Travel North: Gurun + Alor Setar

It’s my 27 years old birthday, and we decided to be slightly more adventurous and travel up north. Though we aren’t really doing it backpack style, but we did let a lot of decision making to be spontaneous (and did carry a backpack and drive) and she did some basic research through the Internet.

We book for a luxury package at Pedu Lake, which is extremely far away. Thus our entire journey revolve around our route to and back from Pedu Lake. We decide to visit Gurun, and then spend a night at Alor Setar before going to Pedu.

Kedah is not really a famous tourist destination, with lots of paddy field. Our first stop is Gurun, stop by to visit Gunung Jerai. Gunung Jerai is something like a mini Fraser Hill, 30 minutes to drive up some narrow road to see a resort with lots of greenery and mountains up there. The scenery up there is pretty nice, not exactly fantastic. Supposing it would be quite nice to spend a night up here, but I am afraid we shall be bored to death.



There is an archeology site nearby, but we are running out of time and head for Alor Setar instead. Alor Setar is quite a big town, with a lot of interesting building such as clock tower, beautiful mosque and museum, and a mini “KL Tower” as well. We hit a budget hotel at RM 55 per night, and somehow all the food in Alor Setar tastes pretty good.




The next stop is Gunung Keriang, about 30 minutes away from town, with a crystal mountain in the middle of paddy field, and a supposingly fascinating paddy museum as well. It turn out the museum is quite a disappointment as well, with nothing much except a big and realistically drawn scenery of the surrounding areas displayed through its gigantic dome. Gunung Jeriang is made up of a small park, and a 10 minutes climb to a little shelter on top. The scenery was quite nice up there, overseeing the park and some paddy fields. We was told we could actually climb to the peak and sees some crystals, wind tunnel, funny trees and glowing trees at night, plus a view of the sea. Too bad I didn’t manage to wake up the next morning for the climb, as I was seduced by the cool air and cozy bed.



The 1st day ended pretty well, with about 5-6 hours drive from KL to reach Alor Setar. We missed a few tourism spot in Kedah, including the beach, the waterfall and the archeology site.

Photo Links: Mei Ru's Multiply

To Dream or not to Dream

Its known when you have an ambition, a target, a dream, you would not be satisfied or be happy until the day you have what you want. Does it mean that we shall no longer be happy if we have a dream? Does it mean that dream actually bring us more pain? Or could be actually do without dream or desire? Wanting nothing else, and be totally satisfied with what we already have? Or we can’t actually live without a dream?

I believe it’s the dream and hope which fuel us, thus we shall always want something which we doesn’t have. But managing a dream and trying to achieve it is another tricky matter. A lot of people have a dream, but they never try to do anything to achieve it. Some people have a dream, and they just do a bit everyday towards their direction. A few people have a dream, and are willing to sacrifice everything to achieve it.

I am those who try to keep things in mind, and will try to do a bit everyday towards my direction. I can’t bare doing nothing about it, but neither could I sacrifice everything just for it. Perhaps I am not meant to do big things or become someone great. Though I don’t hope to become a billionaire, but I do want to become a millionaire in the not too distance future. To me it’s an achievable target, and it’s the way I would want to live my life. Solid financial is the foundation for happiness; I still remember and believe in it. Too much of anything would spoilt our life, thus I don’t see the need to go all out at any cost for power and money.

But will I be unhappy until the day my dream is achieved? I believe there shall be a certain sadness a long the way, as my heart is still not a peace. The war had started and on going, and peace is only possible if we win the war. What if I loose? Never quite thought of that. It is just a matter of time, either sooner or later. One thing for sure, I can’t quite give up the dream. I can try to achieve it one way or another, but I try as much as possible not to become a quitter.

Again, will I be unhappy? Yes. But if I give up, I shall loose my soul and spirit.

I think it’s a bad idea to give up our dream, and it sure feels damn good if we manage to achieve it. Life could turn up to be a vicious spiral or a stream of good things keep happening, as the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Thus it is important to keep the good things happening.

Lone Ranger or Gang of Four?

It had been almost a year since I went into self employment. Though I haven’t succeeded in becoming a “Big Boss”, but I sure am glad still surviving and continue planting the seeds for future growth.

