Is it really getting better....?

The more bullish economic analysts the past one month have been coming out with statements that sound like this....

" the economic numbers show that things are getting worse at a slower pace....."

........and this is supposed to mean that the economy is getting better !

Hmmm.....pakdokter wonders what if the doctor tells the sick patient this......

" well, the good news is our tests show that your illness is getting worse at a slower pace......"

What does that mean?

Is the economy finally turning around the corner?....

view from pakdokter's 'residence in the sky'...

When pakdokter decided to purchase this 'residence in the sky' at KL Sentral in 2001, some of pakdokter's friends wondered why on earth did pakdokter want to leave the elite neighbourhood of Damansara Heights to Brickfields. Some of the discouraging comments pakdokter heard then were that Brickfields is an 'Indian' area and that it is full of gangsters! Wow....pakdokter did not realise that Kuala Lumpur has designated areas for 'untouchables'.....

If only these friends knew that pakdokter was actually born in Brickfields. In fact the house where pakdokter was born in ( as stated clearly in pakdokter's birth certificate) is, today, actually still standing and being occupied by the deserving government servant. Sure, pakdokter grew up with many Indian families in the neigbourhood. 1Malaysia was already the culture then way back 58 years ago. And many of the kids pakdokter grew up with in the neighbourhood then are today famous and well known successful lawyers and doctors.

So, pakdokter had actually decided to buy this 'residence in the sky' in this 'gangster' area for a very sentimental reason. It was like a 'coming home' again for pakdokter. And apart from this pakdokter had also made a calculated guess that it would be a good investment. Pakdokter had noticed in earlier trips to Tokyo that all major developments in the city actually took place around the main train stations. Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Tokyo etc are all major train stations and around all these stations are located all the main shopping malls, hotels and expensive apartments of Tokyo. In fact most of the malls and hotels were developed and owned by the rail/train companies actually ( something which our KTM should be emulating and making profits from instead of bleeding with operational losses every year in the way that it is being managed now). Pakdokter envisioned then that KLSentral would in 10 years or so become the 'Shinjuku' of Kuala Lumpur.

And pakdokter was correct! Today pakdokter's investments in properties in KLSentral have all almost doubled in value with regular good returns. And for the past 6 or 7 years, pakdokter and family have thoroughly enjoyed the privacy of 'condo-living', feeling assured of our security and benefited from its 'connectivity' which spared us the horrendous traffic jam of the city if pakdokter had to drive to downtown city centre.

And come every Merdeka Day and New Year's Eve, pakdokter and family ( and friends ) would get a 'grand-stand' view of the spectacle of fireworks that light up the city skyline on these festive days....

the Chan Ah Tong Street government quarters with the Suasana Sentral and Suasana Loft condominiums in the background..

the house where pakdokter was born is the second from the top end of this row..

Of course pakdokter had to endure the ceaseless noise from the ongoing development and construction of new office blocks and condominiums around pakdokter's residence the past 5 years. Most of them were completed last year and early this year.

When the global economy came to a halt late last year, pakdokter thought at last there would be a respite from the din of the construction activities in the neigbourhood. And the increasing notices of properties being offerred for sale at a discount here forewarned the coming of difficult economic times ....

But suddenly 2 months ago, the lots directly in front of and the one to the right of pakdokter's residence saw the invasion of lorries and cranes signalling the beginning of the construction of a shopping mall and more office and residential towers.

So, is the economy finally turning around the corner again?....

commencement of work for a new shopping mall with serviced apartments and hotel..

the hive of construction activity after 2 months of ground breaking...

what used to be a petrol station has been cleared for development...

piling works......and the new Shell Malaysia Hq will be relocated here in 2 years time...

recently completed buildings at KLSentral, the 1Sentral where the Price Waterhouse is housed and below....


the Suasana Sentral Loft Condo....

A tribute to a mother....

Pakdokter have been picking up and reading a number memoirs, autobiographies and biographies lately simply for wanting to see how other people went about writing such books. One of pakdokter's wishes for this year is to come out with a book -hopefully a memoir....

Pakdokter's friend, Zaid Ibrahim, in his book, 'Saya Pun Melayu' , included in the book a few chapters about his own life from childhood to the present. One of Singapore's most outstanding civil servant, Ridzwan Dzafir, in his autobiography, regretted that he did not have the habit of keeping a diary and notes, for when he started writing his book, he had to largely rely on his little memory.

