Bukit Larut (Maxwell Hill), Taiping, Perak, MALAYSIA

May 18, 2008

It was 12 noon and time to wait for our transport to go up the hill. We were squeezed in together with another family with 2 kids. A member of the fire department was given the ride in a trailer hooked to the back of our jeep. There was just not enough room inside the small jeep for him.

Getting ready to go up

The journey uphill was “fast and furious”. The driver was literally speeding and turning around the sharp bend at the same time. It was like going on a roller coaster ride. Later, I was told that all the drivers have been traversing the road for more than 10 years. It was a definitely reassuring statement after a harrowing ride! There were groups of people, mostly elderly folks, walking up the hill. They had to make doubly sure to give enough room for our jeep to zoom past by.

The fireman going in a trailer, one bumpy ride.

We reached the top after what seemed like an eternity. I was beginning to develop that nauseating feeling.

'Peaceful' at the top

One for the album

The surrounding area

The hill top was cooler. We had a full bird eye view of the surrounding area. We had more than 3 hours to spend at the peak with nothing much to do or see. So, we went to try the suspension bridge, climbed the tower and I spent about an hour taking a nap in a cool comfort. The place was still set in its past colonial glory with old mansions and bungalows making up the new lodging facility.

The suspension bridge

Overview of the area

After waking up from my slumber, I went around taking photographs of the flowers. At this altitude, the flowers looked more attractive and much bigger than the low lands.

We waited for our transport at the only eating place there. It was quite a long wait. At 4pm, we made our way down hill. It was a different kind of a family trip for us. Anas’ cousin, Ayman remarked,” Best gila!”, indicating more of the thrilling ride up and down the hill.

Taiping Zoo, Perak, MALAYSIA

May 18, 2008

The signboard at the entrance roundabout

We set out early from Bagan Serai to go up Bukit Larut (Maxwell Hill) in Taiping. The man at the counter told us only 1pm ticket was available. We had 3 hours before our ride up the hill, so Taiping Zoo came up as a good place to kill the time.

Anas fooling around with his cousin, Ayman

3 bears showing off their skills in dehusking coconuts or just plain hungry

The zoo is located in the vicinity of the Taiping Lake Garden. It is a scenic spot set against the backdrop of the hills. It is a popular site for the local people to go on family outings. At the time of our visit, there were bus load of visitors.

Resting With Mrs, getting old..

Killing Time

Lotus Pond

The zoo was smaller in size. We stopped at the huts many times mostly to buy time for our ride up Maxwell Hill. I was particularly impressed with the zoo. It may not have the size of the national zoo in Kuala Lumpur, but the exhibits were well put. Even the crowd was relatively bigger.

Golf (Again!) in Jakarta, INDONESIA

May 11 – 13, 2008

Permata Sentul Golf & Country Club
Day 1

The 4-some (L to R): Rich, Datuk Bahar, Myself, Datuk Rosli

As usual, the moment we touched down, we headed straight to the golf course. Permata Sentul was the first on our list. There were 6 of us from KL, Datuk Iskandar (DI), Zack, Haji Amir, Rich Fozi, Datuk Rosli and myself, all crazy golfers. Another, Datuk Bahar joined us at the club house together with several other local guests and Petronas guys working in Jakarta.

Rich and I were paired with Datuk Rosli and Datuk Bahar in the first flight. We teed off in a hurry while the rest were still waiting for the local Petronas guys, Ibrahimnuddin and Azlan to arrive. Azlan later went on to score a hole-in-one. Rich and I were in top form for the first 4 holes. It even attracted Datuk Bahar, a new acquaintance, to comment that we were real live “buaya” (literally crocodile, refers to hustler on the golf course). Of course, subsequent holes revealed our true colours.

Permata Sentul's Undulating Terrain

The group chief, DI, a good golfer and a long hitter himself, insisted that we played from the black tee boxes, the longest on the golf course. It was a mini tournament for us. We had a small stake placed in a pool collection to be awarded to the winners. Our group was kind enough to distribute the winning purse to several winners. Since we were in Indonesia, the Rp100,000 sounded very big and impressive. At least some people could claim their career earnings to have touched 6 figures!

