What kind of bank?

I had taken an overdraft facility with one of the local banks many years ago in early 90s. I tested what an overdraft facility was all about and it was useful. Subsequently when I purchased one of the houses in Kulim of Kedah state, I applied through another bank, instead of giving me a term loan, they suggested me some sort of an overdraft housing loan. With my prior experience of an overdraft facility, I thought it was a good idea because if I have sufficient fund later on, then I could settle the borrowing much earlier. Only problem was that, EPF at that time would not allow anyone to withdraw and settle an overdraft housing loan, EPF will only permit settling of housing term loan only. That was the disadvantage!

One fine day, someone in the bank from the earlier overdraft facility account had given me a "windfall", they had by mistake credited my account in the region of RM10-11K, and I happily consumed most of the extra fund to furnish my new Kulim home. Then they later found out and admitted that they had made a mistake and charged me exorbitant interest rate for over the pre-set limit. How unreasonable banks could be!

My old school mate happened to be a EON bank manager, and I wanted to refinance my Kulim house to get cheaper interest rate at that time when the banks were engaging in this low interest financing war. When I took up the matter to the officer, and this lady oficer Ms Ho was very professional and she had convincingly persuaded me to stay on with the same bank and gave me an additional house renovation loan of RM30K instead. It happened that the overdraft housing loan bank and my earlier overdraft facility bank merged, and this RM30K was used to settle the mistakenly deposited money given to me and also there was some extra cash left for me to spend on. That seemed to be a good deal and I therefore decided to stay with the same bank without swapping the loan to EON bank.

Since it was an additional renovation loan through the same bank, therefore every month the instalment is settled through the account of the original overdraft housing loan by a standing instruction. That is to say, I deposit my money into one account, and the account will auto-debit to settle both the original housing loan and also the renovation loan at the same time. Was it not a brilliant idea?

Over the years, I had faithfully serviced all my loans regardless of good time or recession. And at the later part, when I worked overseas I managed to deposit a lot of cash into the housing loan account, and the outstanding was set to zero prior to its maturity date with positive balance.

The trouble started when the auto-debit action stopped, re-started and stopped again. And also my overdraft housing loan LIMIT suddenly became zero pre-maturely without any reason. It was before the expiry date of the housing loan agreement! How could a principal loan account finished off earlier before the renovation loan is fully settled, which is an additional and integral part of the package? The collection centers called me and I explained the matter many times to them, telling them it is their computer system problem that the auto-debit stopped. And the calls came from Prai and then KL offices etc over and over again for a few years. The bank utilized my extra fund from my overdraft and regularized the account in 2007 for all the mistake that they had made. Unfortuntely the trouble started again with their computerized auto-debit system even after that.

Because of their incompetency in this, they are going to charge me an accumulative interest of RM15K instead of the total amount of RM12K as stated in the agreement for a principal sum of RM30K to be settled over a period of 10 years. Adding to my anger is that, this is none of my problem. How could a bank did this at their whim and mercy? Nobody knows why a computerized standing instruction could start and stop, as a consumer we could probably guess or suspicious of some insider siphoning out the money to somewhere else without our knowledge!

Now I have to trace back all the old transactions to find out the truth by writing to the bank! If things do not turn out well after all that I had done, I might have no choice but to refer the matter to Bank Negara or the Bureau of Complaint.

The name of the bank is intentionally withheld to give them time to settle the matter.

When Malaysia runs out of petroleum and gas

It was at least almost 10 years ago that my friend from Shell had told us that the reserve of oil and gas in Malaysia will run out within the next 15-20 years. I did not take it seriously as at that time it was still quite early for us to think about the problem. But right now, it means to say for the next 5-10 years to come, we will be depleted with this non-recoverable resource that Malaysia is so much dependent on all this while. My insider friends from Petronas also confirm this threat subtlely!

Our government really has to think hard on how to generate the kind of revenue that could fund our country in terms of policies as well as our future plans on how to run this country more efficiently. We could not afford to blunder as before that much money was wasted and dumped to the drain because of corruption and poor governance.

