God's Own Country.....

15th January 2009

The above is the tagline that the KTDC (Kerala Tourist Development Corporation) and the Kerala Government have chosen for the promotion of Kerala as a tourist destination.

Pakdokter and partner with two other couples who were regular travelling companions in our tours took advantage of the newly launched service by Airasia to this southern India destination. It turned out to be quite a deal actually. Our early bookings managed to secure for us return tickets at just less than RM 800 each compared to the alternative of flying SilkAir via Singapore which would have cost each of us RM2000 or thereabout!

the gang of six who made the 9 day tour of Kerala...

Dr Ahmad Raveendhran, Dr A Haron, Dr S Zaliha, pakdokter,

pakdokter's partner and Sandra Abdullah..

Pakdokter's partner had wanted to go to Kerala for some time already and we had in fact made a booking in early 2009 but had to cancel it at the last minute when the terrorists had launched an attack on Mumbai. We did not want to risk ourselves nor get caught in the inconvenience of having to go through excessive security screenings following the terrorist attack.

Kerala has many things to offer as a tourist destination. It has a long stretch of the Arabian Sea on its western coastline with many lovely resorts. It has great tea plantations and awesome mountains for hiking. The spice plantations and wild parks are equally great attractions and the backwaters provided great cruising opportunities on typical Keralan boats. Not forgetting, Kerala has fantastic cuisines and an equally colourful culture and history.

Kudos to Airasia for reaching out to this destination. Judging from the 80% flight occupancy both ways, Airasia has definitely made another right decision!

Pakdokter will be posting a series of pictorial report on our escapades to Kerala over the next week or so....

the Ramada Resort in Kochi...


the Western Ghats mountains bordering Tamil Nadu..



the tea plantations of Munnar....

the Spice Village in Thekaddy...

the house-boat in the backwaters of Aleppe..

a homestay in the historic town of Fort Kochi...

Kathakali Dance...

a serving of Kerala seafood thali...

5th in the Order of Merit...

Pakdokter played in many of the club's competitions last year and won at least twice. The total accumulated points collected from the 'winnings' as well as points awarded for 'participation' enabled pakdokter to come out fifth in the club's order of merit for 2009!

And for the hardwork, pakdokter was awarded a trophy as well as RM500 worth of Jusco vouchers...

Unfortunately pakdokter's feat was not matched by pakdokter's handicap. Pakdokter's handicap at the beginning of 2010 was 27???

Macam mana ni?.......

To Invest or Not to Invest?......

Pakdokter watched the Investment Guru, Mark Mobius, Chairman of Templeton Investment Management Group, being interviewed on the business channel yesterday. He warned that because markets in most parts of the world have risen substantially last year he expected a correction of up to 20% to take place anytime or sometime in the future.....

Yet he did not believe that the state of the market in China as being in a 'bubble'. His arguments were that when there are still so many people out there with a bearish outlook of the market, the market cannot be in a 'bubble'. Only when everybody talks about the market in bullish tones, would he be worried about a 'bubble situation'. So his advice is that in current times, especially with a low-interest rate situation in almost all markets, one should be invested in equities!.....

Hmmm.....what to do?......

Salmonella and the Ayatollah....

Salmonella Men on Planet Porno.....what a wierd title for a book. But coming from Japan, perhaps this is not that unusual. Pakdokter picked it up late last year and only managed to finish reading it during the year end holidays. What a 'whacko' of a book. Made up of a collection of short stories, they are all 'surreal' in nature. It was like having your nightmares jumping out into reality.

Not the type of book pakdokter would pick up again.

The Ayatollah Begs to Differ gives an inside story of the 'Iran' from a native writer who had direct contact with important people in the country as well as from the man in the street.. The writer's description and discussion about people and life in Iran resembles somewhat of Karim Raslan's writings on Indonesia. An interesting read.

The Year That Was (11)....

2008 was a good year in terms of pakdokter's investment portfolios and pakdokter was lucky in having mostly cashed-out quite timely some time in August of 2008. However as the market crashed in late 2008 into 2009, pakdokter had somewhat re-entered the market rather prematurely and was forced to stay at the side-line for most of the year in 2009 , watching the market initially sliding downwards but started exiting and cashing out again as the market crept up all year while hoping for the 'corrections' that many analysts spoke about.

