Tour de Malaysia - Day 1 Genting Highlands

It was the first time all of us were going from one country to another by train and not surprisingly were asked to disembark just 1 hr into our journey from Singapore when we reached the malaysian border , we had to show our passport and Malaysian visa ( the train was being searched at tht time ) and then were asked to get into the train which took us to malaysian capital , Kuala Lampur.

We were headed to Genting resort on Day 1 of our trip ... In the morning we reached KL sentral ( the central railway station @ KL) which looked more like an airport than a railway station .. it was one single complex which had both long distance train , local trains(monorail) and bus station as well. Genting Highlands was a resort cum theme park about 45 min from KL , we got the tickets and the bus to Genting from KL sentral itself . There was a package deal which covered two way bus fare + 2 way cable car ride to top of Genting resort+ free access to most rides in outdoor and indoor theme park for just 42 Ringgits. It seemed to be a pretty attractive rate compared to what we find in India for similar theme parks where entry itself costs as much. There was 45 min bus ride and one could notice how neat the cit looked and the roads were very well maintained , we could see most of the important buildings enroute. We passed the Batu caves on the way and after seeing the gigantic Murugan statue and the caves , I made a note to myself to somehow fit it in our schedule when we got back to KL for sightseeing.

Genting was a resort cum theme park and also had a a number of huge star hotels and a a very famous Casino. The buses dropped us at the bottom of the hill and the remaining part of the journey was through ropeway .. it was the longest ropeway ride i had taken (about 12 minutes) and there was rolling mists across the hills and we passed literally through the mist. Journey through the clouds was simply awesome !
There was an indoor and outdoor amusement park .. with pretty decent rides (but nothing exceptional n all) and had attracted a good crowd of tourists esp from India ... Im not much of a rides person , still found myself taking on most of the rides and it was good fun. As we were moving around we seemed to be walking in the clouds ! I was sunny in the morning , but by midday it got kinda dark and there was mist all around us , sometimes we could hardly see what lay ahead of us and in the afternoon it started drizzling , however it rained only in patches , whenever it rained , most of the rides were shut down for safety reasons and after a point we decided to find a place servinf veg food . Finally we had 'veg' fried rice at a small eating joint over there , the menu didnt have any mention of veg fare , but the guy at the counter told us they make veg food for Indian tourists. Gotto mention getting Veg food is difficult in South East Asia!

we shifted indoors and started roaming around in the indoor amusement park , there were quite a few nice rides over there , best one was a sky-train kind of thing which had tracks pretty high up and went in loops all over the place and best part was when we whizzed past ( i should say above) starbucks cafe and a quite a few amused ppl over there waved to us. There were a number of attractions like rock climbing and snow world which weren't part of our deal. But overall the place was very crowded and wasnt as attractive as the outdoor one and we went back to the outdoor one inspite of sun playing hide n seek.

Though rain played the spoilsport and with the entire hills covered with mists at some points the visibility was extremely low esp when we did go-karting , visibility was so poor tht the ppl over there did not allow any overtaking spoiling all the fun . Still it was fun driving the slow moving kart with almost zero visibilty during the second round.

We returned by evening to the city , to KL Sentral (thts where the bus from Genting was headed) railway station which looked more like an airport with convenience stores and swanky shops and eating joints like McD , KFC , Dunkin Donuts .It also had a subway joint where we had our veg dinner we waited in the waiting area till we got the call to board the train to northern part of Malaysia to go to the island Langkawi ... we were taking a train to a place called Alor Setor and from there we had to catch a ferry reach the island. The train was at night arnd 9pm and we were supposed to reach next day at arnd 8 am at Alor Setor.

Though we had booked a/c coach and it was quite comfortable , i felt Indian trains were much better they have more space and one could talk/chat with friends and on the whole you could enjoy the trip much more. Here we started chatting n laughing but found that we seemed to disturbing most of the people who had dived into the bed as soon as the train started . In our trains we have this concept of lower berth where everyone in the coupe sit when they arent sleeping , in those trains the arrangement was different with a lower berth n upper berth on both sides and a common central corridor , which made sitting in a group difficult and ur sounds carried across the compartment and we were met with a few icy stares from disturbed occupants across the compartment and finally we also decided to call it a day !!!