When I left my job, the push factor is the job had become too easy with nothing much to do, and the company isn’t progressing, thus I stayed stagnant together with her as well. Though I enjoyed the free time to take on various adventures on my own, but it just doesn’t feels right for the long term. The pull factor? Guess I gave up hope on the company and hoping to try something more exciting and worth my time and effort. Thus I began the journey of a Lone Ranger.

Being a Lone Ranger is pretty exciting; as I could chase any dreams or implements any idea which I thought is good. Basically I have the full control and no bureaucracy, and no communication barriers as there is only me alone. I would say productivity could practically peak at 100%, if I did work hard all the time. Too bad reality isn’t that ideal, as sometimes I become lazy and slack. But the whole process is fun and exciting, but worrisome nevertheless. I still have to find ways to get some business and pay for my living, besides working on my fun and exciting pet projects which I wouldn’t be able to cash in anytime soon. Basically I am earning far less than employment, but what makes me made such an illogical choice? Perhaps to buy a dream and proving one day I could stand on my own feet without the need to wait for a monthly salary.

When I was young, I used to think of starting some kind of business and become super rich. After having tried running a business or being self employed, now I think being able to survive and live a comfortable life on my own effort is rewarding enough. Now I have the most respect for everyone who is running a business, and even tried running a business before. It is difficult and challenging, and can be damn uncertain most of the time.

Life of a Lone Ranger is all mighty powerful with lots of freedom, but absolute power shall corrupt as well. Personally I think I am slacking too much, taking my own sweet time and giving myself too much excuses. Perhaps I lack some discipline, or I could blame it on the environment. Nevertheless, it is something I try to fix all the time – fixing myself.

Soon after I meet up with an old friend who offered me a partnership to join his startup. The idea sounds tempting, as he has the business and the idea of having partners sounded refreshing (I know the fact the good and suitable partners are indeed very hard to come by). I like him as a good person, and I trust him. He offered me a small allowance, a business platform, a healthy pipeline, a group of talents and business contacts. The idea sounds great, so I decide to give it a one month try to evaluate the situation.

After more than a month of rushing and crazy work, I kinda get a feel of the business. I think the company has the potential to grow further, and we have people of different talent and expertise to fuel the business. I am pretty sure the business will grow into a multimillion dollar business within 3 to 5 years. Though the partnership might work out and worth trying, but I wasn’t feeling very happy. It is all very logical, where I don’t feel the excitement or passion or happiness running the business. It’s all about work, delivering one thing at a time, working on a system which eventually might succeed. Another thing is I am loosing my freedom and have go back to into a almost full time office working life, with all the traffic jam and office attire coming back. I know it’s quite a luxury, but loosing that is quite demoralizing at times.

I am unhappy, why? Perhaps I sacrifice my Lone Ranger ability to have full control and run the business the exact way I would like to run it. Now I have to ensure power sharing, taking in other people’s idea which I might not totally agree with. Sacrifices have to be made: where I have to let go of something, and have something else to gain. I do really feel happier and more comfortable being a Lone Ranger, though earning less, but I believe I might eventually make it at the end. I feel like leaving the gang and turn back into the almighty Lone Ranger.

I told my friend what I felt, where he didn’t actually persuaded me to stay but share his thoughts with me. Basically, partnership is all about making compromises for a greater course. When different people are working together, it is impossible for them to have the same thoughts and style, thus there shall always be conflict and disagreement. The rule of thumb is if someone is contributing higher than his irritation level, we could actually compromise as it has more good than bad. As long as we are working very hard towards the same target in the end, we could compromise in between and ignore the small irritation. The path and intermediate approach might be different across individual.

Most business is based on a long trail of ground works, where we could have started planting seeds years ago before the first deal landed. The business platform offered to me is based on years of hard work, and we are slowly reaping the fruit now.

