Greetings from Patong

The weather was gloomy yesterday. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my time and will be going to the same beach again today. Partay tonight and side trip to Krabi island tomorrow.

Wish you were here.

Zachba's Beach Essential 2010

01--Longchamp Les Pliages
02--Straw hat for the beach (from a shop in Miri, RM 2 only)
03--Dress straw hat (Zara)
04--iPod Classic
05--Biotherm Homme Face UV Defense
06--Cotton On Wayfarer
07--A book to kill the time while laying on the beach
08--Swimming trunk (STUD)
09--Singlet (adidas)
10--Floral printed bermuda (Zara)
11--White tee (Topman)
12--Leopard printed pareo (from a shop in Jonker Walk, Melaka)
13--THE camera (Nikon D90)
14--Aloe gel (Banana Boat)
15--Rubber duck :p
16--Most essential item, coconut tanning oil (Hawaiian Tropic. KL takde lg. Banana Boat tanning oil tak berkesan :( )
17--Multivits (Blackmore)

and of course, another must have item...

18--Flip flop (Quicksilver)

and last but not least, what a summer holiday without the scent of summer :p

19--CK one coffret

Ta peeps!

Hola HKT

Hurrayyyy!!

Finally, the loooong awaited moment has arrived. I am finally on my annual leave now.

I will be away for a much-deserved beach holiday in Phuket for a week! Ngeeee.........I am so excited. Everyday tengok orang naik flights pegi holiday, now, this is my time (first time actually) pegi holiday since saya kerja terbang sana sini.

So basically, nothin much planned so far. But I wanna go Thai this holiday. LOL. You know, eat Thai food, indulge in Thai massage, sip Thai mocktails on that famous Phuket beach....all things Thai lah senang citer.

Do wish me a safe journey.

Thai Red Army, please remain in Bangkok, at least till I'm back to KL, OK? For God's sake please don't come to Phuket ya? Haha

Ta.

ps: Nadia, Happy Flying back to LHR.

Ole2 From Taipei

Oppss.....to all kids, stay away from this.
The most sedap ciggie I ever smoked.

Non avail in KL. Delicious smoky aftertaste.

Summer in India

I promised I will not go out.

But I can't stop the temptation. What a waste when the chances to be away in a foreign land be wasted in hotel room. Panas pon panas lah.

Indian blackberries.

The famous Indian mangoes. Murah and in this case, very sweet and fragrant too!!!

Indian apricots. Menyesal tak beli.

Will be in Taipei this weekend. Can't wait for my beach trip next week ;)

Happy weekend peeps.

ps: and to my binge gang, have fun tonight ya!

Away..........To Delhay~

Greetings.

Happy Sunday people. A not so nice Sunday for me koz I gotta work. I miss having brunch on Sunday with friends in town. Now another one is missing from the group, Betty it is. She was just married last week and today is her wedding reception on the groom's side. And later next month, she will move to Melbourne in Australia to follow the husband, who is currently working there (and waiting for his PR status. y.u.c.k.s).

Btw, I'm off to New Delhi this evening. This will be my forth visit to the city.

Seriously rasa malas nak pergi.

The reason being, I am now down with fever after my trip to Sabah. And bad stomach ache from the fried noodle I had at Tawau airport. **screw u kakak

And the great thing is the weather in Delhi now is forecasted to be very HOOOOTTTTTTTT!

Look below, on Sunday 16 May.

The weather is predicted to be 44 deg Celcius!!!

Aiyo KL yang 29 deg pon dah kuyup berpeluh. Since the weather in Delhi now is extremely hot, and my current condition at its not-so-best, I decided that I will not go out do the sightseeing like I normally do in Delhi. I rather stay indoor and finish read a book. I am now engaged to this book titled How Starbucks Saved My Life by Michael Gates Gill. It is a good read I must say.

Haaa.....makin demam la balik KL nanti. It really reminds me of my first trip to Dubai last year. Weather was around 50 deg Celcius. And it was 4 in the morning!!!!

Pengsan......

Tuhan, selamatkan perjalananku pergi dan balik. Amin

Seriously I'm Happy

Dear Diary,

This entry could prolly be the lamest entry of all entries in my blog. But......who cares? :|
I am just superrrrr happy now. Really. Happy that I could crack a smile from ear to ear ;-)

This evening, I got to buy things that I wanted to. Things that been haunting me for the past 6 nights since I went for a window shopping in town with a girl pal.

You know, you just gotta buy that stuff (what ever in that matter) when you keep on thinking about that, in bed at nights after you saw it. Like in my case, it happens all the time. Ha ha. When I first saw it on the display racks, jual mahal....then when I got home....teringat sampai tak tidur.

So I came to the store again today and purchased these.

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3 pairs of jeans.

