Christmas is here again!

I have always been waiting for Christmas, as it comes nearer the joy of the birth of our savior Jesus Christ been exhilarate inside me. What is my most memorable moment celebrating Christmas? To be frank, I couldn’t recall the best moment but I could remember the traditions. People are having open house and it could be dragged into New Year. Just like other occasions, I would rather say, Christmas also is a one month celebration. Means u could have your Christmas open house starting from 25 Dec until 25 jan the next year. When it comes to open house, happy faces will always be a good motivator for me to start my next year journey. Personally, for me, the food is not my main concern but the persons around me are what it takes especially my family members, cousin, relatives etc. These people been around me maybe for the rest of my life and some of them watched me grew up. The repercussions of it is that it tells me how valuable them in my life. You bring joy to my life.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! and A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!

Dr. Johan @ eddy Luaran

Visit to Genting Highland 2

As I said in my last posting, these were the pictures taken during the trip

Visit to Genting Highland

Last week, together with my friend at the same faculty, we went to the Genting Highland. It takes approximately 1 and a half hour from Shah Alam. Driving with my very own Viva, it was a pleasant journey coz we be able to stop at any place as we want. Using the PLUS highway, sometime known as NKVE (New Klang Valley Expressway) and take the route heading to Ipoh. And after driving about 80 KM take the Genting Highland Exit and the toll charge is about RM7.50. The exit route will be at Bukit Beruntung. Along the way to Genting Highland, we passed by Serendah, Sentosa, Sungai Choh (according to my friend, Sungai Choh is the hometown of our famous actress/model/singer Erra Fazira) and Hulu Yam and turn to the route heading to Genting Highland. If You move further you will be heading to Kuala Kubu Baru and Rawang.

Genting Highland located at the Gunung Uli Kali (According to the Wikipedia) and its location was in between of two states, Selangor and Pahang. So by all means, once you going to Genting Highland, you can claim that you been to Selangor and Pahang. At first, I want to drive to the top of the Genting Highland but according to my friend it is more convenient if we park the car at the middle of the hill and use the cable car to the top. I agreed with him. The car park was free then. Riding using the cable car was a first experince to me. I was quite scared at first because it seems moves to the left and right but then as it moves, things getting better. According to the info, the cable car in Genting was the fastest and the longest in Asia, 3 KM in total length, takes about 20 minutes to reach the end points. I m really enjoy throughout the cable car journey, the view was marvellous, unspeakable. Its like walking in the air and you can see all down there. I try look for wild animal down there but I couldn’t find. Maybe its to cold here for the animal to make it as their habitat.

Once you reach at the end points, you are at the Genting building already. The hotel are only walking distance. There are two theme park, indoor and outdoor. Both theme park looks good as we watch other visitors enjoying it. But one things I noticed, all stuff are very expensive at Genting. Even the price of McDonald Burger are 3 or 4 times more than the normal price. I managed to go through the hotel rates and I found that the cheapest was RM259 per night. But I think if we book early through online it could me more cheaper.

Those who love gambling, Genting is the place. According to my friend Genting also known as Las Vegas Malaysia . The name of the casino is Casino De Genting . I managed to go inside the casino and it surprise me that it have so many machine available to play. I want to try my luck playing one of the machine but I don’t know how to play!. My friend waiting outside coz muslim are not allowed to go in. I want to ask the casino staff to teach me how to play but its like putting my self shame. So I decide to just look around and see how people play. I look at one corner, one guy play jackpot and he keep on losing, by the time I m wathing him, he already insert 3 RM50 notes into the machine. At the other side, I can see old chinesse lady play the same game alone and very concentrate with the game. I walk around then I can see one young chineese lady with her few friends playing game and by observing her credit, she having 13+++, according to my calculation that could be around RM13K. After spent around 20 minutes inside the casino, I went out coz I don’t want my friend wait for me for a long time. After that, we decide heading back to Shah Alam using the same route. I forgot to mention that the fare for the cable car was RM5 one way and RM10 for return.

Lesson learned.
I think the same idea of having cable car for mount kinabalu will boost the Sabah tourism. I will upload a few picture of my trip in a few days ahead.