The almighty Lone Ranger might just be mighty in the eye of himself, as he might end up being to egoistic and not able to work with others. There is a limitation on how much a single person could actually work on, and shall soon reach a stage of stagnation. A Lone Ranger can’t really work alone, as he needs to depend on others as well for the business contacts and sales channel. I could produce the goods, but I need someone to help me sell it. There are many smart and successful Lone Rangers around, but they all face the problem of stagnation and difficult to work with. Perhaps the almighty Lone Ranger always command others to follow their way, as there are not willing to make compromises. It’s okay for you to be dumbest people on Earth, as long as everyone is willing and wanted to work with you.

Between an Almighty Lone Ranger and Compromising Gang of Four, which should be the path I would embark next? Each has its own issues, and nothing could be perfect. I hope I can compromise and put my heart all in to make the delivery. No matter what I choose, it shall be a choice with no regrets. In 3 more years by the age of 30, I need to create a stable income stream and fulfilled my dream of a big travel plan to the happiest place, and complete a milestone of my life.

How to learn to compromise and let go at times? That is another long and irritating journey, haha.

What I learn about life

One day I woke out from the wrong side of the bad, with what seems like an easy and harmless day turned out to be difficult and annoying. It all started with a few bad phone calls and my life start turning upside down in order to make other people’s life easy (that’s the objective, though it’s not necessary to work towards that direction).

Then I decide to face these problems with courage rather than sulk on them, thus started to tackle them one by one. Then I realize before I finish solving one problem, another two popup. Thus pressure is built up, until some big trigger push me into the pit of hopelessness, thus causing me to rethink should I continue to pursue what I am pursuing now.

When everything seems too difficult and hopeless, it’s already time to go home and have some rest (perhaps it’s a good idea). Driving home with such despair, I ponder how I should continue with my life. I was hoping someone would be at home for me to show my tiredness and perhaps rant a bit. I was kinda disappointed to find no one was around when I reach home. Luckily my parents and uncle return soon, and then we get to chit chat a bit.

The chit chat can sure do miracle, not to find a solution, but to release it all out and seeking the experience of others. If you ask me what had I concluded from the conversation? Nothing. Nothing is concluded or achieved, but I just felt relieved and ready to move on with life. I felt alive again and no longer in despair. I am ready for tomorrow and able to sleep tonight. It reinforce the importance of having someone at home when I get back, thus it is called a home, not a house.

When I work up the next morning, the vicious cycle started again … until one day when I get used to it, or I give up on it.

Miss Autumn Festival Post

Where would be the best place to celebrate Mid Autumn festival? SP Setia’s park at Pusat Bandar Puchong, as I really couldn’t find any place else. It had a nice lake, big park and small crowd. If you know of any better location, do let me know :)



I guess it’s pretty usual for most people to stay at home and do nothing on this day, but I might as well “celebrate” it since I have someone special this year. Picking the spot is quite a challenge, but we manage well in the end. Have been busy through the entire week, not sure what motivate me to go out and plan something. Perhaps just wanna do something to make you happy … too bad didn’t manage to get the lanterns, but the candles are pretty fun as well.


Photo Links: Mei Ru's Multiply

Gunung Ledang (Mt. Ophir)

Gosh! I miss blogging on so many important events due to extremely busy schedule, from Gunung Ledang to Al Chifar Dinner & Dance to Alor Star + Pedu Lake + Pangkor Island trip. Since I don’t have time to write much, so might as well do a photo blog to remember these events (more pictures, less writings).

Among all my mountain trekking experience, Gunung Ledang is probably one of the more disappointing ones. Why? Because the place is costly and too commercialized. You have to pay for parking, entrance, trekking, and also a guide (total around RM 60 per person paid to Taman Negara).

There are about 21 of us (1 guide for 10 person, and we have to take 3, and the extra guide will take care of the little kid we bring along, sigh). It takes 2 hours to reach our campsite, passing by 2 pretty waterfalls. I think this is the 4th station, and this campsite is huge with ample space. We left our big bags here and continue trekking 4 hours up to the peak. The journey is quite challenging as it requires quite some rope climbing, and there are sands along the path and some bonsai look-alike tree near the top.