Ha! I know I know. This is outrageous. I never buy 3 pairs of jeans in a day.

I really love the 'special effects' on the jeans hence I bought the whole collection that came in 3 altogether.

Guess I had mentioned earlier too that I am so gonna grab whatever things that come in set with variety of colors like this and this.

Does anyone of you know if I fall in the group of color-maniac disorder? Much regretted I believe the answer is yes?

Now my aim is to look for the sneakers that will go along with the jeans.

Eh, I heard someone screamed Low Cut Converse Original in yellow, red and light blue color.

Hey, wise one buddy.

Iban Warrior

Greetings peeps,

How was the weekend? Mine was a great one. I had a loooong weekend. Made a road trip to the southern part of the Peninsular with uni mates, and really enjoyed it.

And before I forget, to Betty, congratulations on your wedding with your beau, MKH. May both of you lovin each other forever and ever. Amin. Remember my words, if anything ever happen to you in MEL, I'll be on the next flight there.

Anyway, just to let you know, I'll becoming an Iban warrior end of this month! How exciting!
I wish I can tell more but hey...I will keep you in the loop.

Kelakar je aku boleh nak jadi Iban. Ha ha!

Have a nice week ahead everyone.

U know u love me, xoxo

Fck You by Lily Allen

Oh no, this song keeps spinning in my head......

MAS and AirAsia X should co-pilot efforts to achieve nation’s aspirations

AIRASIA X has been lobbying its cause aggressively in the media locally and abroad to fly to destinations operated by Malaysia Airlines (MAS).

On the surface, its argument appears logical: Open up Sydney, Seoul, etc., as that is best for the country.

There are two sides to any argument and I would like to take this opportunity to put forward the MAS point of view.

A bit of history: Under the domestic rationalisation exercise in March 2006, MAS was asked to give up the operations of the rural areas in Sabah/Sarawak and hand them over to AirAsia Bhd.

MAS was awarded 19 trunk routes to operate and AirAsia was granted both the trunk and non-trunk routes (about 96 routes). AirAsia subcontracted non-trunk routes to its wholly-owned subsidiary, Fly Asian Xpress Sdn Bhd (FAX).

FAX operated the service from September 2006 to September 2007. There were countless complaints about the unreliability of its services which severely and negatively impacted communities, tourism and businesses in Sabah and Sarawak.

The Government asked MAS to take back the rural air services and MAS’s wholly-owned subsdiary, MASwings, took over on Oct 1, 2007. During that one year of FAX’s operation, it was paid more than double what MASwings received for the same scope of services over the past two years.

FAX was subsequently renamed AirAsia X.

In just some three years of operations after dumping the rural air services, AirAsia X has obtained rights for nine routes: London, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Mumbai, New Delhi, Taipei, Beijing and Shanghai.

Flight rights and hubs

Recently, AirAsia X announced it has been given rights to fly to Seoul. But to date, there has been no Government announcement. AirAsia X was recently also granted the rights to fly to Male and the rights were transferred to AirAsia.

Excluding the rights to fly to Seoul and Male – assuming this is official – 90% of AirAsia X’s routes overlap with those operated by MAS. On the other hand, only 17% of Tiger, Singapore Airlines (SIA) and SilkAir’s routes overlap.

We will stand up and be counted. Yes, MAS lobbies the Government. So do AirAsia and AirAsia X. As an airline, we have transformed and we are fighting for our rights, as are AirAsia and AirAsia X.

Let me outline our viewpoints and why we stand behind the facts – not blind accusations – that we presented to the Government:

What makes Suvarnabhumi and Changi great hubs is that these airports provide customers with many destination choices.

Some 93 airlines operate out of Suvarnabhumi to over 187 cities in 71 countries. About 85 carriers operate from Changi to more than 200 cities in 60 countries.

On the other hand, some 50 airlines operate from KL International Airport (KLIA) to 100 cities in 44 countries.

What makes Changi a good hub is the number of destinations it offers. This gives consumers greater choice. For example, someone who wants to fly to Moscow has to go via Changi as there are no airlines flying to Moscow directly from KLIA.

If someone from Melbourne wants to fly to Moscow, he is likely to go via, say Changi, and not KLIA. AirAsia X can fly 10 times a day to Melbourne and this passenger is still more likely to use Changi.

If AirAsia X is serious about providing customers “with choices”, it should fly to new destinations. There are 34 or more new destinations that currently do not have direct flights from KL. All these destinations are within the range of AirAsia X’s A330-300s.

AirAsia X has been lobbying the Malaysian Government saying that it deserves to get the rights to fly to any destination because it has bought so many aircraft.

Yet, it is not willing to consider any of these 34 cities because it claims that these cities do not make economic sense.

