点滴记载: EOL of my passport

Time flies, my passport going to be EOL (End of Life) on end of this year. However normally we need to renew it 6 months before the expiry to maintain it's validness right? So, I going to renew it during May or June. Just heard recent few positive experiences from colleagues & friends, immigration department become very efficient on work and normally they manage to renew or issue new passport within few hours only. Sound nice & good compare to few years back which you need to stay there for the one whole day just to wait collect the passport when everything done.

Review back to my current passport, surprisingly there are really a lot of foreign country that I already visited. I didn't expected to visit those country when I got my passport. However, most of it is business trips sponsor by my current company Convergence Networks. So, thanks to all the bosses for being provide me such opportunity (even though some of its are actually working task for me but still I enjoyed it).

In total, I stepped in seven Asian countries (and only Asian). Countries in the list are Singapore, Thailand (Bangkok), Philippines (Manila), Macao, Hong Kong, Indonesia (Bali) & the latest China (Shanghai). For Singapore I been there for eight times, others only once.

Bangkok, Thailand

I been Bangkok on Jan 2011 for business training or more specific Extreme Networks Professional training. Yaw my colleague tag along with me for this trip. Actually we didn't have much time to enjoy as our mission is to pass ENS examination which to fulfill the distributor status of Extreme Networks for my company. We spent nearly one whole week @ Bangkok.

The really first impression for me @ Bangkok when I hang around is the messy cable management for their electrical wire. In Malaysia, hardly you can see the electrical wire hanging around on the street. In Bangkok, the cable is hanging around at the street in city center! Actually, the main issue is there are really a lot of cable hanging on the pole. If I treat the wire as my network diagram, perhaps this is the worst network diagram that I ever saw. For this, I would like to praise TNB Malaysia for their good job hiding the cable in the ground (even I think most probably the wire will messy in the ground as well).

Scenery of cable in city center of Bangkok

When you walk along of Bangkok street, you will be seeing a lot of Japanese car instead of continental car. Honda & Toyota are two major brand that glance through your eye sight. I saw a lot of colourful taxi running around the city area. Wonder how my car look like in fancy pink, blue, yellow or red? Should be interesting right?

Colourful Altis running around Bangkok city ready to service

Besides LRT, Taxi, bus there is one more type of special public transport provide in Bangkok. Guess what? There are a lot of motorcyclist running around the city area and normally they will be waiting at hotspot area like LRT station & bus station to pick up their customer. This kind of public transport normally is for short distant only. I personally witness all the office lady (pretty & nice lo) get up the motorcycle directly without single conversation with the driver. In Malaysia, I cannot imagine what happen when OL get up to some stranger motorcycle. So, from this point of view Bangkok actually should be safer compare to KL.

OL on the stranger motorcyclist

Along the street there are a lot local people setup their food stall. On the way to training center, I saw many people bought their breakfast from the food stall. Personally I feel is not hygiene.

Food stall along the street side

Luckily, I managed to pass my ENS written & labs test. This lab test quite challenging as the time given is very short. If not mistaken is two hour for four scenario based question. Accordingly to trainer Xie Rui from Shanghai, China, even CCIE candidate fail for this certification. However, as long as you pay attention during the class, there will be a lot of hints provided by Xie Rui.

ENS Classroom, nearly a week spent there

Yaw, Xie Rui & Me

Family photo of whole class

Last day of Bangkok trip, we went to China Town. Eventually, this is the place quite similar to our Petaling Street. The only different is China Town Bangkok is much bigger compare to Petaling Street, KL. Variety of wallets, bags, clothes, foods, for your choice. For those girls, I think you will excited to see that.

We are using "Do Do" car to ChinaTown

Bags!

And bags again

ATM inside the market, interesting!

Pearl...

We tasted the burn banana, taste so so only

At same day, we are coming back to Malaysia. There are a lot of people in Bangkok airport. We spent nearly 1 hour plus to clear the custom. Then, we running all the way from custom to flying gates. Luckily, we are not left behind by airplane. Moral of story, make sure you clear the custom first and wait for your fly inside the waiting area to prevent any delay!

Bangkok airport is crowded!

Shanghai, China

Thanks John for this photo

Just two week ago, I been there for HP incentive trip. This is the most far place that I even travel. Thanks to GSLee for giving me this chance to travel there. The very first things I did was to check the weather when Lee offer me the trip. To my surprise, Shanghai still very cold even going to step into spring season. Average temperature is around 3-8 Celsius. Besides, raining season making the situation worst. I felt worry before I went there as I never been to place such cold. My dear prepare all the winter attire and group it nicely to my luggage (Thanks dear!).

Again, I flew to Shanghai by MAS instead of AirAsia. I enjoyed the salt peanuts again and I did bought back some pack for my dear. For those don't know what I say here perhaps you need to follow my old blog on Bali Trip. Before & during the fly I met some new friend (by the way I am the only person join the trip from my company).

When go Beijing you must climb Greatwall, when you come Shanghai you must try their 上海小龙包。As our Mr. tour guide Tony suggest, we went to a famous shop for our first light meal at Shanghai. When we reached the restaurant, there are a lot of people queue up for take away meals. We directly get to the third floor for in house dining. Tour guide assist us to order most of the famous flavor of the 上海小龙包。 There are original flavor, curry flavor, mushroom flavor & crab flavor. After tasting for few flavor, I insist the original flavor is the best. By the way, the curry flavor taste like maggi curry in Malaysia, lol.