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Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-02T01:32:00.001+08:00

I spent the New Year’s eve in Bintan, Nirwana Garden Resorts in Bintan Resorts, Lagoi, to be exact, and spending the last day of 2011 shuttling (islands hopping, to be exact) between Bintan and Batam. Going through the change of year with mixed feelings, here’s the story.

Towards the end of 2011, I was informed that my brother’s family would be spending New Year’s eve in Bintan Resorts, and that my parents are going with them. And my mother specifically requested me to join them to celebrate the new year there. I then decided to go with my son Irza, while my wife and my daughter Inka are staying in Singapore.

My brother and his family and my parents arrived in Bintan on Friday (30/12). They took a flight from Jakarta to Batam, and then caught the speedboat from Telaga Punggur in Batam to Tanjung Uban in Bintan. There used to be a direct ferry from Telaga Punggur to Bandar Bentan Telani (BBT) ferry terminal in Bintan Resorts, but for some reason, the ferry service was not operational.

I and Irza left Singapore for Bintan on Saturday morning (31/12). We took the 9am ferry from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal (TMFT) in Singapore, and arrived in Bandar Bentan Telani ferry terminal at 9am Bintan (WIB) time. This was when the bad news came in.

When we boarded the shuttle bus which would bring us from the ferry terminal to the resort, my brother called. He said that my mother fell off the electric bicycle she was riding, and she fractured her arm. When I and Irza arrived in the Nirwana Resort Hotel where we are staying, we immediately went to the hotel’s clinic to check my mother’s condition.

Going back to the hotel’s clinic reminded me of another unpleasant experience I had couple of years back there. When I was swimming on the sea with the kids, my foot was bitten by some kind of a poisonous fish, and I needed to spend couple of hours in the clinic to get the venom taken off my foot.

While the hotel doctor has tried her best to put a bandage for my mother’s arm, it’s not sufficient. The hotel clinic doesn’t have X-ray equipment, so my mother needs to go to the nearest hospital which has the equipment, as well as the specialized doctor who can further check her condition. Luckily, she has a friend in Batam who can arrange for an orthopaedic doctor to check my mother’s condition in Awal Bros hospital in Batam.

I then accompanied my mother and my father to go to Batam, after leaving Irza in Bintan under my brother’s care. We took a pre-arranged taxi to Tanjung Uban, from where we took a chartered speedboat to Telaga Punggur in Batam. From Telaga Punggur, we took another pre-arranged taxi to go directly to Awal Bros hospital’s emergency department.

My mother had her arm being X-rayed and the result was not good. She had three bones fractured on her left arm, and most probably would need to undergo operation. I was prepared to spend the new year in Batam when my father decided that he is bringing my mother back to Jakarta so that she can have better treatment (including operation, if necessary) there.

My parents’ Lion Air tickets to Jakarta was for the next day (1/1)’s flight, and I tried calling Lion Air hotline in Batam in a hope to change the tickets to the current day (31/12), but there was nobody picking up the phone. So we decided to go to Garuda Indonesia office located in i Hotel Batam, located near Nagoya Hill, to purchase new airline tickets to Jakarta so that my parents can fly to Jakarta on the same day.

Since my parents decide to go back to Jakarta on that day, I then had to go back to Bintan, and I needed to go back fast since the speedboats from Telaga Punggur to Tanjung Uban only operate during daylight. After sending off my parents at Hang Nadim airport in Batam and had a quick (very late) lunch at Singgalang Jaya padang restaurant there, I took a taxi to Telaga Punggur (Rp 65k). Finally I managed to secure a seat on a 4:30pm speedboat to Tanjung Uban (Rp 30k + Rp 7k tax). It was a bumpy ride to Tanjung Uban with choppy waters and a full-house boat with standing passengers.

My brother had arranged for a taxi to pick me up at Tanjung Uban jetty back to Nirwana Gardens, although I needed to wait for around 30 minutes until the taxi arrived. We had a brief stop in a sate Madura stall in front of the At-Taqwa grand mosque in Tanjung Uban, before arriving in Nirwana Resort Hotel, in time for the gala dinner and the new year’s countdown party.

It was one of the great countdown parties ever. Great gala dinner, and we also won one of the lucky prizes. Awesome live band, and great fireworks over the sea off Bintan during the countdown. But still, we celebrated the new year with mixed feelings, since at the same time, my mother arrived in Jakarta and directly checked-in to Fatmawati hospital.

The next day (1/1), I and Irza took the 2:35pm ferry back to Singapore, while uncle Arief , auntie Via, Alif and Kayla went back to Jakarta via Batam using the same route: taxi to Tanjung Uban, speedboat to Telaga Punggur, taxi to Hang Nadim airport and then the Lion Air plane back to Jakarta.

At the moment, my mother is still warded in Fatmawati hospital, and currently is undergoing pre-op examination. She might be undergoing operation on her left arm in 3-4 days.

Mohon doa dari rekan-rekan sekalian untuk kesembuhan beliau.

Happy New Year to everyone!

F*cking Bad Service from Swensen’s Jurong Point

2011-09-09T18:23:00.001+08:00

Last Wednesday, I went to Swensen’s in Jurong Point (located in the B1 floor of the new Jurong Point 2 shopping mall) to have dinner with my wife and daughter. As usual, the queue is long, which is the norm since Jurong Point is one of the busiest shopping malls in west Singapore. I ordered an Arabiatta Penne while my wife and daughter ordered other dishes in the menu.

I noticed that the restaurant was understaffed, it was full house but only a handful of staff were servicing the customers. My problem started when my Arabiatta Penne never reached our table, even after my wife and daughter have already finished their meals! And it was very difficult to call the staff, we had to raise our hands several times just to get their attention.

Finally I managed to get a staff to attend to us, and I informed her that my Arabiatta Penne was not served yet. She then went back to the kitchen to check, and after another 10-15 minutes of wait, then my Arabiatta Penne arrived.

Another problem surfaced when we wanted to pay for the bill. Again, it was very difficult to get the staff’s attention for us to request for the bill. After more than 5 minutes without avail to get their attention, then I took the initiative to go to the cashier directly to settle the bill. When I arrived at the cashier, the lady was attending to another customer so I waited patiently until my turn to be served.

Another customer, a lady, came to the cashier, stood right next to me and immediately told the cashier her table number, and the cashier processed her bill and served her first. I was very irritated but still waiting patiently, presuming that the cashier would processed my bill after processing the lady’s bill.

And, guess what, the cashier simply ignored me and attended another lady, who stood on my left. I was angry so I decided to walk back to my table. The cashier seemed to notice my anger and she informed her manager, who then came to the table. I simply informed the manager that I wanted the bill, and then she processed the bill and I left the restaurant.

That’s it? No. Several steps after leaving the restaurant, I examined the bill and noticed that they have double-charged the Arabiatta Penne, it was listed as two instead of one. What the f*ck??? It seems that when I informed the staff that my Arabiatta Penne was not yet arrived, the staff thought that I wanted to order another Arabiatta Penne!

I went back to the cashier and asked them to fix this. At the same time, the manager and the cashier were both there so I informed the manager about the earlier incident. And the cashier still wanted to defend herself, saying that the lady on my left was actually coming first, so she had to attend her first. Then what about the lady on my right, which definitely arrived in the cashier later than me? Why the cashier attended to her first?

I didn’t want to argue further, so I just tried to keep myself calm and let them process the refund. They said they can only refund by cash, which is OK with me. After getting the money, then I just left.

And I will never visit this Swensen’s outlet again. At least, until they fix the queue management issue on their cashier, and until they hire more staff for the outlet.

Eid Mubarak

2011-09-04T01:49:00.001+08:00

It’s been a long time since I updated my blogs. :)

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Muslim friends a very happy Hari Raya Idul Fitri 1432H. Taqabalallahu mina waminkum, shiyamana wa shiyamakum. May everyone has a blessed Eid festival.

This year, I am celebrating Hari Raya Idul Fitri in Singapore. Actually, I wanted to go back to Jakarta for this year’s Hari Raya, especially since the Hari Raya gathering for my extended family and relatives in Indonesia was conducted in my parent’s house in Cinere, just south of Jakarta. Unfortunately, Inka had an examination last Wednesday, 31 August 2011, exactly one day after Hari Raya, so it was not possible to excuse her from attending school during the day. Especially, since she is now preparing for the PSLE examination for her to leave primary school by end of this year.

For the first time, during this year’s Hari Raya, we celebrated Hari Raya Idul Fitri one day earlier than my extended family and relatives in Indonesia. The Singapore government and MUIS (the Islamic council of Singapore), which is using hisab (wujudul hilal) calculation to determine the first day of the Islamic lunar calendar month, decided that this year’s Hari Raya Idul Fitri falls on Tuesday, 30 August 2011, while the Indonesian government, which is using rukyah (rukyatul hilal) system (by sighting the moon), decided that this year’s Hari Raya Idul Fitri falls on Wednesday, 31 August 2011.

We always follow (local) government’s decision in deciding which day for us to celebrate Hari Raya. Therefore, I and my family in Singapore celebrated Hari Raya on Tuesday, together with other Muslims in Singapore, while my extended family and relatives in Indonesia celebrated Hari Raya on Wednesday. I felt very awkward when I couldn’t call my parents and relatives in Indonesia after Eid prayer on Tuesday, because they haven’t celebrated Hari Raya on that day. I called my parents only on the next day, Wednesday, from the office, while my wife was at home and the kids were already going to school (and Inka was having her exam).

Fortunately, we have friends here in Singapore, mostly Indonesians living in Singapore, who celebrate Hari Raya together with us, so we don’t feel much the loneliness in celebrating Hari Raya Idul Fitri in Singapore. After performing the Eid prayer in Ar-Raudhah mosque, which is located just next to our apartment’s complex, I and family attended a Hari Raya gathering for Indonesians staying in Bukit Batok and surroundings, which was conducted in Parkview Apartments, Bukit Batok. We also attended a Hari Raya open-house event conducted by one of our friends in The Trevose, Dunearn. Actually, there was another Hari Raya gathering for Indonesians in Singapore, which was conducted in Woodlands, however we couldn’t attend the gathering due to time constraint.

The pictures during the Hari Raya gathering event in Bukit Batok can be found here, while the pictures during the Hari Raya open-house event in The Trevose can be found here.

An Indonesian Minister’s Analysis on Singapore

2010-08-27T00:35:00.001+08:00

Indonesia’s Communication and Information Technology Minister, Tifatul Sembiring, shared his analysis on Singapore and its relationship with Indonesia, through his Twitter account.

According to Tifatul, Singapore’s history is inseparably related to a figure of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister and current minister mentor. On year 1959, while Singapore’s gross national product (GNP) was US$400, Lee had a vision of the GNP to have a 60-fold increase to US$24,000 by 1990. And in 1995, Singapore’s GNP was US$20,000, nearly reaching the target.

Tifatul said that he had the opportunity to have a direct discussion with Lee twice, and at the age of nearly 90 years old, Lee is described by Tifatul as “still smart”. Tifatul asked Lee on how he built Singapore, how is Indonesia’s future competitiveness, the role of China, India, Japan and South Korea, and Lee answered his questions with excitement.

Singapore is like a mini-Indonesia, multi-ethnic with Chinese majority, and Lee said, they are being “engineered” to interact with each other. As a small nation without natural resources, they have to invite people to do business in Singapore. That’s why they must have an airline with the best service, referring to Singapore Airlines (SQ).

According to Lee as quoted by Tifatul, the society have to be disciplined, there have to be certainty on law, which is enforced strictly. No smoking by law, a ban on spitting, and death penalty for drug traffickers are just the examples. There’s no democracy in Singapore, opposition is just a complement. As what Lee said, they don’t want to take the risk of political turmoil, they have to be stable. As a result, investors are streaming in.

Tifatul asked Edward Lee, a former Singapore’s ambassador for Indonesia, on what is Singapore’s modern vision. Edward replied: “Vision Hub”. Tifatul asked what does that mean, and it was explained to him that Singapore has to become the central (hub) of businesses. We (Indonesia) might be rich in oil, gas etc, but they have to be sold via Singapore, resulting in the price to follow MOPS (Mean of Platts Singapore). We might have Bali, Lake Toba, Singkarak, Maninjau, Bunaken, Senggigi, Bromo, Sentani, but visitors will have to go through Singapore, using Singapore’s travel agents.

With main businesses on finance, banking, insurance, telecommunications and trade services, and with a population of 4.5 million people, Singapore’s foreign reserves reaches US$ 120 billion. In 2005, Singapore is Indonesia’s biggest foreign investors. They are now harvesting the result of their expansion strategy (Tifatul used the term “tebar jala” in bahasa Indonesia) to neighbouring countries.

Therefore, Tifatul concluded that we have to learn from history. A crisis will not be resolved by simple amok and flag burning. There have to be “smart moves”. He’s referring to the current crisis between Indonesia and Malaysia, pertaining to the arrests of Indonesian maritime officers by Malaysia’s police.

“Older” Hyperlink on Koprol Mobile

2010-06-26T22:37:00.003+08:00

If I’m accessing Koprol via its mobile interface and go to Home, when I click the “Older” hyperlink to see the earlier timeline for the first time (to go to page 2 of the timeline), it’s working properly. But when I click the “older” hyperlink for the second time (to go to page 3 of the timeline), I see very old updates (around 7 days ago) instead of the earlier timeline.

The problem only happens if I use my mobile phone to access the mobile interface. If I use my laptop, I don’t encounter the same problem.

Not too sure why. Is it my mobile phone’s browser issue? I’m using Opera Mobile on my HTC HD2.

Update on 27 June 2010, 10:30hrs SGT: I have performed further troubleshooting last night, upon getting some advice from Daniel Armanto, one of Koprol's bosses. It seems that the problem only happened if I'm using SingTel's 3.5G connection. When I switched to my wi-fi connection at home, I didn't encounter the problem, despite it's connected to the same ISP, SingNet in this case.

Thus, I'm convinced now that the problem is not on Koprol's server nor on my mobile phone's browser, but it's most probably my 3.5G Internet service provider issue. Looks like it's SingTel 3.5G's proxy issue?

Xperia X1’s Sliding Keyboard: Design Flaw

2009-11-03T18:08:00.001+08:00

Photo: My Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

After almost a year using my Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 mobile phone, I have come to a conclusion that its sliding keyboard is a design flaw. If you really a heavy user of the keyboard, I would not recommend the phone at all. On the other hand, people normally choose Xperia X1 because of the keyboard, otherwise they would opt for other cheaper phones such as HTC Diamond or Samsung Omnia. Therefore, it’s not worth spending your money for that expensive phone. For Xperia X1 wanna-be user, I would suggest you buy another phone instead.

Lousy Phone

I bought the phone on November last year, and after becoming a happy user of the phone for just several weeks, I have started to experience the problem on its sliding keyboard some time on late February or early March 2009, which was just several months after it was bought. I will not go into details on the problem, you can just click the above-mentioned hyperlinks for more info about the problem. In short, the problem was fixed after I sent the phone for repair some time on July 2009. Basically, they changed the keyboard with a new one to fix the problem, although since they confirmed that it was a hardware issue, I had concerns that the new keyboard would eventually have the same problem when the time comes.

And… guess what? My concerns came true. Since last month, again I started to experience similar problem with the keyboard. And yes, it *is* the new keyboard which is having the same problem. And I am not alone, many other Xperia X1 users experience the same problem after several weeks or months using the phone. With even new keyboard experiencing the same problem, I conclude that the problem is due to a design flaw which will cause the keyboard to have the problem after several weeks or month of usage, depends on how often the user uses the sliding keyboard.

Lousy Service

I brought the phone to the Sony Ericsson Service Centre at Wisma Atria again last Sunday (1/11). Since the warranty period is nearing the end, the customer service officer said that the service will be chargeable, even though I brought the warranty card, because I was unable to provide her with the receipt as proof of purchase. She said that she was not able to determine the exact date of purchase because it was not on Sony Ericsson’s database.

She advised that I can try calling SingTel Mobile’s customer service and get them to fax the copy of my mobile contract to Sony Ericsson. When I called them, they said that they can provide the service, however it would take 5-7 working days and it costs me $30. The SingTel’s service officer advised that I might be able to get the copy of the mobile contract from the shop I purchased the Xperia X1 from. Sigh, I ditched the idea and decided to search for the contract on my pile of files at home on Sunday night. Alhamdulillah, thank God, I found it after almost two hours combing my files, and I have faxed it over to Sony Ericsson earlier this morning to ensure that I don’t get charged for this service.

No More Sony Ericsson Phones For Me

With such an experience with a lousy phone with a lousy service from the service centre, I have promised myself that I will never buy another Sony Ericsson phone. Well, some might said that since Xperia X1 was built by HTC for Sony Ericsson, that means the design flaw might be HTC’s fault, but I have friends who have HTC Touch Pro and the newer HTC Touch Pro 2, and they are happy users of the phones. My friend Arga suggested me to upgrade to the upcoming Xperia X2 phone which will be released this month, or even the future Android-based Xperia X3, but how can I ensure that similar design flaw will not apply to the newer phones as well?

Photo: HTC Touch Pro 2 (courtesy of gsmarena.com)

Photo: Samsung B7610 OmniaPRO (courtesy of gsmarena.com)

Photo: Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 (courtesy of gsmarena.com)

Photo: Nokia N97 (courtesy of gsmarena.com)

Yes, I intend to replace my Xperia X1 soon, if the problem still happens again after this second round of servicing. But I’m still not too sure which phone I should buy. It has to has a sliding keyboard, and it cannot be another Sony Ericsson phone. :P So, Xperia X2 is definitely out of question. I was considering Nokia N97 before my friends advised me that it’s not really a good phone, since it hangs quite frequently. I am currently considering either HTC Touch Pro 2 or the new Samsung B7610 OmniaPRO (the sliding keyboard type-one, not the Blackberry-alike OmniaPRO B7320). Do you have any other phones I should consider? :)

Kudos to An-Nahdhah Mosque's Management

2009-10-20T22:18:00.001+08:00

I was attending a friend's wedding event at An-Nahdhah Mosque, Bishan on Sunday, 11 October 2009 and when I went back, I inadvertently and carelessly left my bag, containing my HP Mini netbook, at the basement carpark, before I went into my car. It seems that I might have left the bag when I needed to put on my shoes, and I only realised it after I reached my home at Bukit Batok.

I immediately called the mosque's management after getting the number from SingTel's directory service (100). While driving back from Bukit Batok to Bishan (which seemed like forever), I had Mr. Jamal on the other line, who patiently listened to my panic voice explaining that I had left my bag in the basement carpark. I even wrongly informed him that it was a blue bag, while it is actually a purple backpack. Mr. Jamal said he would check and advised me to call him back in 15 minutes.

Fifteen minutes later, I was already exiting PIE onto Lornie Road when I tried to call the mosque again, and was nervous when nobody picked up the call. I kept on calling using my handsfree but unable to reach anyone in the mosque, until I reached the mosque itself and went into the basement carpark. I was even more nervous when I couldn't find the bag at the place where I might have left it, and immediately took the lift upstairs to the first floor to go to the management office.

