My Selangor Story - Day 1

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Works best if you have Facebook open! Thanks for leaving your comments! Thank you all for voting for me previously! If you did not know, there were more than a hundred participants and only 30 bloggers were selected for the My Selangor Story Blogging Competition 2010. To all my international friends, Selangor is one of the 14 states in Malaysia and is will be my destination for the next week!
VIP treatment, Hot air stewardess, fastest Internet speed in Malaysia, moonlight dinner at iCity, a paparazzi’s best friend, budget shopping n more! So here goes my story! For those who enjoy videos, here’s a show I put together:



Don’t worry, I know you guys want more so here come the story and the pictures!
It was a clear morning at Penang for this time of the year. Bb and I started out journey to Penang International Airport. A 10 minute drive compared to if I were heading to KLIA. Despite the current growth spurt, Penang is still a small place and we reached the airport in no time at all!
Upon reaching the air port, a relations manager, Derrick, greeted us at the airport, and escorted us throughout the check in process! Even first class passengers don’t get that kind of treatment!! Today, we would be flying Firefly to Subang Airport, my first time with Bb! We were escorted past security after checking in our luggage and we were welcomed into the Malaysian Airline lounge (Firefly is a subsidiary of MAS)




Greeting us at the lounge was this lady with full MAS uniform. Before catching the 1pm flight, we were met with a fellow blogger, Jing Yi from Penang as well! At the First Class lounge, it was like heaven!!! Not only was there space for a hundred people, there was a kids room, Satellite TV, newspapers and a business centre.
More importantly, there was a buffet! We helped ourselves to some finger food, canapés, drinks and dessert!


Even the wash room was first class! (see Bb's blog for the ladies room). Everything you need and more!



Not long after, we were given VIP treatment to board the plane. Derrick, the airport relations manager escorted us all the way to the tarmac and on to the Fokker class jet.


As you can see, the flashy orange white uniforms of the air hostess are designed to catch your attention! A young airliner since 2007, Firefly is a subsidiary of Malaysian Airlines. Its fleet services local routes and do expect to get cheap flights between Subang, Penang and Singapore!
Take off was unexpectedly fast compared to the time it takes for larger planes. The flight to Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport would take another 50mins, at 15,000 feet and a ground speed of 500kmph. Much quicker than the 5 hour drive (at a legal 110kmph of course). We were shocked to hear the cabin crew welcome us via the cabin announcement! Light refreshments were served. Peanuts and biscuits, orange and apple juice!

The journey was as quick as a blink of an eye, apart from the cloudy weather. I decided to do an initial D test in the plane. A manly voice called over the PA,"Ladies and gentlemen, we have now landed at Subang Airport, please remain seated until the plane has come to a stop. You may not use your mobile phones until reaching the inside of the terminal." Thank you firefly! Been a pleasure!

Upon reaching Subang Airport! Another sweet surprise! The Kapitan was kind to host us for some afternoon tea!



We had coffee, tea and the traditional kuih-muih. Then, we were joined by the pilots and air hosts from Firefly. Hot stuff! Beside me, they were whispering "Hold it, hold your breath..."




We were briefed on the plans for the day by our MSS mummy, Amelia Tan and our MSS daddy, En Fazli from tourism Selangor. All set, off we went to Shah Alam! Once again thank you Firefly for the amazing time!

We checked into to the Carlton Holiday Shah Alam where we will be staying for the night.

After some freshening up, we were acquainted with our official media sponsor, Pentax. Our 30 participants were given 30 cameras from their entire range! Some got the DSLRs, some got the compact cameras, as for me, I got the Pentax X70, a mini telephoto camera. At first I was not impressed by the tiny thing. After all, bigger is better right? As will soon find out, small things should not be underestimated!
Pentax x70
Will be reviewing this camera soon! Look out for it!



Cameras all packed, we headed to iCity for a first night out! iCity, the city of digital lights! Just a stone’s throw away, we made it there in no time. Glimmering as always, iCity attracts about 70,000 people every week and about 3 million visitors every year.

