4a6m....

I had been reluctant to dip into world of android since the system came up few years ago. My first encounter was my brother’s Archos… He had borrowed it to me for taste of it 2 + year ago. A 2.x machine then and I think it is sluggish - even though after flashing and flashing of rom. It was ipad which ruled the world at that time and I felt that it was a screen enlarge ipod touch (We had 2 in the house....).

For quite sometimes, I had stopped my 3G subscription and I had gone trying life without “on the go” with the net for quite sometimes. My last camping trip had “awaken” me from my nightmare – we could only get connected when we are around any 7-11 and everything had to be planned, no more networking anytime any place for info….I had eyed for a device with 3G since then.

I ideal machine was 7' with 3G as I needed it to be compact enough to tug into my sling bag.

I had grabbed the Galaxy 7 with 3G after it launched, a <10k device with low level CPU and screen. I signed up for a “surf to you drop” plan and got the tab for 2k.

When Ving’s handphone failed, the HTCJ had just hit the market and I had gotten one for her….Very handy indeed - large screen with smooth and sleek handling. It amazed me indeed.

2 months ago I got myself a HTConeV. Well, I need a smart phone which can be placed in my pocket at work, 4' is just to big and OneV is just nice to fit in…

1 months ago, I got a 10’ tab2 for Ving’s bible study…..

4 android machine in 6 months…. 1 more to come, Yun’s is asking for a 10' tab and I promised her if I hit big bugs bucks on my bonus – I would get her one with condition of coz…..

Hotel- room for 4

It is quite difficult for a family of 4 nowadays to get a hotel nowadays when you have a budget. During my last tour back to Malaysia, I had met this problem. We had to put up in a hotel most of the time and I had tried some website to secure a room. BOOKING and AGODA is both my major source but Agoda is most of the time cheaper. However most of the hotel room is either for 2 and only 1 additional bed allowed (enabling 3 persons to lodge). My choice would be rooms only as breakfast in Malaysia is too delicious and having a eat all you can continental buffet in the hotel is a waste.

With a budget of RM250/day it would be simple to get a decent room for 2 but for 4, it would be darn difficult. Hotel with room for 4 person cost >R350/night. We had put up in 3 places during our stay:

1.   Kings hotel and apartment – Melaka

2.   Sunway Putra Hotel - KL

3.   Bulan Apartment – Port Dickson

Both the apartment were below average with dirty bed sheet and pillow. All of the rooms were spacious enough for us to manage our luggage though.

A good lesson for me and next time, I would go for hotel instead of apartment and would book a large room for 2, with sofa of coz ->Yuns favorite. Tried to squeeze into a luxury room of 2 and hopefully the management doesn’t find out….

We would be heading to the hot spring (with mud….) area in Tainan County prior to the New year eve. A breakaway before the tedious new year’s shift….I got a room for 6 (4 persons room fully booked). The hotel had a big swimming pool and great spa facilities for the hot spring. Xian had asked for this tour months ago and his dream is finally coming true. It would be a quiet escape to a mountain area…..

We did not travel a lot during my school day; it was quite a memory for me and I still remembered some pearl moment about those travel – the “African fish” in Ipoh, Cameron Highland…. One of my great memories was Ming Court Hotel located around Teluk Kemang, unfortunately it had been abandoned. During this trip back to Malaysia, I brought Yun and Xian to the Batu 8 beach in Port Dickson and took a bath after the wave stroking session at the good old Guan Ming Hostel.

 

Well, wish to travel more with the kids and leave a good memory to them….

don't know what to do。。。。

I had this OHCA(out of hospital cardiac arrest) patient few days ago during my shift. The patient is a case of Diabetes mellitus. He had collapsed suddenly while chatting. The EMT had found him with no sign of life on arrival and he was sent over to us for further management.

It was a peaceful afternoon and I had enjoying a rest after the busy morning. The intubation process was smooth and with the aid of automated CPR machine, it was less tiresome then before. There were this narrow QRS waves mixed intermittently in the CPR wave. I had a hunch that there would be an ROSC(return of spontaneous circulation). I got a carotid pulse 15mins later; as usual, I waited for a good 5 mins before I sent him for imaging. Just about time for the epinephrine effect to wear off and if the patient is unstable, he would go into arrest again. He made it and he was sent for CT and CXR. Although there is a rare chance the brain scan would give a positive findings but the attending staff would like to see it when they saw the patient and I had to complied with the protocol….

The CXR had shown acute pulmonary edema and the probable explanation was acute myocardial infarction with congestive heart failure.

