"Behavioural problem"

This morning I had to deal with a rather problematic situation. Basically this guy logged an issue and I was assigned to investigate it. So I asked him for the details.

Guy: "You press this, do that, then the failure happens."
Leo: "Wait, can you explain to me this feature."
Guy: "You don't know this? Then how to investigate?"
Leo: "That's why I'm asking you. You can tell me."
Guy: "You don't even know the basic, better go and ask your seniors first. I know nowadays they are hiring a lot of new people. I don't want to waste my time. You better ask your boss to assign this issue to someone else."
Leo: "Ok, let me tell him."

So I wrote a short email, stating that Guy suggest to assign the issue to someone else because he deems it too time-consuming to explain to me. And he replied. "Yes, you should send Leo for training. I don't want to waste my time explaining to him when he DON'T EVEN KNOW the basic. If I tell him, he won't be able to understand." And copied his bosses.

Well, I was still trying to save his face when I composed that mail in a neutral way. Too bad he copied his boss and wrote in that tone! The US boss wasn't happy at all with that email reply. But he told me, "Don't take it too personally, don't worry about this issue, and go enjoy the holidays." ;)

Unfortunately in the organization, there are and will be people with such behavioural problems. Usually, these are the younger engineers who have picked up a little bit of skills here and there. That's when they start to get big-headed. Learning is a life-long process. We must always be humble to learn and not think that we already know everything. In fact, the more you learn, the more you feel there is so much that you don't know.

What now? Get angry at him? The words didn't hurt, but being treated like this hurts. I believe we should not. In fact we should embody the very ideal we believe in. When they see that it is fine to ask questions and it is actually a privilege that someone asks you a question, perhaps one day it might change their mindset, just as it did mine.

"Happy Chinese New Year!"

Wishing all of you a Happy Chinese New Year, take care and enjoy the holidays.

I will be going back to Melaka this Sat morning, back to work on 2nd Feb.

Signing off, cya... :)

"Langkawi Day 3 ~ Underwater World, Finale"

Woke up, packed, say goodbye to Hotel Helang, flight back was at 3PM. So, not really any plan for the day. We decided to give the 3rd Geoforest Park (Tasik Dayang Bunting) a miss due to not wanting to cramp so much into the holiday.

Ah, the classic rented car, PDB712. Outside looks still ok, but inside... the seat is so hard to adjust, and no power steering :-S

Went to Breakfast Bar in Pantai Cenang (we always go there since it's near to the airport) for some light breakfast. The Underwater World attraction was nearby so we dropped by for a look (check price first!). It was RM25 per person (again, MyKad) so ok, lets just go there and see-see. They've actually renovated the place and now includes new attractions such as....

Penguins.. two diff types. I managed to catch a seal show too. Upload the video later (they kept moving, hard to snap!). And more random shots...

Gigantic stingray resting on top!

They also have a 3D cinema where u need to wear the glasses. The show was pretty short and the system maybe needs some tuning coz the effect didn't really work well..

Places where u can pose...

Ah, the most interesting one... the jelly fish! Against the blue backdrop, it looks alien-like... There's no mouth that I can see, what does it eat?? And another weird one, looks like a seahorse, but also looks like a piece of seaweed...

:-S

Overall Underwater World is decent enough that we spent about 2 hours there. Then still got time and petrol (return it empty!), so we drove around...



Pantai Cenang... and stopping nearby the airport runway...



Cows, buffaloes...



Paddy fields never looked so good!



Time to go, return the car, the owner say just leave it at the carpark, he'll collect it later (!).... Firefly arrives on schedule this time...



Beautiful mini islands of Langkawi seen as we take off... Thumbs up for Firefly! Get orange juice some more :)

That's it, holiday over! So, when's the next one? :D

"Langkawi Day 2 Part 2 ~ Helang, Mahsuri & Food!"

After the Kilim tour, went to Kuah for lunch and bought the 'goodies': Alcohol & Chocolates ;) Then went to Dataran Helang again, this time for day shot:

The Helang statue is really impressive and makes for many good scenic shots~~



My current wallpaper :D



The entrance of Taman Lagenda... CLOSED (for renovation I guess). We still have the evening to spare, so made a detour to Kota Mahsuri. You can say a trip to Langkawi just isn't complete without a visit to this place...