I met the mosque's staff at the office (I'm not too sure whether he's Mr. Jamal or another staff) and, alhamdulillah, thank God, the bag was there and he gave it to me. He mentioned that upon receiving my call, he immediately went to the basement carpark and found the bag near the carpark's lobby entrance. There were some other people around when he found the bag so he asked them whether the bag belongs to them, and they said no, so he brought the bag to the management office and kept it there. Thank God!

I also met some of my friends from the wedding event there, and shared my experience with them. Because of that, I didn't manage to thank the mosque staff properly. Thank you, Mr. Jamal and An-Nahdhah mosque's staff, for helping me to locate and keep the bag for me.

Pangandaran is Getting Closer

2009-10-18T22:59:00.001+08:00

This article is originally posted on ABN's Asia Travel Blog here.

Pangandaran is a famous tourist attraction, located at the south-east end of West Java province, Indonesia. Its beaches are reputably the best and finest in Java island, and also offer excellent surfing. Other than its fine beaches, Pangandaran also offer a beautiful national park and its own version of green canyon.

However, its location at the southern regency of Ciamis in West Java makes Pangandaran not really appealing to Jakarta and Bandung tourists, let alone foreign tourists. By road, it takes around 5-6 hours to reach Pangandaran from Bandung, the capital city of West Java province, and it takes around 7-8 hours to reach Pangandaran from Jakarta, capital city of Indonesia, by road.

Fortunately, there is now a faster alternative to reach Pangandaran, which is via air. Susi Air, an airline previously specialised in chartered services, has started scheduled services from Jakarta and Bandung to Pangandaran. This will cut down the travel time between Jakarta and Pangandaran to only one hour. It will operate a Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft with a capacity of 12 passengers to service the Jakarta-Pangandaran route twice a day, one direct flight and another one with a stopover in Bandung.

The flight from Jakarta will depart from Halim Perdanakusuma airport, located east of the city and closer to the city centre compared to Soekarno-Hatta International airport.

Indonesia AirAsia’s Change of Flight Timing

2009-10-17T01:46:00.001+08:00

On Friday (16/10) morning, I received both SMS and e-mail from AirAsia, to inform me that my and my family’s upcoming Indonesia AirAsia’s QZ 7785 flights (same flight on different dates) from Singapore to Jakarta on December 2009 are being rescheduled from 12:40pm to 5:45pm. There seems to be a re-timing exercise affecting this specific flight number and all QZ 7785 flights after 25 October 2009 are affected.

I immediately logged in to AirAsia’s website and tried to change my itinerary to an earlier flight for the day using its “Manage my Booking” function, however I would have to pay S$40 “change fee”. Luckily, there were some other Indonesians in Singapore who had also purchased tickets for some future QZ 7785 flights and were affected by the same problem, and they were kindly enough to share their experience in Indo-Sing mailing list. They mentioned that if we call their call centre to request for a change to an earlier flight due to this re-timing, they will process it without charging the $40 change fee.

That’s good news! The only problem is that it was very difficult to call AirAsia’s call centre number in Singapore on that day. I tried calling the number (630 77688) since 10:30am in the morning and I kept on getting busy tones. I eventually managed to get in touch with them at around 3pm in the afternoon, and I immediately lodged my complaint about the change of schedule and requested for a change to an earlier flight, free of charge. He requested for the booking codes and I gave him.

The call centre staff then gave me a Service Request Number (SRN) and was transferred to their support staff. They put me on hold for quite some time (I think close to 5 minutes) before a support staff then took my call and request for the SRN. After I gave him the SRN, he then processed the flight change (for both myself and my family, who are on the same flight but different date) and informed me that I will receive an e-mail containing the new itinerary within 15 minutes. Yay! :)

Less than 5 minutes, I received the email with the new itineraries, and immediately print them. Just to make sure, I went back into the “Manage my Booking” function on AirAsia’s website to check the booking, and it’s confirmed that the flight has been changed to an earlier flight (10:30am) for the day, for both booking. I am a very happy AirAsia customer now.

Thank you, AirAsia. :)

Padi - Live in Singapore!

2009-10-06T12:21:00.001+08:00

Green Media, a Singapore-based concerts and event management company, is bringing Padi, an Indonesian rock band, for a one-day only live concert here in Singapore. The concert is scheduled to be on Sunday, 1 November 2009 at 3pm, located at Dragonfly, a live music room within St James Power Station, Singapore’s first coal-fired power station built in 1927, which has since been converted into one of the Singapore’s leading music and nightlife venues located just next to VivoCity, in Harbourfront area.

According to Green Media, they currently have a special project which aims to bring together the various groups of Indonesian community already existing in Singapore and to help them co-exist with the Singapore community. PADI Live in Singapore! is a first in a series of events and concerts to be organised by Green Media which promotes peaceful social integration of the Indonesian community to that of the local Chinese or Malay community. The Indonesian and local friends' base that we have consists of the Indonesian Chinese, Malays and Eurasian from various religious backgrounds but with one main objective and love - the love for Indonesian music.

While their efforts are indeed to be appreciated, I was quite shocked to see the ticket price for the event. The standard ticket price is S$157 if purchased online, and S$175 if purchased at the door. The price includes of $2 booking fees and one drink coupon redeemable for soft drinks and juices only, but excludes $1 mailing/collection at venue charges. The ticket price is just too high, in my opinion. According to Andre, it’s even higher than the ticket price for The Police’s concert here in Singapore last year.

My Xperia X1’s Keyboard is Fixed, For Now…

2009-07-19T15:03:00.001+08:00

After experiencing the annoying keyboard problem on my Xperia X1 for months, I decided to bring the phone back to Sony Ericsson Service Centre at Wisma Atria last week. They confirmed that it was a hardware problem, and they have replaced the keyboard with a new one. I have just collected the phone yesterday, and I am now very happy that I can type normally again on the phone, with ease.

I didn’t have to pay anything for this, since the phone is still under warranty. They even lent me another phone for me to use while my phone is on service, despite it being a very low-end phone which I didn’t use at all, eventually. The only downside is that the phone is being reset to its factory settings, and all my data and applications are gone. The service centre officer has already informed me about this when I send the phone for servicing, so I have prepared to backup all the data and applications on my Outlook and the micro SD card.

My only concern is that it seems that it is really, indeed, a hardware problem, most probably due to wear and tear. Until when before the same problem will start to happen again on this new keyboard? And how if by that time, the warranty is already expired?

The Influenza A (H1N1) Virus is Getting Closer

2009-05-16T10:39:00.001+08:00

After reaching Thailand, yesterday the Influenza A (H1N1) virus, previously known as the swine flu virus, is confirmed to have reached Malaysia’s soil by the country’s top health official. The patient is a 21-year-old male student who arrived on a Malaysia Airlines flight from Newark (near New York) in the Unites States, via Stockholm, Sweden.

This confirms that the virus is now getting much closer to Singapore and Indonesia. While the Malaysia official confirmed that there’s no Singaporean passengers nor any passengers with onward connecting flights to Singapore, the MH091 flight from Newark is a code share flight with Garuda Indonesia, so there could be some passengers, exposed to the infected patient on the same flight, who might have gone to Indonesia.

I wonder whether the Indonesian health officials have taken the necessary precautions on this matter. From what I understand, everyone there is very busy preparing for the presidential election.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) of Singapore says that it is only a matter of time before the virus reaches Singapore. Yes, I agree that it’s not possible to prevent the virus from entering Singapore, since the virus has been reported to be highly contagious. More efforts should be put into treating the infected patients when the virus comes in, rather than fire-fighting in preventing the virus from reaching Singapore.

However, I disagree with the Singapore government’s move to lower its alert level for the H1N1 flu from orange to yellow last week, despite the World Health Organisation (WHO) maintaining its alert level on 5 (near pandemic) out of 6. I personally think that lowering the alert level would bring Singapore residents closer to complacency and will make them become less alerted. With this latest development, it would be wise for the government to increase its alert level back to orange.

The Best Garmin GPS Maps for Singapore

2009-04-02T17:57:00.001+08:00

Before Malfreemaps (MFM or MySgFreeMaps) was formed, Malsingmaps (MSM) had the best Garmin GPS map for Singapore. It was even much better than Garmin official map, the City Navigator Singapore/Malaysia. In fact, MSM was the best Garmin GPS community map making for Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei.

Late last year, MFM was born, and it was started without the Singapore map. So for GPS users in Singapore like me, MSM was still the only choice. Unfortunately, after the MSM-MFM split, there was no further significant update to the MSM map for Singapore. The only users who can get further updates were those who had donated to Jerome’s donor version of the map.

Not too long later, MFM started to incorporate Singapore into its map. It was removed at some point of time due to some copyright infringement alleged by Jerome but it has been reinstated since. And to be frank, I’m very happy with the progress of MFM in rebuilding the Singapore map, and have been using it since. I’m currently having both maps (MFM and MSM) loaded into my Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, although I set the MFM map to take precedence over the MSM map. Therefore, all routing will be done using the MFM map, the display will also show the MFM map, while I’m still able to search POIs contained on the MSM map. This is because in terms of number of POIs, the MSM map is still more complete and MFM would still need some time to catch up.

Some reasons why I chose MFM to take precedence over MSM for routing and display, at the moment:

MFM map has all the HDB polygons being drawn, while the public version of MSM map doesn’t have. Only Jerome’s donor version has similar HDB polygons, and it’s not free.
MFM map is being updated on a weekly basis. New versions of the map are always released every Monday and so far they haven’t missed it. :)
The MFM mapper for Singapore is very accommodative in accepting my contributions and error corrections, and most of the time, any contributions or corrections would be implemented immediately on the next version release.

This is the current situation now and it might still change. I heard that MSM will release their new map this month, and I’m looking forward to it. I also heard that MSM will distribute the maps for free to all the users and contributors. The map might still be locked but the unlock codes will be given for free, as long as you are an MSM registered user.

So, back to the original question, which map is the best for Singapore, MFM or MSM? I would say, both. Yes, both. :) At the moment, we need to have both maps loaded into our GPS devices so that we can make the best out of both maps. That would be the best combination to form the best Garmin GPS map for Singapore, at least for the moment.

Who’s Copying Who?

2009-03-14T22:39:00.001+08:00

Very interesting moments are happening now on Malaysia and Singapore’s GPS community. After earlier, Malfreemaps (also known as MFM) were being accused of copying the data from Malsingmaps (also known as MSM) for Singapore map, right now there are reports saying that the new Garmin-compiled MSM version of the map is allegedly copying the data from MFM. To be exact, the new Garmin-compiled MSM map is making use of the old data belongs to previous mappers who have left MSM and formed MFM. This is after Garmin announced that they have agreements with MSM to pre-load and distribute Garmin-compiled MSM maps for their users.

I am very much interested to know what will happen next, especially since Garmin is already involved in this case. From what I can see, the root cause of what happens now is the issue about map ownership, on whether the source data of the map, which is the intermediary .mp files (in Polish format, please CMIIW), belongs to the mappers or the community. This issue has actually been heatedly debated way long back in 2006 (before I joined the community), which resulted in the creation of (now defunct) GPSMappers.net community (the MSM mappers community) at that time.

When some of the MSM mappers left and created a new community called MFM, they brought back all the source data with them, and used the data as a base to build the MFM maps now. I was asking on why MFM would have to start with only the northern peninsular Malaysia area (which is the area where the mappers are in-charge with) while the MSM version 2.30 (which was the next version of MSM after the split) could still retain all the maptiles. I was told that the mappers who migrated to MFM have allowed, for the last time, for their maps to be incorporated into the MSM version 2.30, after which, MSM would have to source their own data to map and rebuild the areas from scratch.

On a further development within the MSM community, mappers from another GPS community, Masmap, came on board to start rebuilding those missing areas being left by the MFM mappers. I was then later made to understand that the Masmap mappers were actually ex-MSM mappers who left during the formation of GPSMappers.net community, as a result of the map ownership issues I have mentioned above. Based on the further development, my understanding was that MSM would build the map for northern peninsular Malaysia from scratch by the Masmap mappers team.

Therefore, I was quite surprised to learn about the allegations that MSM has used the old data (including those previously belong to the ex-mappers who had since formed MFM) to supply the map to Garmin for the new Garmin-compiled Malsingmaps map. When I brought this issue up on MSM forum, I was told that the data does not belong to the mappers, but belongs to the community, so MSM has the right to use the data. That was before I received a friendly warning from the site owner for not discussing about this matter in the open forum, which I abide. Eventually, my post with regards to the matter got deleted :) , together with the answer (if I’m not mistaken, from bab1e) I received, which I understand fully since the issue might be too sensitive to be discussed in an open forum.

Nevertheless, as a normal GPS user and a (very small) contributor to both communities, I really hope that this matter can be settled amicably.

Annoying Sony Ericsson Xperia X1’s Keyboard Problem

2009-03-11T23:26:00.001+08:00

After several months using my Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 mobile phone, I have started to encounter some issues with its slide-out keyboard. This problem is specifically annoying since I’m a heavy user of the keyboard (for Internet, e-mail, SMS etc).

Some of the keys especially on the lower part of the keyboard, such as the Fn (blue) key, C key, V key, N key, the spacebar and the . (dot) key are not responsive, and do not register the keys when pressed even though we get the tactile (click) feedback from the keys. And sometimes, if we press harder, it will register double, or sometimes triple, of the keys. Really annoying and irritating

The problem started last month with the spacebar, and then spreads to other keys. This means that the problem seems to get worse over time, since more and more keys are affected eventually. This also means that the problem might be due to a design flaw rather than just a simple mechanical problem. Very disappointing.

I reported this problem last month on the XDA-Developers forum, and at first, there was no reply to the first post I made. However, eventually I found out that many other Xperia X1 users started to experience this problem. I’m not too sure whether the problem will be resolved if I bring the phone to the Sony Ericsson service centre, since it seems to be a design flaw instead of a mechanical malfunction. Any suggestions?

As an alternative, I have temporarily installed FingerKeyboard2, originally developed for HTC Touch HD (Blackstone), for my on-screen keyboard. Quite nice and easy to use. But I still prefer the sliding keyboard, though.

MSM Released New Map Version in Mapking Format

2009-03-10T15:52:00.001+08:00

I just read that Malsingmaps (MSM) has released their new March 2009 version of the map in Mapking format, although it’s only covering Singapore and East Malaysia (including Brunei) only, and doesn’t include West Malaysia as yet. While it’s a good news for Mapking users in Singapore and Malaysia, I find it a bit strange, since normally they will release their maps in the original Garmin format first, before converting them to Mapking format.

Not too sure why they haven’t released the Garmin format of the new version of their maps. I understand that MSM has been approached by Garmin to supply the Garmin official maps for Malaysia and Singapore (and Brunei as well, I presume). This means that there’s a possibility that the next official Garmin maps for the region will be Garmin-compiled MSM maps, instead of the not-so-good City Navigator Singapore/Malaysia NT maps.

Does it mean that we will have to pay to use the new version of Garmin-compiled MSM maps? I’m not too sure, since there’s no official announcement from MSM on this matter, yet. However, I understand that at least one GPS vendor in Singapore has advertised the new nuvi 255W which is pre-installed with Garmin City Navigator Singapore/Malaysia *and* Garmin-compiled Malsing maps, which I presume is referring to the Garmin-compiled version of MSM maps. The hint is that the new maps will be released during the IT Show event in Suntec City, Singapore, this coming weekend.

One of the advantages of using the official Garmin compiler instead of using the normal cGPSmapper compiler is the ability to provide some new features supported by newer Garmin GPS devices, such as lane assistance and 3D junction view, although unfortunately my Garmin Mobile XT, which runs on my Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 mobile phone, does not support that yet. That would bring MSM map one step ahead of its competitors, I agree, but since it will become a Garmin official map, are we still able to use it for free? What would happen to all the contributors who have contributed in building the maps?

Let’s wait for the “official announcement” to come from MSM admins. In the meantime, I’m very much impressed with the progress of the Singapore map built by Malfreemaps (also known as MySgFreeMaps or MFM), and have been using this map, together with MSM’s map, for my navigation in Singapore. The MFM version of Singapore map has much nicer polygons for HDB blocks and some other types of buildings as well, which is much better than MSM’s Singapore map and is comparable to Jerome’s donor version of the Singapore map. I am just hoping that MFM’s copyright issue with Jerome, who is the MSM’s mapper for Singapore, can be settled soon so that it won’t affect the good progress of building the best GPS map in Singapore.

1000 Twitter Updates

2009-03-08T12:28:00.001+08:00

I just posted my 1000th update on Twitter. Most of them are not really my direct updates, though, since they are cross-posted from Kronologger.

Nothing much special to call for a celebration. It just a reaffirmation that I’m now more into micro-blogging than the actual blogging itself.

Pretty sad, indeed…

Deepavali This Year Moved to a Saturday

2009-02-11T08:20:00.001+08:00

This year’s Deepavali, which previously has been tentatively set on a Sunday, 15 November 2009 (which means the following Monday, 16 November 2009 would be a public holiday), has been brought forward one month earlier, on Saturday, 17 October 2009.

When Singapore’s Ministry of Manpower releases the list of Singapore public holiday every year, the date set for Deepavali is always tentative because it has to be checked against the Indian Almanacs when they become available. Last year, MOM also moved the Deepavali date albeit only one day earlier, from Tuesday to Monday. It is just so unfortunate that for this year, the date is being moved from a Sunday to a Saturday.

This means that the public holiday will only benefit those who are working on Saturdays, and that Monday, 16 November 2009 is no longer declared as a public holiday. :(

In Singapore, if a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday will also be a public holiday. For example, since Hari Raya Puasa for this year falls on a Sunday, 20 September 2009, the following Monday, 21 September 2009 will also be a public holiday.

Another thing to note, in Singapore, the government has always been able to predict the day for Hari Raya Puasa correctly, and the actual Hari Raya date normally falls on the predicted date without any revision. This is different from the Indonesian government who always decides the exact date of Hari Raya at the last minute, waiting for the result of hilal (moon) sighting. Not too sure where does the Singapore goverment get their formula from? :)

Happy Lunar New Year

2009-01-26T02:47:00.001+08:00

On Chinese New Year's eve, I went to Chinatown with Irza to soak into the festive moods of Lunar New Year, and also to watch the fireworks display during the countdown to the new year of ox.

We parked our car at VivoCity and took the MRT train to Chinatown, to avoid (human) traffic jam around the area. After the fireworks display, we had ourselves some tiramisu cake and double chocolate coffee from Coffee Bean at Chinatown Point while waiting for the crowd to disperse, before we took the train back to Harbourfront.

I would like to wish everyone who celebrate Chinese New Year, a very happy new year of ox. Hope that everyone will have a very happy and prosperous new year ahead.

More pictures can be found here.

Using IM2 Broom Unlimited

2008-11-30T09:07:00.001+08:00

I and my family are now in Jakarta, Indonesia for a (short?) two-week holiday. We left Singapore yesterday afternoon, taking Lion Air flight to Jakarta. It took more than 40 minutes for us to queue for checking-in at Singapore's Changi airport. The flight was full, there were so many passengers queuing for checking-in and yet, there were only 4 check-in counters available. It also caused around 20 minutes of delay of the flight since it took some time for all passengers to eventually checked in to the flight, despite an additional one (yes, only one, sigh) counter being set up.