So it was quite a pleasure when pakdokter saw this new book on the shelf in the book-store recently, "Zainab Ahmad", written by her own daughter, Kalsom Taib, which was launched to co-incide with the Mother's Day celebration in May. Kalsom, had, some time ago also written a book on her father, Taib Andak, an outstanding Malaysian civil servant who was responsible for the successful land development project for the poor, Felda, during the times of Tun Razak.

In this book, Kalsom traced her ancestry which had their Bugis origins from Riau, Siantan ( somewhere in the middle of the South China Sea between Pahang and Borneo - pakdokter only came to know about this from this book) and Semantan (old Pahang?). She had researched her roots quite extensively using sources from her own mother and surviving relatives as well as from published references. Coming from well connected families of the Johore establishment, naturally there are many recognisable and successful personalities in this clan. Despite of this it cannot be denied that Zainab Ahmad and her husband, Taib Andak, had been a successful parent, having been able to raise many successful offsprings during their life time.

The latter half of the book, Kalsom devoted to describing the life of her mother. The lady who would have become a doctor was taken into marriage soon after secondary school but managed to adapt and adjust very well to become the supportive spouse of an improtant civil servant and a successful mother. Pakdokter felt a 'tinge' of envy at the many happy 'family photos' which adorned many pages of the book.

Well done Kalsom....

Detik-detik....

kenapa...

detik-detik jam di-dinding...

terasakan bagai...

degup-degup jantung di-dada ku...

mengapa harus di-khuatiri...

mati sememangnya sudah pasti...
namun aku akan terus hidup...

bagaikan seribu tahun lagi...

Birthday Stories.....selected by Haruki Murakami

Pakdokter was catching up on the business news on CNBC one evening last week , after returning from Bali for pakdokter's 58th birthday chill-out', when the programme host ( Becky?) announced that Haruki Murakami's latest book had sold 3 million copies after 2 weeks of its launch! Having read one of Murakami's book recently and coming out feeling very impressed by his style, pakdokter decided to go to the regular book-store hoping to get a copy of this new book, not even knowing what the title of the book was....

Instead pakdokter came across this collection of short stories on 'Birthdays' selected and introduced by Murakami. And what a book it was. Each story was short and simple yet left all kinds of feelings at the end of it. It is the genius of Murakami, he writes so well and he chooses equally well of other writer's works....

This book is one gift pakdokter bought for himself for pakdokter's birthday.

"Have a Good Time"

yesterday it was my birthday

I hung one more year on the line

I should be depressed

my life's a mess

but I'm having a good time.

I've been loving and loving and loving

I'm exhausted from loving so well

I should go to bed

but a voice in my head says,

"Ah, what the hell"

Paul Simon

New Kuta Golf Resort at Bali Dreamland...

The return flight on Sunday was at 7.00 pm, so pakdokter had one whole day to kill and decided to try out the New Kuta Golf Course located at Pecatu/Jimbaran district of Bali. It was an easy 30 minutes drive out of Kuta and after ascending the hills of Jimbaran and passing by the Udayana University ( where many Malaysians study at its medical school), the golf club welcomes you with a grand sculpture at its entrance typical of the many monuments decorating Jakarta round-abouts.

The 'Bali Dreamland' is a massive development consisting of luxury residential zones, the golf course and entertainment complexes. The pricipal personalities behind this project, according to pakdokter's supir, are pak Cendana and pak Tommy Suharto. The geological characteristic of this district is mainly of limestone earth, and pakdokter can imagine how much it would have cost the developer to ship tonnes of volcanic earth for the top-soil in order to allow for trees and grass to grow in this area. Pakdokter's supir said that this region was originally 'tanah gersang' (meaning barren land ).

Pakdokter was alone that morning and was hoping to be included into any flights of local or tourist golfers. But as luck would have it, pakdokter could not be fitted anywhere and so had to play alone with a 19 year old girl, Seni, from Singaraja, acting as pakdokter's caddy. Seni had just finished SMA ( high school) a year ago, was introduced to the golf course by a cousin who works in the team maintaining the course and greens. She was put in training for 6 months before she was certified fit and qualified to caddy. She earns 600,000 rupiahs ( about RM180) a month with free medical benefit. She caddies about 3 to 5 times a week and earns 'extras' from tips given by the golfers.









The New Kuta Golf Course is a links course and was completed about 3 years ago. It hosted the Indonesian Open 2009 in February which was won by Thongchai Jaidee. The course looks wide and open but the roughs were dangerously thick. The winds can be strong due to the fact that it is located along a hilly terrain by the cliffs of Jimbaran.

par-3 hole No.6

a 'pura' (Balinese temple) at hole 15, overlooking the sea...