Amongst the 34 are Fukuoka and Nagoya in Japan, and Chongqing in China. All these routes are operated by both SIA and Cathay Pacific. SIA also operates to Ahmadabad in India and Cairo in Egypt.

One of the destinations which the Transport Ministry lists as being granted to AirAsia X is Paris/Orly. Interestingly, AirAsia X CEO Azran Osman-Rani told MalaysianInsider in an interview dated April 28, 2010: “It (the rights) has yet to land on my desk. Until it does, we cannot initiate detailed plans”.

If AirAsia X’s argument is that it does not have planes or the correct aircraft, note that it has two A340s, each of which has a 12-hour flying range. It can also operate the A330s with one stop in the Middle East.

In addition, AirAsia X has applied for and been granted the rights to fly to many cities which it is not exercising. These cities include Amritsar, Cheongju, Pusan, Tianjin, Xian, Bahrain, Sharjah, Berlin, Manchester, Dublin, Vienna and Moscow.

AirAsia X is not keen to operate to these new destinations as it is well aware that it takes years of investment to make a route profitable.

Case in point is Abu Dhabi. SIA flies to Abu Dhabi. Yet, AirAsia X pulled out from Abu Dhabi after just three months in operation, citing that the route is not profitable.

When MAS flies to a new route, we are likely to incur losses in the first year up to the first five years as we spend money to develop awareness in the new destination and expand the market. This is an investment we are prepared to make, as short-term losses can result in long-term profits. In the long run, it is good for the country and gives consumers more choice.

For example, for the past 20 years, we invested tens of millions (of ringgit). Even today, we invest some RM100mil annually in marketing costs alone in Australia.

If AirAsia X is really serious about “choices for the people”, it will fly to destinations where it has the rights to. But the reality is that AirAsia X is only interested in MAS’ routes. Is this then in the best interest of the country?

For the record, we have been competing with various global, full service carriers for the past 60 years and competition is not new to MAS. We welcome competition as it means that we have to constantly transform ourselves – which is what we have been doing intensely in the past four years.

Passenger numbers

Let us also set the record straight on the information that AirAsia X has been providing to the media to support its claim to fly to Sydney and Seoul.

Azran claimed in the same interview that “some 80,000 Malaysians were flying to Sydney indirect.”

PaxIS (passenger intelligence services) data (collated by the International Air Transport Association), which captures all full service airline transactions, shows that in 2009, only 2,848 passengers travelled from KL to Sydney via Singapore. In 2010, the number is reduced to only 2,359. It would be good if AirAsia X can substantiate its allegations.

For Seoul, Azran claimed: “We should see a reversal of the trend of negative growth in 2009 to a positive growth in 2011” on the assumption that AirAsia X were to fly to Seoul.

For the first three months of 2010, tourist arrivals from South Korea grew by 26% compared with the same period in 2009. MAS’ passenger growth was up 48%. The trend is already strongly positive.

Both MAS and AirAsia X bring in tourists to the country. Tourism studies indicate that there is a 12 times multiplier effect to the country.

This year, we expect to fly in 5.5 million passengers. We expect this to generate some RM12.7bil of tourism dollars for the country.

However, most of AirAsia X’s passengers are in transit. For example, AirAsia X has said that 80% of its Australian passengers on AirAsia X self-connect to other destinations after arriving in KL.

In other words, while AirAsia X increases traffic into the country, most of their passengers transit in KL to other destinations. Although this makes the arrivals figures look higher, these passengers may not spend much money in Malaysia. This means less economic value to the country.

However, if AirAsia X operates to new destinations and invests in promoting Malaysia, it will go a long way to attract tourists from different countries and boost tourism in Malaysia.

In July 2008, when we met the Transport Minister, we proposed a clear framework for the aviation sector.

This framework will involve airlines, airports as well as a range of services to airlines and airports, MRO (maintenance, repair and operation) and catering. The sector contributes about 4% to Malaysia’s gross domestic product. Beyond its direct contributions to the economy, the aviation sector is a key enabler of tourism and commerce.

It is never too late to start. Malaysia needs a clear aviation policy – one that offers real choices to consumers and that benefits the country. It must be a long-term, comprehensive and impartial policy that will ensure that the country and rakyat takes precedence.

One that will ensure that KLIA becomes a regional hub, on par with Changi and Suvarnabhumi and that all local airlines – MAS, Firefly, AirAsia and AirAsia X – are given equal treatment, with consideration given to what is best for the country.

At the time we made the proposal, AirAsia was not advocating this. I am glad that it now thinks that this is a good idea.

The winner should not be the one who shouts the loudest in the media. Nor lobby the hardest. We need to learn to compete and collaborate, and work with the Government to achieve the nation’s aspirations.

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What say you?

Taken from here.