Fuel prices up 30 sen (Not Again!)

Fuel prices up 30 sen
27-Feb-2006

The retail prices of petrol and diesel will be increased by 30 sen per litre while the retail price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) by 30 sen per kg effective Feb 28.

Bernama quoted a statement from the Prime Minister's Department on Feb 27 as saying the move to increase the prices was to counter the effects of the rising price of crude oil in the world market and the rising cost of subsidising petrol.

The government, however, gave an assurance that it will not be raising the prices of petroleum retail products anymore this year following this latest hike.

With the latest increase, the price of RON 97 petrol is 192 sen, RON 92 petrol is 188 sen, diesel is 158.1 sen and LPG is 175 sen per litre in peninsular Malaysia.

The new price of RON 97 petrol in Sabah is 190 sen and that in Sarawak is 191 sen.

The last time the prices were increased was on July 31, 2005 when petrol price was pushed up by 10 sen per litre, diesel price 20 sen per litre and LPG 5 sen per kg.

A total of RM7.41 billion in cost was borne by the government for subsidising while the tax exempted amounted to RM7.85 billion, it said.

The cost of subsidising and tax borne by the government for the January to February 2006 period amounted to RM1.19 billion and RM1.44 billion respectively.

However, the statement said the prices of petrol and diesel in Malaysia were still low compared with those in other Asean countries except Brunei.

Meanwhile, the government has also introduced the provision of subsidised diesel to 84% of vehicles that use diesel in the land transportation sector comprising operators of public transportation and consumer products services through the Fleetcard.

Through the Fleetcard, they can purchase subsidised diesel at petrol stations where the cost of fuel is 15 sen less than the stipulated price.

Source: http://www.theedgedaily.com

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Flash Floods in February

The weather is getting crazier nowadays. Just recently the TTDI Shah Alam was hit with flash flood. February month should not be raining so much but somehow the weather pattern has changed. It looks like the signs of the times. Beginning with the Andaman Tsunami of Dec 2004, Hurricane Katrina of mid 2005, to the various typhoon around the Asian region. Could it be the signs of end times?

Just looking at the photos taken from the news already gives ones the shudder of 'what will happen next?'

A warning of overdevelopment due to greed, bad environmental stewardship? The incessant pace of development which we call progress may very well lead to our downfall. Perhaps we enjoy too much of the good life and couldn't care less what happen to the environment. Then we shall reap what we sow, the cycle of bad environmental karma will surely come back to haunt us.

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Rain Jam

Whenever rain falls the traffic condition in Petaling Jaya or Kuala Lumpur gets really bad. The worlds climate has gone crazy and it seems Malaysia is no different. February month should have been a pretty hot month and it is supposed to be without rain. Alas no, it is still hot but then it pours in the afternoon pretty much cats and dogs.

And when it happens around rush hour, that's it. The traffic goes to the dogs. One of the poor road design is the traffic circle. It should be consigned to the museum and should be done away and replaced with traffic lights system. But the MPPJ city council unfortunately still keeps them around. Traffic circle is fine if the traffic is light.

But when the traffic volume swells up during rush hour, the traffic circle just can't handle the situation. Every driver will attempt to enter the circle without giving much chance for other drivers to exit the circle. Results? A complete lockjam of the circle. Traffic grinds to halt. Nobody can get in, nobody can get out. Until somebody decides to play nice and let other cars out of the circle then the traffic would be able to move.

And that was the situation where I was caught in at the PJ section 19 aka Rohman's Circle while returning home from work yesterday. What would have been a ten minute drive in out through the circle became 40 minute ordeal with cars forcing their way in and out. This is when you would like to quickly get in and get out of the circle because the traffic just shuffle along at snails pace.

There's nothing much I could do but listen to music and grit my teeth and hope to get clear of the circle the fastest possible.

Rainy days and rush hour just don't mix well.(sigh!)

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CNY at Bukit Tinggi, Raub & Fraser's Hill

Happy Chinese New Year!

Yes, it is the year of the dog. Hopefully, we don't have to work like a dog this year, but somehow I think not!

Just backed from CNY holiday. What a blast! Reunion dinner and all. My aunty from Raub invited us over for overnight stay as my Uncle Aaron was giving treating us a CNY dinner. And my sis-in-law also managed to get free stay at Silverpark Apartments in Fraser's Hill. Well, to make full use of this trip, I decided to cram in a few sight seeing / fact finding / photo taking session opportunity.

