Tioman Island!! Expand or not to expand, that is the question!

The new plan is to expand the airport to take 737's!!

The corals and beaches around the island are already in a sorry state so I have pretty mixed views on this.

Talking to the locals who run the dive centers and resorts, they seem to think this is good for business. These flights will bring in more divers, tourist with $$$, weekend golfers, etc.

The conservation guys, on the other hand, feel that all this development (The Marina. airport, monorail plan, road expansion plan, etc) will only cause further damage to the already suffering ecosystem there.
Malaysia somehow seems to have the development people at loggerheads with the conservation groups in most areas be it the national parks, beaches, turtle conservation, reef and coral conservation, endangered animals and the list goes on. This is the case in Tioman too.

As an avid diver, I do contribute to this entire mess too!! (All divers do...although some choose to ignore that fact.)
Directly, I use the resorts that have nice AC and hot water. (Knowing very well that a diesel guzzling generator is spewing out black smoke somewhere behind the kitchen) I didn't notice a sewage or waste water treatment plant anywhere on the island. (Did I ask or insist the resort had one?...hmmm...don't think so.)


Would I pay more for my stay and dives if the resort and dive center was Eco friendly?

Yes, but how much more will I be willing to pay? How much more will other "El cheapo" divers be ready to dish out?

Indirectly, I contributed to the further distruction of this island by supporting it's duty free status.....(I'm Indian la....cheap booze is a must on holiday!!)

I also supported and used the fastest ferry and the biggest and fastest dive boats with huge outboard engines...yup....the massive diesel guzzlers!

A huge group of divers from MUW (Malaysian Underwater.com) attended the ecodiver certification course on the island this weekend while I was doing my instructor course. I salute them. They will be part of a monitoring programme of our coral reefs in Tioman. My concern is that the group is surely going to report deterioration of the coral reef. Then what?

The Malaysian authorities are well know for going to extremes. Kick all resorts of Sipadan was their corrective measure there. Will that be the case on Tioman and every Malaysian island after we have initially screwed it up? Then wait a few hundred years for the corals to recover?




Dead coral?? or Live corals??







I guess we have to decide soon....

COME ON SAINTS!!!

I know we're not Liverpool or ManU but we sure know how to give a fan some drama......every bloody season!!!

First, it was beating Liverpool at home and away the season that Liverpool won the Champions League....yup...I was at Broadwalk pub with my Saints jersey!!! (1 lonely Saints fan in the pool of red.)

Then came the relegation battle....then the fight to make the playoff last season.....and now....

This time it's trying not be relegated....... again!!!! Yup...we're in the bottom 3 of the championship with 1 match to go.....We play Sheffield United on Saturday......(Ya..ya...alll you premier league guys are goind...who????....)

As I've said before....WE'LL BE BACK....don't know when....but we'll be back....hehehe!!

Would be nice to hear comments from any none premier league club fans.....and if there are any Southampton fans...even better!!!

Anyone else having last game blues?????

TIOMAN DIVE TRIP!!

Yup!! just got back from Tioman Island and I'm now an ASSISTANT SCUBA INSTRUCTOR!!

The island was really nice but I felt bad leaving my baby behind....REALLY la!!!!!

The course was fun but pretty tough. Teaching is not easy.....especially underwater.

Stayed at Babura resort where the food and accomodation were excellent.

I'll write a little more about the trip and the island soon. (Including the development plans that SUCK !!!!)

Revitalised Blog!!!


Hehehehe!! With the help of blogger "Sifu" Bala....this blog is looking good. I'm still working out some hiccups in the photo department....but that's o.k right??? (Still got Facebook la... :) )


I was given a reality check on "Playing pool on weekends in Backyard"........ARRGGGHHH.....spend time with your baby girl...DADDY!!!! were the wise words from the Blogger Guruji !!! ... :P


(Since I can't actually play pool on weekends now....at least let me lie on my blog la....HAIYO!!!)



So..."what's it like being a daddy????"...Well, that statement was driven home when I sent my parents back to Klang, after staying with us for a month, last weekend. Now it just Mary and me....and Baby makes 3. Conversations at home are now mostly about baby Maya's milk, sleep and the all important POOP!!!

You wouldn't believe the amount of books that people have written about babies and their POO!! Every FART is documented somewhere with "Causes & Effects" !!!!

Couple of chapters on Burping alone !!


Another cool book I was given was "How to have a smarter baby"............first thought that came to mind was....."Don't marry an Irish person"........hahahahahaha.......Mary, my Irish wife, didn't find that very funny!!

Main instruction for the first 4 weeks: Let the baby concentrate on Black and White objects. Her eyes focuses best on these colours.


(Well...her daddy's eyes couldn't agree more with a pint of GUINNESS!!! hahahaha!!)


In all honesty...she's great and really not too much trouble at all except for the screaming and shouting.