The surroundings around holes 14, 15 and 16 are the most scenic, as they look down the steep cliffs towards Uluwatu peninsula as well as towards Kuta.

Playing from the blue tees, the course measured 6000 metres. Pakdokter did quite well in the 1st Nine, hitting pars on both par-3 holes and a score of 45. The 2nd Nine was more challenging as the fairways became more narrow with the breeze across the cliff coming into play. However it was a gentle and cooling breeze which helped pakdokter return a gross of 49. Not bad...

the barren limestone ground will be topped with volcanic soil and prepared for the construction of holiday villas, according to pakdokter's caddy 'Seni', mostly for the Koreans...

If one does not fancy staying at the crowded and noisy Kuta, there are 2 hotels around the golf course itself - the Le Grande Hotel and the Best Western Kondotel. Perched on a cliff overlooking the sea is the 'Klub Kelapa' - a pyramid-shaped structure housing the night-club, bars and karaoke joints to keep you occupied at night.

the Best Western Kondotel at Dreamland New Kuta....

the le Grande Hotel...

Playing golf in Bali, however, is not cheap. It cost USD 170 at the New Kuta, USD 160 at Nusa Dua, USD 165 at Bali Nirvana and USD 140 at Bali Handara Kossaido.

Honey......shall we retire in Bali......?

Pakdokter's friend, Maulana Rosli Azad Khan had organised, for the group, a whole day tour of villas on sale or in development in the popular Seminyak, Canggu and Umalas areas of Bali. Ian, the young British property sales executive crammed the six of us in his SUV and for almost the whole of Saturday, we managed to look at 5 properties on offer. Pakdokter will describe 3 of them here.

The ' Layar' ( the Sail) is a development in progress, at least 2 of the 22 units have been completed and were ready for viewing. The architecture and design reminded pakdokter of the Dubai Creek and Yacht Club which pakdokter visited in February.

For USD 800k or more one gets a 3 or 4 bedroom villa with its own swimming pool within a gated community. The feel is 'modern' and the concept is 'open'. However pakdokter did not like the idea that the bedrooms were one floor above or below the living and dining areas. Pakdokter is very aware that as one gets older, it is going to be increasingly difficult to walk up and down the stairs.

Furthermore these villas are still 'work-in-progress'. In the current difficult economic times pakdokter will have to think 22 times before pakdokter take out the cheque book to pay for a project that pakdokter cannot be guaranteed will see the end of day....

The next villa was about 5 years old. 'Heather's Villa' and belongs to the lead singer of a British pop band ( M People !?) and was on offer for slightly below USD 400k. It is located on a spacious ground in the midst of a paddy field. However, due to its condition one needs to spend some money to repair the roof and maybe a new ceiling,walls and doors and air-condition the whole building to keep the insects out. Pakdokter's partner loved the villa especially the 'bale' located at one end of the property which gave a commanding view of the rice fields and terraces of the area.

from the 'bale' pakdokter imagined 'blogging' into the laptop or just 'snoring'......

The third complex was the one that caught pakdokter's attention. Developed by a Turkish architect, painter and interior designer, the complex consisted of 4 two- and three- bedroom villas on a plot of land 35k square feet in size. Two of the units are a 3-bedroom villa, each of the bedrooms is an independent en-suite structure built around a central swimming pool. The main living and dining quarters are located in another seperate independent strucuture at the top end of the swimming pool. The other two villas are 2-storey structures, one with 2 bed-room the other with 3 bedrooms.

Pakdokter liked the style and design of the villas and, Rosie, the architect-owner, of the property had also furnished and decorated the place herself. In fact some the paintings on the walls were Rosie's own works and the chandeliers were her own designs.

Pakdokter complimented Rosie that she had looked after her villas as well as how pakdokter's partner had looked after pakdokter. Rosie's reply was that she was no longer married so she could fully devote herself to her villas.....

Fancy one of these villas for about USD 500k.........

the lounge at the main living area...

dining and kitchen..

ensuite bedrooms on the perimeter of the central swimming pool..

one of the 3 bedrooms...

the master bedroom..

view from the master bedroom with the main living and dining ot the fore-front..and the 2 other ensuite bedrooms villas on the right side of the pool..

the 2-storey 3 bedroom villa...

from the upper floor of the 2 -storey villa..

paddy fields around the villas...

pakdokter acting like a 'land-lord' already....