But the 'corrections' never came.......

Pakdokter can only take comfort in the fact that in the year of 2009 even great guys like Warren Buffet saw his portfolios shrank quite significantly.

Pakdokter's investments in Mutual Funds also took quite a beating! Most of the Funds shrank by between 50% to 30%. Pakdokter could not help but noticed that the many 'so-called' Mutual Fund Consultants who were always calling up in 2008 suddenly all became quiet and disappeared from the scene in 2009. They all seemed to be only 'friendly' during good times but when the market went down they appeared to be afraid to make an appearence. Pakdokter resorted to 'dollar-averaging' throughout the year and thankfully towards the end of 2009 have more or less regained most of the initial investments into these Funds.

The Year That Was.....

Pakdokter received an email from a fellow golfer with his list of resolutions for the new year. How similar that list is to pakdokter's own for the year that was! Unfortunately pakdokter failed to achieve any of the main targeted objectives. Pakdokter's golf handicap, at its best in the middle of 2009, went down to 22, but crept up again to 25 by the end of the year. This task ( of improving and lowering the golf handicap) is not as easy as it seems ( at least, this is true for pakdokter). The picture below taken from the wall in the gents' loo at the Mission Hill Golf Resort in Shenzen, probably best explains pakdokter's predicament!

Pakdokter also failed to reduce pakdokter's weight and waist-line as planned. The good news is that at least these statisitcs stayed where they were as at the beginning of the year. Golf is definitley not an adequate tool in the 'battle of the bulge'. Pakdokter will have to include some workout in the gym this year.

The year that was, fortunately for pakdokter, had been blessed with good health. Scrolling through the blog revealed that pakdokter had actually made so many trips during the year. And the eating and drinking must have been a contributory factor to the failure to reduce the waist-line measurement.

Pakdokter will not add new and unrealsitic objectives for 2010. Suffice to say that the previous list will be maintained with perhaps one addition. Pakdokter would like to go back to re-learning to play the saxophone which pakdokter has put aside for so long. Hopefully this will add music to pakdokter's life this year.....

Happy New Year....

Pakdokter hosted some close friends to usher in the New Year at pakdokter's residence. The children were definitely 'missed'......Rastam had too short a break to come home from Tokyo and Raena went back to Edinburgh to celebrate the Hogmanay and the New Year with her friends.

Pakdokter's regular travel companions, Ravee and Siti and Dollah and Sandra, and long-time friend Imelda, as well as pakRosli who will now be based in Jakarta instead of Dubai this year were our guests.( Linza, pakRosli's partner had to babysit their son, Russo, who unfortunately came down with an exacerbation of the chronic otitis media which the poor boy suffers.....hopes he gets well soon...). Of course, Natasya ( Dollah's daughter) and her partner Neil ( who came down for a holiday from Melbourne) were also in the small party.

pakRosli, Ben Haron and Ravee..


pakRosli, Ben haron, Ravee, Neil..

Imelda, Sandra, Siti (sitting) and Natasya..

Pakdokter's partner had a minor makeover done to the residence with new colours to the wall and mirrors to one side to add depth to the sitting room. Some of her own art-works were also put up on display.

new mirrors on the wall..

'kecak' in oil....

Angkor Wat....in oil...

view of paddy terraces from our 'dream villa' in Bali...

the 'kecak' dancers to the left...

'sakuras' in bloom

spring in Kyoto 2009....

Pakdokter's partner spent the whole afternoon sweating to come out with the Japanese-style salad and the pasta putanesca. We also had a whole roast turkey and a selection of gourmet beef/turkey/lamb sausages for the meaty stuff. The food went down well with a bottle of Jura single-malt, a round of Turkish 'raki', some red and white wines as well as champagne at the strike of the bell and the burst of fireworks across the city skylines.....

'masquerade' 2009....

'the 5 musketeers'

from Class of 77 UM Medical School..

heart surgeon Ben Haron, Pathologist Fred, shrink pakdokter

Ob/Gyn Siti and Internal Physician Ravee...

off with the mask....

a blue and pink New Year cake....

Happy New Year to all........