Tour De Malaysia

In between a cramped MBA schedule peppered with various courses lasting a week or two we suddenly found ourselves with a weeks break with nothing to do ..so thot of hitting Malaysia .. planned a lot stuff .. but cud finally get away only for 5 days .. we had the tickets for Malaysian Grand Prix .. so fitted our tour around tht.
We left Singapore by KLM Train .. KL was an overnight journey from Sing ... train was like the ones we get in India ( AC coaches) but was running on metre gauge hence compartment seemed smaller and the whole experience wasnt tht gr8 as it shook a lot more than Indian trains.
Entire trip was planned thru minimal internet research ... the big learning i got from this trip ( as with couple of trips i had undertaken in India also) was tht all u need is spirit to roam and experience something new and once u pack ur bags n set out everything falls in place.
At the same time i have to mention tht basic planning is also a must for instance we had booked hotels and train tickets in advance , but rest of the itenary n places we covered were all decided after reaching the respective places.This trip also gave me a chance to experience a totally different nation , which is similar to our own country in some ways , but is marching
ahead in many ways and offers very good lessons for us. I had lived in Singapore for 4 months prior to this , but had not observed the nation tht much , but after malaysian trip when i came back , i started comparing both the nations and kinda improved my understanding of Singapore.
So will post all the happenings of our 5 day trip over here in a series of posts.

Sentosa Trip - part 2

My days in Singapore were slowly coming to an end but the 2nd visit to Sentosa seemed a distant possibility as we made grand plans to tour outside Singapore. But as with most well laid plans this one also came unstuck and finally decided to cap off my last week in Singapore with another Sentosa visit and try and cover things i missed last time ...

Wanted to cover Fort Siloso which i cudnt fully explore last time around but unfortunately by the time i reached the place there want enuf time to sneak in a visit .. this time visited by paying just $3 monorail 2 way ticket and decided to but the tickets for each attraction from the island itself ... (very costly option if u r visiting for the 1st time , as some of my friends discovered !!!)
This time we especially wanted to see songs of the sea program which happens @ 7:45/8:45 at night .. So we got the Songs of the sea tickets along with island entry ticket itself as the shows get full by evening time.

First stop was at cineblast the 4-D theater .. had seen the movie earlier tried the other attraction and found tht it was a very good experience but lasted only 15 min .. which was way tooo less
then the next stop was at Luge ... we get to go down a hill in a sled kinda thing which has got brakes and can be maneuvered to an extent and boy it was fun .. best part was tht for $18 ticket .. u get to do it 3 times !!! u go down the hill , come up in a sky ride (ropeway) and its one of the best things in the island ...

we were done with this by 7 and since we had another 45 min to kill thot to visiting the small beach over there and then spotted the beach bar !
the Bartender suggested a local cocktail called 'Singapore Sling' so we ordered tht ... he took an awfully lot of time to prepare it and we got our hands on the drink @ arnd 7:30 and there was less than 5 min to the show and we all were in a hurry n dint have time enjoy the drink and hence gulped it down in a jiffy and the bartender who had prepared the drink for over 15 min looked very annoyed with us for finishing it off in 15 secs !!!

the Songs of the Sea show features some local songs with dancing performers and spectacular laser show topped off with brilliant fireworks and was really good.

When you are done with each of these 'éxperiences' when move out u invariably pass through cleverly placed stores selling souvenirs/memorabilia connected to the show u just saw/other attractions in the island and most ppl ending buying something or other !
just for memory sake i bought a small singing statute to keep at my home and much to my chagrin found tht my parents (who visited this place a month back) had bought the same object !!!
Looking at the island u cant help admiring the way these ppl have turned a small island into such a brilliant money-spinner which gives the tourists a great experience.
But they arent done yet .. they have plans to build a casino on the island and a few other attractions are also being planned making this a place to visit for any tourist.

Private public transport (?)!

There comes a stage in every MBA students life where after being subjected to hundreds of business case studies and generating business ideas after ideas for course after course ... We end up trying to identify whatever we find wrong in the world around us and try to come up with some innovative ways to improve it. Only to come to realisation that many solutions do sound nice or look good on paper and thts about it .. as far as practicality is concerned. But in one way or other these things do make us realise how or rather why the system operates in its present form. That in a way is a great learning by itself for future, if at all we get to changing things in future !

