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….