Baby Maya is great too!!! :)

• Post Election
  
  It’s been quite amusing reading the various “post election” articles in the Sun over the last couple of weeks.
  What seems to be obvious is that the opposition (or should I say alternative?), who are now the state government in 5 states are trying hard to clean up dodgy contracts, policies, etc. and start a new era of governance.
  The ruling government, on the other hand, seems so caught up in conducting “post mortems” of what went wrong.
  How can it be so blindingly clear to the “rakyat” but so unclear to our elected BN reps?
  Didn’t we say, in countless instances, that we felt corruption was rife and could see no signs of it reducing?
  Didn’t we say that we felt that the safety of our children and families were not sufficiently protected by our police force?
  Didn’t we march in unison, in the thousands, to demand equality, and honesty?
  
  What I really feel hard to understand is…..what is it that went so wrong for the BN anyway?
  
  The BN have still been given the mandate to run the country, only this time without the 2/3 majority. THEY DID NOT LOSE.
  
  Shouldn’t our PM be saying that this is a good thing?
  
  The current status will allow the government to now become more transparent and MPs will have to truly perform to gain the trust and support of the public. Both the BN and the opposition will have to work hard FOR the people to ensure they stay in power. The “rakyat” now have a positive choice to decide what they want for their future.
  
  Isn’t this really good?
  
  Doesn’t this clearly show how Malaysia and Malaysians have come a long way, 50 years since independence?
  
  The bottom line is clear. What our leaders need to do is:
• Work for the people. (This is what a government is supposed to do in the first place!)
• Get ministers into office which have sound education, intelligence and a high level of performance.
• Listen to grievances of the people with an open mind.
• Raise salaries of deserving government servants to make corruption ineffective. (Take Singapore as an example to achieve this.)
• Give incentives to deserving police personnel. (Again we can look across the causeway for advice on this as well.)
• Move away from racial and religious issues. The people have clearly shown that quality of a candidate is the far greater factor.
• STOP SPENDING MONEY ON NONSENSE!!! (Like the astronaut programme, buying jet fighters, etc)
  
  I hope they will see this past election as a new start to creating a better government.

MIC and Malaysian Politics (In stand-up style)

The Election 2008 has come and gone………just like the MIC.
Yup…don’t see many of them in the Cabinet…(And that’s not to do with the fact that they’re dark la!!!)
Speaking of the MIC……me and some buddies of mine had tried to join the MIC some time ago…
1 engineer, 1 pilot and 1 banker….all without any financial issues caused by MAIKA problems.
The form given was simple but I guess they missed out the “REAL” questions:
Which gang are you affiliated to?
What rank do you hold in the hierarchy of the gang?
Which MIC leader is the patron of the gang?
What tenders and contracts are you interested in?
If the answer is NO or Not Applicable to all of the above, then pls proceed to question 200…..??????
Question 200 is……. “Why you want to join MIC la, macha???”
Our educated answer was……..
“To make a difference by contributing to the Malaysian Indian population in a positive way without expecting anything in return.”
I’m sure the guy handling our application was thinking (in Tamil), “I should whack these fellows with a worn-out slipper!!!!”
Indians who speak Tamil will know how beautiful that sentence sound in its original form.
Then came the all mighty question,” You fellows can speak Tamil ah?” (Shaking of head included)
My pilot friend who was a nice and polite, 6 feet tall, teddy bear natured guy (who incidentally does NOT speak fluent Tamil……….but, of course, knows most of the swear words) became a rather angry bear!!!!
“DEY!!!,” he said in his most convincing “Indian movie gangster ” style!!
“You guys are the Malaysian INDIAN Congress or Malaysian TAMIL Congress ah????”
I’m sure the guy handling our application was thinking AGAIN (in Tamil), “I should whack these fellows with a worn-out slipper!!!!”
At that point we decided, enough of this, we said thanks and left. While shaking our heads of course...

Now let’s look at other interesting issues:

Menteri Besars in Perlis.
How many Menteri Besars la for such a small state??
MB is Menteri Besar….so the other one is what…..MLB…Menteri LAGI Besar ah????
I think if the issue is too much of a problem……we should just sell that damn state off to Thailand!!
It’s so far up north anyway right?
Think about it……if you sell it to Thailand…..your drive to Thailand get closer and you have one less state to explain to your kids that you know nuts about!!
We’ll have another 2 less states to explain if we can do the same to Sabah and Sarawak too!! Sell them off to the Indonesian or the Filipinos.
But I was told that half of the members of Parliament are from there so selling them is no longer an option.
But the government can really use the Sabahans and Sarawakians.
With the other half of the Parliament being opposition, the blowpipe skills of these tribesmen may come in handy!!
And what about all these Malaysian “beer and alcohol drinking” Indian guys supporting PAS???? Do they know what will happen to their pubs? Huh?? Huh??
What about the Chinese PAS supporters??
Ba Ku Teh? Char siew pau??
How?
Well,
If we follow the plan…they can all go and party in Perlis la…..it’s already in Thailand what!!!