Women Only Coach

Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) commuter has initiated a separate coach for women only for its Sentul-Port Klang route, according to this news article.

One of the coaches, located in the middle of the train commuter train, is converted to be used exclusively for women or any children below twelves years old. The coach has pink “women-only” stickers placed on the windows.

As usual, any new initiatives has come up with criticism from certain sectors as the initiatives causes several advantages and also disadvantages to the users.

One clear advantages is that the privacy of women using the coach is protected by all means. They will feel much safer and more comfortable travelling by train.

The disadvantages is that, the accompanying person will not be able to travel together using the commuter train. But, if they need to travel together, they can use the regular coach for that matter.

Earth Day

You can contribute to the Earth day by following the initiatives adopted by most of the hotels if it happened that you stay in one of the hotels. By adopting the "Green Means You", the success of the environmental friendly efforts is mostly depending on our own initiative to follow the initiatives.

Sport Attire

Have it ever happened to you that while you are travelling and you wish to use the hotel gymnasium facilities such as its treadmill but you cannot actually utilize the facilities. You knew that you brought along with you a pair of jogging shoe but you forgot to bring along your sport attire. Without wearing proper sport attire, the staff will not allow you to use any of the gymnasium facilities.

It is an utter frustration because you just cannot pound on the treadmill to let out almost all of your sweat. Luckily that the local store selling sports attire is just a stone throw away and that really save the day.

So next time, make sure that you run through thoroughly your check list to ensure that you have carried almost everything that you need for the journey.

River Bank Erosion

The picture above shows typical river erosion due to tidal bore activities. Sooner or later, the houses will eventually give way due to the receding river bank.

The occupants of the house should think about moving their houses farther inland.

Tidal Bore Festival 2010

It is the time of the year again in Sri Aman Sarawak where the Tidal Bore Festival. The picture above shows one of the boats rehearsing their move in preparation for the events. The events will be held from 28 April 2010 until 2nd May 2010.

During the festival, Sri Aman will transform from a sleepy town to a very happening town with a lot of activities being organized by the organizers.

Internet gaming

With the advancement in internet connection, online games can become a craze and also addictive. In South Korea, the increase in number of people addicted to online game is causing quite a stir to the society. And according to this news a couple is accused of letting their baby daughter starve while they raised a "virtual" child on the internet.

Due to that case the South Korean authority is taking a drastic action to curd the online game addiction. One such measure is to introduce a "fatigue system" where all online games provider must ensure that their games is becoming much harder during late hours of the night so that it will encourage players to switch off. Hope the system will be able to control the addiction behaviour of users. However, there are so many online games that are beyond regulation and since the internet is borderless, i don't know how they would implement such a system. Users will most like abandon the game totally and they will likely switch to other online games that they will find more interesting. Thus, I doubt that the online game developers will even attempt to make their games being deserted by their most loyal subscribers.

Well, that is one of the challenges in this era of border less world where even our kids are being glued to the computers because of internet games. It is such a new social phenomenon that need to be addressed seriously by everybody.

Another ITT

Malaysia will have another Integrated Transport Terminal (ITT) soon as published in the news recently. The ITT will be located in Gombak just near the Putra LRT Terminal in Gombak.

The terminal is expected to be in operation early next year and the terminal will cater for Northbound and Eastbound buses. The operations of these buses in Gombak ITT will help reducing traffic congestion in the city center.

Hopefully the Gombak ITT will be built as planned and hopefully, all of the user friendliness about the facility could be materialized next year.

However, hopefully the relevant authority will not forget about interconnectivity such as the mobility of passengers from the ITT to other locations within the area.

Bukit Jalil is Now an Express Bus Terminal

Bukit Jalil is now become express bus terminal for North and South bound passengers. This if following the four-month closure of the Puduraya Bus terminal to facilitate major upgrading and renovation works at the terminal.

However, as usual, most users are unaware of the changes and causing them to unable to find any buses at the Puduraya Terminal. However, there is a dedicated bus services to transport passengers from Puduraya to Bukit Jalil with a very minimal fee.

So, for those of you who are planning to head North or South, don't forget to go to Bukit Jalil Compleks Parking Lot F (of course until further notice of future changes).

Recession

It is very interesting to know that the panel of academics that determine the start and end of recession have not decided on the date that the current recession has ended. According to the panel, the exact date that this recession started is December 2007. This recession is the longest and the worst since 1930's.

