Asian Tiger

I’m leaving for Singapore to take a very short break (1 night’s stay). Buses seems to be the cheapest mode of transporting myself over the straits into Singapore and back.

There are several bus companies that provide transportation between the 2 countries but here, I’ve listed only 2; Nice and Aeroline. These 2 companies seem to specialize in the KUL-SIN sector. Both companies provides 2 types of luxury bus. The first is a double-decker bus and the other a single deck bus. Both types of bus carries approximately 28 passengers which means that you can be assured of spacious and comfortable seats.

If you are in Kuala Lumpur, you can opt to purchase a to and fro ticket which works out to be cheaper compared to purchasing a return ticket from Singapore. The cost of the ticket is RM80 (US$21.65) per passenger per trip. For more information:
Aeroline http://www.aeroline.com.my/
Plusliner/Nice http://www.plusliner.com/

Internet access today has become a desired service wherever one goes. For businessmen, a communication tool; for webmasters, a link to his/her sites; for students, to lepak (hangout) at forums and online games. Whatever the use may be, Internet access has now became a part of us.

I do travel quite a bit around the country and I have also found bits of places that has free Internet WiFi (not sure if they are actual free offerings or unsecured WiFi). I will try to write about free WiFi for places that I know and experience before. I have a perpectual TMNet hotspot account which I use around the country.

To start things off, I was at KL Sentral today and wanted to check on some of my sites. After the normal booting up, I noticed that my WiFi was automatically connected. It was connected to an access point called “PTPL KLSENTRAL AP02“. If you locate yourself near to the check-in counters for MAS flights, you will be able to achieve 40% to 60% signal strength (Intel Centrino laptop). I tried using my Cisco Aironet 352 WiFi PCMCIA card and could only achieve a 20% signal strength.
Enjoy!

Last week, I took flight to Kuching which is the capital of Sarawak state located in East Malaysia (Borneo Island). I chose Holiday Inn Kuching to hang my butt for its proximity to shopping complexes and food. While I was sitting in the lobby (happily surfing wirelessly using TMNet HotSpot), a group of angmoh (white people) about 5 to 6 of them congregated right behind my seat.

They chatted about their day and since I was seated right in front of them, I could hear every word of their conversation. Then this angmoh woman asked the group “Is it safe to use the hotel water to brush our teeth?”

When I heard that, I was like “Aiyo! Friend! This one is 4 star hotel in the middle of the city lah. You think Malaysia rely on drain/river water izzit?” I turned around and wanted to address the woman’s concern when this angmoh man answered her “Yeah. It’s pretty safe to use it to brush your teeth but just do not drink directly from the tap.” I thought it was a fair statement, so I shut up lor.

That goes to show what the orang putih/mat saleh/angmoh/caucasians think of our beloved country. We really need our Tourism Ministry to educate these people. Teach them kau-kau about our country.

p.s. On food, if you happen to land yourself in Kuching, hop over to TopSpot in Taman Kereta. Go over to Stall No. 33 and order their Black Pepper Crab. They’re fantastic!!