We arrived at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at around 4pm. It turned out that we were on the same flight as Yudi (one of my friends from the Indo-Sing community, and I initially had mistaken him as Pieter, another friend from the same community, gosh!) and Audi (one of my band-mates) with his wife Erina and son Rifa. My parents picked us up at the airport and we went straight to Plasa Semanggi for late lunch/early dinner. Lion Air is a budget airline and they don't serve any snacks or meal on board. We also didn't have the chance to have our lunch at Changi airport prior to boarding the plane due to the check-in's long queue taking up much of our "precious" time at the airport. Had a Bakmi Gang Kelinci's chicken noodle at the food court in Plasa Semanggi, which is located on the 3A floor of the shopping mall.

I also went to Indosat's IM2 Broadband Centre located on the first floor of Plasa Semanggi, for me to buy the starter pack of IM2 Broom, for our Internet connection during our stay in Indonesia. The starter pack costs IDR 150,000, and it provides unlimited HSDPA/3.5G-based Internet connection for a month. Subsequent months will even cost less, only IDR 100,000/month. Quite worth value for money, especially since now we have mobile phones which have HSDPA capabilities so we don't need to invest for additional HSDPA modem, which can be quite costly.

I am currently using my daughter's Nokia 6120 classic phone as a HSDPA modem using the PC Suite for me to enjoy the Internet connection using my laptop. Since I'm taking the unlimited package, the maximum bandwidth speed I should get is only up to 256 KBps for the first 2 GB of data transfer, after which the bandwidth will be capped at 64 Kbps, unlimited until it expires in one month. However, seems that I could get up to 460.8 Kbps of connection last night when I tried to connect. :) Connection is good for browsing purposes, accessing international sites sometimes can be a bit slow, but I believe this is more to infrastructure issue on the ISP's connection to the global Internet rather than issue on the HSDPA connection itself. Accessing local Indonesian sites is very fast.

Unfortunately, IM2 Broom only provides data connection without any voice capability, while I also need a local Indonesian number for normal voice calls, to save the roaming charges. I might be getting a Telkomsel's Simpati line today, so that I can also use its Telkomsel Flash feature for ad-hoc Internet connections for my phone. I won't be using my SingTel line for HSDPA connection here in Indonesia, the data roaming charges are very expensive.

Other than Jakarta, I'll also be visiting my hometown Bandung (of course) and Garut (Cipanas, to be exact) for a short holiday, before going to Tasikmalaya to celebrate Hari Raya Idul Adha (Hari Raya Haji) with my family and relatives there.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1: My First Review

2008-11-22T09:37:00.001+08:00

I have been using my Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 for about a week, so now I'm trying to write my review about this phone. I'm not really too good in reviewing gadgets so I will try to keep my review short. Especially, since I have been using this phone for only a week. I might write another review again after I have used the phone for quite some time.

I was considering this phone and HTC Touch Pro over other Windows Mobile-based PDA phones like Samsung Omnia or HTC Touch Diamond because of an obvious reason, the sliding keyboard. And frankly, I was quite disappointed with Xperia X1's keyboard, initially. Its flat surface makes me difficult to type on the keyboard. The good news is that I managed to get over with the difficulties over time. Once I have gotten use to it, I find the keyboard is still much more convenient to type compared to if I have to use the stylus and the on-screen keyboard. While typing, the optical joystick is also quite useful to replace the arrow keys, which are not available on Xperia X1's keyboard.

With regards to the interface, many people said that the Xperia X1's panel is not as good as HTC's TouchFlo 3D. I haven't tried the TouchFlo 3D myself, although we can actually port over TouchFlo 3D interface into the Xperia X1. However, I am personally satisfied with the Sony Ericsson panel. I can put the clock, calendar, weather, appointments and some shortcut buttons, all in one display. That said, I really appreciate the big (and somewhat long) screen that the Xperia X1 has.

The GPS also works like a charm. Its built-in internal GPS receiver locks on to the satellites much faster than my Garmin GPS 10x receiver. I have installed my favourite Garmin Mobile XT software into the phone, and it can detect the built-in GPS receiver without any issues. I also do not need to activate my favourite GPS proxy software, WMMiniGPS, for the GMXT to work, although sometimes I would still turn on the WMMiniGPS if I need to do 1-second tracking for my contributions to Malsingmaps and Malfreemaps.

After getting used to only GPRS connection on my old Dopod 818 Pro, I find the high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA, or 3.5G connection) to be much rewarding. Paired with Wi-Fi capabilities, the phone makes my microblogging activitiy much more fun and definitely faster. Browsing the Internet using the pre-loaded Opera Mobile software is really fun, and thanks to a bigger display, I can see more on the screen compared to my older phone. So guys, expect to see more of my updates on Kronologger, Twitter, Plurk and Facebook. :) :)

The only downside I can think of now, is the battery. It drains very fast under heavy usage. Yes, I am a heavy user of the phone, since I use it for phone, SMS, GPS (every time I drive around), and the Internet (mainly for microblogging). And I have to charge the phone almost every night. A 100% bar of battery in the morning can drop to a 20-30% bar in the evening. Understand that this is normal for a PDA phone, however I still wish that Sony Ericsson can invent a more powerful and long-lasting battery for this phone. :)

Well, that's what I can think of right now. I might write more reviews once I explore more on the features of this phone. Stay tuned. :)

Getting Myself a Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 for only S$338

2008-11-09T14:51:00.001+08:00

I just came back from the Sony Ericsson SingTel Roadshow, located outside Plaza Singapura, near The Atrium @ Orchard, Dhoby Ghaut. I have decided to get myself the new Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 phone to replace my old Dopod 818 Pro. The normal price for the phone is S$1,298 (without contract), and from the roadshow, I can get the phone for only S$338, without any trade in. How did I get the S$960 savings?

On the roadshow which will end today, SingTel sells the phone for only S$638 with iOne Plus or Classic plan, plus a 3-month Broadband on Mobile Plus subscription. Compared to my current mobile provider M1's promotion, which sells the phone at $998 under their SunSaver Plan, that's already quite a big S$360 difference. Based on my average monthly phone usage with M1, I decided to take the iTwo Value plan from SingTel, which allows me to purchase the Xperia X1 phone for only S$538.

Furthermore, SingTel gives additional S$200 discount for me to switch over from M1 to SingTel, thanks to the full mobile number portability. Since my M1 mobile line's contract has expired, I can port over the number to SingTel so that I can still use the same mobile number under SingTel's service plan. With all the discounts, I can get myself the Xperia X1 phone for only S$338.

What's more? Exclusive to the roadshow, I also can get some additional freebies, such as a $50 The Choice vouchers (which can be used at Cold Storage and Giant supermarkets), a Sony Ericsson Bluetooth Car Handsfree kit and a DVD mobile converter software.

Unfortunately, the phone was fully sold out during the first day of the roadshow yesterday, so even when I can purchase at the same low price today, I can only collect the phone next week. Never mind, I think it's worth the wait. :)

Why Not HTC Touch Pro?

Good question. I have been comparing the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 with its closest competitor, the HTC Touch Pro. The specifications of both phones are very similar, although each has some pros and cons as well. To be frank, I decided to choose the Xperia X1 because of this promotion. Hey, where else you can get a high end high end Windows Mobile-based mobile phone with sliding keyboard for only $S338? :) Right now, if I'm getting myself a HTC Touch Pro, I will definitely be paying more than that, since none of the mobile providers in Singapore has similar promotion for HTC Touch Pro. For example, M1 is selling the HTC Touch Pro for $868 for a 2-year contract.

Furthermore, having a Dopod mobile phone for almost three years, I had some quite unpleasant experiences with HTC support in Singapore, both at SIS Technologies' Leng Kee office and the HTC Service Centre at Keppel Bay Tower, Harbourfront. Even though the Xperia X1 is actually built by HTC for Sony Ericsson, at least I can still expect the same quality of product and tap on Sony Ericsson's (hopefully) better service.

Hopefully. Let's see. :)

PS. Pictures are courtesy of Sony Ericsson website and CNET Asia website.

Planet Indra is Temporarily Down

2008-10-27T20:08:00.001+08:00

I have temporarily shut down my Planet Indra site. For some unknown reasons, the WordPress-based aggregation blog site refuses to show the contents of the blog and instead it's giving this error message to everyone who tried to access the site:

It doesn't look like you've installed WP yet. Try running install.php

I have Googled around and mostly people would encounter the above message when they tried to upgrade their WordPress installation. This is not the case in my situation. I was not doing anything on the WordPress installation and suddenly the error message appeared. I have other WordPress installations for Minda Indra and Planet Singapura on the same server, running under the same user-id and connecting to the same MySQL database, and they do not encounter the same problem.

Anyone has a clue on what could have happened? Could it be that the database used is corrupted?

I haven't got the time to investigate this issue further. Will look into this problem later when I have the time. Apologise for the inconvenience caused.

Happy National Blogger Day and Happy Deepavali

2008-10-27T17:32:00.001+08:00

27 October 2008 is the first anniversary of Indonesia's National Blogger Day. Therefore, I would like to wish all Indonesian bloggers a very happy National Blogger Day.

And since this very same day is also a Diwali day (which is a public holiday here in Singapore), I also would like to wish a very Happy Deepavali to all my Indian friends who celebrate the festival of lights.

Claypot Chicken Rice

2008-10-26T14:02:00.001+08:00

My first encounter with claypot chicken rice was in Malaysia. I immediately fell in love with this dish, rice cooked in a claypot together with all the additional ingredients such as diced chickens, vegetables and, most importantly, the spices, thrown in. Cooked over charcoal stove, and served with the pot while still hot. Wonderfulicious. :)

Since it's a Chinese traditional dish, it's quite difficult to find halal claypot chicken rice in Singapore. Normally, I would go to Johor Bahru to look for this dish, notably the food courts at Johor Bahru's City Square and Tebrau City. Therefore, it was a very delightful surprise to see this dish in one of the stalls at Banquet halal food court, located on the basement two (B2) floor of VivoCity shopping mall, Singapore.

On a side note, Banquet VivoCity is one of our favourite Banquet outlets, other than the Bagus by Banquet at IMM and Banquet Jurong Point. In Banquet VivoCity, the kids would normally go with the chicken rice, other than fish and chips or chicken cutlet from the western stall. For me, another favourite dish there is the cockles kway teow.

Julie's Biscuits also Tainted with Melamine

2008-10-25T11:41:00.001+08:00

Picture courtesy of Channel NewsAsia.

I was very surprised (if not shocked) when I read from today's Weekend Today newspaper (which I get for free in my doorstep everyday, by the way) that some (or all?) of Julie's biscuits made in Malaysia are also tainted with melamine.

This is because our family (myself, my wife and the kids) has been buying Julie's biscuit products all this while. Inka is a great fan of Julie's wheat crackers (see above picture) while Julie's Cocoro crispy chocolate wafer rolls are also one of our family's favourites.

Yes, the Agri-Food and Vetenirary Authority (AVA) has reassured that the levels of melamine in the affected products are very low, and one has to consume large quantities of the contaminated products over a prolonged period of time before it can affect his/her health. But this still cannot much relieve our worries, especially since we have been consuming the affected products for quite some time.

Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri

2008-09-30T13:28:00.001+08:00

Wishing all Muslims a very happy and joyous Eid ul-Fitr celebration. Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri, mohon maaf lahir dan batin. :)

Celebrating Hari Raya in Singapore

2008-09-15T22:41:00.001+08:00

It's confirmed. Unlike last year, we will not be able to go back for our "mudik" ritual to Indonesia for this year's Hari Raya Idul Fitri. I have called Inka and Irza's school last week and confirmed that not only that there'll be no school holiday during the Hari Raya week, they will also have their SA2 paper 1 exam for both English and Mother Tongue on the following week after the Hari Raya.

Therefore, similar to two years ago, we will be celebrating Hari Raya Idul Fitri here in Singapore. Feeling sad? Of course, but we (myself, my wife and the kids) have already accepted this as one of the consequences of hidup merantau di negeri orang. We just have to live with it. :)

Based on our experience two years ago, celebrating Hari Raya Idul Fitri in Singapore is not really too bad, after all. This is because we have many Indonesian friends in Singapore who also, mostly due to the same reason, do not go back to Indonesia during Hari Raya. I remember two years ago, we went to three different places in Singapore on one day: Hougang, Tampines and Braddell, to celebrate Hari Raya together with our Indonesian friends here. My wife even conducted our own open house on the following weekend at that time.

Therefore, we are looking forward to celebrate Hari Raya in Singapore again for this year. For friends who plan to conduct an open house event in Singapore on this year's Hari Raya, please, do not hesitate to invite us along... :) :)

Love Letter

2008-09-15T11:45:00.001+08:00

Akhirnya, "surat cinta" dari Traffic Police itu-pun datang juga...

Last Sunday, 7 September 2008, I was driving along Bukit Timah Road after picking up my wife and daughter at Bugis Junction towards Al-Azhar which is located along Upper Bukit Timah Road for us to break our fast for the day. Was held up on a red light junction while two traffic police officers were riding their motorcycles just beside our car.

When the light turned green, one of the officers then asked me to pull over on the side of the road. Apparently, he noticed that Irza was sleeping on the middle seat without properly secured by a child booster seat, even though he always wears his seat belts. The police officer explained that a child younger than 8 years old and less than 150cm in height would have to be properly secured by an approved child restraint. I had to wake Irza up so that the officer can measure his height, which definitely is shorter than 150cm.

Really didn't know that he still has to use a booster seat until he's 8 years old, since he has not been using the booster seat for quite some time. The composition amount is $120 (!!!) which I have to pay by 10 October 2008, plus 3 demerit points being given.

After the incident, Irza now re-uses his old booster seat and will do so until he turns 8 next year. He was also a bit shocked when he had to wake up and being checked by the police officer at that time.

Lesson learnt: if you have a child which is not yet 8 years old and not yet 150cm in height, please ensure that the he/she uses an approved child restraint (either a child seat or a booster seat, depends on his/her age/height) in the car.

Windsor Bed & Breakfast Hotel

2008-09-14T11:29:00.003+08:00

Windsor Bed & Breakfast Hotel is the hotel I'm staying during my week stay in Christchurch to attend the APNIC 26 Meeting. As one of the APNIC meeting fellows, the hotel cost is bourne by APNIC (thanks Sunny!) and I'm sharing a room with another fellow, Stanley Osao from Papua New Guinea.

I would have to say that their service standards are quite high for a budget hotel. The hosts (which are the owners of the hotel) are very nice and friendly, and the room is very clean, tidy and comfortable. The bathrooms are shared, but they are quite a plenty and bathrobes are provided.

Every morning, they serve a very generous English-style breakfast, which is cooked on the spot. We can choose the breakfast menu, which consists of eggs (scrambled, poached or fried), sausages, bacon, baked beans and sweet corn. I love their beef sausages, unfortunately I couldn't try the bacon since it's made of pork. On top of that, there are also toasts, fresh fruits and cereals which you can have your own servings. To be frank, the breakfast time is one of my most-waited time during my stay there. :)

They have a lounge where guests can watch TV and use some computer terminals to connect to the Internet, free of charge. On top of that, they also provide free wireless Internet connections for people like me who has laptop with wireless connection. The lounge also allows us to interact with other guests, creating a "warm" environment for the guests. Free carpark lots are also available for those who drive or rent a car.

It's conveniently located near the Christchurch city centre, just in front of Cranmer Square and only several minutes walk to the Arts Centre, Canterbury Museum and Cathedral Square. The historic Christchurch Tramway also stops just in front of the hotel.

These high standards of services for a bed and breakfast hotel makes its rates to be a bit higher than other B&Bs in Christchurch. The price for single is NZ$89 while for twin/double is NZ$128, and they have a plan to increase the rates to $NZ98 (single) and NZ$140 (twin/double) after 1 November 2008.

More pictures of the hotel can be found here.

Siam Kitchen

2008-08-16T07:41:00.001+08:00

Siam Kitchen is our family's favourite Thai restaurant, providing quite a wide range of Thai cuisines.

My wife's (and also my) favourite menu is the BBQ platter, containing grilled prawn, squid and meat with a special sauce, while the kids' favourite is the crispy soft-shell crab with mayonnaise sauce.

It has many outlets around Singapore, and the outlet we often visit is the one at the second floor of Bugis Junction, just above the Bugis MRT station.

It is one of only a few Thai restaurants in Singapore which obtains halal certification from MUIS.

e!Hub @ Downtown East

2008-08-14T17:37:00.001+08:00

It has been quite some time since I visited Downtown East in Pasir Ris, and was surprised when I went there again with Inka last Saturday, after dropping off my wife and Irza at the Singapore Expo for them to watch the High School Musical: The Ice Tour.

There's a new shopping mall called e!Hub @ Downtown East, featuring some leisure activities such as bowling at Orchid Bowl, watching movies at Cathay Cineplex, karaokeing at K-Box, and many more. There's also eXplorerkid indoor family park for the kids, and also an indoor ferris wheel similar to the one at First World Plaza, Genting Highlands, Malaysia and Bandung Supermal, Bandung, Indonesia.

How I envy those who live on the east side of Singapore. Looks like they are more accessible to many attractions and leisure activities compared to us on the west side of the island.

Cavana Chicken Rice

2008-07-30T12:15:00.001+08:00

Some of you might have been wondering why we went all the way to Sembawang, an area north of Singapore which we seldom visit. You might be surprised to know that the reason why we went to Sembawang is to hunt for chicken rice. :) Cavana chicken rice, to be exact.

Our favourite Cavana outlet at Marina Square has closed down. :( This means that there's no more outlet around the south and west area of Singapore, although I understand that they are going to open a new outlet at Jurong Point soon. So, the closest Cavana outlets to our place of residence are the two on the north area of Singapore, one in Causeway Point, Woodlands and the other one in Sun Plaza, Sembawang. The rest are located east of Singapore, namely Tampines and Pasir Ris.

At that time, we decided to go to the Cavana outlet at Sun Plaza since we seldom go to the shopping mall and would like to know what other things it offers. Nothing much, though.

I really hope that the new outlet in Jurong Point will open soon.

GoThere

2008-07-30T00:36:00.001+08:00

Learned about this new site from Tomorrow.SG, and I found that GoThere.sg is really helpful for both motorists and commuters in Singapore. Not only that we can search for any addresses in Singapore, we can also easily put two addresses in Singapore and the site will automatically calculate the best route from point A to point B under three main categories: "Train + Bus", "Bus" and "Drive".

Its map is powered by Google and the recommended route will be marked on the map. And the best thing I find on this site is that we can easily drag the point A and/or the point B markers to anywhere within the map and the route -- be it driving route or public transport route -- will automatically be recalculated. Estimation time for each leg of the route (bus, train and even the walking time) is given. For driving routes, option to avoid ERP gantries is also given. Searching can be done by entering the partial address, building name or the postal code.

For me, this site is currently the best replacement for the Street Directory site, which is still offline until don't know when.