We were greeted by the CEO of iCity, Mr Eu who was kind enough to enlighten us with some insider information. Not many people know that iCity is now fully occupied, aiming to be home base to the Googles and Amazons of Malaysia. To keep it short, iCity is an enormous office, where facilities like board rooms, conference rooms or business centres are rented out to companies on an ad hoc basis. With its dedicated fibreoptic network and servers, internet speeds there surpass the speeds of most places. I mean, you should have been there when the man loaded Youtube, faster than London’s internet! Besides that, the city has two power stations feeding into it as a back up in case one goes down!

Icity is known as the city of digital lights as it boasts more than one thousand' trees'. In total, more than 3 million LED light up at night, turning the office park into one of Malaysia's most visited tourist destinations. Apart from that, laser light shows are the latest installations and will a spectacle every 830pm and 1030pm. Next year in 2011, four giant screens will be fitted around the commercial park, turning the place into a countdown and entertainment centre. Here’s a piece of trivia, since LEDs do not consume that much power, the total energy consumption of the millions of LEDs total up to 4 shoplots! Not bad eh considering all the lights!

For dinner, we had steamboat. But this was no ordinary dinner, for our fist dinner, we were treated to a seafood steamboat, UNDER THE STARS! Yes that right, we dined in the middle of the iCity garden! No one else would get this kind of treatment I tell you! Every one looking were like



The view was breath taking as it was my first time dining under moonlight, LED lights and a laser light! Wee! :)



After dinner we took some time to explore the area and what iCity had to offer: lights lights and more lights. Like a mini Las Vegas, without the casino, the pretty lights drew us like moths.



Don't miss the highlights:
Christmas Tree
Winter wonderland
Chinese garden
Jurrasic park
Lantern Court
LED Forest
Cactus patch
Laser lights
Deer
Peacocks
Flamingoes
Swans and the
Giant Screen



Next up, Uptown Shah Alam! It was the first time for me at Uptown Shah Alam! To the locals, this would be a night market as it will be open from 7pm to 3am every day! Yes, every day! 365 days a year this place would be open to the public!



Do expect shopping for all sorts of goods including:



Uptown Shah Alam is more like a Pasar Malam. Everything you need is here, food, clothes, cars, flowers, apparel, mediums and decorations.



We were also treated to some supper and some local entertainment. Amelia volunteered to entertain the crowd!


Back at the hotel, bb swapped her room to be closer to me! As we left her earlier room, OMG!! Blattella asahinai alert or in Hokkien Kacuak, Malay, Lipas, or in plain English, cockroaches!

Got back I closed my eyes, hoping not to sleep with any cockroaches tonight...

But the cockroach would find it's way into some place so unexpected, it would freak you out!! My little six legged friend was spotted in...Read on to Day 2, where you won't expect to find creepy crawlies, lunch with genting's CEO and the Selangor state tourism exco, and a show that will thrill and even teach you some magic! Promise that Day 2 is going to be bigger and better!

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Selangor VIP tour!

Dear readers, KK is on a back breaking holiday tour not meant for the weak hearted!

Standby to see what has been keeping me so busy busy busy...

Penang Airport - Checked
Subang Airport - Checked
Shah Alam - Checked
Genting - Checked
Sawah Padi - Checked
Sunway - Checking it out!
Tropicana Medical - To check out
Ampang - To check out
Bangkok - Please don't bang me
London - ETA 3 days

Standby! Follow me on Facebook at kkng_882000@hotmail.com
Follow me on Twitter at kkng_88

Bikini!

I was logging into my blogger account when i accidentally typed in the wrong address. Instead of going to kokd.blogspot.com, i went to kok.blogspot.com!
What do you know! the guy has almost the same name as me and the first thing i saw on his blog was this:

There is a girl sunbathing with her bikini top untied. Can you spot her?

Larger image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ziopaperino/494137346/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Cilaka, why I hate working at Shell (Petronas, Exxonmobil included)

In case you did not know, Shell, Exxon and Petronas are the big oil and gas companies in Malaysia. All three have their main offices in KL City Centre.



For me, it is finally over! 11 weeks of internship! If you did not already know, I was working as an intern at Shell in KLCC and I can tell you it's no happy story.

 You can definitely come up with a million and one reasons why you hate working with a company. It may be because of the people, the work load, the type of work, the environment, remuneration etc.

