Saturday, August 3, 2013

I am still waiting for Malaysia 4G

I am hoping that 4G services can be deployed faster in Malaysia hopefully by 2014. Currently 4G coverage is pretty limited with 3G services also very slow. More players will enter the 4G scene like P1, Telekom and U mobile. 
Maxis is tying up with u mobile and redtone. Celcom is tying up with alltel. This leaves digi, p1 and ytl yet to consolidate. P1 was bought by telekom. Going forward all wimax player are going to deploy lte in the 2.3 ghz band
With a higher broadband speed the take up rate should be very healthy. I started using 4g in singapore in dec 2012 and blown away with the speed. 3g seems like dialup speed except for dc hspa+ which is next best option if u still dont have 4g.
Finally in 2014 I am using hotlink 4g. Speed is not bad.

Internet is omnipresent and empower travellers

When I reflect back, google map really transform the free and easy travel. Before the use of smartphone in 2009, we use google map via pc from 2005. I still remember when I did my internship in 2002 there was still no google map to use when travelling around europe.

 It is so easy to find your directions as long as there is internet. You can get a sense of direction without being there. It makes global trotting easy and in a way reduce the fear of being in a foreign land. Sometimes i put some info on this blog to remind me and let me access it on the go hehe like a cloud.

Places that I wish to go in the future somewhere cooling

Brunei/ Labuan/mulu
Bintan/ Langkawi/Penang - aka cuti cuti
Bali/Lombok/Bandung
Danang and Dalat
South Korea/ jeju
Japan/ Fukuoka/ Hakusan
Perth/ Melbourne/Tasmania
Chiangmai
Turkey
Scandinavia
Sydney-auckland-wellington

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

2013 travel plan

Most of the trip this year is cuti cuti malaysia since there is zero fare promo. Last cuti cuti was in 2006.

Jan Kuching
Feb CNY Ipoh by ETS
March KK
May Hanoi and KL
July Desaru
Aug KL and Ubin
Sep Miri and Brunei, Batam
Oct Kuching - Borneo Highlands
Nov KL

Friday, July 12, 2013

Seoul - Jeju - Busan


Busan to Fukuoka is very near. But better play safe. Will leave jeju for next visit. Concentrate seoul daegu and busan


Thursday, May 23, 2013

Hanoi halong bay

We went to Hanoi in May. Weather was very hot. Next stop planning to go Danang and Dalat next year.

Had some adventurous caving during this trip within 15 mins. The junk to Halong Bay is lousy. Locals and foreigner are charged different rates for the motor canoe. Forget the kayak its a rip off. Vietnamese can talk non stop during the 3 hour bus ride for 180 km journey. I really wonder when can Vietnam have its own high speed rail network.
Huge apple at Pullman Hanoi



One of the highlight of this trip is the 1 mil dong good meal at Le Beaulieu at Metropole Hanoi Hotel. Overall the trip is not bad after 8 years revisit to Vietnam which is a huge country in the first place. But after 8 years still no metro.


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Exorbitant Singtel roaming call in Malaysia

To receive incoming call in overseas = SGD 1.29 per min

To call locally in overseas = SGD 0.50 per min

To call international in overseas = SGD 6.1 per min

To send SMS in overseas = SGD 0.31 per sms

Moral of the story is to use a local sim card in Malaysia.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

A day trip to nostalgic Ipoh by hou liu KTMB 2013

On the 3rd day of Chinese New Year, we made a trip north to Ipoh by ETS, Electric Train Services. ETS was first introduced in year 2010. The Hyundai Rotem train was built in Korea and the service is managed by KTMB. This fully electrified train ride took about 2.5 hours with about 10+ stops in between KL and Ipoh. It can travel up to 140 km/h speed.


It was a last minute decision to visit Ipoh. So we bought ticket a day before the trip. Father seems to be more excited than we do. He woke us up at 5.30am wanted to send us to KL Sentral. Our train was scheduled to depart at 8am. The journey from home to KL Sentral is only 15 min. we end up arriving at train station almost an hour earlier than our original plan.
We reached Ipoh at 1030am and started our sightseeing tour by courtesy of Kp. He chauffeured us around Ipoh old town, new town, golf club, huge houses etc. Some old buildings age more than 100 years old.



Highlight of the day only started at the big-tree-trunk place. We had some fried yong tau fu appetizer  That place is literally a battle field. Although the price is 40% higher than normal days, the freshly fried yong tau fu got snatched up almost immediately. After selected the yong tau fu, there is another long queue waiting for the noodles.


Next stop, 老王 famous bean sprout, chicken with horfun. The bean sprouts are thick, the chicken is tender and Horfun is smoother than silk. The food portion in Malaysia is very generous. That's all we had in Ipoh.
Later in the afternoon we visited Joanne at Menglembu, Banjaran Hotspring,Tampun Lost World etc.