Petrol Prices Going Down Again

2008-07-28T15:58:00.001+08:00

I got a very sweet and delighting news from PetrolWatch's Twitter updates earlier today, petrol prices in Singapore is going down again. And for this time round, the prices are being adjusted down by 10 cents. This would be the fifth time petrol stations in Singapore has adjusted down the prices after the first reduction of petrol prices early this month.

This reduction of the petrol prices in Singapore is due to further reduction of the global crude oil price to a near 7-week low, which is now around US$123.26 per barrel.

This is really a great news for us. Let's just hope that the price will continue to slide down, not only for a greater relief to motorists, but also to further slow down the inflation rate and the rise of prices of goods and services in Singapore.

Coffee Bean is Now Halal-certified

2008-07-11T15:14:00.001+08:00

This might be an old news for some of you, since it's already happening since May 2008. But still, it's a good news for all my Muslim friends in Singapore. Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, one of the leading cafe in Singapore, is now certified halal by MUIS.

My family and I have already been fans of Coffee Bean even before they were certified, since we knew that they are not providing food which contains pork or lard. In fact, we prefer Coffee Been much more than Starbucks. Inka and Irza's favourite is the tiramisu cake, which is superbly wonderfulicious.

Inka enjoying tiramisu cake at Coffee Bean VivoCity

Yes, I know that some people said that Starbuck's coffee is better than Coffee Bean's. But hey, I'm not a coffee lover, in fact, I always order non-coffee beverages at Coffee Bean. :) My favourite non-coffee beverage at Coffee Bean, which is the kids' favourite as well, is the ice blended chocolate. :)

Twitting in Facebook's Style

2008-07-07T00:08:00.001+08:00

To be frank, I have been neglecting my Facebook account for quite some time. I have not logged in to my Facebook account for months. :) Nevertheless, I just found out that for some reason, my Twitter updates are synchronised with my Facebook status. I think this was started when I installed Twitter application on my Facebook account?

So, please do not be alarmed when now you see me twitting in Facebook's style. :) I don't want to explain more on what do I mean by Facebook's style, it's just about grammar, you should be able to see the difference by seeing these two different examples:

Twitting in normal style:

---cut---
indrapr Earlier went to Khatib MRT station to collect my Malsingmaps car decal. Now at IKEA Alexandra. about 5 hours ago from mobile web
---cut---

Twitting in Facebook style:

---cut---
indrapr is at home now. Earlier we visited Satya and Enon's new residence in West Coast. Were served with a sumptuous dinner. :) 15 minutes ago from web
---cut---

Can you see the difference? :) Oh yes, I also have registered with Plurk. But to be frank, I haven't started to really fully make use of it. Is there a way I can send one update for both Twitter and Plurk? :) :)

Yesterday morning, Iko and Hera, together with Abhy and Aya, came to our house for a visit. This is the first time they visit our new house after we moved in last March. Concidentally, the fire alarm in our apartment's building was activated, for some reason. Although it was a false alarm, it caused the lifts to cease working, so they had to climb the stairs, nine stories high, to reach our apartment.

Before we knew that it was a false alarm, we were also puzzled on why the fire alarm kept on ringing. Normally, during normal test, the alarm would only ring for a short period of time. After realising that all the lifts were down, I immediately grab our keys and our passports and together we all left our apartment and took the stairs down for evacuation. We then met Iko and family at the fourth floor, who were on their way up to our apartment. Only that time then we knew that it was a false alarm, after Iko and Hera informed us.

Earlier today, I saw the Asus Eee PC 4G is being offered for only $398, at an exhibition in Suntec City. The 8G version is being offered for only around $528. Very tempting. The reason why I'm eyeing this mini notebook is to accommodate my needs in checking e-mails, browsing, blogging, twitting and kronning on the go. :) I am very lazy in bringing my laptop while on the go, although it's considered one of Dell's lightest laptop, I still find it too heavy to be carried around. Yes, I can still rely on my Dopod 818Pro PDA phone for twitting and perhaps kronning, but I still cannot rely much on it for checking my emails or browsing the web.

Last but not least, I would also like to congratulate Pangeran Panda and Putri Panda for the birth of their newborn baby, Jamie. Just heard the news from the Indo-Sing mailing list. Semoga kelahirannya membawa berkah bagi kerajaan Panda. :) I would also like to congratulate the Indo-Sing community for getting a new nephew.

Gelanggang Samudra, Ancol

2008-06-24T14:26:00.001+08:00

This article is originally posted on ABN's Asia Travel Blog here.

Gelanggang Samudra is an animal-based theme park, which is one of the attractions at the Taman Impian Jaya Ancol recreation park located in Jakarta, Indonesia. Ancol itself is a popular recreation park among Indonesians, located within the shore of the Jakarta bay, north of the city. However, being an aging attraction, it seems that Gelanggang Samudra is not as popular as other attractions such as the Sea World, which is located next to Gelanggang Samudra, the Atlantis Water Adventure and the more thrilling Dunia Fantasi.

For me, I found out that the Gelanggang Samudra is more educative to the kids. There are three animal shows, namely dolphin show, sealion show and other various animals show, staged several times a day, and each show is being conducted at different times, to ensure that we can attend all the three shows at the shortest time possible. There's also one 4D show which we can attend, and the kids also can have unlimited access to some rides, such as bumper car and balloon ride.

The MCs and the trainers of the animals who are staging the shows are also very professional in bringing up the shows with some jokes here and there. However, the shows were being presented in bahasa Indonesia, so foreign tourists might have difficulties in understanding them although they can still enjoy the animals' talents and capabilities during the show. That might be the reason why this attraction might still be appealing for domestic tourists, but not for foreign tourists.

On top of Ancol's entrance fee (12,000 rupiahs per person and 12,000 rupiahs per car), we needed to pay the Gelanggang Samudra's entrance fee of 60,000 rupiahs per person. That would set you back around 72,000 rupiahs (around SGD $10 or USD $7.79) per person, which is quite reasonable. The best way to reach Ancol is to drive your own car or take a cab. Alternatively, you can also take the TransJakarta busway.

More pictures can be found here.

Back in Singapore

2008-06-20T03:13:00.001+08:00

I'm now back in Singapore after my mudik holiday to Jakarta for about 1.5 weeks. It was quite a rewarding holiday for me and the family. Managed to take the kids to Ancol, specifically the Gelanggang Samudra and Dunia Fantasi, and we also had a fruitful 3D2N getaway to Bandung, my hometown.

As usual, I will be uploading the pictures to my Multiply site, soon, hopefully...

Treetop Walk at MacRitchie

2008-05-15T15:41:00.001+08:00

This article is originally posted on ABN's Asia Travel Blog here.

HSBC Treetop Walk is a free-standing suspension bridge, which provices a bird eyes' view of the forest located at MacRitchie, which is part of Singapore's Central Catchment Nature Reserve. To reach the bridge, we can follow the MacRitchie walking trails from MacRitchie reservoir or from a carpark along Venus Drive, off Upper Thomson Road. Walking distance from Venus Drive carpark is notably shorter compared to the walking distance from MacRitchie reservoir to the Treetop Walk.

Nevertheless, we still have to be prepared for a long walk. From Venus Drive carpark to the entrance of the Treetop Walk is a good 2.5 km walk along the Treetop trail, passes by the Singapore Island Country Club (SICC) and Terentang trail, before reaching the Ranger Station, which is equipped with toilets and drinking water dispenser for us to "recharge". From there, we still need to climb the Bukit Peirce hill, where the entrance to the suspension bridge is located.

HSBC Treetop Walk is opened between 9am and 5pm on Tuesday to Friday, and between 8:30am and 5pm on Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. It is closed on Mondays (except public holiday) for maintenance and research. Since it's closed by 5pm, it's advisable to reach the Ranger Station by 4pm.

The view from the suspension bridge is spectacular. Unfortunately, the bridge is quite narrow and it's a one-way traffic flow so we can't spend much time on the bridge, otherwise we will block people behind. And since it's a one-way traffic, we have to move on and follow the Petaling trail to go back to the Ranger Station and further back to the carpark. This is quite a long detour via Petaling Hut and then follow Sime track eastward back to the Ranger Station, adding around 30-45 minutes of journey time.

The total length of the journey from Venus Drive carpark to Treetop Walk and then back to carpark via Petaling hut is more than 7km, which is quite a long walk (about 3 hours walk in total, depends on our walking pace). With some quite difficult terrains found along some of the trails, the walk might not be suitable for very young kids and the elderly.

Note: More pictures can be found here.

Indo-Sing Photographers' Lighting Workshop

2008-04-29T11:19:00.001+08:00

Last Saturday, I and Irza went to Indo-Sing Photographers' lighting workshop. This event is hosted by Andre, one of the active members of the mailing list. The workshop itself is conducted by eRBe.

As some of us might have known, my presence there was just a "penggembira" :), since I don't consider myself as an avid photographer. I believe I was the only one who came to the event with a pocket camera. :) :)

That's why, while the others were busy attending to the workshop and trying all the various lightings to take pictures of the models (who are actually Andre's friends who volunteered to become the models for this workshop event), I chose to bring Irza and his friends (Wawan and Ahmad Dasuki's kids) outdoor and create our own photo sessions. :)

We went around the swimming pool area, as well as to the water fountain area and the BBQ pit area and I took their pictures while they were happily playing and running around. The result? Beautiful Wina and Marsya, as well as handsome Rafli and Rifqi, together with Irza, really look great in front of the camera. And the most important thing, they were really having fun! :) :)

More pictures can be found here.

Sedap Corner, Bukit Batok

2008-04-25T10:41:00.001+08:00

This hainanese chicken rice stall is located inside the S11 Food Court in block 640 Bukit Batok Central, not far from Bukit Batok bus interchange and the MRT station. It has a halal certification from MUIS.

When I went there yesterday afternoon for lunch, this stall has the longest queue compared to other stalls in the vicinity. However, surprisingly the service is quite fast and efficient, and despite the long queue, I didn't have to wait for long to get my chicken rice set.

The price is also, surprisingly, reasonable. Normal chicken rice dish will cost you only $2.50 to $3.00, while more "complete" set with egg, tofu and gizzard like what I had yesterday only cost me $4.00.

Apologise for the lack and the low quality of the pictures, I took them using my mobile phone.

Quicklink: Another Jakarta-Bandung Travelogue by Rush Murad

2008-04-16T15:13:00.001+08:00

(Pictures taken from the article)

Being involved in a accident last year -- while the car he was taking had the brakes failed when cruising down the steep slope of Mount Tangkuban Perahu -- does not prevent Rush Murad, a Malaysian traveler and blogger, from again choosing Jakarta and -- especially -- Bandung, for his holiday destinations. He revisited both cities recently and again, he wrote a nice travelogue about his journey, in Malay. The travelogue can be found here.

Again, thanks for writing such a nice travelogue and helping to promote our country's (and especially, my home town's) tourist attractions.

Kedai Kue-Kue

2008-03-08T01:49:00.001+08:00

This small shop is selling traditional Indonesian snacks. It's located at the basement of Bugis Junction, next to Delifrance, below the escalator. The outlet also have some tables for dine-in guests. I remember they also have another outlet in Great World City, but I'm not too sure whether the outlet still there or not.

Some people said that the ketoprak is quite nice. I tried the ketroprak when I went there couple of weeks ago. It is nice, although you still can't compare with those which we usually buy from tukang ketoprak street vendors in Jakarta.

More pictures (not many) can be found here.

Freedom of Speech in Indonesia

2008-02-23T14:17:00.001+08:00

Treespotter wrote:

Indonesia has one of the most liberal press law in the world (which not without problems in itself, but we’ll get there later). We’re no longer live in opaque Soehartoesque police state and people are free to write whatever they want. For any of you with any experience whatsoever of the press life 20 years ago, then you’d know that life is a whole world of difference these days where freedom of opinion is concerned.

Agree with him. Compared to Malaysia and Singapore, the Indonesian government is more relaxed in giving its press, be it mainstream press of citizenship journalism (e.g. bloggers), more freedom to express their views and opinions. The Pesta Blogger 2007 event, which is supported by the Indonesian government with its declaration of Indonesia's National Blogger Day, is a great example.

The onus is now with us to ensure that we make use of this "freedom" responsibly.

Singapore DUCKtours

2008-02-17T12:24:00.001+08:00

This article is originally posted on ABN's Asia Travel Blog here.

Singapore DUCKtours is a combined city and harbour tour in Singapore, using a refurbished ex-military amphibious vehicle they call as "duck" which can travel on both land and water. The one-hour tour comprises of 40 minutes water tour around Singapore's Marina Bay area and 20 minutes land tour around Singapore's civic district. The water tour in the Marina Bay area will show you places around the Singapore Flyer, Benjamin Sheares bridge, the floating platform, Esplanade and the Merlion, while the land tour in the civic district area will show you places around City Hall and the Padang.

The tour departs from Suntec City on an hourly basis between 10am to 7pm, subject to weather conditions. The price is $33 for adult and $17 for child, quite expensive since it's catered more for tourists. To purchase the tickets, we can approach the ticketing counter, which is located at the Suntec City Mall, near the Convention Centre area. We can use major credit cards for payment.

We will board the duck on an open area just next to the ticketing counter. There is a tour guide who accompanies all the guests throughout the journey and give running commentaries with regards to all the tourist attractions along the way. The best photo stop would be the Merlion, where the duck boat will have a brief stop to allow all guests to take pictures of the Merlion from both sides of the boat.

Note: More pictures can be found here.

J.Co Donuts & Coffee Opens in Singapore

2008-02-09T23:42:00.001+08:00

J.Co Donuts & Coffee, a leading doughnut retailer chain in Indonesia, has opened its outlet in Singapore. Very popular among Indonesians, it's very common to see long queues in almost all J.Co outlets in Indonesia. This very first outlet in Singapore -- which I hope will not be the only one -- is situated on the basement floor of Raffles City shopping centre, which is located just above the City Hall MRT station.

I and my family was walking around the shopping mall yesterday (8/4) when we saw the new outlet, which was still closed at that time. We were very pleasantly surprised since we have never seen a J.Co outlet outside Indonesia. According to jeng Epha who visited the outlet earlier today, the outlet has just opened today (Saturday, 9 February 2008). I believe this should be a very good and pleasant news for Indonesians in Singapore, since this means that we don't have to go back to Jakarta or go to Batam to get J.Co donuts.

According to Devi while responding to Bonnie's question, J.Co has also opened two new outlets in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Specifically, those two outlets are located in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur at Bukit Bintang and Sunway Pyramid near Sunway Lagoon. So I believe this would be a great news for Indonesians currently living in Malaysia, especially Kuala Lumpur, as well. :)

Happy Lunar New Year

2008-02-06T13:11:00.001+08:00

For those of you who celebrate Chinese New Year all around the world: Xīnnián kuàilè, Gōngxǐ fācái. Happy new year, and wishing everyone of you a very happy and prosperous new year ahead.

RSI Interview at MediaCorp

2008-02-02T21:11:00.001+08:00

Original article and pictures can be found here.

It was just a normal and usual day in the office couple of weeks ago when I received an e-mail from Renatha, one of my fellow moderators of the Indo-Sing mailing list, asked me to join a forum interview by Radio Singapore International (RSI), the Indonesian section, with topics related to Indonesians living in Singapore.

He said that Handoko, another of our fellow Indo-Sing moderator, was supposed to join but he couldn't make it, so he asked me to cover for him. Other people who were invited to join the forum were Sigit, an Indo-Sing mailing list user, Hany and Ellen, Indo-Sing mailing list users and IndoSing-Mums mailing list moderators, and another one which was not yet decided.

Earlier, Renatha asked Andre, Dedhi, dan Ikhsan, three of some active Indo-Sing mailing list users, to also join the forum, but they were not able to make it. Therefore, we decided to invite Judhi, one of the moderators for the IMAS mailing list, to also join the forum, and fortunately he's able to join. So there would be representatives from three Indonesian communities in Singapore, namely Indo-Sing, IndoSing-Mums and IMAS.

Efika Rosemarie (Fika) is the RSI's presenter who interviewed us. She said that it was supposed to be Rane's show, but now Rane is being posted in Indonesia for six months, as RSI's correspondent in Indonesia. We had a pre-interview meeting on 29 January 2007, located at Hany's residence in Braddell, Toa Payoh, for Fika to brief us on what the programme is all about, and how we were going to conduct the forum discussion.

During the briefing, we were also brainstorming on what topics we would be discussing on the interview forum. There were three topics being discussed during the interview, and each topic was being discussed in a 30-minute duration. Fika suggested "working in Singapore" and "mailing lists for Indonesian communities in Singapore" as the two topics that we would be discussing, and for the third discussion, the topic would be "how long we would continue to stay in Singapore and whether we would be back to Indonesia later". Quite interesting topics to discuss. :)

Unfortunately, Ellen's daughter was admitted to hospital, so Ellen was not able to join both the pre-interview meeting and the interview itself. So there were five of us: myself, Renatha, Sigit, Hany and Judhi attended the forum interview.

The interview itself was conducted on 31 January 2007 at MediaCorp's Caldecott Broadcast Centre on Andrew Road. This is not my first experience in attending interview by RSI, I have been there before to attend an interview session with Rane. However, this is my first experience of a forum interview session with my friends, discussing about familiar topics that we all know very well. It was really, really, really fun!!! :)

Furthermore, Fika allowed us to take pictures prior, after and even *during* the interview session, and being narcisst photographers, Judhi, Hany and myself took our pictures during the whole event. :) :)

Similar to my interviews last time, it was not a live programme. It's recorded and I will update again on the exact time when the programme will be aired so that all of you can hear us on the radio. :) Unfortunately, being an international radio in Singapore, the programme cannot be heard in Singapore using the normal radio, since it's being broadcasted through the short-wave (SW) frequency which can only be received outside Singapore. Listeners in Indonesia can also hear RSI programme through some local radio stations which list can be found here. For those in Singapore, you can still hear it via the Internet, either via streaming or podcast. I'll update you again when they become available.

Update on 4 February 2007, 6:15pm: Fika has updated us that the FORUM talk show will be broadcasted by RSI Indonesia every Monday night at 9:35pm Singapore time (or 8:35pm Western Indonesian Time), starting from 18 February 2008 until 14 April 2008.

There are three topics to be discussed and each topic will be divided into three time slots. Thus, the whole interview will be broadcasted in a span of 9 weeks. The broadcast can be listened through RSI Indonesia's live streaming as well as its podcast, which will be available during and after the broadcast.

Mount Faber

2008-01-19T22:09:00.001+08:00

This article is originally posted on ABN's Asia Travel Blog here.

Mount Faber, one of tourist attractions in Singapore, is not really a mountain. It is just a hill, about 106 metres in height, located just north of the Harbourfront area. The highest point is called Faber Point, and from there, we can have a panoramic view of the surrounding areas, including the Harbourfront area and the buildings at Singapore's central business district area. There's a small Merlion statue in Faber Point, and on the lower level, there are some stone carvings depicting some of Singapore's history.

Just further down from Faber Point, there's a building called The Jewel Box, houses some fine dining restaurants and some souvenir shops. From there, we can also catch a cable car to Harbourfront and Sentosa. Apart from that, there's nothing much to see and do there other than enjoying the greenery of the secondary rainforest around Mount Faber.

