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....