I admitted the patient to ICU and hoping he could make it. Later that night, our night shift staff called me what should he write in the dead certificate and I told him to leave it to the attending cardiologist. Thank god, it would be another staff who sent the patient away. In the past, I would be the same one who resus the patient in ED and the same staff who would pronounce the patient in the ICU. Some of the family would be grateful, some would throw their anger at us complaining that why didn’t referral to a tertiary center is made earlier.

I had read a story about a sophomer of civil engineering in the famous NTU. He had collapsed during a ball game and later sent to the NTU’ hospital. He had later become vegetative and his father a Professor in another University had brought up a suit against the university for not sending his son to another tertiary center which was 150m from the field. He had requested a large sum but his plead was rejected by the court of law. The father had later posted a loot of articles with similar content over many BBS on the net and evoke a so called “XXXXXpa phenomenon” resulting his posting being blocked from many forums over the net.

I could imaging the feeling of such families. During the resus period, the family would beg and plead the medical staff to save their love one; unaware or omitting the fact that the patient might be handicapped mentally or physically for the rest of their life. When the worst (not death of coz…. That would be a relief) case scenario become reality, some families would start to find evidence trying to divert their disappointment and rage toward others and in some of the case, the medical staff is their target…

Unlike other colleague who would do the 30mins routine, I would certified earlier if the pre-hospital session is too long( 30min and above).

There was this TV celebrity in his early forties who had died after a late night drinking spree, according to the news, the ED staff had resuscitated 1+ hours before he was certified, in the past it would be a strenuous process for the medical staff but with the aid of automated CPR machine, it is acceptable. But still I consider prolonged CPR(exclude the extreme such as severe hypothermia) as a waste of medical resources – take millions buck to care for a vegetative cae….

Air Keroh Forest Reserve

I had put up a night in Melaka after the strenous process of passport application. We had stopped at the air keroh forest reserve just after we get off the highway.

The Air Keroh Reserve Forest is a place full of memory for me and Ving. I was in my senior middle three and was semi actively in extra-curriculum activity. I had joined several societies during my high school days and actively involved. However during my senior middle two year, there was this incidence that stumbled my feeling; my brother had secured a 1^st place in the class and I was 11^th . It was really a shank that hit over my head and I decided to pull myself out from all the society’s activities and dipped myself back into the world of study. I had however retained my rank in the St. John Ambulance though. I was a Lance Corporal then, entry level post but it was so precious as our area was very “stingy” about rank and apart from those division officers there were only one handful of NCOs. I was later pop up one grade to full corporal along with my brother(our division was too small to have a sergeant then but still, if our division was large enough, the sergeant would be my brother instead of me.) and took part in the Sin-Mal camp( Singapore Malaysia Combined Camp) held in the newly opened Air Keroh Forest Reserve. Ving and I had familiarized ourselves during the camp and the stories goes on…

I had later revisited the area during my 2^nd year as Medical officer for the kursus induksi umum(general induction course). The course was supposed to be a 3d2n course held in Biro Tata Negara(National Civic Bureau) with bunch of Sergeant/Sergeant Major grade personnel building up our spirit with foot drill and patriotic lecture. However someone in the MOH had decided to tried up a new scheme and our batch was handed over to a motivation company. No foot drill but some outdoor activities plus the patriotic lecture…. We were brought to the Air Keroh Forest reserve and stayed in the chalet(wooden tent on with stilts) for the 3d2n. There was the first time I had a bad asthma attack which I had cough all the way throughout the night. The cough had however become a savior to some of the candidate then. To train our bravery, we were place alone in the dark at around 1-2am in the night for 45 mins during the course. My cough however had made some of the candidate felt safe during the wait as they had the feeling that they are not alone….

The general induction course had however shortened 1.5 days nowadays but still handled by the BTN.

The Air Keroh Forest Reserve had changed its name to Taman Botanic and currently a hot spot for the locals to exercise. It had a jogging/walking path which is few kilometers long. It was getting late in the afternoon, we had rented an electric buggie to rove around. The gathering ground was still there but the chalets were removed. I had shown Yun and Xian around and told them the rotten story of mine in the past during the drive….

It had been > 20 years since our 1^st visit although many had changed but still, the memory remained…..

last ride with the old dog...

I had planned to rent a car during the journey back to Malaysia but later change my mind. I had decided to take my dad’s car and drive around. But the drive around had later expanded to a few hundred kilometer ride around Malaysia.

The car is a little old and out of shape… 10+ years old Sirion. After all those years of tear and wear, the pick out was a little slow and lots of noise here and there… It would be my last ride with it and I had told my dad to sell it on his next trip back… It was a memory to me, I had my first RM100k after my first year of working… My dad was driving a C20 Vanette then, I wired about RM50k to him and told him to pick the car he like… Well, this was his pick.