The top is pretty disappointing as we reach around 4-5 P.M. (we need another 3 hours to trek down and must reach by 7, Taman Negara regulation) which is pretty hot, and it’s hazy as well due to the bad haste recently. So no clear sky, no nice weather, no amazing view, sucks. I was told before Taman Negara take over, we could camp near the top, which is quite cool as we can enjoy the sunset and sunrise, not to mention the pretty stars at night. Guess all these fun stuff are no longer available now, so we would probably banned Gunung Ledang for life.



In total we have to trek around 8 hours on the 1st day and it’s quite rush and not quite relaxing nor enjoyable. Furthermore I didn’t quite get my “reward” at the peak. Then it rains at night before I could have my dinner, and water went in the camp and my sleeping site outside, double sucks. Somehow, it rains pretty often during most of my outdoor trips, sigh.


The next day is super relaxing, just about an hour downhill and get to swim near the waterfall (which is pretty enjoyable).

Gunung Ledang could have been better, but the true experience of mountain trekking is spoilt by Taman Negara (perhaps to cater for more city folks, they have to make it super safe plus constraining). If you are a city dweller that haven’t trek much mountain before, perhaps Gunung Ledang is for you.

Ops, it didn't make it to become a photo blog, I wrote too much ...

Photo Links: Mei Ru's Multiply 1, 2 and 3; Michelle's Multiply; Chim's Multiply 1, 2, 3 and 4

PS: My video production for Gunung Ledang could take forever to come out

Partnership = Marriage?

Now I am officially a busy man: a man struggling with my own business venture, a man trying to help my cousin with her academy for special children, and now a man busy to run a software business with partners.

Even since I decide to give a try on this software partnership thing, time is against me (perhaps I am trying to do too many things at the same time). I started to felt that partnership is like marriage, where I would want "good" and trustable partners. Yet there is so much fear in it, and yet so much trust is required. No amount of paper work or agreement could make a partnership work, not stop it from failing (though it would help to prevent it from departing miserably).

I would say the business is good, but the process and manpower sucks at the moment. The business grows too fast and it's backfiring, and perhaps further growth is a problem at the moment. I am required to run and streamline the business: to handle the clients, perform requirement study, hire a few good people (this could be tricky, and fun) and set the business up to handle more of businesses in the future. I am required to code at the moment, since the office is not up and thus we cannot hire people yet. The business is in a slight mess at the moment (and it could continue falling into deeper mess if we didn't save it in time), yet it had the potential to become a profitable and sustainable software business (in fact, it is already profitable and had more business that we could handle).

What do I like about this partnership? Partnership is a two-edge sword; it could bring us to greater height or screw us up badly. I had been a lone ranger most of the time and God knows when I am capable of employing people to work for me and find suitable and willing partners to grow my business together. Partnership equal team and I would like to try to work in a team environment. Secondly, the business is already there, we just need to complete the job and collect the cheque (one less thing to worry about). Third of all, the partners seem alright and it is possible to work together. Last but not least, I finally am going to get a taste of employing people, train some protégés and run a software business. Even since I work as a software developer, I had been criticizing the ways local software companies are run. Let's see if I could actually make a different, or sucks as much as the rest.

What makes me to hold back? Like I said, partnership is long term commitment, lots of trust, co-operation and understanding, and is definitely not easy. But neither is marriage easy, yet we still have to go through it. Is like for all or nothing, we have everything to gain or back to square one at the end. Time is of essence here, and I might have too much on my hands. I am not willing to sacrifice my current venture, yet I feel the need to help my cousin with her academy, and this new partnership is going to eat a big pie of my time. Perhaps this time thingy could backfire me later.

Though I do enjoy my lone ranger venturing period, but perhaps it's time to change slightly: to try something new, to take some risk, to have more faith, to be more realistic and start making big money, and start getting very busy. Sometimes it does make me wonder, to do the things we enjoy, or to do something which makes big money? Perhaps I need to money to fuel my "hobbies".

PS: Life has been too busy for blogging lately. I have to write this piece while waiting for the departure of my Gunung Ledang trip, and the computer at the Cyber Cafe got so badly hit with viruses that I can't even post/save my writing (luckily I use Writely which auto save). I finally find the time to retrieve it today.

Mooncake Festival with Totoro (中秋节 - 龙猫游街篇)