While discussing several of these ideas , lack of effective public transport in India is something we have debated about passionately. We did discuss one day wide range of solutions right from metro to car pooling and all ... While discussing about this i was drawn back to my days as a techie in Bangalore when I observed how people overcame this lack of adequate transport problem easily ( even if on wrong side of law)

I used to visit my hometown every alternate weekend and would reach Bangalore early morning arnd 5am when the public buses wouldn't be available and I used to get down on the outskirts of the city at a place just about 2 KM from my house .. since it was early morning walking all the way was ruled out , the only other mode of transport was Autorickshaw ... here it was the case of monopoly and at times the demand would exceed the supply and hence they would charge exhorbitant rates for their service

After a few months i noticed a few people would disembark from the bus and would turn down the waiting autos and would walk further ahead and wait near the bus shelter . I figured there must be some other alternate method of commute and joined them. Then they arrived , the 'call centre' cabs ... these cabs come after dropping off people to offices/homes or from wherever ... essentially they were coming back on return trips and for a very nominal amount would drop you to your place provided its on their way. The driver makes a quick buck and we , the poor commuters , were no longer held hostage by the auto rickshaw wallas ...

In Bangalore , there are huge numbers of private buses, vans , cars used to ferry the estimated 2 lakh IT/BPO employees in the city. Now all many of these vehicles put in multiple trips and hence go empty half of the time.
I used to wonder why cant Govt legalize these people picking up passengers on their return trip , we talk about energy crisis and the fact that oil imports are hitting us hard n all ... we also talk about how to optimize our energy needs , so if private vehicles were allowed to pick up passengers for nominal charges then aren't we saving energy and benefiting the common men as well . We would not only provide support for the public transport , which inspite of our best efforts is lacking in many places , but also effectively make use of already deployed vehicles in addition to saving on fuel , cutting down on pollution as well reducing the overall costs for all parties concerned !

Also if Auto drivers are allowed to take multiple passengers with per person/km fares , then multiple people can share costs and probably the driver might get more revenue and more fuel can be saved.

So can this be done , is it worth the trouble ?

I'm still not sure about the answer .. there are many many angles to this debate , but essence of my argument is that we are wasting a lot in the current process and do need a rethink sooner or later ... But this being the age of Private Public Partnerships , why not ?

trip to Sentosa ...

( Slightly longish one ....)

Sentosa island is a popular tourist resort in Singapore, its just about 2 km long but filled with beaches, various other popular tourist attractions and luxury hotels and golf courses.

Sentosa can be accessed by monorail, cable car as well as by bus. We took the monorail , the ticket included complimentary passes to a few major attractions on the island as well.

As the monorail coach passed thru a few bends n came close to the island , we were jolted from our admiration of the nearby docks and sea by shrieks of “merlion … merlion” by a small kid who was sitting near us in our coach .

Merlion is the symbol of Singapore, its what Eiffel tower is to Paris (atleast thts what I understand … maybe its like Burj incase of Dubai) . The actual Merlion is near Singapore river though, googling tells me there are 4 merlion statutes in Singapore . All said n done, this one is the biggest and is really grand sight!

We went further up to a place called Imbiah lookout from where we took a ride up ‘Calsberg’sky tower which is offers a terrific view of Sentosa and some parts of Singapore.

Then we visited the brilliantly done “Ïmages of Singapore “… This showcases the culture of Singapore and lets the visitor experience the journey/ evolution of Singapore through ages. It started off with a short movie about what makes the culture of Singapore so unique n spl , followed by a tour through the neatly done museum which captured the journey of Singapore through last 400 years. The concept is well done and everything is conveyed neatly, I would say it is a must visit for any tourist to understand Singapore , its culture , evolution and what makes it unique !

I particularly liked the initial 5 min experience in which tale of Singapore was narrated; to me it seemed straight out of pages of a Harry Potter book! (for those who have actually seen it .. I do have a wild imagination J )

Next came the ‘4-D’ experience, it was a short 3-D movie plus some features to make you really connect with the movie! Did not have time for the Luge and decided to check out Underwater park instead. There are basically 3-4 points in the island where attractions/adventures are present, you can travel around from one point to next either thru trams or buses. Buses take a shorter route, while trams take a much more scenic route. We took the bus and were lucky to get a double decker open top bus , as we were going from one end of the island to other end , we got a mini-island tour in the bus. Since it was already afternoon we decided to check the dolphin lagoon first and the journey through the island to the point where this place was lovely on the open-top bus.