My dad had a few cars in his days and most of it was used car except his Daihatsu Charade 993cc. It cost about RM13k. On a trip from Ipoh to KL, my dad overtook a sedan car(can’t remember the model) with my brother and me in it with the speed of 140km/h…a memory I can’t forget… the Charade is one of the great car I thought at that time. Fuel efficient and good pickup. My dad sold it for a same price he bought – the Proton was out then and foreign car prize rocked sky high….my dream car at the time was charade turbo and same like me, Yun’s dream car is OPC(whatever version…). A father choice affect his offspring…

My dad chose the Sirion - a small car suitable for 2, (me and brother was studying abroad then)…. He had driven it for years and satisfied with it. During my Medical officer days with the MOH, I had driven it for a few times from Klang to Tg. Malim and the performance was great minus the compact of coz… I was lucky and managed to drive hundreds of kilometer without a breakdown but I think it would be the last long drive for my dad’s Sirion….

It is a pain changing from rt hand to left hand drive, as I had to adjust myself again with the wiper and signal light control when I sat again on the seat of my Fefe. However I had smooth drive back from TY airport to my house. I thank God for granting me a great car… Smooth drive with all of my family sleeping soundly while I fight the sleeping bug along the way with the help of caffeine….

just a little respect .... no excuse...

There was this lady who was at a meeting in a church nearby. She had collapsed and weakness was noted. The church member had rushed her to our setting and my spot diagnosis after initial assessment was intracranial hemorrhage. However her blood pressure was not elevated on presentation and my spot diagnosis was wrong. Her CAT scan was normal and ischemic stroke was impressed. She is definite a candidate for rtPA and luckily our neuro-surgeon was on call. He saw her and the assessment for rtPA was completed within 10 mins. However it took a longer time for the explanation and discussion with the patient for consent.

The family had decided to proceed with the tPA infusion and I had done the preparation job and within 1 hours time, the patient was sent to ICU for further intervention.

30 minutes later, one of the patient’s daughter had come to ED and asked me, “ We were barred outside the ICU and I wanted to know if the tPA had been given ?”

Hearing the question, I was a little irritated. I told her, “ Of course, you are kept outside, we won’t be able to work if all the family flooded the ICU.”

I further told her that, “ of course, we are doing our job and we treat our patient as a human being and not stock on the production line. We would grieve and felt sad if our patient had complication due to our negligence. The question you raise had insulted our attitude toward our job…”

I looked her in the eyes and reassured her that we would do what ever is needed…..

Well, I had to tolerate such rude family….

Pre-CNY.....

 Chinese new year is just around the corner, Lem had taken his usual annual leave and we had to covered the ED shift with 2 person. There are several ways to round up the shift. 24 or 12-12. However K was reluctant to the 24-24 and wanted to start work by 2pm and go off by 12 noon to the next day. Well, have to bite teeth and do the calls. I am not worried about the length but the drive home was the crucial one.

An extra 50 hrs of work is expected next months…. Usually, it would be a deduction of salary usually as Feb. had 28 days only. However this year, with no locumer to aid our shift, we are on our own. This months with the 8 days I had taken for my passport event, I still make 180 hrs…I had arranged a work roster of working 5-6 days and off for 2 days. Not reasonable but acceptable… I had arranged a 2 days off prior to the long Chinese new year. We are going to the famous GZR hot spring. There is this 3 star hotel with great hot spring facilities…

Hope we had a good bonus this year…. Just hope….

Lost of Malaysian passport - the post mortem

I was called on Wednesday morning by the lady officer that my passport was readied. I proceeded to the bank as planned and went to Putrajaya in the afternoon. The lady officer took my letter and processed my application on the spot. I had my passport within 20 minutes. I was surprised as my emergency certificate was returned to me with my new passport.

It was a good experience for me and I decided to record it to facilitate anyone who had lost their passport overseas.

I am lucky though and when I recalled the whole event, I found that there is something fishy going on when I was rejected with my application in the presint 15. Should I have left the department and tried my luck asking around, I might ended up paying some “black bean water” money of thousand to some “agent”.

Is the Malaysian passport so worthy as it is in the past ? I have doubt in this statement as the Malaysian Passport come with a chip. The chip contained information and photo which is readable. One can altered the info page however it is difficult to alter the info in the chip. Thus leaving the Machine readable passport of Malaysia worthless, as the info in the page and chip does not match after the alteration. However the non-MRP passport issued in some of the embassy for renewal might still worth a fortune as it contained no chip. Just my personal view….

