The Inter-Port Game in Singapore...

The Royal Selangor Golf Club travelled to Singapore to play the Singapore Island Country Club for the annual inter-port competition over the weekend before the Deepavali holiday.

the two-tiered driving range and the club-house

My partner and I took the Nice coach which conveniently could also now be boarded at our door-step at KL Sentral. The trip was a comfortable 5 hours and the club had us booked at the Corpthorne Orchid, Dunearn Road, where the Nice Express Singapore base was located.

my flight teed-off from hole No 8...one has to hit over water to the fairway landing

I have never played in this inter-port game before nor have I played at this course. So I was really looking forward to this game.

hole No 8 fairway.....hit from here over water again to the green..

SICC has four 18's, the Sime and Bukit Courses at the Bukit Location and the Old and New Courses at the Plantation location. The competition was played at the Bukit location.

green of hole No 10...

We had 3 games being played concurrently over the 2 days, the ' Tan Sri Hashim Ali Trophy - off the Stick Match', the 'Dato Loke Wan Tho Trophy - 4-ball better ball match play on handicap', and the ladies' 'CC Tan Leong Hoe Yang Challenge Trophy - 4 ball better ball match play on handicap' . Each club had over 70 golfers playing in the different competitions.

Dr Siew at the tee and Kevin Robinson anxiously looking on..

I partnered Kevin Robinson (HI 21.4 CH 25) in our 4-ball match play games against SICC's Mr Alan Peck ( HI 17.5 CH 20) and Dr Siew Teck Woh ( HI 21.1 CH 24). I played to a HI 24.2 and CH 28. The match-play was played at the Sime Course.

Dr Siew, pakdokter, Kevin Robinson and Mr Alan Pek..

I must admit that my game has improved lately. I returned a score of 44/49 which helped my team beat our Singapore counterparts. Kevin scored 53/52, Mr Alan Peck carded 51/47 and Dr Siew scored 50/54.

It was a pleasure meeting my fellow golfers for the first time. I have never met Kevin at the RSGC before. Kevin is the Country Manager for Newfields, an Oil and Gas company doing exploration in Malaysian waters. Alan Peck runs an aerospace company in Singapore and Dr Siew is a retired veterinary doctor who now runs the Gardenia bread company which is probably the biggest bread company both in Singapore and Malaysia.

On Sunday morning I partnered Jeff Ho Wing, a remisier at a stockbroker in KL, whom I have played with a few times at the RSGC during the club's monthly medal. Our Singapore counterparts were Dr Alex Ooi, an obstetrician/gynaecologist at the Mt Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore and Mr Joseph Tan, a retired lawyer. Jeff played to HI 18.6 CH 22, Joseph to HI 14.0 CH 14 and Alex HI 14.4 CH 17.

I played as well as the day before returning a nearly similar score of 49/45 but not good enough to beat the Singapore pair in the game. Going by my scores here and my performances in Indonesia recently, my handicap from next month should now improve to perhaps around 20 or 21.

We had a sumptous Chinese meal at lunch with free flow of beer and wine. Unfortunately our club lost out to Singapore in all the 3 team competitions.

pakdokter, Jeff Ho Wing, Dr Alex, ?..., John Tan, ...the golfer who plays with 2 clubs only i.e. the driver and Iron-1, ?....., RSGC's Lee.

'Caddy Tales'......

Indonesia has always been a favourite golfing destination because of the great number of good golf courses in the major cities of the republic. Besides the well-maintained and challenging golf courses, the caddies of Indonesian clubs also scored 'high' ratings from the golfers.Most of them are well trained and hard-working, and are good at reading the green. And on top of this, most clubs employ young and pretty girls as caddy for the golfers. For Malaysians, the common 'lingo' is an added advantage. It made communication easy ( unlike in Thailand) and these girls are a confident and communicative lot who can be 'cheeky' and 'flirtatious' at times.

And after having made good 'winnings', some of us become overly generous and 'boros' and may engage more than one caddy for the next game. Why not?

pakdokter with his 4 caddies at Ciputra.....one for the clubs, one for the brolly, one to wipe sweat with a cold towel, and one for shoulder massage...

As I have said earlier, these caddies are generally very young. Take Erma for instance ( picture below). She is hardly 18, finished SMA ( Sekolah Menengah Atas - High School) and has been caddying for about a year when she was assigned to me.

Half-way through the game she asked me ' pakdokter ini spesialitas nya apa?' ( what is my medical speciality). On being told that I am a 'shrink' ,she said ' Oh..kalau gitu Erma bisa curhat sama pakdokter ya! (curhat- short form for curahan-hati, 'to pour out one's feelings' as in a counselling setting I presume).

I promptly told her...' Oh pasti bisa....nanti malam temuin saja di kamar pakdokter ya!...( Sure...just come and see me in my hotel room tonight..)