Best regards
Dr. Johan @ Eddy Luaran

BN convention 2010

Konvensyen Barisan Nasional yang berlangsung pada 4-5 Disember 2010 merupakan konvenyen politik pertama yang saya hadiri seumur hidup saya. Saya didaftarkan diatas nama perwakilan UPKO dalam konvensyen ini walaupun saya tidak memegang apa-apa jawatan tertinggi dalam parti. Ucapan terima kasih saya terhadap brother saya Nosius Luaran yang telah mendaftarkan saya sebagai perwakilan namun beliau sendiri tidak dapat menghadirkan diri dalam konvensyen tersebut disebabkan beberapa faktor yang tidak dapat dielakkan.
Konvensyen yang di adakan di Dewan San Long, Wisma MCA Jalan Ampang yang jauhnya hanyalah kira-kira 300 meter daripada menara kebangggan kita iaitu Menara KLCC telah dihadiri oleh kira-kira lebih kurang 2300 perwakilan, sumber ini saya perolehi daripada ucapan pengerusi konyensen ketika itu iaitu Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansur.
Walaupun duduk di barisan belakang dewan, saya dapat melihat dengan jelas barisan kepimpinan Barisan Nasional yang duduk di hadapan pentas. Ini termasuklah Perdana Menteri iaitu merangkap pengerusi barisan nasional yang juga presiden UMNO, Timbalan Perdana Menteri merangkap timbalan pengerusi Barisan Nasional dan 12 orang presiden parti komponen BN. Di belakang barisan depan ini duduknya 38 orang individu yang mewakili setiap parti. Iaitu setiap parti diwakili oleh 2 orang pemimpin. 2 orang individu lagi adalah Ketua Wanita UMNO (Datuk Sharizat) dan Ketua Pemuda (Datuk Khairy Jamaluddin)

Selepas Pengerusi Barisan Nasional menyampaikan ucaptama, presiden setiap 13 parti komponen akan berucap bersilih ganti untuk membahaskan tema/tajuk yang diberikan. Sebagai warga Sabah, dulu, kini dan selamanya saya lebih berfokus kepada ucapan daripada presiden parti komponen di Sabah iaitu V.K Liew (LDP), Datuk Seri Panglima Joseph Pairin Kitingan (PBS), Datuk Seri Panglima Bernad Dompok (UPKO), Datuk Seri Panglima Joseph Kurup (PBRS) dan sekiranya SAPP masih bersama dengan BN, kelibat Datuk Yong Teck Lee akan dapat saya saksikan namun beliau telah memutuskan SAPP meninggalkan BN atas faktor yang kita sedia maklum dan saya lebih bersifat neutral atas tindakan SAPP, tidak menyokong atau tidak mengecam namun bersifat tunggu dan lihat.
Walaupun acap kali saya menyatakan bahawa pemimpin veteran khususnya parti-parti KDM ini memberikan laluan kepada pemimpin muda, jauh dilubuk hati saya, saya bangga kerana mereka dapat menyatakan dengan jelas dalam ucapan mereka tentang keperluan rakyat Sabah khususnya. Dan saya berharap mereka dapat memberikan peluang kepada pemimpin muda dalam PRU ke-13. For the time being, they get my support but either they can lose my support if the party itself don’t change. Saya ingin nyatakan bahawa pemimpin veteran ini masih boleh menyumbang walaupun bukan sebagai ahli parlimen, ADUN ataupun presiden. Seperti yang saya selalu katakan, saya amat menghormati parti-parti cina di Malaysia, mereka memberi peluang kepada pemimpin muda untuk berkembang, menerajui parti dan member nafas baru kepada parti yang seterunya menjadikan parti relevan dengan keadaan semasa.
Saya tidak segan silu ingin menyatakan bahawa di kawasan parlimen saya sendiri iaitu Tuaran, Datuk Wifred Madius Tangau perlu dikekalkan sebagai calon pada PRU-12 namun kepimpinan telah mencalonkan Datuk Wilfred Bumburing. Ini merupakan pendapat peribadi saya sendiri tanpa mewakili mana-mana parti atau kepertubuhan. Saya melihat Datuk Wilfred Madius Tangau sebagai nafas baru dalam kepimpinan UPKO. Beliau harus diberi peluang untuk terus berkembang sebagai ikon muda KDM yang boleh dibanggakan. Datuk Seri Wilfred Bumburing telah berkhidmat dalam era 80-an dan 90-an sewaktu kegemilangan kerajaan PBS dan saya rasa cukuplah. Enough is enough. Saya berharap tidak ada sesiap yang tersinggung atas kenyataan ini kerana ini merupakan luahan hati saya sendiri sebagai anak jati Tuaran.

Berbalik kepada konvensyen BN, ia merupakan platform yang cukup kondusif untuk merapatkan barisan kepimpinan yang sedia ada. Saya amat tertarik kepada ucapan penutup Datuk Seri Koh Tsu Koon dan Datuk Khairy Jamalludin yang menyelitkan bahasa2 etnik utama di Malaysia termasuk la bahasa iban dan Dusun. Hala tuju BN juga di tekankan oleh PM dan hampir kesemua presiden parti berikar akan mempertahankan Putrajaya pada PRU-13.

Apa yang mencuit hati saya ialah ucapan daripada Datuk Shahrizat, some sort of like this
“ Ketika kita tercari-cari formula untuk menang dalam pilihanraya, saya mempunyai satu formula yang amat mudah. Just take care of the woman…. Kerana 63% daripada pengundio adalah kaum wanita….
Bila difikirkan semula, memang ada kebenarannya….

Merry Christmas and Happy New year to all my friends

Dr. Johan @ Eddy Luaran