There were some crucial points for a replacement of passport lost in foreign country:

Ø       Your status is important -

n       if you are a visitor with no overstay record, you are good

n       if you overstay, you would be investigated and would have problem getting your new passport

n       if you are resident overseas, make sure you had sufficient document to verified your status, apart from the report from the embassy, you would need your PR card, working permit or whatever document. You would have to make sure it is in English, if not, get a translate and verified it ( no standard procedure, in Taiwan, the translate would have to be certified by a notary and further verified by the Foreign Ministry).

n       If you have dual citizenship – then forget about the Malaysian passport…. You would get into trouble when you applied for it as the immigration department would want to see your resident certificate which you don’t have.

Ø       Report to the local authority(police / immigration) -> preferably the report is in English. In Taiwan, you would have to report to the immigration department and if there is case of theft, you would also need to get a police report(in English or get a translate later)

Ø       Get a entry and exit record from the immigration of your lost passport if you can.

ØPrepare your air ticket before you go to the embassy/rep office. No air ticket = no emergency certificate

ØPhotocopy x2 per document before you hit any office

Ø       When you reach Malaysia immigration -> you would be referred to the office, and if you are good – you would have your emergency certificate back and directed to any branch as you wish.

Ø       Unless you have some hanky panky stuff going on -> you don’t need to go any back door…

Ø       Scan you passport / photocopy you passport- cover, page with your photo, relevant visa and the last page… if you could scan it into pdf then save it in the cloud…

Ø       Get supporting letter from your school, boss that state your position/post and note that if you are urgently needed back to your post/position.

Ø       Set a date with a window of 5 working days at least, preferably with no public holiday in between.

Ø       Skip school holiday… you would be stranded in the crowd

Ø       Get a flight which can change its date easily with the lowest cost. You never know what is waiting for you.

Ø       Log onto the imi website and check if you are blacklisted before you go back.

 I am lucky man with the grace of the LORD....

It is expensive route for a foreign resident to lost a passport – I had traveled thousands of kilometer of land ,sea to have my passport replaced and it is hell of an experience....

satey celup revisited

I had been a fan of Satey celup since Lem introduced it to me 10+ years ago. The “Si Hamp” (clamps) is my favorite. I had tried both the famous shops -> Ban Lee Siang and Capitol. If possible I would drop in one of the shops during my stay in Melaka.

Both the shop is equally crowded and the Capitol shop was smaller and waiting time is much longer. Our last visit was to the Ban Lee Xiang store and the source was so spicy that Xian refused to eat it and Yun -the chilli apprentice then could barely taste it. This time, we tried our luck at the Capitol.

The shop was as crowded as it was in the past. Road side parking was available and we managed to find a place just opposite the shop.

We were lucky as there was a vacant table on our arrival. We took our seat and started the rounds.

Compare to BLS, the variety of food in Capitol is less. However the sauce was less spicy. The worker was kind enough to provide with a bowl of hot water for the children to dilute the sauce – make it less spicy.

Yun had tried out the clamp and was able to accept the taste, however Xian was still resisting it.

Comparison of both shop:

	Capitol	BLS
Sauce	Thick , less spicy	Less thicker, spicy
Food variety	Less selection, but boss would come up with his special pick of seafood later …	More selection, no “specials”
Price	90 cents/pc	?60cents/pc

If you have kids, Capitol is your choice….

Lost of Malaysian Passport - The unexpected....

I didn’t bother to get to Putrajaya early in the morning as I had to get a commissioner of oath to sign my declaration. I glanced through the net and find there is this service provided at the Justice Palace and the service is only available at 8:30am.

We woke up at 7 and took our breakfast at one of the coffee shop at Lukut. We reached Putrajaya at about 8:45am and I was the only one to enter the Palace as the kids were barred from entering the Palace because of wearing shorts. It is truly an amazing building and I got by my declaration signed and chopped after 10 mins.

We took a drive to Chancery place at presint 15. The parking lot was not crowded and I had sensed that it would not be crowded. While walking to the main office, there was this room along the corridor with a signboard of lost passport. I walk into the spacious room with a counter. It was a spacious room with several cubicle at one corner with tables. There were 2 officers in it, and elderly one and a young one. The young one attended to me. I noticed that he had were a white uniform with no strips/pip over his shoulder, his inner collar was black in color. He took my emergency certificate and walk toward the senior officer. He make a call and came to me and ask me to sit and wait while he get approval to proceed with my case.