Usha ( full-name Puspasari) is 19, started caddying just about 5 months ago at the Royale Jakarta. She too studied up to SMA. After getting to know me better she asked ' pakdokter ni apa rahsia awit muda nya?' ( what is your secret for looking young?)

I jokingly told her ' kita mesti aktif seks....kurang lebih sekali sehari ' ( you must be sexually active...at least once a day!)

'Kalau Usha sanggup tiga kali sehari, pakdokter bisa bawa Usha pulang ke Malaysia?' ( If I am willing to have sex thrice a day would you take me back to Malaysia?)

That was the end of my game.

Cafe Batavia ....

I must admit that the only time I did the 'touristy' things in Jakarta was during my first trip there some 20 years ago. My subsequent trips were either on 'business' ( i.e. medical conferences) or of late golfing holidays. As such my idea of 'Turismo Jakarta' is purely the Monas ( Monumen Nasional), the many 'revolutionary' sculptures of Sukarno era at many intersections of the city's boulevards, the Ancol theme park and the Mini Indonesia Complex, which if I am not wrong, was initiated by Ibu Tien Suharto.

My partner who almost always travel with me has had her fair share of Jakarta shopping whenever we came to this city and decided, this time, to explore this city for its tourist and historical attractions. And judging from her report, Jakarta has many interesting sites and museums to visit. And the Puppet Museum only charges an entrance fee of 2000 rupiah!

In particular are the streets in the area called Old Batavia. Apparently many reconstruction/rehabilitation works are being carried out to revive this district and many of the heritage buildings are converted into museums.

My partner was lucky to have found a very honest and helpful taxi-driver, Pak Tarsono, and for the whole duration of our holidays there Pak Tarsono was at her disposal all the time. She was very happy to tip him as generously as I did to the caddies at the golf course, every time after Pak Tarsono had chaufferred her around according to her itinerary.

On one of the nights, we decided to check out the Cafe Batavia , located at the Fatahilah Square. The 'square' is to Jakarta what our Selangor Club Padang (Dataran Merdeka) is to Kuala Lumpur. Many young couples ( I assume they are college and university students) occupied every nook and corner of the square. Cafe Batavia is located in an old building at one corner of the square. The interior is reminiscent of the Alkaff Mansion in Singapore (which is also another stylish restaurant as the Cafe Batavia.)

I like the feel of 'old Batavia' of this restaurant. The wall is decorated by pictures of old luminaries who have been to the establishment before. They serve ala carte western cuisine and I chose to try their fresh tuna slices drenched in lime sauce for starter and 'bebek goreng' for the main. (bebek goreng - roast duck). It went down well with a caraffe of the house pinot noir.

The Imperial Karawaci, Jakarta

On the third and last day in Jakarta, we played at the Imperial Klub Golf , Lippo Karawaci which is situated quite near to the Sukarno-Hatta Airport so that we have enough time to finish our game and catch the late evening flight home.

Most of us have played here during our previous golf trips to Jakarta. Imperial is a mature course measuring a total of 6337 yards from the blue tees. Although short, it is made difficult and challenging by its narrow and tight fairways and the many challenging lakes to overcome.

There are several interesting holes for example the hole No. 4 par 4 where you have to drive onto an island from where you then attack the green at the end of the lake which is guarded by a deep sand bunker.

pak Zul Rauf teeing off to the island fairway at hole No 4...

The hole No.5 par 3 measuring 139 yards is another interesting play. It is an island green where one can put a bet of 50,000 rupiah and get your money refunded by simply ensuring that your ball lands on the green from the tee. And if your ball falls within the few concentric circles around the pin you will be rewarded between 100,000 to 500,000 rupiahs accordingly. And you guess it right....it is not that easy to hit your ball on to the green as the island is small to begin with and you have to deal with the force of wind that normally sweeps accross the flight of your ball.

...pak Ali, pak Ariffin and pak Zul having a drink before teeing off and loosing 50,000 rupiah for sending their ball into the water...

the par 3 hole No. 5 where you bet 50,000 rupiahs that your ball lands on the green..

Pakdokter (handicap 26) played with Pak Zul Rauf (handicap 27), Pak Ariffin ( handicap 18) and Pak Ali (handicap 27). With the higher handicap pakdokter returned a score of 48/53 enabling a good enough stableford points to become overall fourth in the 3-day events. Pak Ariffin who carded 45/43 became the overall winner for the 3 days and collected a handsome amount of rupiahs. The biggest casualty from our flight was Pak Zul Rauf - he enabled pakdokter to recoup the losses of the previous day. Pak Zul Rauf blamed his game on exhaustion, lack of focus and 'self-generated distractions'.