There are several cycle of recession previously but the duration is very short.

The panel looks at figures such as gross domestic product, incomes, employment and industrial activity.

Usually, the panel takes time to declare the start and end of the recession. Most people think that the recession has been over since sometime last year.

New Buildings in The Block

Above is the newly completed "Wisma Salcra" building located along the Semarahan Expressway not far away from the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. The design of the building is unique in such a way that the main facade of the building is characterizing one of the defence weapon called (Terabai).

Another building which is still under construction is the Pusat Latihan INTAN. The building is located next to the Wisma Salcra.



The picture above shows the major architectural structure under construction for the Pusat Latihan INTAN.

Proton Wira

Magma 12 valves engine is an earlier version of Proton's engine for its Proton Wira car. The capacity of the engine is 1.5 liters with four cylinders. I first bought the car in 1997. So far the magma engine is very reliable. After about 15 years, the car is still reliable but the body needs a little bit of touching up here and there.

However, soon I will let the car go to any dealers that wanted to accept it with a good resale price.

Environmental Disasters

Upon reading this news article, I could not believe that the once world's fourth largest lake has dried up due to human activities. The dried up lake has affected severely the once-robust fishing economy in the area. The sign of catastrophe could be seen as fishing trawlers are stranded in sandy wastelands.

It could be considered as a major environmental disaster of the current time. It was reported that the lake dried up to almost 90% since the river that used to supply the water had been diverted for irrigation purposes.

The river was diverted to boost cotton production in the arid region.

The scarcity of water will be a major source of competition as global warming and rising populations further reduce the amount of water available per capita.

Even in the areas where the rainfall is very high, the shortage of water is still inevitable during draught season. The proper management of water is urgently required to properly mange the abundant of water during rainy season to be distributed during draught season.

Sunrise at Kota Semarahan

Had the opportunity to capture this image in the morning just before the sun rise. The location is in Kota Semarahan, Sarawak.

Police on Bicycle

Congratulation to people in Sabah because sooner they will see more policemen in Sabah patrols their cities on bicycle.

By using bicycle, police will be able to have more interaction with locals and thus will be able to fight crime effectively. By using bicycle, the policemen will be able to keep themselves fit and healthy.

Hopefully, the policemen will get a state of the art all-terrain bicycle to make their duties more meaningful.

Fishing Activities

There seemed to be a lot of fish thriving in this river where those avid fishing enthusiast could not resist.

Since early morning, these two buddies tried their luck to grab as many fish as possible.






Within a short while, one of them caught the fish and I was told that by afternoon, he managed to filled in two extra large bags of fishes.

Water Taxi

Perahu Penambang or Water Taxi is still a popular mean of transport in Kuching. The water taxi service is to transport commuter crossing the Sarawak River.

Local uses the water taxi to go to the Central Business District in Kuching.

My Dearest Car

Today is a Good Friday and it is a public holiday for Sarawak. It has been for a while that my car stays idle because the battery is dead (after almost two years of being used). Today I gave the car a new life by installing a brand new "Die-Hard" maintenance free battery. Of course the price is not cheap but it is worth it because to use the conventional battery, actually I just don't have time to check on the water level. Most of the time the water level will be too low before the battery is being filled in with battery water.

After the car is coming into live again, I brought the car for regular maintenance and while driving the car to the nearest car workshop found out something wrong with the brake based on the hand brake light indicator which did not want to switch off. Upon checking the brake system, it was found that there is some leakage in the brake line. So today, let the workshop replaced brake shoes and brake pads of the rear wheels.
















After replacing engine oil and filter, the car seemed to be in good running condition and usually I will wait for another several more months for the next oil and filter change.

Genting Highland

The following picture was captured using my compact Olympus camera and the Genting Highland sit on top of the Titiwangsa ridge is visible quite a distant in the background.  It has been a long time ago that I visited Genting Highland and tried out several of the amusement facilities available at the Genting Amusement Park.

Problems with Water

Last Monday, I was in Kuala Lumpur and managed to capture the following picture. I don't know what exactly the phenomenon is. Was it a bursting water pipe? Was it a huge aerial water display? Was it somewhere at Tasik Titiwangsa? Or was it water canon shot from the fire trucks in KL.

I don't know the answer.