There were several peoples who came for their lost passport. I glanced through the notice board and notice the below facts:

1.   1^st time lost of passport, the validity of new passport would be 5 years

2.   2^nd time lost of passport, the validity of new passport would be 3 years

3.   3^rd time lost of passport and the decision of issuing a new passport would be at the jurisdiction of the director general.

After a 15 mins wait, the junior officer came to me and told me a stunning news – we can not process your application here, your letter/report from the embassy had not arrive yet in Malaysia. I regained my conscious within seconds and told him that I had applied my emergency certificate 1 month ago and the report should have arrived. I asked him what report?. The junior officer had flipped to the page which title as “perhatian” (observation) in the emergency certificate and pointed to the reference no which contained TPE. The ref. no was a report supposed to be sent by the Taipei representative office to the immigration department.

I showed him the NIA report and he told me he just can’t process the passport for me as the HQ did not receive my report and they had no idea of what was going on with my passport. He told me to wait longer and called up few weeks later to see if the report had arrived. It was a totally different story from what I read and what I was told by the 3 calls which I made to the immigration department earlier. I asked him if I could go to the HQ and tried my luck and he said yes and I may appeal to the HQ.

Walking to the car with Ving and the kids, I was a little bit confuse and I prayed that I could get to the HQ in time as it was almost 11am.

There was a large crowd at the immigration HQ as the application for foreign worker was situated there. When I reach the Passport and Security Department, I saw a number dispatching machine which had no option for my problem. So I proceeded to ask one of the officers. An officer in coats with no rank noted came and attended to me. He told me that he had noted my case and they could do nothing as the report from the Taipei office had not arrived yet. Another officer with 3 pips joined him and told me to wait and called up later. I looked at the clock and it was 11:30am and while pleading the officer to help me, I told myself that if I walked out from the office 5 minutes later without anyone accepting my case, I am heading toward Wisma Putra(Ministry of Foreign Affair) and I would get the report myself and find out the culprit behind the delay….

After going through my emergency certificate, the officer told me to wait and he walked into a room.

Minutes later, a lady officer (white uniform with no rank) came out. While flipping my emergency certificate, she had asked me while I didn’t come with the report from Taipei. And then she grumbled that the officers at the LCCT should have given me a report. She asked me if I had shown my NIA report at the presint 2 office. I told her yes and she dare me that not to lie to her. I told her that why should I lied, the officer at the branch does not want to process my application and didn’t want to see my document when I offered to him. I showed her what I had and told her that I am a permanent resident in Taiwan with a job. She asked me how I lost it and I told her that in the house, she told me – oh simple case, misplace only….

I then show her all the documents I had and her attitude changes and told me that she does not promise anything but she would tried to get my passport readied by Friday as stated in the client charter.

I was so relief when she accepted my application. She told me to wait for while she processed my application. After 10min, the lady officer came out and I thought she is going to ask me in for an interview but she didn’t! She asked for my contact no and she passed me a letter and told me once the investigation is completed she would call me….

I praised the LORD when I walked out from the building… Finally it is over – even though it did not happen as what I had expected…I was not in good condition to figure out what had happened as I was too tire and sleepy (poor sleep ...), but later I got my answer and everything seems reasonable....

We proceeded to the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara and proceeded with the change of Mykads. Xian got his Mykid and we had our lunch at 2pm at the 1F of Immigration HQ. The food at the Mamak store taste good and 4 of us had walloped 1 nasi briyani ayam, 1 mee goring, 4 maggi mee goring, 2 roti canai and 2 roti telur.

We decided to take a ride down to Melaka as planned at 3:30pm….

Lost of Malaysian Passport - the flight back home

I did a alternate day calls and finally the day come…

I had planned to return to Malaysia alone as I am afraid that the application might take more than 5 days… With 3 more passengers traveling with me; the price of changing the flight date would be considerably high and risky. However as day are closer, I had confident that I would get my passport in time. I considered more on taking the family with me; Yun had to report for her mykad as she is due 3 months ago. The next consideration was their exam. Their final would be due in 2 weeks time but fortunately, their teacher had covered most of the textbook 1 weeks prior to the exam.

So I prayed and felt comfortable with my decision and did a final discussion with them. Ving was overjoyed and the kids were reluctant initially but later gladly took the challenge.

I had another booking made 1 week prior to the flight.

I did a check every 1-2 days regarding the application. I had prepared 2 forms of IM42c(the borang selidik[investigation form]). The space was darn small and I had to write it with a 0.3 ball pen.