Petronas has to work extra hard to find alternative ways to survive and they could not enjoy the same high growth and profit as before, top management could not sit on laurels and wait for things to happen while the odds are obviously against them. They have to diversify and also to explore oil somewhere else within a very short time frame. If Kelantan or Terengganu state was to get oil royalty money, then they have to get it fast before there is no more oil left.

Malaysia and its "rakyat" at large will be at a cross road, as we are no more competitive in manufacturing compared to China, we have almost given up agriculture and we even have to import rice from Thailand. We are also no good at IT and the Multimedia Super Corridor does not seem to score any mark to make any real progress. The time will come very soon, we all will have to pay a high price for gasoline because we will have to import petroleum, few would be able to afford to drive any vehicle bigger than 1500cc!

My God, what are we going to do with Malaysia if we do not start to think hard and work hard now? How could we ever achieve our vision 2020?

Home in Kemaman

After 5 months and 7 days stay in Homestay hotel of Jalan Jakar Cukai, finally the house rented by the company is in place for me to stay in. It is located at Taman Baiduri Geliga Besar, which is only walking distance from the Monica beach (Pantai Mak Nik). I find this place convenient as one could find Esso station and also mini market Samamaju nearby. It is away from the busy Cukai town and there is a lot of space that I could walk or cycle to the beach, exercise and jog. I think this is a great place to stay!

The place is easy to find, coming from Cherating direction, after reaching the border between the Pahang and Terengganu states, marked by an arch with "God bless the Sultan and Sultanah of Terengganu", upon reaching the 1st traffic light, turn right, where the Esso station is located, the house is stone throw distance away!

My wife and the children came for the visit, they cleaned and decorated the house for me. It looks more like a home for me now. There are 3 rooms and that could easily accomodate a number of friends and visitors who wanted accomodation for a stop-over, leisure or fishing trips.

How to come to Cukai Kemaman from KL

I attempt to write on how to get to Cukai if you do not have a GPS to guide you and I highlighted those dangerous stretches of roads and also those confusing cross roads in bold letters, where you have to exercise extra careful or make decision to make the right turn to get to your destiny:

If you are travelling along the Federal highway to KL city center direction, just at the end of the yellow lane specially reserved for taxi and buses, you have to turn immediately left up to Ipoh and Kuantan or KL Sentral direction, and this road will pass by the Muzium Negara. All the way keeping to the left on this road, you will cut in to Jalan Duta. If you miss this junction, drive straight on, you will go into Jalan Kuching instead. At the end of Jalan Kuching, there is also a side road where one could turn into DUKE again.

On the left of Jalan Duta, roughly in the direction opposite the Indian embassy, just after a traffic light for turning to the Damansara direction, there is a road leading to NKVE to Ipoh, that is the normal way whenever I head back home to Kampar; just follow that towards the NKVE toll direction. Just about reaching the NKVE toll but on the left hand side, there is a sign board on DUKE (Not very obvious as it always gives the impression that the road will only lead you to the NKVE toll and you get a little bit panic whether you are on the right direction to Kuantan).

Once you enter into the DUKE highway and I suppose you will travel along the Sri Hartamas and also the nearby Mont Kiara areas, and drive towards Kuantan direction. Just after Sentul along the way, you have to keep to the left to turn to Kuantan direction, if not that road will take you all the way to Zoo Negara. Pay Rm2 for the toll and go straight and you will pass by Batu Caves and then drive pass a flyover and join back into the normal road which lead you to Genting and Kuantan. You will see some petrol kiosks on your left hand side. Very soon you will be at the RM5 toll to Genting.

After that toll, you will head straight to Genting Sempah, after climbing a stretch of hill before reaching to the uphill road to Genting Highland. Just keep to the right to Kuantan (Do not go up the Genting road). After that you will pass by a tunnel, and then the Genting Sempah rest area with Petrol Kiosk and Mc Donald on your right hand side of the road, I normally do not stop there unless on the way back to KL. If you are not stopping over, before long you will be heading a downward slope, very steep and dangerous for 1st time driving to east coast. Just keep to the left and put on low gear to slow down the vehicle if you are driving a manuel vehicle.