The biggest casualty however was Pak Sirajuddin. I will not mention what his 'deficit' was but he was determined to make amends immediately on Monday in a game to be played at the Glenmarie with Pak Ali, Pak Shaber and Pak Roslan.

hole No. 16 par 3 measuring 171 yards. Clubhouse in the background

As we will definitely come back to play at the Imperial in our future trips to Jakarta, we decided to make a special arrangement with the GGRO ( Golf and Guest Relation Officer) at the Imperial who will ensure that our needs will be given priority attention. " Semua nya bisa di atur. Nelpon saja pada Rinie bila mendarat di Bandara dan segala nya pasti di urus. Nomor hepe ( h/phone) Rinie ia lah...........)

GGRO Rinie di apit oleh Pak Shaber and Pak Roslan....

A New Gem...the Royale Jakarta

The Royale Jakarta is a new golf course located adjacent to the old Jakarta Halim Airport. It is about half an hour's drive from dowtown Jakarta.

view from the club-house.....

A few golfers from the group had actually played here about 2 months ago and the club-house was not even ready then. They must have worked around the clock to have the lovely club-house ready in such a short time.

Being a new course, many of the trees lining the fairways are still small and thus did not provide much shade yet. This is a 27-hole course is designed by Robert Moore - JMP Gp.

hole 18 South Course with the club-house in the background..

We played from the blue tee on the South and North courses which measured a total of 6258 metres.

pak Roslan and pak Ali with their respective caddies..

Pakdokter's flight included Pak Roslan ( the Captain), Pak Ali, and Pak Shaber. Pak Dokter partnered Pak Shaber against the other two and we also agreed to play the 'chaccarat' against each other.

pak Roslan in trouble?...getting his ball out from the rough...

Pak Roslan, our Captain, having played here before ( and of course not denying the fact that he is a good player!) carded a score of 43/48 playing to a handicap of 12. Your goodself retained the previous day's handicap of 22 and returned a score of 54/53, which is probably a true reflection of pakdokter's standard of golf. Pak Shaber, who is generally a good player was not in his usual form and returned a score of 51/52 playing to a handicap of 18. Pak Ali, playing to a handicap of 25 returned a score of 50/51.

From the scores you can guess who ended up collecting the most rupiahs from pakdokter and Pak Shaber. However the ever pleasant and sweet caddies made up the day for us.

Syawal in Jakarta.....

A group of us decided to revisit Jakarta for a weekend of golf after the month-long break of Ramadhan. The evening MH flight was at least 60% taken. Perhaps the economic meltdown has not yet fully reared its ugly head.

The drive to downtown Jakarta was a surprisingly free flow without the usual 'macet' that we were frequently told during our previous trips. Perhaps I was wrong in my earlier observation about the economy. But the hotel we checked in was a hive of activity and I must admit the Le Meridien Jakarta was a good choice in terms of comfort and accessibility to the golf courses where we played.

Rancamaya is about one and a half hour drive out of Jakarta in the resort hilltown of Bogor. It is one of the better golf courses in Bogor and a favourite among the many golfing tourists. I played here early last year and I noticed that many of the residential homes being built then had been completed.

one of the many luxury bungalows at Rancamaya...

We played from the blue tee which measured 6471 yards. As Pak Fakaruden had to cancel his trip at the last minute due to having to do a site visit of his project at home, I was put in a flight of 3 with Pak Ariffin and Pak Zulrauf for company.

pakdokter, pak Ariffin and pak Zulrauf...

pak Ariffin at the tee..

The fine weather and the cool gentle breeze probably had helped my game. I returned a score 0f 49/46 and playing to a handicap of 22 managed to accumulate a total of 35 stableford points. That gave me the second best score for the day rewarding me a few hundred thousand rupiahs from the pool.

And of course, thanks to my ever sharp and accurate caddy, Eliss.

pakdokter and Eliss....

The Gift of Rain...

This is a gem of a book written by a very talented Malaysian author.

Tan Twan Eng is a lawyer who is now based in South Africa working on his second novel. His first novel 'The Gift of Rain' was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2007.

This is the story of an intense friendship between Philip Hutton, a half-gwai-loh-half-chinese young man in Penang with Endo, a Japanese diplomat, built over their common interest in 'aikido' - a Japanese form of martial arts.

The Japanese invasion of Malaya exposed the fact that Endo had also used his relationship with Philip to gather strategic information to prepare the Japanese invasion of Malaya. And this affected Philip's relationship to his family some of whom lost their lives during the war.

This is a story about love and about loyalty ( to family, to friend/sensei-teacher ?lover).

Twan Eng has done a lot of research into writing this book. One learns so much history about the early settlers and migrants of Penang and Ipoh. Reading his descriptions of old Penang and old Ipoh makes me want to take a holiday to these places again.

And reading his description of their 'aikido' practices enables me to picture their 'moves' as if I was watching a ballet performance.

This is a book that can make a good movie scrip. I can imagine Takeshi Kaneshiro acting as Philip and Ken Watanabe playing the role of Endo with either Zhang Yi Mou or Wong Kar Wai directing it....

I wish the Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka would translate this book into Malay so that it will get a wider readership.