Farmers working on their rice fields in between the tee box and fairway

Permata Sentul is a beautiful course with hilly terrain. The 5829-metre course has been well kept and the caddies were helpful and skilful in helping us, golfers. I have played at this course before. This trip was more to bring my friends to play at selected courses. It was a good golfing trip.

Caddies' Tee Off Contest at the 18th. Hole. My caddy had the best swing & distance.

We had our dinner after the game. By the time we checked into our hotel, Novotel Bogor, it was already late. All of us woke up as early as 3am to catch the 7am flight. We were tired and most of all in need of a good night sleep.

Bogor Raya Golf Club
Day 2

The Whole Gang

The Gang With the Caddies

We had 2 courses lined up for us today, so we woke up early. It was 5.45am and breakfast started at 6am. We just bulldozed our way and had breakfast while the staffs were still laying out foods for the 6am buffet. Our hotel is located in the same locality with the golf club. Our guide went to register at the golf counter while we checked out from our hotel. It was a pity to leave the hotel in a hurry because it was such a beautiful place set in a true Javanese ambience. We had golf games to catch.

The Swing Contest (T to B): Zack the Pro, Hisham the Rookie, Rich the Big Easy

I had played here many times before. Bogor Raya is a must for Malaysian golfers coming to Jakarta. Somehow I noticed that it was beginning to lose its luster. The caddies were not as before as most had migrated to Halim 3. So I was told.


















Riverside Golf Club

The 4-some (L to R): Rich, Pak Amir, Myself & Hisham

We continued our second 18 at Riverside, a Greg Norman’s designed course. I had played here before and the course proved to be too challenging for my liking. We hit the 18th hole when it was too dark to see even the golf balls.

Typical Greg Norman's designed course

Daunting Par 3. Somehow, we managed to cross the ravine!

Swinging Difference between the Good (Pak Amir) & the Bad (yours truly)




















We had our showers and left for Jakarta. We stopped at a Malaysian Restaurant and had some Malaysian foods for dinner. They served good teh tarik. There was a big Malaysian crowd when we got there.

It was already late when we checked into our hotel, Red Roof Hotel (formerly Radisson).

Royale Jakarta Golf Club (Halim 3)
Day 3
Caddy Shack: Busy Morning

Still on Our Feet on the Last Day

Relatively New Course

We made a date with Halim 3 on our last day in Jakarta. This was a relatively new golf course. Even the workers were planting trees as we were playing. The crowd was huge. I was told that most of the Bogor Raya caddies migrated to Halim 3 in search for a greener pasture. My caddy was from Bogor, she even put her price tag at Rp150,000 for tip! Some caddy!

These Caddies Put a Price Tag for Their Tips!

DI Waiting for the Rest to Catch up.

DI doing the extra work! The bets must be big!

I was struggling with my game the whole round. We teed off from the black tees. A par 4 hole could be as long as 447 metres. Reaching the green in 2 was out of question.

The Club House in the background under construction

This working party came across our tee box as we were about to tee off

The golf course was an extension of Halim 1 and 2 that belonged to the air force. Halim 3 was a public course but located near to the air force base. The course was well maintained despite the lack of mature trees. It would be a nice golf course in a few years time.

Zoo Negara, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA

May 10, 2008

Ton & Anas at the zoo entrance

The family decided to pay the zoo a visit. After all, it is just by our neighbourhood. It was Saturday, but the crowd was not heavy like during school holidays. We could literally stroll along the zoo area.

Pelicans in murky water

The animals on exhibit did not change much from our last visit, perhaps 10 years ago. There were renovations here and there plus a few new additions. The earlier star attractions like the penguins were almost “extinct”. They could have died in captivity.

The seladangs appear to be very strong & healthy

The most interesting was the orang utan exhibit. One particular orang utan was huge. Somehow, all of them looked bored to death. Even the foods thrown by the visitors were largely ignored.

This orang utan is huge.

The animal show was worth watching. It had the usual animal antiques put up with their trainers. We managed to catch the sea lion show.