And finally, we headed to north at 7:30am, hoping to reach TaoYuan International Airport( I like the name CKS more, however half of the local despise it…). The distance was 375km by the No3. Highway. Even though one can shorten the distance by 30km with the No1. Highway, It is more packed and stressfully driving on it. We did 2 stops over the rest area( 1 for ETC ->etag conversion, and the other for nature call). We managed to get the car park at 1:20pm. There was a long queue at the check in counter. However the baggage drop counter was shorter and faster. I had decided to pay up an extra of RM160 for seat selection so that we can sit together. My favorite pick was row no42 and below as the configuration of seat was 2-3-2 instead of 3-3-3. The kiddo could take the window seat and Ving and I can enjoy sometime of our own…

It took us 10 mins for the queue and by 2, we were at the B1 enjoying our lunch…

The boarding time was earlier than expected but due to the typhoon leading to a new flight plan submission, our take off was delayed for 30mins.

I had hit dream land while waiting at the runaway.

The flight was not uneventful…. About 40 mins before the landing, there was this announcement calling for medical personnel on board. I did not pay attention to the whole announcement but still I told Ving that my service might be needed. I proceeded to the front compartment and identified myself. I was asked to show my ID and I showed my Taiwan medical personnel card which had no photo. While I recalled that I had this emergency certificate with my photo and occupation stated as “Doktor” on it, the flight steward had shown me to this middle-aged male who had urinary retention problem. I completed the consultation and went back to my seat. I noticed the look from other passengers on my way back. What I shame, I should have shown the emergency certificate instead of the card and this only official document from the government which stated that I am a “doctor” will be returned to the immigration in 2 days time… but again , I am wrong…. I was rewarded with a mineral water from the steward after I filled up the medical consultation from of Airasia, it is an experience of a life time a physician could get….

The flight arrived 50 mins later due to the detour. I told Ving and the kids to proceed to the baggage claim as I knew I would be referred to the office.

As I had expected, the counter officer and ask me to go to the office, an officer had chatted with me while another enter my data into the computer. The officer saw my date of exit from Malaysia and asked me if I had a working permit. I said that I am a permanent resident there and no working permit needed, I had also shown them my APRC card which had no expire date. They returned the emergency certificate to me and told me to proceed with my application in any immigration as I wish. This is a crucial point during the application, I presumed if I had illegally stay in a foreign country, my emergency certificate will be kept and a letter would be given to me referring me to the putrajaya HQ and in such condition, I would not be issued a passport for quite sometimes. The process took about 15 minutes and when I went out the office, the long queue of the 300+ passengers was no where seen, good efficient of the immigration department and the credit go to the modernized autogate and electronic gadgets….

I rejoined Ving and the kids at the baggage claim and proceeded to the Tune talk counter where I claimed by tune talk sim card.

After the strenuous process, everyone was hungry and we had a good supper at the Old town coffee. As delicious as in the past but later I regretted that I took the tea ais as the caffeine in the thick tea had granted me a poor sleep that night.

We had 2 big luggage and I knew an econ taxi would not satisfy our need. I paid up for a premier one – it was a Hyundai sonota(old generation ) and the ride was comfortable.

After years of chatting with those pro-opposition, I finally met some one who is pro-BN – the driver was a young Malay chap. His reason of proBN was afraid of riot and chaos….

My uncle and aunty greeted me later in their house at the outskirt of Port Dickson. A comfortable semi-detach single storey corner house which was bought RM90k many years ago. My uncle is a computer science grad from UK (mathematic science grad to be exact according to his degree, I had a glance of the degree many years ago) who had worked with Union Carbide. He was master of a computer system of the international company at that time. He had traveled to various branches of the company teaching others to use it around the world and later was retrenched as the company had phased out that computer system. He however was rewarded handsomely and with the land inherited from my grand parents, he enjoyed a good retire life at the moment… He and his wife had taken care of my granny till her last day and the house had been a gathering place for my relatives for a long time. My parents had mostly stayed in their house during their visit back to Malaysia. My dad had kept his old Sirion there. I had put out a night there and would be using the Sirion around during my stay….

The night was restless with the effect from the tea ais I had earlier at the LCCT. I prayed during the period and seeking for further protection and gift from the Great LORD himself after all those gift he had granted to me today – a smooth drive, good ride, medical consultation in the air, great food and much more…..

Lost of Malaysian Passport - the preparation and the run

The travelling to Malaysia Friendship and Trade Center is tiring as I had my appointment on Tuesday morning. I had to get off of my shift 1 hour earlier at 7am and pickup Ving. I managed to get to HSR station before 9am and caught the train in time. The ride was smooth and I managed to meet Mr Z by 10:30am.