The best way to reach Mount Faber is by taxi. There is a bus service from SBS Transit called Parks 409, which runs from Harbourfront bus interchange to Mount Faber on Saturday, Sunday and public holiday. The bus fare is $1, payable using cash or EZ-Link card. If we drive a car there, finding a parking lot might be difficult, especially during evening peak hours. However, The Jewel Box provides valet service for those who need it.

At the moment, the National Parks Board is building a bridge to connect Mount Faber Park and Telok Blangah Hill Park, with a further connection up to Kent Ridge Park, connecting all the three parks. This means that visitors can jog or walk from one park to another without having to exit the park and/or take other methods of transportation. When I visited Mount Faber recently, I saw that the bridge is still under construction, and might be fully operational in the next couple of months.

Dolphin Lagoon in Sentosa

2008-01-11T19:20:00.001+08:00

This article is originally posted on ABN's Asia Travel Blog here.

Sentosa, a small island located south of Singapore, is one of the country’s most visited tourist destinations. With only S$2 entrance fee per person (excluding transport), going to Sentosa is now much more affordable compared to several years ago when the entrance fee was still a hefty S$6 per person. There are many ways to enter Sentosa, and the most convenient and cheapest method is to take the Sentosa Express monorail from VivoCity shopping mall, with a transport fee of a mere S$1. Alternatively, you can also take the Sentosa bus from Harbourfront bus interchange with the same fee. Taking the cable car from Harbourfront tower or Mount Faber to enter Sentosa is also possible, with a much higher fee. Once we enter Sentosa, all the transportation methods within Sentosa (bus, monorail, tram) are free.

There are many attractions inside Sentosa, each with its own entrance fee, which is on top of the S$2 entrance fee into the island. One of the attractions which tourists usually visit is Dolphin Lagoon, which is located near to the Palawan beach in Sentosa. The entrance fee is quite steep, S$19.90 for adult and S$12.70 for child, however the fee includes the entrance tickets for both Dolphin Lagoon and Underwater World. To reach Dolphin Lagoon, we can take the Sentosa Express monorail to the Beach station, and from there, we can take the Palawan beach tram which will bring us right into Dolphin Lagoon’s doorstep. Alternatively, we can also take the red or yellow line bus within Sentosa.

There are dolphin show sessions where we can watch all the pink dolphins in action, four times daily at 11am, 1:30pm, 3:30pm and 5:30pm. It’s advisable that we manage the time properly and be at the Dolphin Lagoon gate at least 30-45 minutes before the show time. This is to ensure that we get the best seats for the show. Take note that the waiting time for buses and trams in Sentosa is quite long, especially during peak holiday period where Sentosa can get very crowded and it seems that the available buses and trams are outnumbered by the visitors.

After each session, there’s a meet and greet session where we can touch the dolphins and have your photos taken with them. For this, we would need to pay additional $15 fee per photo session, and each session is valid for up to two persons. We will have to go to one of the two corners of the lagoon compound and queue there to have our pictures being taken while touching the dolphins. We can then collect the photo at the souvenir shop near the exit of the lagoon complex. If we have another friend with a camera there, we can also ask the friend to take our pictures with the dolphin, so we can also have our own version of the photo.

Do not forget that the admission fee for Dolphin Lagoon includes the admission to Underwater World, which will be valid on the same day. So we might want to manage our time properly so we can visit both attractions on the same day. Underwater World opens until 9pm daily while the last show session is at 5:30pm daily, so if we reach Sentosa in the afternoon, we might want to watch the Dolphin Lagoon show first before heading to the Underwater World, which is located on the other side of the island.

Writing for ABN's Asia Travel Blog

2008-01-09T14:31:00.001+08:00

At last, I'm now contributing to Asia Blogging Network (ABN). Specifically, I'll be writing on ABN's Asia Travel Blog, and on that blog, I will write more information about travelling in Singapore, the country where I live currently.

Yes, I had expressed my interests in contributing to ABN since the day it was launched, but I was afraid that I might not have the time, and especially, the "passion", to write on ABN. Therefore, I decided not to apply to become one of ABN's contributors. However, Budi offered me to write on ABN's Asia Travel Blog and asked me to write anything about travelling in Singapore, and it's really an offer I couldn't reject. I like travelling a lot, and I often write about my travel experience in my blogs. I was thinking, I might as well share the experience by contributing to ABN, to reach a much greater readers' base.

My article about Dolphin Lagoon is my first contribution to Asia Travel Blog. I'm looking forward to contributing more to ABN and hope to see you guys there. :)

Canonian vs Nikonian

2008-01-02T20:04:00.001+08:00

Picture courtesy of Andri Setiawan.

This picture shows four photographers (the guy on the far right side is not counted), one of them is an amateur (that's me!) and the other three are professional photographers, all using Canon digital cameras. The photo is taken by another photographer, who was using a Nikon digital camera.

Since I consider myself as an amateur photographer, I am satisfied of using a pocket camera to serve my photography needs. Yes, I wanted to have a so-called "more professional camera" like the Canon EOS which that guy with the white T-shirt is using, especially after I tried to use his camera the other day. But hearing that the camera body itself (without the lens) would already cost almost $2k, I backed off. :) :)

Well, if Pangeran Panda is dreaming of someone giving him a $99k lens for his birthday (which is still months away), can I also dream of someone giving me a $2k Canon EOS camera for my birthday (which is even further months away)? That is only a fraction of Panda's $99k wishlist. :P :P

Hmmm... *dreaming...*

...

OK, back to reality. :P Which one is actually better? Canon or Nikon? :)

Season's Greetings

2007-12-22T12:41:00.001+08:00

Selamat Hari Raya Idul Adha to all my Muslim friends, Selamat Hari Ibu for all Indonesian mothers (including my mother and my wife), Merry Christmas to all my Christian friends, and Happy New Year to everyone! :)

Picture courtesy of 123greetings.com.

It's Getting Hotter There in Malaysia

2007-12-12T19:19:00.001+08:00

The political situation in Malaysia is getting hotter recently. It was started with a demolition of an ancient Hindu temple by the Malaysian government late October, causing rage among Indian Malaysian community in Malaysia. Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), whom activists were being detained by the police when protesting against the demolition of the temple, staged mass rallies throughout last month and early this month, shocking the government and the nation. The rallies were highlighting the minority Indian Malaysians' complaints of discrimination by the ruling government, and almost all of the rallies ended with hundreds being arrested.

The claims of mistreatment against the Indian community were being denounced by Malaysia's Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who said that those claims were stirred up to create racial conflicts. It seems that the Malaysian government was trying all-out to curb the situation by performing mass crackdown on those who supported the rallies. They even charged 26 ethnic Indians with attempted murder of a policeman during one of the protests, with their bail being rejected. What's more, some of them were even accused of having links with terrorist groups.

And recently, seems that the crackdown has widen and is affecting not only the Indian Malaysians group, but also other groups such as lawyers and human rights leaders who were also staging street protests against the government on some other issues. Even Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition figure and former deputy premier who was being sacked during Mahathir's era, was also detained at Kuala Lumpur International Airport after returning from a trip to Turkey. This leads to the United States government to call on Malaysia to allow freedom of expression and assembly. They have repeatedly raised with Malaysian authorities their belief that citizens in any country should be allowed to peacefully asemble and express their views. But of course, Abdullah's stand is that public safety and security should take precedence above public freedom.

Seems that the issue is now getting more serious. Let's just hope that this issue does not cause the Malaysian government to forget that they still have some other important issues to take care, including the flood issue which has caused the death toll to rise and thousands to be evacuated.

The above picture is courtesy of ChannelNewsAsia.

Quicklink: Walk Around The Singapore F1 Track

2007-12-08T09:15:00.001+08:00

Walk Around The Singapore Formula 1 Track - Part 1 and Part 2. Created by an avid F1 fan who came to Singapore and took pictures of almost every corner of the track. Link is provided by Tomorrow.SG.

Sitex 2007 Is Now On

2007-11-30T15:50:00.001+08:00

One of the biggest IT and digital exhibitions in Singapore, SITEX 2007, is now happening at the Hall 5 and Hall 6 of Singapore Expo, now until 2 December 2007. The event is organised by the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) and managed by Singex Exhibitions. It is an annual exhibition event which has been held since 1988.

The organiser promised that this year's SITEX will not only be bigger, but it will also feature new themed segments such as New Technology, Smart Home, IT & New Media Education, Automobile Electronics, and IT for Kids. They also have partnered with Cash Converters and Clean Solutions for a recycling initiative where consumers can can trade in unwanted electronic gadgets or items at the Cash Converters booth for cash, or dispose of them using recycling bins situated near the entrances. This is a good time for you to dispose all your spoiled or unwanted electronic items.

Currently I don't have any IT or electronic items to buy, so I'm not too sure whether I'm going to pay a visit to the event. Well, actually my wife has been asking for a new laptop but I'm not too sure whether it's now a good time to buy... we'll see. :) :)

Amazing Race Asia 2 Has Started

2007-11-23T00:14:00.001+08:00

I have just watched the premiere of The Amazing Race Asia 2 on AXN Asia just now. It is the second season of The Amazing Race Asia series, one of my favourite shows, after its first season last year. This season, the race started in Singapore, specifically near the Raffles Landing Site where I and my kids just visited last week, and their first destination was the Merlion statue at Mount Faber. Believe me, I didn't know that there's another Merlion statue in Mount Faber, until I watched the show. I thought Merlion statues in Singapore can only be found in Merlion Park and Sentosa. :)

Similar to last season, there are ten teams competing for one hunder thousand dollar. There is one contestant from Singapore, Adrian, who is hearing-impaired, making him the first hearing-impaired contestant in the Amazing Race history. There's one team representing Indonesia, actress Kinaryosih and her partner Brett, and they can reach the pit stop at the fourth place in the first leg of the race. Not bad. :)

So, from next week onwards, I will have to mark this important time of the week: Thursday at 9pm (Singapore time), for me to watch The Amazing Race Asia 2. Oh, and don't forget also that every Wednesday at 11pm (Singapore time), Channel 5 is also showing the latest season of the Amazing Race.

Pictures courtesy of AXN Asia website.

This is what a good camera (with a good lens) can do...

2007-11-01T12:17:00.001+08:00

The above picture is taken by our dear Pangeran Panda, using his camera (with the so-called special lens), during our Indo-Sing Moderators dinner event last night.

Believe me, he didn't need to climb to the ceiling to take the picture. The camera was just positioned less than one meter away above the table.

Amazing, eh? :)

Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri

2007-10-12T11:10:00.001+08:00

Similar to last year, both Singapore and Indonesia governments have decided the same date for this year's Hari Raya Idul Fitri, which is on Saturday, 13 October 2007.

In Singapore, the Mufti of Singapore has announced that based on astronomical calculation, the moon was not visible on the horizon yesterday evening as it set almost at the same time with the sun. Thus, today (Friday, 12 October 2007) marks the 30th day of the Muslim's holy month of Ramadhan and the 1st day of Syawal (Hari Raya Aidil Fitri) falls on Saturday, 13 October 2007.

In Indonesia, the Ministry of Religion Affairs also have decided that this year's Hari Raya Idul Fitri falls on Saturday, 13 October 2007. According to Cecep Nurwendayat, an Indonesian astronomy expert, the moon (hilal) was not possible to be seen yesterday because the sunshine was still strong when the moon set.

Similar to last year, Muhammadiyah, one of the largest Islamic organisations in Indonesia, have decided that Hari Raya Idul Fitri falls one day earlier than the government's decision, which is today (Friday, 12 October 2007). This is due to the different methods used in determining the end of the month of Ramadan. Therefore, it's quite common to see some of Indonesian muslims who celebrate Hari Raya Idul Fitri today instead of tomorrow, and alhamdulillah, these differences are widely accepted by the Indonesian people and never cause any problems, let alone frictions, among Muslims in Indonesia.

I would like to wish all Muslims all over the world, a Happy Eid ul-Fitr celebration. Eid Mubarak, Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri, mohon maaf lahir dan batin.

More Cars on Singapore Roads

2007-09-21T18:36:00.001+08:00

Picture taken from Traffic Camera section of One Motoring website.

Those who drive or often take taxis in Singapore will notice that nowadays, there are more cars on Singapore roads compared to two or three years ago. Last year, I would only take less than 15 minutes to reach my home in around Upper Bukit Timah area, from my office in around Science Park area, during evening peak hours. Now, every evening I would need at least 30 minutes, due to congestion along the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE). Last time, the expressway was usually congested only if there's an accident, but nowadays, built-up traffic during evening peak time period is now an every day matter.

And now, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will install more Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries all over Singapore, to control the traffic flow. I don't understand why they chose to do this instead of limiting the number of cars on the roads. They can actually do so by reducing the number of quota available for Certification of Entitlement (COE) bidding. Past two years were actually a good time for LTA to review and reduce the quota since there were many cars being scrapped/de-registered. But instead, they chose to use that reason as an excuse to increase the quota, and as a result, COE plunged to a very low rate in the past couple of years. At the end, more people are buying cars, resulting in more crowded Singapore roads.

They should actually reduce the quota much earlier, say one or two years ago, to control the number of cars, instead of installing more ERP gantries now to control the traffic flow. It's not fair to the road users, especially to those who purchased their cars when the COE was on a much higher level (2004 and earlier). They paid higher COE premium at that time, expecting that they will enjoy smooth flow of traffic due to the limited number of cars on the roads. However, they ended up having to share more crowded roads with newer car owners who paid lesser COE premiums, and now they will also have to share the burden to pay for additional ERP charges.

OK, I admit that my opinion might be subjective since I bought my car in 2003, while the COE rate was above $30k. But don't you agree with me that the government should limit the number of cars in the first place, rather than letting people to buy more cars and perform "damage control" by charging them to use the roads?

Missed That Round of Open Submission

2007-08-26T00:22:00.001+08:00

Aaaargh. I missed this year's round of Merdeka's open submission. I intended to register this blog as well as my Minda Indra blog for the open submission, but then I was very busy on that particular day both in the office and at home so I forgot to make the submission. More over, I forgot to mark this date on my scheduler. Guess I will have to wait for the next round of open submission, don't know when...

Why this round of submission is only opened for one day? :(

Al-Jazeera Seeking to Broadcast in Singapore

2007-08-02T18:44:00.001+08:00

On one of the mailing lists I subscribe, Rani quoted an article from Reuters saying that the leading Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera said that it has been in talks with the Singapore government since early this year, hoping to get the go-ahead to broadcast in Singapore by year-end.

According to Nigel Parsons, the managing director of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera English channel, Singapore was cautious about allowing it to broadcast in Singapore because of criticism of the channel in the United States. Al-Jazeera, which attracted millions of viewers after it aired exclusive footage from Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the wake of the September 11 attacks, has been accused by the US (who else?) of biased reporting on Iraq and "supporting" terrorism.

Singapore's Media Development Authority (MDA) said that it was still assessing Al-Jazeera, saying that "as with all foreign channels, the authorities will need to make assessments based on criteria such as public expectations and interest, as well as the ability to meet local programme standards."

I also read on the Straits Times newspaper yesterday, that if Al-Jazeera gets the go-ahead, most likely it will be aired under SingTel's MiO Pay-TV package.

Will be very interesting to see how the Singapore government will follow-up on this matter, as we have known, Singapore is quite strict in enforcing their controls over the media. And considering that Singapore is a close ally of the United States, I foresee that Al-Jazeera will be having difficulties in getting the broadcast rights.

As what Mr. Parsons has pointed out, "We understand that we have to be patient".

Singapore F1 Race on 28 September 2008

2007-07-29T00:23:00.001+08:00

(Picture courtesy of Wikipedia)

At last, the date for the inaugural F1 race in Singapore has been set. It will be held on 28 September 2008 and will be after the race in Belgium, and before the race in Shanghai, China. Subject to final safety clearances, the Singapore race will be the first F1 race to be held at night. The race will be held on a 5.2-km street circuit around the Marina Bay/Esplanade area.

Tickets will start to go on sale in December 2007. Although the ticket prices have not been fixed yet, Singapore Grand Prix, the organiser of the Singapore race, has released the estimated ticket price to start from S$50 for the trial races, and S$100 for the actual races.

Well, I believe Formula One fans can start marking the date in the calendar, although now it might still be too early to book the hotels. I'm not too sure whether you can just book a hotel within the Marina Bay area and watch the race without having to buy tickets. :)

Complete race list for 2008 F1 season:

March 16, Melbourne, Australia
March 23, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
April 6, Bahrain
April 27, Barcelona, Spain
May 11, Istanbul, Turkey
May 25, Monaco
June 8, Montreal, Canada
June 22, Magny Cours, France
July 6, Silverstone, England
July 20, Hockenheim, Germany
August 3, Budapest, Hungary
August 24, Valencia, Spain
September 7, Monza, Italy
September 14, Spa, Belgium
September 28, Singapore
October 12, Shanghai, China
October 19, Fuji Speedway, Japan
November 2, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Stagnant Water at Bukit Merah Playground

2007-07-23T23:43:00.001+08:00

Yesterday (22/7) evening, while waiting for my wife to shop at IKEA on Alexandra Road (it's annual clearance sale in IKEA now until 12 August 2007, by the way), I took Inka and Irza to a children playground, located in front of Block 2 Jalan Bukit Merah, between the former SAFRA Bukit Merah clubhouse and the ABC market and food centre.

The playground is quite nice, and I remember that this playground was just built recently after the whole block and some other blocks nearby were undergoing major renovation. Inka and Irza were having a great time playing there.

The only one disturbing sight there is stagnant water, most probably as a result of drops of rain, smacked in the middle of the playground. With many cases of dengue reported all over Singapore, such sight is a bit worrying since if I'm not mistaken, the stagnant water can be a nice breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Wondering what would the NEA say about this?

Umbrella Vending Machine

2007-07-10T16:47:00.001+08:00

I have seen many vending machines throughout Singapore dispensing drinks and snacks. But this is the first time I saw a vending machine dispensing umbrellas. The vending machine is located at the first floor of IMM Building at Jurong East, just in front of Burger King fast food restaurant.

I believe this is a great business idea, especially in Singapore where the weather can be so unpredictable. One time it can be so hot, and one or two hours later, it can just suddenly rain heavily. Sometimes it can be difficult for some people (including myself) to get an umbrella when we need one. Either we forget to bring one, or too lazy to bring one.

The price of the umbrella itself is, surprisingly, quite cheap, for Singapore standard. Only S$6 per umbrella. I haven't managed to buy one so I don't know how's the quality of the umbrella, but the vendor's website claimed that it's a mini 3-fold high quality umbrella, framed by lightweight aluminum alloy, which also has ultra-violet ray protection as well.

Not too sure whether we also have this kind of vending machines in Jakarta or any other parts of Indonesia. Has anyone seen one? :)

Migrating Albums from Yahoo! Photos to Flickr

2007-07-01T21:59:00.001+08:00

Before I had my Multiply site, I used to use Yahoo! Photos to store my photo albums. There were more than twenty albums I stored there before I started to use Multiply, which I think is much better in terms of features and community. Time goes on, and since Flickr was being acquired by them, Yahoo! had two redundant photo sharing services. And now, they have decided to close Yahoo! Photos since they will focus their efforts for the development of Flickr.