Giraffes in a new enclosure

In my opinion, the zoo offers an alternative if you and your family run out of idea to spend quality time together. Treat it as a stroll along the park with the family members.

FOREX Conference, Manama, BAHRAIN

22 – 25 APRIL 2008

The roundabout near my hotel, also a taxi stand

I decided a few months earlier to attend this conference for 2 reasons. The first was, I am a newbie when it comes to Foreign Exchange (FOREX) trading. The second reason, I have never been to any Gulf country. This would be my first visit. That was the first time I learned that Manama is the capital of Bahrain. An old friend of the family, Ridzuan is the Head of Maybank Bahrain. I would have somebody I know in Bahrain. It had been a long time since I last met him.

Bahrain's Feature Attraction: Mr. Moustache, he charged BD6 (RM50) for a photo session

I flew into Manama after 7 and a half hour journey from Kuala Lumpur. I spent my flight time reading a trading psychology book or chatting to an Iraqi fellow passenger sitting either knowingly or out of ignorance, at my designated seat. An aisle seat proved to be a better alternative than a window seat since I frequented the rest room regularly. By the time I landed, I had finished the book and learned that my Iraqi neighbor was a professor in Arabic Studies based in Damascus. He could not return to Iraq due to previous political affiliation.

My hotel for 3 nights

Bahrain is a small city state, having the size of Singapore roughly with about 760,000 populations. Half of them are migrant workers from Bangladesh and India providing cheap labour to the more affluent Arabs. It is one of the moderate Arab states where consumption of alcohol and prostitutions are rampant especially amongst the Arab Saudis from across the border. The place is usually full with Saudis over the weekend (Thursday and Friday) who treat Bahrain as their little playground. From my conversations with the locals, they despised the Saudis. They were at times wild and unruly. I experienced first-hand an encounter with a Saudi driver overtaking us from the left side at an exit ramp, scratching his left side against the road railings. He was wild! I was even more surprised to bump into ladies of the night from mostly the Philippines inside the elevator with their Arab clients. Welcome to the new Arab world!

The Main Souk

I checked into my hotel, Gulf Pearl, a 3-star hotel. Hotels are expensive in Bahrain. I simply avoided staying at the expo venue, Crowne Plaza Hotel because it costs about USD300 a night, a huge sum for a night’s sleep. Minutes after checking in, I called Ridzuan and he sent his driver, Abdullah to pick me up.

With Ridzuan, against Bahrain's backdrop & sunset

His office was about 10 minutes from my hotel. After spending sometimes at his office, he took me on a short tour around Bahrain. We drove across the King Fahd Causeway to the mid way between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The causeway was one of the most expensive ever built in the world.

From the causeway trip, we dropped by Ridzuan’s house, a 7-room villa. It was a big beautiful house. I met his beautiful wife, Anita and 2 cute daughters, Sophia and Sara. We had fried rice dinner at his house. It was getting late despite the fact that it was only 8pm. To me, it was already 1am Malaysian time.

Ridzuan & Family at his villa

I spent the next 2 days commuting between my hotel and Crowne Plaza. Ridzuan came to accompany me on most trips. That saved me a lot of taxi fares.

At the conference venue

It was a small turn out for the conference. It started at 10am, stopped by lunch time and continued after 4pm until 7pm. The Arabs closed shops after 1pm and reopened after Asar prayers. I would spend these times holed up in my room to escape the mid day heat. In between the conference schedule I would venture out into Manama’s main souk. It was a big letdown. Most of the shops were manned by Indians. Foreigners made a big part of Bahrain’s population. Even I was mistaken as a Filipino worker.

With Boris Schlossberg of FXCM and Dickson Yap of Forex Journal at the conference

The trip back to Kuala Lumpur was uneventful, except for the good fortune of being up graded to business class due to the full flight. I had a good sleep in my business class seat cum bed.

In Business Class comfort

Bahrain, to me, is not an exciting place to visit. There is not much to see or do. The high cost of stay is prohibitive. The attractions were lacking. I could be wrong. Perhaps, I did not venture out much.