A middle-aged Malay uncle, friendly and helpful, he helped me with the filling of the investigation form. Even though I had forgotten to bring my copy of air ticket but he was kindly enough to let me faxed to him later. There were 2 things which he needed to confirmed

1. my flight is straight back to Malaysia and not through Singapore. Back in my college days, there was this flight offered by Union Airlines which flight from the States -> Taipei ->Singapore with a very low fare. I had never taken the flight as it was in-convenient to me those days as I had to take a bus up to Taipei and the flight reached Changi at around 4am. I had to wait and take a bus/train back to KUL, wasting of 4 days for travelling.

2.My flight is within 6 months. As the validity of the certificate is 6 months.

 

Well, I would have to travel to Taipei again in 2 weeks time to pick up my certificate.

The next mission would be verification and certification of the 2 NIA report(lost of passport/ entry and exit certificate). I would have to go to the court to find a public notary to verify it and later proceed to the local foreign ministry southern division in Kaohsiung for the certification.

 

Rest of the process of uneventful and I had my emergency certificate pick up 2 weeks later.

Everything seems set but still I glanced through the net every few days by googling keywords such as “hilang pasport” , “lost of Malaysian passport”….

Most of the thread of blogging regarding of lost of Malaysian Passport was quite old and nothing much for reference.

However this blog :

http://kalmjenn.blogspot.tw/2012/01/passport-in-malaysia-may-2011.html

did provided with me with some extra information. The Putrajaya HQ would be my last resort if everything fail…

Even though I had goolged madly over the net but still I am feeling un-easy about what I am going through.

I had called up the main line 03 -80008000 and I was patched through a rude officer which told me,” you datang dan saya akan ajar you macam mana nak buat”(you come and I would tell you what to do)… a typical prologue of cat and mouse game and I bet he would tell me do one thing at a time – first filled up the form than go to the counter, he would ask me to find a commissioner of oath for sumpah(taking oath of my statement) and go out again for photocopy and come back tomorrow for the interview. A very bad start for me… 2 days later I called up the Putrajaya immigration office in HQ passport and security division, a young chap answered my phone. Although he had to frequently referred to his senior regarding my questions, he had answered my question sincerely and in detail. He had told me that I could come over to Putrajaya HQ and they could process the passport for me, although in most of the time, Putrajaya HQ doesn’t issued any passport.

I was too anxious about what I had read and told and I called up the 3^rd time to the Presint 15 office and this time a female officer told me clearly –

1. if the immigration at LCCT took my emergency certificate, they would give me a letter and referred me to the Putrajaya HQ.

2. if the emergency certificate is returned to me at the immigration of LCCT, I should go to any branches of immigration.

I would prefer the Putrajaya HQ as it shouldn’t be as packed as the Presint 15 in my opinion but still, I am in no position to told the immigration officer what to do….

However I was wrong and wrong; I was caught by surprise with a condition that I had never read from the net nor told by anyone…..

the search...

I started my search from the immigration website…

 

http://www.imi.gov.my/index.php/en/main-services/pasport/malaysian-international-passport

It was a stunning one, according to the web page:

“An application for replacement of lost passport should be sent to the Immigration Department of Malaysia Headquarters, Putrajaya Malaysia for decision-making/processing which will take approximately 3-4 months.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 04 April 2012 02:54

 

My heart had dropped to the bottom of hell when I read this information. However there were several threads in the CARI forum and the time of waiting was one month to one week. I called up the Malaysia Friendship and Trade Centre Visa division the next day(Monday). A local staff had read through a list of document I needed to prepare before I head to the centre for a emergency certificate. I had asked her about the detail and she had referred me to an official. The official I spoken to was Mr Z and he had told me that the passport would be issued in 1 week time according to his past knowledge. I told him about what I read over the net and he promised that he would call up and give me a definite answer later in the afternoon.

As this was not a theft incident (nothing was lost and I had no further evidence that suggest it was so), I had to report it to the National Immigration Agency (it is considered as a enforcer branch here in Taiwan Though) instead of the police department.

I took a drive to the nearest immigration department and reported the incidence. A report was issued and I went home.

Later in the evening, Mr Z called me again and he told me that it would be 5 days for a replacement to be issued according the immigration department. I did a search again in Malay and found that what Mr Z said was true.

The counterpart webpage in Malay of the

http://www.imi.gov.my/index.php/ms/perkhidmatan-utama/pasport/pasport-malaysia-antarabangsa

had stated

“Kelulusan permohonan gantian Pasport yang telah rosak bergantung kepada keputusan Ketua Pengarah Imigresen dan tempoh keputusan siasatan dimaklumkan dalam tempoh lima(5) hari dari tarikh permohonan diterima”

 

Finally a light for me but still, I had still a long long way to travel.