Yahoo! will officially close the service on 20 September 2007, and they give the option of moving the photos to another photo sharing service, download the original resolution photos back to our computers, or buy an archive CD containing all the photos. I chose the first option, and considering Flickr is currently also being managed by Yahoo!, I decided to move the photos to my Flickr account, which I have merged with my Yahoo! account quite some time ago.

It's quite easy to migrate, I just needed to login to my Yahoo! Photos site and chose Flickr to transfer my photo albums, and they will do the rest. They estimated that it will take up to a week for them to do so, however I found out that all my albums were being migrated in less my two days. All my Yahoo! Photos albums were conveniently being transformed into sets in Flickr, and being set as private so I can easily mark which albums I want to set public and which ones I want to keep private. Very convenient.

The only problem is that the number of sets for normal (free) Flickr account is limited to three. Because I moved my Yahoo! Photo albums to Flickr, they have generously gave me free 3 months of Pro account, which will expire on 28 September 2007, but I was wondering what will happen to my albums (read: sets) after the Pro account expires. I might need to extend the Pro account, which will cost me US$24.95 a year. Holy smokes! That's cheap! Or, is it? :) Considering that Multiply can give unlimited albums and photos for free? :)

Well, what I am doing now is to create a same tag for all the photos on the same albums, so I can still access my albums using tags. Hopefully this will help me to track the albums even after the Pro account is expired. Or, perhaps later someone might be kindly enough to give me a Flick Pro gift account, for free? Who knows... :) :)

Asia Blogging Network

2007-06-14T16:05:00.000+08:00

I'm back to Singapore after a very short (less than 2 weeks) holiday with my family in Jakarta. My Internet connection was very limited while I'm in Jakarta, since my family's house there does not have a dedicated Internet connection. I can use a dial-up connection to some Indonesian ISPs using my company's iPass Global Roaming account, however the network connectivity was terrible. Downloading e-mails from my server in Singapore can take forever.

The only thing I did quite regularly while I was in Indonesia is to blog at Kronologis, using my Dopod 818 Pro with a GPRS connection provided by XL, which has GRPS roaming agreement with my Singapore mobile provider, M1, at quite competitive prices. Therefore, I seldom update my blogs or check my e-mails during my trip to Jakarta. The only post I wrote while I was in Jakarta is a post on Rumah Indra to congratulate Kukuh for his wedding, and to congratulate Tyty and eRBe for the birth of their first daughter, Auriel.

I also would like to congratulate Budi Putra for the launch of Asia Blogging Network (ABN), the first Asian blogging network founded by Budi together with some of his fellow bloggers: Kuncoro Wastuwibowo, Harry Sufehmi, Ikhlasul Amal, Firman Firdaus, Rendy Maulana and Thomas Arie Setiawan. Some of big names in Indonesian blogosphere has also joined the network, such as Jennie S. Bev and Budi Rahardjo. They have many blogs, some use different domains, to cater for different specific topics, under the same one ABN umbrella.

Although the blog network is founded in Indonesia, it's quite obvious that ABN wants to reach out to bloggers in Asia, and based on its press release, Budi describes ABN as a "blog network from Indonesia for Asia". At the moment, they are currently inviting Indonesian bloggers to become their permanent writers, however, in the near future, it might be open for other Asian (non-Indonesian) writers as well.

I, myself, am actually interested in writing on and for ABN, however it seems that I'm not (yet?) really that passionate enough to write there. One of the requirements to become a permanent writer for ABN is to write regularly, minimum (typically) three times a week, a requirement which I think is quite difficult for me to fulfill. Well, consider this, I'm already feeling lucky enough if I can post on my blogs at least once a week. :)

Nevertheless, I really think the Asia Blogging Network is a great initiative from our fellow Indonesian bloggers, and I am looking forward to see the network to grow and reach out to not only Indonesian bloggers, but also to our fellow bloggers from other countries in Asia. Again, congratulations to Budi and friends for the launch of Asia Blogging Network. Keep up the good work.

100% Smoke-free

2007-05-31T10:20:00.000+08:00

To: manager of public places

Scientific research about the harms of second-hand tobacco smoke has been accumulating for over 20 years. There is no doubt that breathing second-hand tobacco smoke (SHS) is very dangerous to human health, causing cancer and many serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in children and adults, often leading to premature death.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has concluded that there is no safe level of human exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke, and the upcoming WHO policy recommendations on protection from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke clearly state that the establishment of 100% smoke-free areas is the only way to protect the public to such exposure and its consequences.

The right to clean air, free from tobacco-smoke is a human right.

Therefore, we ask you to defend and protect the health of employers, workers and the public by implementing the necessary legislation that will make all public indoor working places, including bars and restaurants 100% smoke-free. We think this is a critical step to protecting our health and that of our children.

Sincerely,

Signed by

Indra Pramana

Related links:

Ajakan untuk Mengikuti ‘Hari Tanpa Tembakau Sedunia 2007′ by Priyadi (in Indonesian)
World No Tobacco Day 2007 in WHO website
WHO: Introduction: rigorous research leaves no doubt
WHO: 100% smoke-free is the only answer
WHO: Call for action
WHO: Dismantling tobacco industry myths: be prepared with answers
WHO: Not yet smoke-free? Here is what you can do…
World No Tobacco Day in Wikipedia
Tobacco: Deadly in Any Form, posted last year in Info
Hari Tanpa Tembakau Sedunia 2006, posted last year in Minda Indra (in Indonesian)

Bemonet Alumni and First Indonesian Bloggers

2007-05-08T14:59:00.000+08:00

My friend Budi Putra, reputedly the first full-time Indonesian blogger, is currently doing a research on the history of first Indonesian bloggers. I agree with him that articles with regard to this matter are rarely found on the Internet, and I fully support his initiative and efforts in doing the research. I foresee that this will be quite a difficult task for him, but once the task is done, I believe the research results will be very much rewarding, not only for him, but also for us and the Indonesian blogosphere in general.

Currently, he's in the early stage of gathering all the necessary information. Some fruitful inputs and feedbacks have been received as comments on the article. Based on the inputs and feedbacks, it seems that the year 2000 is the start of the blogging era for Indonesia.

It was noted that some of the first Indonesian bloggers, such as Harry Sufehmi, Priyadi Iman Nurcahyo, T.A. Coen, Kukuh T. Wicaksono and Kuncoro Wastuwibowo are coming from the BemoNet community, a BBS community which I joined during the Indonesian BBS era in the 90's. The start of the Internet era marked the end of the BBS era in Indonesia, and the members of the community had to move on to use Internet as their communication media. Some of them used the mailing list, and some other used blogs.

T.A. Coen, the Bemonet coordinator, started a poliblog called Bemo Live, which I was one of the contributors. The first post of BemoLive was dated 7 April 2000. At that time, I already had a Blogger account even though I haven't started to blog, as yet. On the same year, Idban Secandri also started another poliblog called Blog Suka-Suka, and he was also very kind to add me as one of the contributors. The first post of Blog Suka-Suka was dated 23 August 2000.

At that time, Coen and Idban should have started their own blogs as well, so I believe we can safely say that they were some of the first Indonesian bloggers who has started blogging since early 2000. On top of that, some of the active contributors of the two poliblog sites, such as Kukuh and Kuncoro, can be considered as first Indonesian bloggers as well.

Again, I would like to emphasize that I have not started to actively blog at that time. At that time, I chose to use the bemo-batavia mailing list, setup by Heryudi Ganesha, to get in touch with other Bemonetters. I only started to blog on year 2004 (based on my first post on this blog), and only started to actively blog on year 2005, when I launched Rumah Indra and The Journey of Inka and Irza. Therefore, of course, I am NOT one of the first Indonesian bloggers I have mentioned above. :)

On a side note, the official domain of the Bemonet community, bemo.or.id, is currently down at the moment. Couple of months back, I had a chat with Coen about the possibility of reactivating this domain and host the site in my facility, however so far there's no further updates on when can the domain be reactivated. Perhaps Coen or Priyadi can shed some light on the status of the domain? :)

Last but not least, I hope the above short article can help Budi in doing his research. Again, I fully support his efforts in doing this research and I am looking forward to see the results of the research. Good luck. :)

New Look of Planet Indra

2007-04-17T01:25:00.000+08:00

I encountered quite a lot of problems when I used the Blue Horizon theme for Planet Indra. The sidebar.php file is not really easy to modify, making it difficult for me to add some widget scripts there. For example, it's a bit difficult for me to add the scripts to show the Kronologis sideblog and Oggix shoutbox there. Well, I can still add the widgets there, but the whole sidebar layout will become very messy. My friend JaF even told me that he always sees the sidebar dangling (is dangling the correct word for "melorot" in English?), using either Firefox or Internet Explorer.

In view of this, I decided to give a new look for Planet Indra. After searching and testing various WordPress themes, I decided to use the Golden Grey theme, by William Pramana. Well, of course it's not because William is sharing the same last name as I am :) , but because I really like the layout design. And, the most important thing, it's much easier to modify the sidebar.php file to insert the necessary gadgets that I want. The Kronologis box also fits nicely in the sidebar, resolving the dangling problem.

Both JaF and Rani introduced Twitter to me, which has features similar to what Kronologis offers. I have signed up for an account there, but so far I haven't been fully making use of it. At the moment, I'm quite happy to use Kronologis for my sideblog, and so far I haven't had a plan to switch. :) Well, I might want to use Twitter for my sideblog in English, since currently I'm using bahasa Indonesia for my Kronologis sideblog. We'll see. :)

Syndication Problem Resolved, Aggregators Now Showing Full Articles

2007-04-15T00:20:00.000+08:00

At last, I have managed to find a workaround to the syndication problem on my aggregation sites such as Planet Indra and Planet Singapura, thanks to Alarix and Isman. As reported earlier, the syndication sites, which are actually Wordpress engine using FeedWordPress plugin, were only showing the titles (instead of the full articles) of articles being syndicated from Blogger-based weblogs, especially after the blogs were being upgraded to the new Blogger.

A discussion on a Blogfam forum's thread revealed that one of Blogfam's system administrators, Alarix, encountered the same problem when he's launching Rumah Blogfam, an aggregator site for Blogfam's members, which happens to also use FeedWordPress. Another Blogfam member, Isman, also looked into this matter and he managed to find out that the problem was due to the incompatibility between FeedWordPress and the Atom feed published by the Blogger-based weblogs.

He suggested to use the RSS 2.0 feed published by Blogspot to be used as the feed source, instead of the Atom feed. The URL format of the RSS 2.0 feed in weblogs under Blogspot (after being upgraded to the new Blogger) is:

http://(blog-name).blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

On top of that, he also suggested to use FeedBurner to burn the feed source, instead of syndicating the feed source directly, similar to what Fatih has suggested to me earlier.

So, these are the steps of workaround I've performed:

Use FeedBurner to burn the above RSS 2.0 feed (instead of the Atom feed);
Configure my FeedWordPress to syndicate the Feedburner feed address, i.e. http://feeds.feedburner.com/(feed-name); and
Upgrade my FeedWordPress to the latest version 0.981.

And, voila, the above steps resolved the problem. You can see the results on the new posts being syndicated by Planet Indra and Planet Singapura, it's now showing the full articles instead of the titles only.

Again, thanks to Isman, Alarix and Fatih for all the hints and suggestions. Really appreciate it. :)

The Coffee Club

2007-04-14T22:55:00.000+08:00

Last Friday (13 April 2007), I and my wife went to The Coffee Club, which is located on the third floor of the bright and airy Raffles City Shopping Centre, which is located just above the City Hall MRT station, Singapore.

The Coffee Club itself is a chain of coffee shops located throughout Singapore, similar to Starbucks and The Coffee Bean. However, usually we don't go to Coffee Club for the coffee. Our (especially my wife's) favourite is the fresh fruit fondue, some fresh fruits such as strawberries, mangoes, kiwis and bananas served with hot thick chocolate.

I also ordered the muddy mud pie, which is actually ice cream cake served on top of oreo-based cake layer. The only drink we ordered was the ice rambutan, which is much similar to Al-Azhar's rambutan spin.

More pictures can be found here.

Quicklink: A Jakarta-Bandung Travelogue

2007-03-16T12:40:00.000+08:00

(Pictures taken from the article)

A nice travelogue written by a Malaysian friend on his trip to Jakarta and Bandung, last month. Rush Murad is a Malaysian blogger based in Sarawak, and the travelogue is written in Malay. I really enjoy reading it. He also put some nice photos in the article.

Quite unfortunately, he was involved in an accident while the car he was taking had the brakes failed once cruising down the steep slope of Mount Tangkuban Perahu, north of Bandung. Thank God, he is safe and sound, albeit a small injury.

You can read the travelogue here.

APRICOT 2007 Officially Opened Yesterday

2007-02-28T15:35:00.000+08:00

Even though the workshop and tutorial of APRICOT 2007 in Bali has been starting since mid of last week, the conference was only officially opened yesterday (Tuesday, 27 February 2007). The conference was officially opened by Mr. Sofyan Djalil, the Minister of Communication and Information Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, after the opening speeches given by Ms. Sylvia Sumarlin, the chairman of APJII, the Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association, and Mr. Gaurab Uphadaya, the chairman of APIA. APJII and APIA are two out of several organisations which support the APRICOT 2007 event.

Yesterday morning, I attended the BGP Deployment and Best Practices tutorial, conducted by Philip Smith. During lunch time yesterday, I had the chance to meet Mr. Sanjaya, one of APJII's activists who is now working for APNIC, and Mr. Roy Rahajasa Yamin, my ex-boss in RADNET. During the plenary session, I also met Mr. Yulianus, the network administrator of Indosat, one of the leading ISPs in Indonesia.

Yesterday night, I attended the APRICOT Opening Social Event, which is held at the Westin Poolside. I met some friends from Starhub and Equinix, Singapore. I also met Mr. Toto Santoso, the administrator of Ipteknet/BPPT and also previously the administrator for the go.id second level domain. We discussed almost anything reminiscing and Bill Fridini also joined the discussion. It was fun.

Today (Wednesday, 28 February 2007) morning, I attended the second phase of the APRICOT plenary sessions at the auditorium, with some interesting presentations, such as the new 4-byte (32-bit) AS number testing by Geoff Huston, and bogon filters discussion by Randy Bush. During lunch time, I met Judhi Prasetyo, one of my friends in Singapore. His company, FortiNet, is having a booth here in APRICOT 2007 and is one of the sponsors for the event. He also introduced me to Valens Riyadi, one of APRICOT's organising committee members.

I'm now writing this article from the Nusantara 2 Room, attending the IX SIG, chaired by Philip Smith. There are some interesting presentations, one of them is regarding the new 100 Gigabit Ethernet technology, by Greg Hankins from IEEE. Currently, there's also a presentation regarding Euro-IX, which is actually a European IXP association, and *not* a European IX point by itself. Very interesting. This might be due to the fact that there are many (and not only one) IX points in Europe.

I won't post any more pictures here, you can go to my Flickr site if you want to see photos during the event. Specifically, these are the locations of the photos during my first day in APRICOT 2007 (26 February 2007) and during my second day (27 February 2007) here. I haven't uploaded any photos from today's events, will do soon, please watch out for them here.

First day at APRICOT 2007

2007-02-26T17:50:00.000+08:00

Although today (Monday, 26 February 2007) is my first day at this APRICOT 2007 conference, it's actually already the sixth day of the conference, since I skipped the workshop and some of the meetings which are not related to my organisation. This conference is being held at the Bali International Convention Centre, which is quite a good, world class convention centre, similar to the Suntec City Convention Centre in Singapore. It's located within the complex of Westin Resort hotel, about 5-10 minutes from Melia Bali Hotel where I'm staying. There's a shuttle bus ferrying all the delegates from hotel to the conference venue.

Earlier, during lunch session, I met Mauldi Wirastomo and Bill Fridini, both are my old friends from APJII. They are now very busy since they are in-charge of the network providing Internet access to all the delegates. I also had the chance to meet Ahmad Alkazimy, one of APJII's key technical staff whom I previously only knew from his e-mails in some mailing lists. I also met Deny Kurniawan and I Nyoman Tusta, two of my old friends from RADNET Surabaya.

There are some tutorials which we can choose to attend, based on their streams. For today, I attended the Introduction to IPv6 tutorial by Jordi Palet Martinez, and IPv6 Deployment tutorial by Salaman Asadullah. There's free Internet access provided through wi-fi (wireless) networks, and power plugs are also available in the tables, so we can use our laptop and access the Internet while attending the tutorials. Unfortunately, the Internet access is a bit slow, although, according to Mauldi, there's more than 28 Mbps of bandwidth available. I guess it might be due to more people are using the network this week compared to last week.

More pictures during the event can be found here.

[Indonesian version]

Happy Lunar New Year

2007-02-17T00:22:00.000+08:00

For those of you who celebrate Lunar New Year, I wish everyone of you a very happy and prosperous new year ahead. Xīnnián kuàilè, Gōngxǐ fācái. And, don't forget the red packets... :)

APRICOT 2007 in Bali

2007-02-09T18:50:00.000+08:00

The APRICOT conference, which stands for "Asia Pacific Regional Internet Conference on Operational Technologies", is the place where all network geeks from Asia Pacific, if not the whole world, gather to discuss about new technology in the Internet and IT fields, especially on the network area. The event consists of workshops, tutorials, conference sessions and some other forums as well. We can say that APRICOT is the Asia Pacific version of North America's NANOG. For this year, the APRICOT 2007 will be held at Bali International Convention Centre, Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. It will be hosted by APJII, the Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association.

The last time I attended APRICOT was six years ago, during the APRICOT 2001 event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Since then, I never attended the next APRICOT events, until this year, my company has agreed to send me to attend the APRICOT 2007 in Bali, thank God. I will be going to Bali on Saturday, 24th of February 2007, and will be back to Singapore on 3rd of March 2007. I will attend the tutorial, conference sessions and the APNIC member meeting.

I'm glad that I'll be meeting quite a lot of friends there, including some of my friends from APJII and my ex-colleagues in RADNET. I took a glance at the event's organizing committee here and saw some familiar names, including Mauldi Wirastomo and Hammam Riza, two of my ex-bosses while I was in RADNET last time. :) For those of you who will be going to attend APRICOT 2007 as well, just drop me a note, in case we can meet up there and have a chat. Looking forward to see you guys in Bali! :) :)

Inka and Irza's New Look

2007-02-06T02:15:00.000+08:00

My blogger friend Tata, who is currently in Switzerland but is having a plan to migrate to Singapore soon with his family, informed me that his computer always hung after viewing the main page of The Journey of Inka and Irza. I tried to replicate the problem, and yes, I also encountered the same problem. My Mozilla Firefox hung after trying to load the page for some time, not too sure why. Many thanks Tata for the feedback. :)

To be frank, firstly I didn't really much bother since the blog itself is already in hiatus mode for quite some time. In the past couple of months, I prefer to write stories about Inka and Irza in the photo section of my Multiply site, together with all the photos, while the Indonesian versions of the stories are usually posted in Rumah Indra. So, I didn't update that blog too often. However, writing articles (with all the hyperlinks etc) on a photo blog is quite inconvenient, especially since you would need to add the hyperlink tags manually. So, I've decided that I would want to use back The Journey of Inka and Irza for me to write stories about my kids and family, in English. Furthermore, I have configured my Multiply site to import all my articles from all my blogs under my Blogger account, including The Journey of Inka and Irza and Rumah Indra.

