Genting Plan
Posted by vampire at 01:31 PM on March 8, 2004.
Anyone wanna join me for this trip? It's not confirmed yet
April 9th & 10th at Genting...
I'd be driving from Pg to KLIA pick ppl up, then go Mlk, collect stuff, pick ppl up, send stuffs to ppl, etc, then go up Genting...
Sunday after lunch drive back Pg...
Hope I can get a leave and a room...
What I Wrote in Bangkok
Posted by vampire at 11:47 AM on March 19, 2004.
On Tuesday 5.30pm, I was given notice that I had to fly to Bangkok the following morning at 8.40am. Such a short time to prepare. That's how dynamic my working schedule is. I'm supposed to fly back tonight (Monday), but the customer's boss is negotiating with my boss about how long we have to extend our work stay here, since the tester isn't giving satisfactory performance. I might have to stay till Wednesday. Right now, I'm worried about laundry. Don't have enough clean ones to go by. Hotel laundry service is way too expensive. One wash of slacks is around Rm16, which could buy me a cheap T-shirt already. I guess I'd have to buy one or two more T-Shirts.
I brought my two sim-cards and a handphone here, but seems that only my maxis prepaid has roaming capabilities. Alas, I had forgotten to top-up my credit for the account, and can only receive calls and sms-es. maxis doesn't provide the service where other people can top up my account for me, unlike Digi... (When I came back, my maxis' balance dropped from Rm86 to Rm16)
I had flown here using Thai Airlines, which is a change. The plane that day was a A303, airbus. The seat settings for each row is 2-4-2, meaning 8 ppl in each row, so there are two aisles. Seems that it's is easier to walk about in the plane. Aisles are wider. Food is different. They have a choice of pasta, or fish with rice on that flight. The stewards on the flight are quite old (could even be nearly 40 years old), compared to Malaysian airlines'. Announcements on flight are made in three languages - Thai, English and Mandarin. I was sleepy, so I slept throughout the flight. The landing at Don Meuang International Airport is so smooth that the only was you know it had landed is by looking out of the window. They do not apply air brakes that hard, and there is no screeching sound, or any significant upward or braking force experienced, unlike most flights that I've been on. Great pilot. (On my flight home, they served wine - red, or white)
The airport is kinda old, but quite big, comparable to KLIA. We headed to our customer's factory immediately, which isn't far away. The taxi driver can't speak and read English, and had a hard time. Luckily my boss knows how to get there, as he has been here a few times before. The air here is almost similar to the air in Penang or KL - you see sorta like a haze all around.
The tester hadn't arrived at the factory when we were there. It hasn't passed the Customs Clearance, so we could only set the tester up on Thursday. Usually we set up the tester, then give training, but since we had nothing to do for the afternoon, we were requested to conduct training first.
With all the luggage with us, we walked to our hotel, Miracle Grand Hotel, which was just across the road/highway/railtrack. It was a 5 minute walk. The security guards are good, not lazy, and would stop cars for you to cross the road (there was a zebra crossing), at times. The road area in between the hotel and the factory is kinda amazing for me. I had to cross the first two roads (cars travelling in both directions), using a overhead bridge. The overhead bridge, and the two roads are under a straight highway, quite high above us. Then after the overhead bridge, we had to cross a railway track. Then another two roads, with cars coming in both directions. It may seem hard, but in a straight line, the hotel and the factory is only about 150-200 meters away.