You are about to pay another Rm3 toll before reaching Karak after passing Bentong. If there is no traffic jam, I normally reach this toll roughly within an hour or slightly more. This stretch of road is very winding especially after the 70.o Km milestone mark before reaching Kampung Sungai Dua. Be extra careful as this is an accident prone area especially on rainy days. Very soon after that you will be approaching the East Timur highway toll, and the road then is in much better condition to drive. Within 30 minutes of driving you will probably be reaching Temerloh rest area, where you could take a break or fill up your tank in the Shell station. And the next available gas station is Gambang, which is roughly about 60-70Km away from Temerloh. Gambang rest area is famous for its "nasi lemak" and in this place Petronas gas station is the last fueling station before you hit Jabor toll. From Gambang to Jabor toll, is roughly about 30 minutes and you have to pay RM21 for this east coast highway travel. Vehicles are few and it is nice to travel on this highway. This highway is supposed to connect all the way to Kuala Terengganu but is yet to be completed. Therefore there is a slight detour near to the toll but with clear direction indication for you to reach the Jabor toll, you will never miss!

Getting out from Jabor toll, short distance away, there will be a flyover, just go below the flyover and take the "Kuala Trengganu & Kemaman" direction on the right side of the lane. And you travel about 15 minutes after passing a small inverted U shape arch, and then climb onto a bridge and within 5 minutes, you will reach a direction pointing you to Kuantan or Kemaman. Just take the extreme left lane and turn slowly into the trunk road to Kemaman as this is almost a 90 degrees turn. From here, you will take 15 minutes to reach Cherating and also the famous Club Med. Another 15 minutes more you will reach Cukai town.


Have a safe journey and God bless.

Malaysians in common

Most of the Malaysians at large are not so keen on politics as they are just common citizens who would just like to feed and raise their families, earn a descent living and be happy with life. It really does not matter which party rules the country as long as their livelihood and basic needs or necessities are taken care of. Malaysia has a very small population of 26 millions and with rich natural resources, all of us should be well blessed enough to have a reasonable good life compared to other countries. Malaysians of different ethnic groups in general are friendly and nice people and we could mingle well with each other without much problem. Only some self interest unscrupulous politicians try to stir things up and inevitably polarize the situation and feeling towards other groups in order for them to gain their political ground. That is a very unfortunate thing that happens too rampant in this country.

Human beings always like to have something in common, they like to stick to people of same interest, same background, same language and same religion etc. It is a matter of convenience without having to go through the hassle of the process to learn, adjust and the necessity to explain at length to others of your peculiar hehavior and habits. And this is the common trait of all human beings. When I went into the university, most of my coursemates are speaking Hokkien dialect, and when I met someone from the Cantonese speaking group, I felt very much at ease and automatically joined them for more conversation and activities. It is not a discrimination of any sort, as we just want to choose the easier way out of doing things.

It is also important for Malaysians to live in this country to stress more on the common points rather than the differences. Differences always give the impression of unpredictable, exercise extra care to deal with someone you do not know thinking that you could unintentionally offend them. That has added to most of us the extra burden of having to put in the effort of getting to know the others, and unfortunately many of us are NOT that adventurous by nature!

In our daily life, we must always stress that we are all Malaysians regardless of our race, for any ill fate that befalls any of the ethnic groups, it will not do the others any good. We wish all of them to earn well, eat well and live well, then we will have a peaceful and harmonious society that we all enjoy together. We must even stress that the Muslims and the Christians are within the same category of Abrahamic faith, sharing a major portion of the common Holy Books. And they worship the same God of Abraham though with different interpretations! All the differences and interpretations should not deter us, instead that should further reinforce the fact that, such "rival" religious belief did not collaborate but rather collectively, and also not by mere coincidence that, they relate themselves to the same and common historical background and the God they worship.