Before I start using it, I need to fix the problem first. Since I suspect that the problem might be due to the template, a quick and clean way to resolve the problem might be using a new template altogether. So, I backed up my previous template, and then I picked up a new template and at the same time, upgraded the template so I can use Blogger's new template layout tools, since I've already upgraded the blog to the new Blogger.

So, the problem is now fixed. You should not have any issues accessing The Journey of Inka and Irza blog site again, and I'm ready to post future articles about stories of Inka and Irza there again. Stay tuned! :)

Zabrina and Joe Jer Win the Amazing Race Asia

2007-02-03T11:15:00.000+08:00

Amazing! As I have predicted earlier, my favourite team, the Malaysians Zabrina and Joe Jer, have won the first session of the Amazing Race Asia, with a narrow lead from the second team to arrive at the pit stop, Sandy and Fransesca. The race ended at Bako National Park (misspelled as "Baku National Park" by the show's producer), which is about 37 km north of the city of Kuching, in Sarawak, Malaysia.

The other Malaysian team, Andrew and Syeon, was actually the first who finished the "building the bench" detour at Kuching's Old Courthouse, but got lost when finding their way to the Sarawak Cultural Village, making them the third team to arrive at the finish line. One member of the teams had to take up treetop challenge in Permai Rainforest Resort, before setting off to the beach and took the speedboat to Bako National Park. Zabrina finished this treetop challenge very well, making her team to be the first to arrive at the finish line. Congratulations!

How about the Indonesian team, Marsio and Mardy? Well, contrary to my prediction earlier, they were actually on the fourth place, after becoming the last team to be eliminated from the race, during the leg in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Not bad at all, actually, and the fact that they can achieve the fourth place is simply amazing and beyond almost everyone's expectations. My sincere congratulations to them as well. :)

Overall, I really enjoyed watching the show, and I am really looking forward for the second season of the Amazing Race Asia. Good work, AXN Asia!

Syndication Problem after Upgrading to New Blogger

2007-01-27T00:47:00.000+08:00

For some reason, my syndication sites such as Planet Singapura or Planet Indra are now only showing the titles of all my posts on my Blogger-based weblogs, such as Rumah Indra and Info, instead of the full articles. Not too sure why. The problem started immediately after I upgraded my Blogger-based to new Blogger.

I have checked my Blogger settings and it's confirmed that the blogs are being configured with full RSS feeds. I even tried to browse the RSS feed manually to ensure that full feed is shown. I also have checked the syndication options on the FeedWordPress-based syndication sites, and confirmed that it should extract the full article from the feeds. Why only the titles are being shown on the syndication sites?

Anyone has a clue? :)

Upgraded to New Blogger

2007-01-13T20:35:00.000+08:00

At last, I finally saw the long awaited option on my Blogger dashboard for me to switch to the new Blogger, which is already out of Beta (see left picture). The option appears on top of my usual Blogger dashboard when I logged in to the dashboard today. This is a great surprise to me, since I have actually tried to switch just several days ago, and it was not successful. I believe this was because my Blogger account is also a contributor of the Bemo Live and Suka Suka Gue blogs, preventing me from switching to the new Blogger account. It seems that now, Blogger has managed to give me the option to upgrade all my blogs separately from the two blogs which are still on the old version of Blogger.

Having said that, I immediately chose to switch to the new Blogger. First, I needed to confirm my sign-in by signing in using my old Blogger account (see right picture). After signing in, I am given the list of all my blogs, which are going to be upgraded (see below picture). It was mentioned that the two blogs I have mentioned above are owned by someone else, and although I will still be able to post to those blogs after upgrade, but the blogs won't have the new feature until the owners upgrade them.

After pressing "Continue", the screen would prompt me to choose a Google account (see right picture). I could either use my own Google account if I have one, or create a new one. Since I already had a Google account, I just needed to key in my Google account and password. After signing in, the upgrade process will start, and depends on the number of blogs and how big they are, it may take several minutes. Once done, an email will be sent to our Gmail e-mail account.

So, here this is, my first post on the new Blogger version. Haven't really explore the new features yet, though. One of the obvious features I can see, which I think would be very useful, is the labels tagging, which can be used for me to categorise all my next articles. Well, let's see how it goes after I post this article. :)

Wireless@SG Coverage in Singapore

2007-01-08T17:20:00.000+08:00

As some of us in Singapore might have known, the Singapore government has launched the Wireless@SG programme, a project to create wireless network across public areas in Singapore. It was launched on 1st December 2006, one month ahead of its intended launch schedule on 1st January 2007. The Singapore government, particularly the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), has decided that the two-year period for users to enjoy the wireless services for free will be extended to three years.

However, I noticed that at the moment, the coverage of the wireless service is not as good as what was being announced. For example, my two favourite eating places, Al-Ameen and Al-Azhar, which are located at the heart of the Bukit Timah area, is not yet covered. I also tried to search for the Wireless@SG SSID when I was in VivoCity couple of weeks ago, and I couldn't find it on the list as well. I thought the Wireless@SG should cover most of public places within the CBD and in all town centres across Singapore?

Perhaps IDA should closely monitor the deployment of the wireless services by all the three operators (iCell, QMax and SingTel) to ensure that they deploy the wireless services up to the required standards, especially with regards to the coverage. Well, now I can understand Pak Budi's frustration when he said that it's very difficult to find free wireless hotspots when he visited Singapore, just a week ago.

Happy New Year 2007

2006-12-23T17:40:00.000+08:00

Wishing all my Christians friends a joyous and wonderful Christmas.

Wishing everyone a happy new year 2007. Hopefully we're looking forward to a better and wonderful year ahead.

Amazing Race Asia to Jakarta and Bali

2006-11-23T23:40:00.000+08:00

I'm sorry if I have to write another article about my favourite reality show, Amazing Race Asia, after my previous article with regards to the show. It's because on its second and third leg of the race, they are going to my home country, Indonesia. Jakarta and Bali, to be exact. I was wrong when I predicted that they went to West Sumatra, after seeing the Minangkabau-style houses and the "plate dance" (tari piring) show. It turned out to be that they performed the dance at the West Sumatra pavilion of the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah, instead.

On the second leg of the race, which I watched last week, all teams left Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. Using Asia's biggest budget airline, AirAsia, I believe that it's Mr. Tony Fernandez -- AirAsia's CEO -- himself, who greeted one of the teams at the tarmac before the team boarded the plane. After touching down at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, all teams were on a taxi race on the busy highways of Jakarta, to Ragunan Zoo on the south outskirt of the city. The taxi race really shows the "turmoil" of Jakarta's traffic, with most of the taxi drivers were speeding and used the road shoulder to overtake other cars.

At the zoo, all teams would have to go inside a snake pit to get their next clues. The Indians Prashant and Sahil took the fast forward by going to SMA Negeri 60 school, which is located at Kemang Timur, not really far from Ragunan. This fast forward brought Prashant and Sahil to become the first team to arrive at the pit stop, the National Monument (Monas) of Jakarta. All the other teams went to the West Sumatra pavilion of the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah to perform "plate dance" (tari piring), a Minangkabau traditional dance. Once done, they then went to Kebayoran Baru area, around Jalan Panglima Polim, to be exact, to perform the detour, Push or Sell. Yud, I believe it's somewhere near your house? :) :)

The detour is related to bakso, or meatball soup, a popular Indonesian dish. In "Push", the teams had to push bakso pushcarts without spilling any soy sauce, while singing the "Abang Tukang Bakso" song, an Indonesian children song popularised by a (then) Indonesian child singer, Melissa, about a decade ago. Not too sure why they called it an Indonesian traditional song. It's not, actually. In "Sell", the teams would have to try selling 15 bowls of bakso for 2,000 rupiah each. Once they finished the detour, they have to go to the National Monument (Monas) as the pitstop of that second leg of the race. The Indonesians Mardy and Marsio become the second team to arrive (after Prashant and Sahil who took the Fast Forward) and my favourite team, Malaysian Zabrina and Joe Jer were the fourth team to arrive, while Filipino Ernie and Jeena become the first team to be eliminated on the race.

On the third leg of the race, which I just watched earlier this evening, all teams headed to Bali, again by using an AirAsia flight from Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. Once touched down at Denpasar's Ngurah Rai International Airport, they headed straight to Kuta beach to perform their roadblock, digging the sands. The task was quite tiring, causing 5 (read: five) of the teams gave up digging and chose to take a 4-hour penalty instead. After accessing the Internet in an Internet cafe nearby to find the next clue, all teams went to Ubud.

In Ubud, they needed to explore the Ubud Monkey Forest to find the next clue, which leads them to a detour: Wet or Dry. In "Wet", they need to perform white-water rafting down the Ayung River while in "Dry", they need to ride an elephant at the Elephant Safari Park nearby. From Ubud, they needed to go to the southernmost tip of the Bali Island, Uluwatu, and went inside a cave near a surfing centre there to get their next clue. The pit stop of the leg of the race is the Tanah Lot temple, located at the southwest coast of the island.

In this leg of the race, the Sri Lankan team Howard and Sahran came first, since they were the first team who find the "treasure", which is a small wooden surfboard, while digging the sands of Kuta beach. Zabrina and Joe Jer came in the fifth place, while Marsio and Mardy came in the sixth place, because both teams didn't finish the roadblock and chose to take the 4-hour penalty instead, which was served at the pit stop instead of at the roadblock's scene.

The good looking Filipinos, Aubrey and Jacqueline, become the second team to be eliminated from the race, following their fellow countrymen Ernie and Jeena. No more team from the Philippines remains in the race! The only Singaporean team Sharon and Melody came in the third place because they never gave up and managed to finish the roadblock and avoid the 4-hour penalty. Two thumbs up for their perseverance!!

Based on the trailer, it looks like all the teams are heading to Sydney, Australia for the fourth leg of the race. Well, I'm not too sure whether I would be able to watch the next week's show since I'll be in Jakarta, Indonesia next week. Let's just hope that I would be at my parents' place (which TV subscribes to AXN Asia), and not at my mother-in-law's place, at that time. :)

Amazing Race Asia

2006-11-09T23:55:00.000+08:00

My favourite reality show, Amazing Race, now has its own Asian version. Amazing Race Asia, its premiere was shown by AXN Asia just now. There are ten teams competing on this race, including one team from Indonesia, one team from Singapore, two teams from Malaysia and some other teams from other parts of Asia. The show is hosted by Singapore-based Allan Wu, who has participated in the US reality show, Fear Factor.

The race started at the Dataran Merdeka (or Independence Square) of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Their first destination was the Berjaya Times Square shopping mall, and Sahran, one of the participants from Sri Lanka, cried when he learned that he would need to climb down the void of the shopping mall, from the 8th floor down, using a rope. But he finished the task, eventually!

I was also laughing to see the contestants from Indonesia, brothers Marsio and Mardy. Looks like they are not "too athletic" enough for the race, seems to be already exhausted while reaching the mall, even though they took the cab from Dataran Merdeka to the mall. My wife even commented that the Indonesian brothers wouldn't be able to even pass the second or third leg of the race.

From Times Square, all the contestants had to go to Kompleks Kraf (Craft Complex) for their detour, either batik painting or pot making, using pottery wheel. Once they completed the detour, all the contestants headed to Shah Alam Stadium for a gokart ride, before going to the pit stop at the top of Menara Kuala Lumpur (the KL Tower). And I was very surprised to see that the Indonesian brothers, Marsio and Mardy, managed to take the lead and become the winner of this leg of the race! Well, actually the Malaysians Andrew and Syeon were the first to arrive after overtaking Marsio and Mardy on the last race to the pitstop (of course!), however they didn't follow the instruction on which route to use to go to the tower, so they had to redo their steps, and Marsio and Mardy became the winner.

It's quite difficult to predict who will be at the top three at this stage. The Singaporean girls Sharon and Melody seemed to be quite difficult to keep up, and came to be the sixth to arrive. My favourites are the Malaysian girls Zabrina and Joe Jer, who were actually the first team to arrive at the Times Square and finished the detour at Kompleks Kraf, but were being overtaken by Marsio and Mardy on their way to Shah Alam.

For the second leg of the race, based on the next week's trailer at the end of this week's show, it seems to me that they are going to Indonesia, West Sumatra to be exact, because I saw some Minangkabau-style houses and "plate dance" (tari piring) show, which is Minangkabau's traditional dance. But I guess, we'll only be able to find out next week!

So, now, I have marked two important times of the week: Monday 9pm (Singapore time) for the Amazing Race 10 show, and Thursday 9pm (Singapore time) for the Amazing Race Asia show. I had to rely on AXN Asia to watch the show now, since Mediacorp's Channel 5 is no longer showing the latest season of Amazing Race, not too sure why. Thanks AXN Asia!

FeedWordPress and Multiply, WordPress Upgrade and Akismet

2006-11-08T23:35:00.000+08:00

FeedWordPress and Multiply

For the first time, I tried to syndicate a Multiply-based blog into Planet Singapura, an aggregator blog which uses FeedWordPress. Even though I can syndicate the RSS feed successfully, however the output is a bit different from others. Usually, a hyperlink from an article will point to the permanent link at the origin blog, however, for Multiply-based blog, the hyperlink will be pointed to a page within Planet Singapura itself.

For example, an article titled Planet Singapura by one of its contributors has its hyperlink to be pointed to a page within Planet Singapura itself (http://planet.sg.or.id/?p=1586) instead of to the original permanent link at the contributor's blog (http://lailanurhayati.multiply.com/reviews/item/28), not too sure why. The non-existence of a link to the original blog causes difficulties for Planet Singapura readers to read the full article and add comments, especially since I turned off the comments option on Planet Singapura, to encourage the readers to post comments on the original contributors' blogs instead.

WordPress Upgrade to 2.0.5 (Ronan)

I also have upgraded all my Wordpress-based blogs (Minda Indra, Planet Indra and Planet Singapura) to version 2.0.5. Not too sure why they named this version "Ronan", its website said that they would like to congratulate Ryan Boren (who is Ryan Boren anyway) on his new son, Ronan.

Upgrading WordPress, as usual, is a breeze. The website provides detailed instruction on how to upgrade from version 2.0.4 to 2.0.5, which is exactly the same method as when I upgraded from version 2.0.3 to 2.0.4.

Akismet Activation

Earlier today, I read an article on JalanSutera regarding how the Wordpress-based blog fights spam using Akismet, an anti-spam plug-in for Wordpress to fight spam comments. Pujiono, JalanSutera's administrator, mentioned that the number of spam comments received by the blog reaches 10,000, and thanks to Akismet, all the spam comments were caught.

This reminds me that every day, I also need to delete at least 100-200 spam comments on Minda Indra per day (not reaching 10,000 though), and such spam-deleting work is really time-consuming and irritating. I have heard about anti-spam plug-ins such as Akismet or Spam Karma, but I also received some reports about quite a lot of false-positive incidents on both plug-ins, discouraging me to activate or install such plug-ins.

However, something needs to be done to resolve this, and I tried to activate Akismet on Minda Indra today. To activate Akismet is very easy, I just need to go to Dashboard > Plugins, and once activated, I need to key in my WordPress.Com's API key to get it running. I don't have any issues in obtaining the key since I already have an account on wordpress.com.

So far, the Akismet has caught 28 spam comments since it was installed several hours ago, and I have checked, no false-positives so far. Hopefully this will make my blogging life much easier. :)

Hari Raya Idul Fitri on 24 October 2006

2006-10-22T11:55:00.000+08:00

Both the Singapore and Indonesia governments have announced that Hari Raya Idul Fitri falls on Tuesday, 24 October 2006, this year.

In Singapore, the Singapore's Mufti has announced that based on hisab estimation, the crescent moon cannot be sighted after today's sunset because it's just 1 minute over the horizon. Therefore, tomorrow (Monday, 23rd of October 2006) will be the completion (30th day) of the Ramadhan fasting month, and that the Hari Raya will fall on Tuesday, 24th of October 2006.

The Indonesian government also announced today that Hari Raya Idul Fitri will fall on Tuesday, 24th of October 2006 because the results of rukyat in 29 places in Indonesia show that the hilal (crescent moon) cannot be sighted during sunset at those 29 places, with hilal of between zero degree and 30 minutes below horizon and one degree over the horizon.

The results are different from Muhammadiyah's announcement, which has decided that the Hari Raya will fall on Monday, 23rd of October 2006 based on its hisab estimation. In this case, the government of Indonesia expressed hope that such differences will not cause any frictions among Muslims in Indonesia.

Meanwhile, the government of Saudi Arabia has announced that the Hari Raya Idul Fitri will fall on Monday, 23rd of October 2006, not because they also have sighted the hilal, but because they have started their Ramadhan fasting month one day earlier, based on the crescent moon sighting result for the start of the Ramadhan month. So today (22nd of October 2006) would be their 30th day of fasting month, and since there's no such thing as fasting for 31 days, they will celebrate their Eid ul-Fitr tomorrow.

Again, I would like to wish all Muslims all over the world, a Happy Eid ul-Fitr celebration. Eid mubarak, Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri, mohon maaf lahir dan batin.

Zakat Fitrah

2006-10-21T13:56:00.000+08:00

Earlier today, I and Irza went to the Ar-Raudhah Mosque at Bukit Batok East, about 10 minutes drive from home, for us to pay zakat fitrah for this year. This is the first time we paid our zakat fitrah in Singapore, since we will be celebrating Hari Raya Aidil Fitri in Singapore. In the past 6 years during our stay in Singapore, we always went back to Indonesia for Hari Raya, and paid our zakat fitrah there.

Zakat, or paying alms, is the third of the Five Pillars of Islam, and refers to spending a fixed portion of our wealth for the poor or needy. The payment of zakat is obligatory for all Muslims. There are two main types of zakat:

zakat on traffic (zakat-ul-fitr, also known as zakat fitrah in Indonesia), which is a per person payment equivalent to cost of around 2.25 kilograms of the main food of the region (this may be wheat, rice or dates, depending on the place), which is paid during the month of Ramadhan by the head of the family for himself and his dependents to the zakat collector (amil).
zakat on wealth (zakat-ul-mal, also known as zakat maal or zakat harta in Indonesia), which comprises all other types of zakat, such as on business, savings, income, crops, livestock, gold, etc.

The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) has appointed some mosques in Singapore (but not all mosques, take note) to become zakat collection centres where we can pay for our zakat fitrah there. The list of the appointed zakat collection centres can be found here. We can actually make zakat payment over the Internet (using the e-payment function), but in my opinion, it's best and more afdhal if we just go to the nearest mosques and pay for the zakat directly to the amil.

We can come to any of the mosques which has been appointed as a zakat collection centre, and look for the "Pungutan Zakat" sign. Note that the head of the family will have to pay for the zakat, meaning it's best for the father (instead of the mother) to come to pay for the zakat. The signage will lead us to a room where the amil will then collect the zakat money and give us the zakat receipts. We also have to read the niat (intention) script, which is provided by the amil, in Malay (bahasa Melayu).