Dolphin lagoon is a huge crowd puller , the place got full in no time and the dolphins were fantabulous (for want of better word !) . I got a big surprise when I saw them for the first time , they were pink !!! it was kinda unreal at first , heard or even imagined that there could be a pink animal …

But it was good and the show was wonderful and is a must see for visitors to Singapore , we then went to Underwaterworld which was located in another end of the island in a beach tram , which goes alongside the scenic beach .

Underwater world is a pretty good place too , the collections of marine animals from various parts of the world is awesome , but the highlight was the underwater tunnel . We pass through a transparent tunnel where we are surrounded by fishes on all sides; we actually look up at fishes moving above us! Got a greak kick outta watching sharks and other big fishes zooming over us ! Another interesting thing was the presence of RFID … the fishes had RFID tags whenever a fish passed near the display screen thanks to RFID reader , the screen would display info bout the fish which is closest to it… pretty neat usage of technology.

Finally there was Fort Siloso , which was a fort built by British in more than 100 yrs back to guard the harbour . It was equipped with a battery of big guns to thwart any attack on British Empire; the guns are a majestic sight even now. It is a sort of museum with ammo stores, barracks, tunnels, living quarters of soldiers with audio commentary and life size replicas of soldiers inside each place to give us an idea of how the fort operated. The big guns at various points in the fort are the highlight.

It was late in the evening and as we were too exhausted we decided to call it a day and returned back to mainland by cable car from Sentosa. Hope to be back some other time and cover few other wonderful attractions which we missed out this time !

Also observed tht the island was ruled by Coke … no Pepsi at all !!!

All in all I should say that these guys have done a fabulous job of developing(or rather marketing) a tiny little island into such a popular tourist destination ... just a quick glance at numbers from websites tell me what i suspected when i visited the place ... this tiny island attracted 5 million tourist last year compared to 4 million tourists visiting entire India !!!

There is actually nothing so great in this island when you compare it with the natural beauty and the kind of sights and sounds that a well packaged Indian tourism can provide ... but again the numbers quoted earlier tell us clearly what really happens !

the 'K'-factor

This is about our tinsel town .. but dont worry its not about the K-serials of eKtaa Kapoor !

saw OmShantiOm this Friday @ Dubai ... desi movies r nice to watch in a foriegn land .. though u can hardly call Dubai 'phoren' place .. given the fact that ppl from subcontinent seem to b the majority here ! a hall packed with ppl who speak ur language share same culture does seem to make even the most horrible movies digestible !

No, the movie in question OSO was'nt bad , it was pretty decent entertainer and was good in some parts esp the references and digs at the industry itself !

Another very interesting thing bout the movie was the K-factor , as in , you need a surname starting with K - Kapoor , Khan , Khanna etc to make it big in film industry ...
No , just changing your name wont do , u need to be born as son/daughter of a K

The movie had 2 SRKs ... a struggling actor without the 'K' name and a superstar-son who becomes what he is because of the 'K' surname ... there was also a funny filmfare award bit in which 4 real life star fathers come and pitch for their respective sons !

It makes a very valid statement , especially given the fact that it is coming from the man who many people believe is the last hope for people who dont have family connections and wish to make it big in bollywood ! When you think of it there is hardly anybody you can remember in last 15-20 years who made it really big without somebody in film industry other than the SRK ...

Another intriguing coincidence is the fact that this movie OSO , which highlights the 'star power' concept, actually released this Diwali against a movie which stars not one but two 'K'apoor kids in a ultra-lavish dream debut which ordinary mortals cannot even dream of !

Evolution & cellphones

No you read it right , the title is not evolution ‘of’ cellphones , its evolution and role played by cellphones in it.