Mahsuri's tomb. There's a museum erected to showcase her legend, but too bad, can't take pics inside.



Malay kampung houses. Frankly, besides the museum, the rest of the place is very boring. The most dissappointing thing is that they seem desperate to squeeze as much money out of the visitors. The entrance to this place is already RM5 (remember to show your MyKad), but inside, you have to pay to view some of the other stuff (performance and diorama). It's like... wtf~~~



Paddy fields and the entrance to Kota Mahsuri. Once is enough :P



One the highway back, there is a signboard saying "Pemandangan Indah". Ok, lets see what it is... Ah, a view of the airport and in the distance are the many peaks of Mount Machincang.

It was New Year's Eve that day. Hotel Helang had a BBQ buffet for RM50++ per person to celebrate the New Year. After thinking about it (and the rude sounding waitress), we decided to go to the lively Pantai Cenang for dinner! Yeah, it's not cheap here too, but hey, this is a holiday and tomorrow we'll be going back :-( So, time to indulge! :P After making a few rounds, we settled for this place serving Malay food.



Superb ambience...



Kailan ikan masin (wow!!), tomyam soup (average)



curry chicken (average) and satay (yumm..) The bill came to about RM70+, things definitely not cheap over here! Supposedly wanted to wait for countdown, but was thoroughly exhausted by the day's adventures. Knocked out at 10pm :P

Next: Day 3: Uh-oh, the last day :-S

"Langkawi Day 2 Part 1 ~ Kilim Geoforest Park!"

Woke up early and drove to Tanjung Rhu for the next part of the adventure~ Kilim Geoforest Park! This place is part of the Mangrove Tour found in a lot of the brochures distributed. I did a little research beforehand and it costs about RM280-300 per person for the 6 hour guided tour package. A cheaper alternative is to go to Tanjung Rhu and get one of the local boat tours. Tanjung Rhu is on the north side of Langkawi, which is about 20-30 mins drive from hotel.



My sis mentioned it's a beautiful place, but man, were we awe-struck by the first sight of it!



Notice the beach area actually links clearly to the unique U-shaped rock. At low tide, you can actually walk to these islands!

At this early in the morning (9.30AM), we found one tour operator which just opened. The price was RM170 per boat for a 2 hour trip. These tours are much cheaper because they don't come with the guide. We bargained that there's just 2 of us, so why not RM150? ;) She agreed and come to think of it, we got the WHOLE boat to ourselves! Hehehe..



Off we go, speeding towards these mini island/rock formations! The trip basically rounds the north tip of Langkawi and goes into the mangrove (bakau) rivers and back to Tanjung Rhu.



Fishermen waving at us. On the background is mainland Thailand!



Our first stop of the day, Gua Cerita. The boatman said we can walk the length of that white jetty to see the rock formation. Nvm la, we're not National Geographic :P




Climb the stairs up to the cave. Boatman gave us a torchlight (!) and we can explore the cave, Indiana Jones-style!



It's a pretty small cave, and you can see many of these weird stone formations. The atmosphere became very creepy when we pointed the light to the cave walls... there are pictures drawn on it, and faces..... gosh, I couldn't wait to get out of there!



Ok, back out in the seas, leaving Gua Cerita behind. Along the ride, the boatman pointed our several weird rocks, such as this one which resembled a whale (or a crocodile, gf said).



Then we reached an area which is the icon of Langkawi Geopark:



The Setul Formation and the "Kilim Geoforest Park" sign!



We move from the open seas into the mangrove rivers...



And this is the next part of the tour... Eagle feeding!

The boatman revs up his engine as a call to the eagles in the area. He then drops chicken skin around and moves to the distance. The eagles are accustomed to the engine sound and associates it with feeding time. After awhile, many eagles circle the area and then with impeccable timing, they swoop down to the surface and snatch the meal! Actually the eagles look smaller than I imagined :P

Another tour boat arrives.. More food for eagles! After watching another session, we were off again...

Ever seen monkeys *swimming*?? Ok, next was another cave, this one called Gua Kelawar... yup.. BATS.

The bats are all over the ceiling of the cave. Everywhere. But dun worry, these are fruit bats. They can be seen hanging on one leg upside down. Cool. And they dun react to light, only sound. Try whistling and they'll move!