During my further search later that night I found that for the report to be usable back in Malaysia. It had to be certified by a public notary here and verified by the consular division of Foreign Ministry here in Taiwan. And if the report in not in English or Malay, I had to translate it to enable it to be used in Malaysia.

This is one of the useful webpage.

http://myng-life-explorer.blogspot.tw/2011/09/blog-post.html

The blogger and lost his passport 6 years ago here in Taiwan and he had recorded what he had done for replacement. There is something different with his story than mine. His passport is stolen and mine is not.

I looked at the report issued by the NIA and found that it was in dual language and I could request the report written in English if I want.

So I called up the NIA the next day and the assistant officer had told me that if I could provide the English translation she could write the English version for me.

I headed to the immigration branch again with my english version of the report and got my official report in English. I had also applied for an entry and exit record as requested by Mr Z. According to the list :

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=%E8%AD%B7%E7%85%A7%E9%81%BA%E5%A4%B1+kln&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kln.gov.my%2Fc%2Fdocument_library%2Fget_file%3Fp_l_id%3D247969%26folderId%3D509042%26name%3DDLFE-5910.doc&ei=rh7yUJmvG8GLkwWYpoHIAQ&usg=AFQjCNGlJJ56wZB--uB_awWCwjnZYMW8kQ

the exit and entry certificate is only needed for those non-resident, however later it proved to be useful when I went back to Malaysia.

The next stop was to head north to Taipei to apply for a emergency certificate to go back to Malaysia.

However before the journey to the Malaysia Friendship and Trade Center r, I had to decide when is the best date to go back.

I had to presume that it would take 5 days to get my passport. However due to shortage of manpower in ED, my leave should be as short as possible.

Going back ASAP in December is definitely not an option as the flight ticket is darn expensive and the immigration would be packed like sardine can due to school holiday.

Out of the 4 weeks in January 2013, the last 2 weeks have a holiday during the week day(24^th, 28^th. Jan). I would have to leave of 8-9 days instead of 6-7 days.

After discussion and praying, I had decided to fixed the date on 6^th Jan to fly back to the home land….

dxxp sxxt in , I am....

There was this incident which disturbed my life lately and I had named it the LOSH incident. However apart from the incident, I had met a major event in my life for the past 2 months… I had lost my passport… Yeap…

Since my college days, lots of people had told me that the Malaysia Passport is a very valuable document which could be sold at RM40-80k in the black market. The process of keeping it safe was strenuous as we had to stay in hostel sharing a room with 2-4 room mates with uncountable visit from their classmate and friends. However I did survive the hardship of keeping it safe. My 1^st international passport was the old type which could be renewed once thus extending it validity to 10 years. The one and only way to kept it was to lock it in the closet of the bedroom. I had been practicing it for years and there is no place safer than the closet in the own bedroom of own house.

At the end of November, while I was preparing a trip to Hong Kong with my family, I had discovered that my passport was not in the closet. Everything was there (the rest of the 3 passports and money)… I had a good and thorough search throughout the house and finally I cancelled the flight and trip. I had done 2 more searches through out the house just in case I had misplaced it elsewhere. The result was a frustrating one and I decided to give it up after 2 days of search. I needed a replacement and I knew the process will be an agony.

I knew that basic drill – report to the representative of Malaysia here in Taiwan and get a document back to Malaysia to get a replacement since there is no embassy here to issue a replacement…

It all started with search over the internet and I had a few sleepless nights since then….

shortage of staff...

It was a disturbing past few months, an incident had occurred and I had to stop blogging…. The incident is still going on but I decided to normalize my life and carry on.

The shift was well until recent 1 month when the management had decided to stop the out patient clinic on Saturday. The move is expected as the attending physician/surgeon is currently covering the ward duty since 2 months ago. The reduction of Saturday night general clinic would pacify them a little. However K was irritated by the move as he is currently covering all the Saturday calls. He had reacted aggressively by asking the management to adjust the duty to 8-8 (12 hrs shift x 2) instead of our current 8-6-8(day shift 10, night shift 14) or he would resign. His actual pledge was to reinstate the Sat night general clinic but it would be impossible. After some discussion with Lem and I, the management had finally make way by asking the Sat ward night shift attending physician/surgeon to assist in the ED. K was pacify and thus our life move on…

But still, it is a very grave condition as 3 of our senior ED staff nurses is resigning and to facilitate the flow of ED flow, the senior nurses is the most crucial factor. We are preparing to take a hit as new year is coming….