Hi,

Had a very busy time recently. Last weekend helped out a hometown friend, Mai Cheng to look for a room at Sentosa, Section 17 and after that went to KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) to wish EC bon voyage on her journey to Brussels, Belgium. Will be missing her a lot.

Here's some pictures at KLIA:

Gui finally got her car and we had a drive to Subang Jaya on Tuesday. Met up with a few ex-housemates and came back real tired.

Then on Thursday I was off to Sibu, Sarawak (East Malaysia - island of Borneo) for a business trip.

I had a very good time there with so many experiences to savour. Firstly, I haven't been on an airplane for quite some time and I'd really like to relive that experience especially the taking off and landing part. Believe me, sometimes I can be just a twelve year old kid.

The flight was on MAS airplane (direct between Sibu and Kuala Lumpur) which was about 1 hour 45 minutes one way.

Sibu town is a small town with mostly Chinese people (Ho Chew). Within these two days I learnt a lot on their lifestyles. When food is served over here, it's served in big servings and they like to have a lot of dishes on the table. So if you're eating out in a group of 8, you just need to ask for a dinner for 5 persons.

They're also very punctual - meetings are carried out on the dot.

You would notice a lot of churches around here since most of the Chinese are Christians. The hotel (Kingswood Hotel - 4 star), which I'm staying at overlooks the Rajang river (longest river in Malaysia). I had a morning walk alone along the riverside on my second day at Sibu. Reason being - I was really restless, waking up at 5am! The room was absolutely comfortable but alas, my body wasn't!

The river water was really murky (teh tarik). They say it has become worse due to the soil erosion effects from logging activity. The air wasn't good either, very hazy.

There were a number of elderly folks doing "tai chi". I had the joy of having moments of peace just observing the boats, the river and it's surroundings.

Actually, peace was not something I was here for. I was there to work! And that we did after checking into our hotel. The client's office was just 5 minutes away.

I came with two managers (one from the Production Planning module and the other from the Materials Management module). We were there do to requirements study ie. gather all their requirements and issues. On the first day, it was a questions and answers session and at the end of the day we worked until about 11pm to come to a recommendation on their major issues so that at least we were prepared should they asked us on our findings.

The next day was very educational. We went to the sawmill factory. Yep, my client is in the timber business. And yes, I'm feeling pretty guilty about working in a business that doesn't seem to agree with the environment. My only consolation was that my colleague told me that she read from their brochure that they practice sustainable logging methods.

We were shown the process of producing veneer, plywood and sawn timber which were all very interesting. However, my heart actually aches when I see the machines cutting the logs.

I enjoyed my trip there. The people were warm, friendly and helpful. I actually thought that I wouldn't mind working in this project (if we were to get it). I already thought of some wonderful adventures that I could have over here and things that I would do (like getting those 5 dogs at the factory for a walk).

So much for dreams but I do have a lot of work to do after this like preparing a prototype to show the solutions (before have to check out how the solutions should be!)

Fortunately even for the short stay, I actually managed to wander about at Sibu town with the MM manager, Linda. Both of us were eager to hunt for some souvenirs before leaving for the airport. We had less than an hour to do so and with some directions from the hotel receptionist we managed to find a small souvenir shop near the Premier Hotel. But there wasn't much treasure to be found and so we decided to have a look at the market.

I think if we were to travel to foreign places, we should always make it a point to visit the market cause there's bound to be so many interesting stuff to see. We found more small souvenir shops, walked pass a pasar malam (night market) which sold a lot of the same things (a lot of "pau" - Chinese dumplings, they even sell pig's head), interesting fruits like one I found which has skin like snakes' (attap fruit?) and best of all the wet market which had a variety of seafood on display.

The only regret about this trip was that I forgot to bring my camera! What a shame!

Regards,
Li Li