From the time life originated on earth the process of evolution has been one straight forward yet rough and tough game. Only those who have something special and extra survive , there lot of terms for these like natural selection and survival of fittest which has ensured that all the species which are currently present on earth are there coz they have something which others don’t have. It could some characteristic like the neck of a giraffe or trunk of an elephant or hump of camel or the thick fur coats of animals in colder regions and various other unique qualities in all animals, which helps it in more ways than one and helps it prevail upon on competition. This kind of unique trait ensures that out of same animal family some species which are more developed survive and they hone these traits or features to the level of perfection.

Now you might be wondering how on earth is wildlife and evolution related to mobile phones ?

Well I give you two choices , either I have too much time to spare and love taking people for a ride ! Or that Im going to make an interesting point , I will let you decide which one of these two is correct.

So only the species which have evovled and adapted very well to the evironment has managed to survive , but who rules the earth ? Well , Homo Sapiens ( thats you and me) of course.

Next question would be how ?

I know the conventional answer would be that its because of that highly developed brain of ours and our ability to think or rather out think the competion that we have become masters of the earth.

Ofcourse that is correct , but I would say that this ability to innovate as in “make tools'' and harness energy and all , has actually made us the leader of the pack.

Over the years right from stones which were converted to some forms of crude weapons to the age of metals to much more recent tools like guns gave man a control over all other forces around him. Man got so much control that those forces around him stopped mattering that much. All these tools which made our life easier or helped us survive and overcome competition can be considered to be part of our evolution. The same way an animal which has to hunt faster prey develops and perfects attributes like stealth and precision , we developed things like automobiles and gadgets of precision to make ourselves safe and comfortable .Hence I consider these gadgets as part n parcel of our evolutionary growth.

Let’s get over with gadgets which helped us evolve further and develop as a race and come straight to the gadget which rules in 21st century , which is none other the ubiquitous mobile phone/cellphone ...

The word Cell some 10-15 years would have surely meant confines of a prison , but cell today is gadget for liberation !

Cellphone has truly helped us evolve in multiple senses ... This pocket size gadget has replaced lots of heavy weight gadgets and has captured the hearts ( nay shirt pockets) of millions ranging from Compnay CEOs to peons.It comes in various sizes ,shapes and forms from plain low-end phone to ultra cool i-phones to Blackberry phones , the cellphone market has something for everyone.

Now to substantiate my theory that mobiles have truly helped us evolve or make our lives better , I choose a few real life examples where people used this gadget in their day to day lives and succeded in their business . To drive home the point I choose the common man as focal point of all my examples.

Among the first stories of business growth driven by cellphones were that of fishermen in kerala .

Once cellphone era began these fishermen no longer had to sell fish in the local beaches; they were able to find out the exact price for fish in the various markets outside their home territory and were able to sell their catch at best possible prices.. Overall they ended up making more money and also resulted in the reduction of prices for the consumers as lesser fish were wasted ... more the fish less the price , simple economics...

Basically it eliminated geographical barriers for business and 'where' you were present no longer became a constraint provided you had a cellphone , let me elaborate with a few more common-man examples.

In my hometown , we have an electrician cum plumber who used to handle both house work and do repairs in his shop . As his work was good, he began getting more and more house calls. The only way to contact him was to go to his shop and tell his assistant the nature of the problem. Then we had to wait till he got back from his previous assignment and came to our house. Since he covered a wide area , more often than not if the person was not present in the shop , people would not prefer to wait they would rather go to some other person. Now with a mobile phone, he is just a call away and he immediately tells us where he is and how quickly he can come. This results in more business for him, less effort for us(his customers) also. Same with auto-drivers in, earlier they used to wait in the auto-stand and you had to go to the auto-stand to hail an auto or if you were lucky on the way you might get an auto. Today we just give a call to an auto-driver we know, he will come to our house to pick us up or call any of his friends who might be in the same area and ask them to pick us up !

I was travelling in the local bus in Bangalore 6 months back and a few construction workers were travelling with me and to my surprise I heard cell phone ringing in the pocket of a shabby looking guy next to me and it was a call from some contractor for some work in some other part of B’lore for him and his group. He told me after they got a cell phone they are never out of work. These are just a couple of examples I could remember off hand nowadays everyone from tailors to hairdressers are just a call away and mobile phone has simply changed the way business happens.

QED : Mobiles have become a necessity if you need to stay in the race these days or you get left behind and others march ahead of you.

( this is the first in a series of posts im planning on cellphones and their role in our life ... to be continued )