May God bless us all!

Selection of DSLR

I had finally made a decision to purchase the Canon EOS 450D or XSi DSLR after reading much of the reviews in the internet. Basically it is a 12 mega pixels camera with superb photo quality at high ISO of 1600 without much noise. There are a lot of technical terms to describe the various parameters and characteristics of a camera and photos, which I am still trying to learn on them. Some of the salient selling points are the CMOS sensors, 3" live view, 3.5 fps, light weight and also the availability of a wide range of image stabilization lenses, 9 auto focus points etc. Basically the deal making deciding factor is because both my brother and sister own Canon brand DSLRs. It would be easier for us subsequently to swap lenses and exchange views. My younger brother KM Lee has been in this DSLR thing for a long long time, he is an avid photographer with great passion on nature and animals. I had chosen the convenient way of taking photos in the past without any thought that I will ever own one of these entry level DSLR; it was simply too bulky and also messy to play with those complicated parameters of light and optics.

For a long time, I had not been interested in knowing about the apertures, the ISO sensitivity, white balance, under exposure, shutter speed, raw files, focus lengths, dynamic range etc. Suddenly I started to dwell in reading this kind of details about those terms in the internet. Fortunately my mechanical engineering technical training background had given me much advantage in understanding those terms and their implication fast within a short period of time.

I do believe in the kind of peer influence after I had gone on a trip with some of my school mates and Singaporean friends to the Sichuan Jiuzhaigou resort; some had brought in the best in class equipment for the shooting and I envied at their expensive camera equipment. Also partly because in the past, thousand of photos were taken by the point & shoot cameras which I own and there seem to be no break through in the sharpness and quality after viewing them on the bigger LCD monitor screen. Perhaps it is time for me to go one step up for better and more professional photos quality.

I would also like to thank the Senheng store sales girl for telling me that I could redeem all my points gathered for years from the past usage of my Citibank credit cards and also Maybank credit card combined to get a total discount in the region of RM600. I am not in the habit of going through the messy procedure of redeeming points for those gifts. This time I had managed to clear all the points other than those forfeited because of expiry. This had quickened my decision and closed the deal in this particular store for the much desired and thought about DSLR !

Open the car door carefully!

Last week I went out together with Azman, the production executive of the factory to take a look at the new Alza MPV model. As there were many cars parked along the available space in front of the car show room, and I managed to squeeze in at a corner located at, after a slight bend from the service road. It was a rainy day and the road was muddy. When I got out from the car and opened the door to step out, suddently a motor cyclist carrying his wife and kid zoom passed me from behind and knocked on my door and he almost fell. He was screaming for pain because his eye hit the sharp part of the door and was bleeding. Azman and I quickly went over to check his condition, fortunately only his left eye corner was slightly scratched. And his motorbike plastic front panel and one of the front lights was broken. I had apologized to him and also because of our quick action to comfort him instead of looking at how badly damage my car door was, that had pacified him somehow. Azman was quick to use a tissue to rub off the blood from the side of his eye. And eventually we negotiated and compensated him by spending RM70 for the repair of the motorbike and RM30 for him to see a doctor in the clinic. That settled the whole accident amicably.

This accident had taught me good lesson that I must always be careful to look behind before opening any of the car doors. It is simply too dangerous just to open the door abruptly without watching behind whether there is any oncoming vehicle. In this particular case, it could cause severe injury to the oncoming motorist because the sharp part of the door could pierce his eye if not because of the protection of his helmet that had cushioned off part of the impact. Assuming that if this was not a motorbike but a lorry, one could imagine the entire door might just fly off by the knocking force. Was it not scary?

Another thing we have to remember is that if we are in the wrong, make sure to be humble, apologize and also show your concern to the opposite party instead of to your beloved vehicle.

I thank God for this and also the door of the car only suffered some slight dent and scratched paint work.