Well, truth be told, working IN Shell is great! Working IN KLCC is the problem. Everyday, I face my worst nightmare: COMMUTING. To me, only the view is great


First imagine life without a car. Can you imagine living without a car?? (in Malaysia of course) Can you???? If you can't imagine life without a car, let me show you!


Car


No car

Every morning, I have to get up two hours before work starts at 9 am. Some days, nature is good and gives you a nice morning.


Other times you are not so lucky.



That morning, I saw rubbish bins floating away and I was all drenched even before entering the car!

So, getting up early every morning is for a good reason. I lived so far from work, all the way to KLCC from Subang. Luckily my bro is still staying here with a car if not got to walk!

To get there, I take the KTM train from Subang Jaya station...

Only in Malaysia: Electric trains powered by diesel locomotives.

Usually the morning trains are very punctual. They leave every 15 minutes of the hour. The only problem is, the trains are super crowded at this time of the day.  Worse still, there was one time When the air conditioning decided to fail and turned this



into



Then, it is usually a half hour ride in the train. Usually it is no mercy, I park my bum here first.


No chance for you old man.

 On average, the trains are 80% reliable meaning that every week, I will be late once because of a train failure. Other days the morning trains are super good like this one.


Wah, three seats in a row!


Wah, red carpet and foot rest!

Luckily, most Malaysians are very thoughtful people and do give their seats to the elderly, pregnant and the disabled.


If you need glasses, read stupidity is not a disability.

Next stop, KL Sentral. The heart of KLs  busy commuters. Yes, it was a good idea to centralize everything but it was bad as well because now you have millions of people passing through the same place.



Anyhow, I take the the RapidKL LRT to get to KLCC.

Thank God for the LRT. Not only is the LRT more reliable than the KTM (90% reliable). Anyhow, that is nowhere near why I hate getting to work everyday.

The main reason why I hate getting to work everyday is getting back. As usual, the LRT is frigging reliable.

But when you get to the KTM, you have to see it to believe it:
javascript:void(0)

Pengsan (faint)

If you think that's bad. To get back from the train station, I have to walk 20 minutes over 3 kilometers, and this is the fastest method!

I tried the bus, waited too long

Tried driving, stuck in traffic

Tried leaving earlier, let boss scold

Tried leaving later,

more jam



So by the time I get back. I would have spent 2 hours commuting, arriving with a bucket load of sweat. How would you feel?


Pissed?

Thank god the torture is over. I hope u hate commuting in KL too!

Does life get easier with a car anyone?

New iPod Nano!

Remember this?

Apple recently released their new iPod Nano!

The new iPod Nano looks like this!

 Small eh?

Next year Apple will be releasing the next generation of the iPod Nano.

Gonna include GPS, Voice recorder and a phone, a baseball stadium, five cameras, compass, fingerprint recognition, TV, and perhaps just fit into a Swiss Army knife.


So small that you would need a microscope to see it! In real size, he is how it will look like:

Can you see it right there? The wonders of nano technology!

In another note, Apple has also released the new generation of iPhones, which look something like

Welcome to the iPhone 4! Well, good for them!

Personally, I think that there is a lack of creativity in the smartphone industry. I mean, to compete, Samsung has just launched their new smartphone which will look something like:

.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Other big players have hit the market with their own unique design as well!
Google's new Android:

LG's Chocolate:

Microsoft's new HTC:

Indeed, the smartphone industry is likely to see many new creative ideas! Wait for the next gen of smartphones!

Raya @ Prime Minister's Place!

Its that time of the year again and after a month of fasting, what better way to celebrate than the new year!

Selamat Hari Raya to all Muslim readers and hope you had a great time with your families and friends!

This year, me and Bb decided to go pay the Prime Minister's open house a visit! It is our first time at the PM's residence and we feel quite blessed to be able to go to his "house" to celebrate the occasion! If you like reading, then Bb has already written a blog post on it!

The event saw about 100,000 people, Malaysians, non-Malaysians of all walks of life coming to join in the all day event! There were also hosts of cabinet ministers present as well as Mahathir himself!

Anwar, Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng were nowhere to be seen though! Politics aside, it was the first time I went to a Hari Raya open house and first time i went with Bb!

If you missed this event, here's a snippet of what happened on Hari Raya 2010 at Najib's place (OMG, im writing this as if he is my close friend! hope don't kena ISA. Maaf Zahir dan Batin!)