It's much less creepier than Gua Cerita, and basically has a platform that goes from one end to the other. Also, many weird and outworldly rock formations...

Still cruising along~~~ and see mangrove up close. These pokok bakau have some filters that allow them to survive in salt water. I recall studying it in school before.

Ah, the next cave, but this one we can go through it on boat. It was kind of congested, have to wait for our turn to cross it. Fortunately the time is right and it's not high tide, so we can pass through it just nice...

Towards the end of the trip, back to the seas... Mr boatman was getting a lot of phone calls "Where are you??". Hehe.. it was already more than 2 hours and his boss was anxious to get him back :P

The last part was to a nearby floating fish farm. They'll show you the variety of unique fishes they rear, like this yellow fish. The guy scooped it out of the water (won't it die?? Nope, it can last few minutes, but poor thing!) and asked me to touch the head, which was stone-hard! Then he showed us a blowfish! Rub it and it expands.... becoz it's frightened... :-S

Feeding a tame stingray.. I dare not try!

And that's it! We were back in Tanjung Rhu, 2.5 hours long trip, more than worth the price! I hugely recommend this activity if you're in Langkawi. Kilim has some of the most majestic rock formations in the world and the landscape is absolutely stunning.

Next: Day 2, Part 2!

"Langkawi Day 1 ~ Cable Car!"

The end of 2008 had a pretty long stretch of holidays. Christmas, Awal Muharam and New Years Day. Take another 4 days and we have a cool 11 days stretch! Anyways, most people were having shut-downs and our US counterparts were already on vacation. At first was thinking of hibernating in Melaka, but then just a few days before the holiday started, we booked Firefly to spend New Year's Day in Langkawi! Omg, it was so sudden. Some last minute research and off we go!

Firefly is pretty cool. Ok, propellers don't inspire much confidence but it is a good alternative to driving+ferrying there! The flight was delayed 45 minutes :-S but once on board, it took less than 30 minutes to reach Langkawi Int' Airport. The best part is, you can get straight to the action! We chose to book the hotel stay with Firefly as well. Cost RM798 for the flight tickets and the 3D2N stay at Hotel Helang, just beside the airport.


Huge room~~

We setup our trip based on the recent declaration of Langkawi as the 52nd UNESCO World Geopark. Three of its main Geopark components are Mount Machincang Cambrian Geoforest Park, Kilim Geoforest Park and Pulau Tasik Dayang Bunting. For the first day, we're going up Mount Machincang, via the Cable Car!



The cable car ride can be summed up as both spectacular.... and scary! The view is truly spectacular. It feels like flying. But when the carriage goes past a connecting point, in the silence, it gives a metal creaking sound. And it shakes a little. :-S Yeah, the mind will be wondering: what if it falls.......... The final ascent to the first station is at 45 degrees~~ gf can barely watch!



And here's the view from the first platform... can see many smaller islands. And in the distance is the Skybridge.



Gf keep buggin me to go back down.. She's really afraid of heights! :P Ok, line up for the ride to the peak. This time it's not so scary, no more 45 degrees ascent. When we reached the peak platform, we took a short 10 minutes hike down to get to the Skybridge.



The Skybridge! Truly one of the most amazing walks!



Can see the cable cars going upwards to the peak..



Hiked back to the top and you can get a good view of the length of the Skybridge.



At the highest peak... can see the many other peaks of Machincang, covered with clouds..

Ok, took the ride back down. Gf was worried that it'll rain /thunderstorm etc. But one thing though, our carriage did stall (!) on the way down. I'm not sure it was some malfunction or maybe they stop long jz to give us a good view of the place. At that time, I started to doubt the cable car! Hahha..



Back on the ground at last. The cable car is part of this Oriental Village place. They have a Geopark info centre where you can learn more about the different rocks found here.

After Machincang, we drove around, getting familiarize with the roads. The signboards are pretty helpful. Can see paddy fields around.



We went to Pantai Cenang to catch a sunset... The beach isn't exactly superb or even clean. It's passable. Then at night time, went to Kuah town to search for food. But scared kena potong, so end up eating KFC! Hahah :P



Then went to the Jetty to snap some pics of Dataran Helang at night. Went back, slept early, tomorrow's adventure awaits!

Next: Day 2: Kilim Geoforest!