For this year, the zakat fitrah rate in Singapore is $3.50 per person for normal rate (based on average grade rice price), and $4.50 per person for premium rate (based on superior grade rice price). The zakat fitrah has to be paid before Hari Raya, otherwise the zakat payment will become sadaqah. Therefore, we need to ensure that we pay for the zakat fitrah before Hari Raya, especially for those who intend to celebrate Hari Raya on Monday instead of Tuesday.

Hopefully this article is useful to those who want to pay zakat in Singapore.

Happy Diwali and Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri

2006-10-20T10:30:00.000+08:00

Wishing all my Hindu, Jain and Sikh friends a Happy Diwali.

Wishing all my Muslim friends, Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri 1427H, mohon maaf lahir dan batin.

Haze in Singapore Worsened

2006-10-07T13:51:00.000+08:00

Channel NewsAsia reported that the haze level in Singapore went into the unhealthy range starting from today (Saturday, 7 October 2006) morning. The 3-hours PSI (Pollutant Standards Index) reading first entered the unhealthy range at 8am with a PSI reading of 101, and then climbed up as high as 130 at 10am, before going down to 115 at 12 noon.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) of Singapore reported that the smoke haze situation has deteriorated overnight, and the prevailing winds have remained southerly to southwesterly overnight and they have brought smoke haze from southern Sumatra to Singapore.

It is reported that the same problem currently is also affecting Malaysia, including Kuala Lumpur, forcing most Malaysians in KL to stay indoors. The haze has choked the region, and even spreading across Pacific. On Thursday, the haze had even spread 3,600 kilometres (2,250 miles) to smother islands in the western Pacific, authorities there said.

It's confirmed that the forest fires in Indonesia, particularly Sumatra and Kalimantan (Borneo), are the main culprit of the haze that choked the South East Asia region. Not only that this matter has prompted "condemnation" from Singaporean and Malaysian bloggers, some Indonesian bloggers based in Singapore have also voiced out their concerns as well.

Nisa said:

it was not pleasant living with this kind of air. and all because some people back home we burning trees to make profit for themselves. talking about being greedy and selfish!

and:

so please government of my country, not only you should step up in whatever you do but do take more serious action on this greedy people

Rani said:

And we're like, thousands of kilometers away from the smoke source. I wonder how it feels to live in Pekanbaru or other cities in Sumatra.

The effect of the haze is no joke. Nisa is right when she said that we shouldn't make a joke of it. This issue really has given Indonesia a very bad name. The government of Indonesia should take actions more seriously in handling this matter.

Update - 8 October 2006, 05:54hrs SGT:

The haze situation in Singapore got even worse on Saturday evening, with the 3-hour PSI reading reached 150 at 9pm yesterday evening. Currently, the PSI reading is 128.

The Singapore government has expressed its concerns about the situation to Indonesia, stressing the urgency to suppress the forest fires which are causing the haze. Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said: "I just hope that next year, the Indonesians will understand our concerns and do something about the haze."

They also have offered assistance to Indonesia to fight the problem. This includes cloud 'seeding' operations to induce rain as well as table-top exercises to help farmers deal with land clearing. "It's up to the Indonesian government and its people whether they want to take the offer", said Dr. Yacoob Ibrahim, Singapore's Environmental and Water Resources Minister. Hmm... let's see whether the Indonesian government would take up that offer.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) Najib Tun Razak mentioned that ASEAN countries must take joint actions to tackle this haze problem. This includes setting up a sizeable fund to tackle the problem of open burning which is seen as the cause of the haze in the region. This statement indirectly depicts the shameful inability of the Indonesian government to handle the problem, i.e. to even prevent those greedy Sumatran land farmers to use open burning to clear their lands.

It is, indeed, shameful.

[Indonesian version]

Flight to Batam Diverted to Pekanbaru

2006-10-01T09:30:00.000+08:00

Detik.Com reported yesterday that some flights to Batam was being diverted to Pekanbaru due to bad weather and haze. It was reported that a Batavia Air flight from Medan to Batam was forced to land at Pekanbaru at around 13:20hrs West Indonesian Time (or 14:20hrs Singapore time) yesterday (Saturday, 30 September 2006), while another flight, which is a Lion Air flight from Jakarta was also diverted to Pekanbaru and landed there about 10 minutes later.

This is a bit strange, considering the location of Batam's Hang Nadim airport, which is not too far from Singapore, only about 20km away. It's true that the PSI (Pollutant Standards Index) level in Singapore is a bit high in the last couple of days, however there were no reports of very high haze level or very bad weather which can cause any flight disruptions. A check on yesterday's flight information at Changi airport's website also does not show any cancellations on flights arriving in Singapore during the specified period.

Couldn't be that 20km distance can make such a big difference in terms of weather? Or, could it be?

Update on 3 October 2006, 2:15pm SGT:

In the past two days, the haze has thickened over the skies in Singapore. Forest fires in Sumatra is again becoming the culprit. Let us hope that the Indonesian government can do the necessary actions to prevent this issue from getting worse.

Islam and Tourism

2006-09-10T22:22:00.000+08:00

In one of his articles regarding Islam and tourism, Patung mentioned that Islam is bad for tourism, because some attempts to forbid activities associated as sinful by Islam, such as drinking, harms the growth of tourism in some Indonesian areas with Muslim-majority population, such as Lombok. While I agree that such attempts will deter tourists from coming to the region, it doesn't mean that the religion itself is bad for tourism.

I would like to emphasize that it's not just a matter of religion.

We don't need to go too far to see an example. Malaysia is also a country with a Muslim-majority population. But the country has successfully attracted tourists from all over the world, especially East Asia (China and the region) and Middle East countries. So, it's not true that Islam is bad for tourism.

What's the issue here, then?

Tolerance.

Malaysians are generally more tolerant towards other religions. Even when the Malaysian Muslims forbid themselves from drinking, they do not forbid people from other religions from doing so. Even when Islam forbids gambling, the government still allows some casinos to be built at Genting Highlands for non-Muslim Malaysians and tourists, of course after ensuring that Malaysian Muslims are prohibited to enter the casinos.

So, again, it's not true that Islam is bad for tourism. We just have to be more tolerant to people from other religion. If the Malaysians can do it, why can't we?

A Eulogy for Inong

2006-09-08T23:01:00.000+08:00

I remember the first time I knew Inong was on early February this year, when I stumbled upon her weblog, Cerita Bunda Zidan & Syifa (Stories of Zidan & Syifa's Mum). Finding out that she and her family live in Bukit Batok, very near to our place, and also finding out that her son Zidan was studying at the same school as Irza, PPIS, I added comments to her shoutbox. She then visited my Rumah Indra weblog and added comments there, and turned out to be that she knew my wife from the IndoSing-Mums community, and also she knew some of my friends from BemoNet, such as Kukuh TW and Eko Juniarto. What a small world.

After exchanging several comments on each other's blogs, we managed to meet up on several occasions. My wife discreetly ordered a strawberry tiramisu cake from her for our wedding anniversary, and I collected the cake from her house some time in April. I believe that was the first time I met her. I also met her, Haris and the whole family during Adam and Hanan's birthday party at West Coast Park, ISM gathering at East Coast Park and PPIS Sports Day at Bukit Batok, and that's when I started to know Haris. I also met her during Mela's farewell at Harbourfront.

Inong is a great cook. All the recipes at her Dapur Bunda blog prove it. The strawberry tiramisu cake is not the only cake I and my wife have ordered from her. Once we ordered some chocolate and cheese Indonesian-style martabak from her and just two weeks ago, couple of days before she's gone, we ordered Cars-themed two-tier birthday cake for Irza's 5th birthday party. Guess what, everybody enjoyed the cake, a photo taken by Mbak Hany proves it. Nobody thought that it would be the last birthday cake she has made for us. :(

She's also a friendly person. She has many friends since she's very active in the cyberspace. She's a very active blogger, and her Cerita Bunda Zidan&Syifa blog is now on the 15th position of the Hericz's version of Indonesian Top 100 Blogs. She has several blogs, such as Cerita Bunda Zidan&Syifa, Dapur Bunda (Bunda's Kitchen), Puisi Inong (Inong's Poems) and also Inong's Page at Multiply, among others. She's also very active in some blogger communities, such as Blogger Family (Blogfam) and the Indonesian Blogger Muslim community. In Singapore, she's also a member of the IndoSing-Mums and Indo-Sing community.

Therefore, it's obvious that when she passed away, a lot of people missed her, even though those people might not know her personally and only know about her and her family from her blogs. It is even reported that about more than 1,000 people turned out at her family's house in Jakarta, waiting for her body to be sent from Singapore to Jakarta, for her funeral. The way how she wrote her family's journal, especially about her two lovely kids, Zidan and Syifa, touches the hearts of many of her blog readers. Up until now, condolences are still coming in through her shoutboxes and comments on her blogs, showing that a lot of people really missed her and her writings.

Selamat jalan, Inong. May you rest in peace.

Upgrade to Wordpress 2.0.4

2006-08-29T18:42:00.000+08:00

Upgrade to Wordpress 2.0.4

Of course, I'm not talking about upgrading this blog, since this blog uses Blogger. I'm talking about upgrading my Wordpress-based blogs, such as Minda Indra, Planet Indra and Planet Singapura. Wordpress version 2.0.4 has actually been released more than a month ago, but I only managed to find the time to do the upgrade last week. Furthermore, now there are 3 blogs I need to upgrade.

But fortunately, the upgrade process was quite easy, in fact, it's much easier than the upgrade from 2.0.2 to 2.0.3. There's a detailed specific instruction on how to upgrade from 2.0.3 to 2.0.4, so it's much easier. We just need to make a backup of these folders: wp-admin, wp-includes, wp-content/themes/default, as well as all the files on the Wordpress root directory, except wp-config.php file, and then replace all the folders and files with the ones from the new version.

Comments on Planet Indra

It seems that some of my Planet Indra visitors were misled by the "Comments Off" signs at the end of each post, causing them to think that they are not able to add comments to my posts. It's actually not true. Planet Indra is an aggregate/syndication of all my blogs and visitors can actually visit the original post on its source blog and add comments there. To avoid such confusion, I have re-enabled the comments on Planet Indra, and when you click the "Comments" link at the end of every post, you will be redirected to the post on its source blog and you can add comments there.

IP2Phrase.Com

I also have added the feature from IP2Phrase.Com on all my blogs. With this feature, all my visitors can see from which IP address, country and ISP they are accessing from. This feature is provided by Hexasoft Development Sdn Bhd, a research and development company based in Penang, Malaysia. The installation is also very fast and painless, you just need to add one javascript line into your blog or website's template. More information can be found here.

Indo-Sing Blog Has Moved

Indo-Sing Blog, a blog (in Indonesian language) dedicated to the Indonesian community in Singapore, has moved to a new address. Thanks to Polar Bear, now Indo-Sing blog has a new home under the indo-sing.org official domain.

This blog still uses Wordpress, and is hosted together with Forum Indo-Sing and Wiki Indo-Sing. Its contents, as well as all its comments, have been migrated to the new place, thanks to Polar Bear and Renatha. As a result of this, the old Indo-Sing blog at Blogsome has been officially closed.

[Indonesian version]

Blogging in English or Indonesian?

2006-08-15T17:48:00.000+08:00

Firstly, I would like to thank Fatih for choosing this blog as one of his version of Indonesian Bloggers of the Week. What a nice and pleasant surprise, if I may say. Thanks Fatih for the compliments. :)

Secondly, I'm quite interested in reading Fatih's article regarding ten reasons on why he blogs in English, followed by Firman's article regarding ten reasons on why he blogs in Indonesian language. Interestingly, both articles were written on the same day, and I'm not quite sure who wrote first (and who debunked who). Nevertheless, that is not important. :)

The most important thing is that I think both have valid points. Fatih is right when he says that blogging in English is important. And Firman is also right when he says that blogging in Indonesian is also important. For me, both are equally important, actually. It depends on what is the topic of the articles we are writing, and who are the target audiences.

I write articles in both English and Indonesian. I even have different blogs for different languages, and have an aggregate site, Planet Indra, to aggregate all the articles in one single site. The reason is because I want to reach out to different audiences, both Indonesians and non-Indonesians.

Let me give you an example. According to Google Analytics, one of my popular articles in Minda Indra is the tips and trick of going from Jakarta to Singapore via Batam (part 1 and part 2). As you might have known, these articles contain some guides (tips and tricks) on how to go from Jakarta to Singapore via Batam. Which means, these articles are useful mostly to Indonesians, especially those living in Jakarta, who wants to come to Singapore cheaply, which is via Batam. That's why I wrote those articles in Bahasa Indonesia, and didn't create the English version of the articles.

Another example, is my opinion regarding the war in Lebanon which has been going on since last month, and hopefully would end soon after the UN Security Council resolution took effect. Those articles are meant for both Indonesians and non-Indonesians, that's why I wrote those articles in both English and Indonesian.

So, if you ask my opinion on whether we should blog in English or Indonesian, my answer will be: both. Again, it depends on the target audiences. :)

[Indonesian version]

Immediate Ceasefire, Please...

2006-08-06T21:56:00.000+08:00

United Nations chief Kofi Annan has reiterated his call for a ceasefire in Lebanon and said he had discussed the matter with the leaders of Lebanon, Britain and the United States.

"I hope that within the coming days there will be a (UN Security Council) resolution that will ask the parties to cease hostilities and that that can be followed shortly afterward by a second resolution so that ... the international community can deploy forces," said Annan.

This is a sincere and sensible appeal from the UN chief, considering the shocking number of civilian victims, including children, due to Israel's heavy attacks to Palestine and Lebanon, and also considering that this rational appeal is still not happening until now. It's almost a month, since 12th of July 2006, Israel has been launching non-stop attacks to Lebanon, and up until now, only 40 Hezbollah militants have been killed, compared to more than 900 civilians killed by the attacks.

You can imagine, 900 civilians casualties, and almost half of them are children, compared to only 40 Hezbollah militants, which are Israel's main targets. Everyone can justify its effectiveness, it's not worth it!!!

In Kuala Lumpur, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad even has the answer to the conflict in Lebanon: the "elimination of the Zionist regime". "The real cure for the conflict is elimination of the Zionist regime, but there should be first an immediate ceasefire", said Ahmadinejad. It may be true, however of course it might be too extreme, and even the government of Singapore has slammed Ahmadinejad's comments by saying that it's intended to inflame Lebanon conflict.

Nevertheless, the majority of the international community has agreed that the war has to be stopped. I heard there's a resolution being discussed by the UN's Security Council, however there are still some debates on how to "word" up the resolution. I heard that the draft being proposed is not adequate to end the hostilities, causing the Lebanese government to even reject the resolution draft.

It's quite a sensible rejection. What is the use of a UN Security Council resolution, if it's inadequate to stop Israel from attacking Lebanon?

I personally do not know yet what is the content of the resolution draft, however, I really hope that the resolution is strong enough to ask Israel to stop their hostilities towards the Lebanese people. That's the most important thing. Again, the resolution will be useless if it cannot stop the hostilities, which have been going on for almost a month!

[Indonesian version]

Creating A Lipogram

2006-08-04T20:14:00.000+08:00

The first time I read Renatha's article titled "A Lipogram", I was a bit confused. What is a lipogram, and what kind of article he was writing? Only after I checked its definition from Wikipedia, then I understand what he was trying to do. He was trying to write quite a long article, without using a common vowel e.

According to Wikipedia:

A lipogram (from Greek lipagrammatos, "missing letter") is a kind of constrained writing or word game consisting of writing paragraphs or longer works in which a particular letter or group of letters is missing, usually a common vowel, the most common in English being e (McArthur, 1992). A lipogram author avoiding e then only uses the 25 remaining letters of the alphabet.

After Renatha, Mbak Okke also wrote her lipogram here. And she even used her project site to collect lipograms written by other Indonesian bloggers. And this invitation motivated other Indonesian bloggers to also write their own lipograms, such as Inong, Mbak Han and Wisnu.

As such, I was also writing my own lipogram. The lipogram can be found here. I'm using English and the missing common letter is o.

So Ren, Mbak, is the article satisfactory enough to be included there? :)

[Indonesian version]

Indonesians' Neutrality

2006-07-30T03:28:00.000+08:00

I read, with interests, Fatih Syuhud's article regarding how Indonesians view and comment on international political issues. He's comparing Indonesians with Indians, which he claimed are more "neutral" and can see from many more different views in commenting on such issues.

As an example, with regards to the Israel's attacks to Lebanon, Fatih thinks that most Indonesians are more divided in their opinions with regards to the attack, and the division is interestingly based on the line of religion, whereby most Indonesian Muslims condemn and disagree with the attacks, while most Indonesian non-Muslims tend to think that Israel has the right to defend themselves by launching the attacks.

I'm not too sure, but I don't think that I see the same situation, especially within the Indonesian community here in Singapore. Here, quite a lot of my non-Muslim friends also disagree with Israel's attacks to Lebanon. We see it more as an attack to a sovereign country, causing a lot of civilians become victims of the attack. Regardless of what is the religion of the victims, such an attack is despicable.

I guess Fatih might have seen the "division" after reading Patung's comment on one of his posts, and based on the articles he has written, I can see that Patung's anti-Islam level is a bit high. However, kindly reminded that not all our non-Muslim friends are like him, and it's not fair to generalise and think that all our non-Muslim friends share the same views with him.

What I can see, most of Indonesians, both Muslims and non-Muslims, do not tolerate violence and terrorism. We can see that a lot (if not almost all) Muslims in Indonesia condemned all the terror attacks conducted by Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist group, and we also can see that a lot of non-Muslims in Indonesia disagree with the US's invasion to Iraq. So I don't think it's just a matter of in the line of religion.

We have to admit, there are some Muslims in Indonesia, who are too fanatic and dislike non-Muslims and religions other than Islam, and there are also some non-Muslims in Indonesia who are also too fanatic and dislike Muslims and Islam. Those are the people we have to worry, since they are the most definite danger to the racial and religious harmony in Indonesia.

[Indonesian version]

Calling all Indonesian Cooks: Recipes in English Please

2006-07-25T17:45:00.000+08:00

On my article about good Indonesian food in Singapore, I was mentioning about some weblogs containing Indonesian food recipes, such as Inong's Dapur Bunda and Nisi's Food Corner. One of the visitors from Germany, Angelica, added comments saying that it was too bad that those recipes are written in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language), instead of English. She and her husband really love Indonesian food, however it's quite difficult for them to find cookbooks or recipes of Indonesian food in English.

I also noticed that most (if not all) of other blogs containing Indonesian food recipes, which I subscribe through Bloglines, are in Bahasa Indonesia. Those include Dhonatneth's Kitchen (which now has been renamed to Dhonatneth's Apa Kabar) and Dapur Wati, on top of the two I have mentioned earlier (Dapur Bunda and Nisi's Food Corner).

So, Inong, Nisi, Dhona, Wati and many other Indonesian bloggers who are also great cooks, are you ready to take up this challenge? :) When will you write good Indonesian food recipes in English? :) :)