Enjoy!

Once again, Selamat Hari Raya!

My Selangor Story

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Why should I be in the top 30?

Well, let me introduce myself:



To summarise:

I blog about travelling and my everyday experience...

I use proper English to make sure that my readers not only learn, but are not turned off by horrible grasp of language!

I create!



unique videos and I take pride in my video editing skills!


My fans...!



are all around the world! I have lived in many places around the world and have reader base in many other countries, mainly Australia, UK and the US!

I capture!



the moments and the scenes that astound. I enjoy digital graphics and Photoshop! Making awesome pictures is an art and a skill that has done me well over the last 10 years!

I go places!



to see, smell, taste, touch and experience! Therefore, I know what a traveller would look for and would most likely want to see and experience!

I witnessed...


many events as a photographer and I am looking forward to more adventures!


With all that said, I can't wait to share my Selangor Story!


Vote here!

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The despo life of an intern

Oil and gas demands are higher than ever, with China, Japan and the USA having the largest appetite for energy!

This summer, yours truly is working at the Twin Towers! Part of Shell Global Solutions, I design subsea subsea systems to ensure that the plumbing doesn't go awry when you have oil and gas flowing in them. To cut the story short, underwater pipes are somewhat like the pipe in your toilet. Get it wrong and shit happens!

Well, here's where I'm working!

The office is a nice place, all the drinks you need...
and no playing office boy...

In accounting firms, this will be your best friend if you were an intern!

Indeed, its just like what an engineer would do! Scary at times to be treated like a real engineer as there was nearly no training but learning on the job. What better satisfaction to know that your work is going to help decide a project worth at least 40 billion USD!

Getting a taste of that, I would like to do so many other things! Tedious at times, but that's life I guess. Shell is a huge company, one of the largest energy companies in the world and the second largest producer of hydrocarbons.

So here is what interns get paid:

In terms of living, the Selangor government has reiterated that this amount is way beyond the poverty line. Sadness.

Oh well, won't be for long though. Can't wait to graduate! For now, here is a comparison of internship experience I had gotten from two really different companies, Shell and Pricewaterhouse Coopers .

Energy Company Oil and Gas Engineering Retail	Accounting Company Auditing Tax Advisory
Application: Online at shell.com Communicate with HR via email Two interviews	Application: Online at pwc.com Communicate with HR via email No interview
Interns will do: Designing engineering systems Research on new technologies Fill in Purchase orders and invoices	Interns will: Become office boi/office girls Photocopying large stacks of accounts Audit companies Send tons of letter
Duration 11 weeks	Duration 8 weeks - 6 months
Dress code: First day I walked into Shell wearing suit, tie and leather shoes. Everyone stared at me. They were wearing jeans, no ties and Hawaiian	Dress code: First day I walked into PWC wearing shirt, sport shoes no tie. Everyone stared at me! They were wearing coats, leather shoes and ties!
Workspace: Huge ass table in KLCC Got own laptop Got own email address	Workspace Small table Own desktop Own email address if 6 months
People: Engineers. Talks about very technical stuff over lunch. Lots of expats but locals are nice as well. Very international	People: Accountant. Duh! More locals but also very friendly as well. Talks about banking over lunch. Closer to home.
Location Very central or very kampung, ie KLCC, Damansara or Miri	Location Financial Centres, ie Penang, Kuala Lumpur etc
One word to describe first day: Boring	One word to describe first day: Boring
Experience A lot! Digging a hole in the ground is not as straight forward as it sounds. You design for 10 years and when you dig into the ground, you find out that some engineer spent 10mil USD buying the wrong sized 200km pipes.	Experience A lot! Amazing how creative the government wants to tax the hell out of you and even more amazing how people find ways to claim back taxes! Audited a hospital and would never do it again.
Remuneration and cost of living RM 900 per month (KLCC 2010) Drive, KTM and LRT to work RM 300 transport pm RM 400 for food pm Not including rental!	Remuneration and cost of living RM 800 per month (Penang 2010) Drive to work RM200 petrol pm RM300 food pm Park illegally at broken meters =) Not including rental!

Finally, I'm not going to judge here which experience is better, nor which is more lucrative. That's because any experience is a good experience and I have made many good friends in both fields.

Have fun with ur internship!