Parking attendant strikes back!

Went for another durian session last friday. This time, with Kean Leong (an old colleague of mine). We went to the durian seller that had set up his stall right outside the sunshine market. My fren had called him up earlier to book two 'bitter' durians, just the way i like them.
We ended up having one D15 and another D18. Both were bitter alright. But the D15 is much tastier (coming from me, means it is more bitter), than the D18. But the D15 was quite soggy, while a few pieces of the D18 were quite dry. If only we could combine the two durians, it would hv been perfect! But i hv to be careful with my statements nowdays, lest i be call 'si yeh' again! ;)

Anyway, after we were done with the durians and chit chatting, catching up with what we had been up to, we cleared up and went to the car. We had paid the parking attendant 60cents earlier for an hour of parking. But we ended up staying quite late, and I fully expected that we will have to pay for another 1/2 hr more. But to my surprise the attendant demanded that we pay for 1hr more! I argued that we had not stayed that long, but he showed me the ticket that stated that we had been parking there since 6pm. My god!!! I was still in the office at 6pm. We only left at 6:15, and due to the jam at the Motorola junction and Kampung Jawa traffic lights, we couldn't hv reached there any earlier than 6:45pm.

I could undertand it if the deviation was about 5 or ten minutes, but by 45mins??? This is daylight robbery ( or since it was in the evening, twilight robbery!!!). When I disputed it, he asked me to look at the serial number of the ticket and said the timing for tickets around that serial number was indeed 6pm. Well, that make perfect sense considering he was the one who has back-timed all the tickets. Just imagine how much extra he has conned just over that 1 hour plus.

Christ... ppl nowdays. But i guess it was payback time for the few sins that we hv committed, of not paying the attendant when it was raining or when i could not find them around. But still, i was pretty annoyed of being 'robbed' this way.

So ladies and gentlemen, the moral of this experience is, take note of the time you parked your car (especially near the sunshine market). If possible wait for the attendant to write the ticket and check the time. The amount may be small, but we shouldn't be condoning such actions. Okay, everyone???

Btw, i still hv not tried the 301 which is highly recommended by Soo Sean.
Soo Sean, bila nak bawak i makan???

Discrimination on the ground, and a loud bang in the air

My recent trip to Taiwan was pretty uneventful, until my flight back to Penang, on Malaysia Airlines via KL. MAS operates at Terminal 1 at Taipei (TaoYuan) International airport.

MAS operates a row of check in counters opposite or facing a local Taiwanese airlines. Unfortunately for me, there was such a huge crowd waiting to check-in at the Taiwanese airline (must had been a tour group or something), that the crowd spilled over and totally blocked the access to the economy class check-in counters for MAS. A other passengers other than myself tried to squeeze our way to the check-in counter, but was unable to. There was a Caucasian male and a Caucasian female in front of me. The Caucasian male as quite resourceful and asked the lady at the First Class check-in counter for MAS which was unaffected by the crowd, if he could check in there even though he is holding economy class tickets. The lady at the check-in counter gave a big smile and willingly obliged. Great! I could avoid the crowd, or so i thought.

And so the caucasian male got his boarding pass, and so did the caucasian female who approached the first class check-in counter after him. When it came to my turn, the lady gave a 'fake' sympathetic look and asked me to push my way to the economy class check-in counters as the counter she was manning is exclusively for First Class and Golden Club members only. What the hell was that!!! I asked her to take a look at the crowded economy class check-in counters and said i couldn't even get into line there. Furthermore, there weren't any first class passengers waiting behind me. She can only managed a mumbled 'sorry, i can't help'. I then questioned her why she help the earlier two Caucasian passengers with their boarding pass but can't do the same for me. She pretended she could not understand me and gave me a puzzled look.... Furious, i went into a patronizing tone and said in a very slow manner "Jussst nowww youuu allowwed the earlierrr twoo passengggers tooooo check-innnn why can'tttt youuuu doooo theeee sammme forrrr meeeee?" Thinking back, i must hv sounded like the fish in 'Finding Nemo' speaking in whale language. :)

Sensing that i was getting annoyed, she tried to safe face and mentioned that she could get me my boarding pass but i had to wait a while because she was busy with something... A few seconds of fumbling around the counter doing actually nothing, she got me my boarding pass.

Talk about double standards and discrimination!!! Malaysia Airlines? I am not so sure what is so 'Malaysia' about this airline.

So that was that, and i had a quick breakfast and bought some stuff to be brought back home before boarding the plane. Shortly after take-off, we heard a loud bang in the plane. Actually, i wouldn't have given in any further thoughts until the pilot made an announcement a few minutes later explaining that the loud bang was due to a lighting striking the plane just as we were taking off.

Ooopss.... But that was not the worrisome part, the part that scared we was when he mentioned that they were running systems diagnostic checks of the plane to make sure that everything was fine. But we were already thousands of feet up in the air!!!What if the lightning did do some damage???? Thankfully everything was fine, and the plane landed safely in KLIA some 4 hours later.

My first long distance flight with MAS, and it turned out to be quite an adventure.

It's a long way to Lyon...

Well, after more than 24hrs of traveling (including a sleepover in Frankfurt) i finally touch down in Lyon St. Exupery airport. In case you did not know, Lyon is the second largest city in France.
I'm here on business, to attend a technical meeting with a customer. But i arrive early coz of flight availability. So, why waste the chance to explore the city, right?

After checking into the hotel, I spend some time going thought the drudgery of clearing my emails first. Once that was done, i asked the hotel reception for a map of the city and hopped on the first shuttle bus to the city center.

My first stop? The tourist information of course. It took a bit of walking and exploring before i found it. It was in Bellecour Square. Heart of the old part of Lyon.
Other than letting me know that there is a Medieval Festival going on in old Lyon, the officers there weren't much help. I browsed around and found a small guidebook outlining historic excursions into Lyon. Having a feeling that this was to be the best guide i will ever get, i promptly bought the booklet. Costs 5 Euros.

I then crossed the bridge into the old and historic part of Lyon. (Lyon is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site). As i was crossing the bridge, lo and behold! Guess what i saw... a street artist, painting amazing portraits on the ground with nothing more than colour chalks! A curious sight, don't you think? I don't think we will ever see something like this in good 'ol M'sia. For one, the weather will be too hot for anyone to stay outdoors long enough to complete the painting. An secondly, the rain will washed it out soon enough!

The scene from the river was great as well. And looking up, i could see the Fourviere Basilica at the top of the hill. That was one of the points of interests listed in the guide booklet. Lyon. But first, off to the Medieval Festival in old Lyon
As part of the festival, there were lots of folks dressed in Medieval outfit throughout the town. There were fashion shows, street parade, etc... It was fun and a new experience for me...

And up the hill i went, in search of the famous Fourviere Basilica. And boy, was it a long and steep climb! But it was worth every step. Not only was the view from the top of the hill wonderful, the Basilica was amazing as well. In addition to the main church, there are 7 other smaller church or chapel within it as well. I only managed to explore two, but it was still great. The paintings on the walls, the stained glass windows... just great!

On the way down the hill, i stopped by an archaeological site where there were ruins of Roman coliseums, theater, etc. Felt like i was in Rome, for a moment. ;)

After spending some time there, i found my way back to the old town and just walked about, looking at the shops, street performers, cafes, etc...

It was getting late, and when i checked the pedometer on my phone, i was surprised to see that i had taken 21698 steps or walked 16.1km!!!


So, what better way to leave the old city of Lyon and head back to the hotel than with an ache in my legs, smile on my face, and an ice-cream in my hand!
;p