online and your lecturers/tutors will answer you. That's what I like about ODL.

If you had been attending tuition classes when you were in primary and secondary schools, the ODL environment will definitely give you a culture shock because classes are limited. The tuition classes you had attended when you were in school have made you very reliant on the teachers. Attending tuition classes does not encourage you to do your own reading and to do your own research. The tuition teachers are just spoon feeding all of the students by teaching, teaching, and teaching every single detail of the syllabus.

The ODL environment inculcates independent learning because you won't be given any lectures. For those who are lazy and for those who refuses to read on their own, they won't survive the ODL environment.

To survive in an ODL environment, you must be independent and you must have strong self-discipline!

Empty vessels make the most noise

A former classmate of mine told me about this guy in his classroom.

He often argues with the tutor, challenges the tutor, seeks answers for the assignments without trying, and causes trouble in the classroom. All these things happen in an MBA classroom as was told by my former MBA classmate.

Guess what? That trouble-making individual is a manager! But without a degree.

My friend aptly said, "Empty vessels make the most noise". My friend added, "He doesn't know much about the subject matter and yet causing so much noise in the classroom".

That manager also demanded the tutor to reveal the pages in the textbook to where he could find the answers to the assignments. And he demanded furiously and scolded the tutor as well if she did not reveal the pages.

Some people just want an MBA for the sake of paper qualification.

I just applied for a PhD programme

I just sent in my application for PhD in USM yesterday.

I filled in the application forms and got my referees to fill in the forms too. Together with the forms, I need to hand in 3 passport photos, copies of my academic transcripts and certificates, and my brief research proposal.

I managed to get a fee waiver for my application fees of RM70 because I got hold of the voucher from USM when they came over to PISA during the education and career fair.

All I need to do now is to wait for them to process. And meanwhile, I need to read more. The new semester will start in mid-February 2012.

Does experience matter in an MBA?

Does experience matter in an MBA?

I don't know. Because...

I have come across some coursemates who claimed to have over 20 years experience but they were still weak in producing a good assignment.

And yes, they were still some who did produce excellent assignments.

So, I think it all boils down to your writing and academic ability.

There is no point bragging about your working experience spanning over 49 years when that person can't even write a good assignment. When I was a student, they were some who bragged about their extensive working experience and complained that they were given low grades for their assignments. They complained and demanded to know why they were given low grades. Having over 49 years of experience does not mean that you deserve an A! How arrogant they are...

If experience is so important, they might as well award MBAs to all those hawkers, mechanics, plumbers with over 49 years of experience. (No offence to anyone).

I spoke to one of my tutors a few months back and she lamented to me such annoying attitude some managers have. They might be a big boss in their organisation and they still think they are a big boss in the classroom and henceforth, they should be awarded As for their not-so-excellent piece of work.

When some of them demanded to know why they were given low grades, all my tutor did was to put side by side their assignment and another student's assignment, which was given an A. Immediately, they know why they were not given an A.

So, does experience matter? I don't think so.

I think what matters most are your hard work, writing ability, and research ability.

Nevermind is 20 years old!!

I should have written this a few weeks ago to coincide with the right date. Anyway....

The so-called album that killed hair metal is now 20 years old! It was on the news all over...

If you don't know, hair metal ruled the airwaves from the late 70s to the early 90s until this particular album - Nevermind was released on 24 September 1991.

Nevermind was the work of the grunge band called Nirvana.

Nirvana

So, imagine at the time when rockers were wearing tight leather pants/leather jackets /fancy costumes and growing long curly blonde hair; and out from nowhere, there was this unknown rock band from Seattle with its members just wearing t-shirts/flannel shirts bursting out into the rock scene introducing grunge music to the world. Hair metal, bye bye! Hair metal had its glory days and it was time for grunge to take over. That was the rock scene in 1991, 20 years ago. Finally in 1993, hair metal was declared dead. I'm serious.


If you had not listened to grunge before, the MTV below will do the job.

Caution: This MTV is not for the faint-hearted. Get ready for some head-banging!



I don't really like grunge anyway. It's like listening to someone venting their anger and strumming their guitar like a mad person. That is why grunge only lived up to 1996. Grunge seemed to have died out after 1996 only to be replaced by a more radio-friendly alternative rock.


I still prefer hair metal due to its mainstream appeal. Hair metal is much more likeable, radio-friendly, and you need to be a skilled guitarist to be a hair metallist. I still like listening to great guitar solos from a hair metal music.