First, I made a stop at Bukit Tinggi Resort and visited the Colmar French town and Japanese Garden. Since I'm building a site about highlands I may as well write about other highlands that are related to Camerons. My Parents-in-law also had not been to Bukit Tinggi so it was like killing two birds with one stone kinda thingy.

It was a good time to up to the French town replica. The Berjaya Hills Management knows that in order to keep the visitors coming, they had to organize activities. Sure enough there were the usual lion dances for the Chinese New Year for luck and prosperity. Lion dances are always a hit for just about anybody, not just for Chinese, the Malays, Indians, and Gwai-Lo were just as fascinated with the acrobatic antics and prowess of the Lion Dancers.

I spotted a few spectators sitting precariously on the window ledge of the French town trying to get the best possible angle for a photo shot!

And the din from the lion drums! It really has a New Year mood to it! Relaxing at one of the tables, eating pizza and drinking coffee, my dear wife remarked that it felt just like the vacation we had in Melbourne Australia. Yep! Felt good to just sit down and not worry about a thing. Ah, if life was always like this!

After the Lion Dance was over, we took a few family shot of the place. But before we left, I needed to grab some more photo of the Japanese Garden. Though my wife and parents-in-law were tired and didn't follow me. I think they should have, as the air in the garden was pretty refreshing. However I was a short on time as we had to rush to Raub for the dinner on time. Still I managed to get as many photographic shots as possible. Pretty nice nature photography, with the Zen like garden. Wish I weren't so rushed; I could do with a bit more relaxing mood and take my time for better composed photographs.


The journey to Raub was pretty rushed and we managed to get there on time for the dinner. The food was good and everybody enjoyed the dinner.

My aunty worked and stayed in a shop house all this while, but she had a good heart and allowed us to sleep in the "box" room where it was the only room with air conditioning. Without it, I doubt I could sleep well as I not used to hot humid temperature. Me, my wife and Lindy cramp onto the bed and well, we managed to get some sleep.

The next day, we proceeded our journey to Fraser's Hill. It is a smaller highland in comparison with Cameron Highlands, but never the less it was still a good alternative. There was a route from Raub to Fraser's Hill and the distance was only about 40km though the road towards it was rather winding.

We reached the area known as the Gap where the traffic to the top of Fraser's Hill was controlled. The authorities had to this as the road was narrow and it would be safer to allow a one way traffic. The authorities actually build another road so that there was no need to control the traffic by making each road a one way direction. But ever since a landslide occurred on the new road, I guess the authorities deemed the new road unsafe and opt back for the old method of controlled traffic. Besides, the amount of vehicles going up and down Fraser's Hill weren't that many anyway.

I guess the Silverpark management were not use to heavier than usual visitors and we had to wait quite a while for a room to be ready. After finally checking in, while my wife, family and relatives had a rowdy time playing mahjong and watching Cantonese VCD which Lindy had the good sense to bring along, I went off alone to explore the area and to take as many photos for future articles about other highlands.

Since there were not many good eateries available in over there so as usual, my aunt and mom-in-law prepared chicken pot rice and brought over there for dinner. Yum! Taste good on an empty stomach!

Night time activities were the usual mahjong and watching Cantonese VCD, leaving me with nothing much to do but to go to bed early.

Next day, I continued my further exploration of the area and visited the Allan's water (pond) and Jeriau waterfalls. And to my surprise, it rained on me! I guess CNY was not as hot as it should be. Still I managed to take some good shots and collected some info from the Fraser's Hill tourist information office.

Strangely, the only two Chinese eateries owners were known to my Aunt. It seems they bought many of their utensils and stuff from my aunt's shop in Raub. Talked about a small world. Yep we had our lunch at Hillview restaurant and Laksa at the Kheng Yuan Lee Eating shop.

Next of course, it was time to checked out of the apartment and sent our aunties back to Raub. Staying one night in Fraser's was sufficient enough, but could have done with a second night.

After having dinner in Raub, we made our way back to Kuala Lumpur and reached home pretty late what with the heavier traffic as many people were rushing back to KL to get ready for work the next day. Phew, what a trip!

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