GE15 ..... no looking back

 

My anxiety increased after I sent out my ballot. I had glancing through the net trying to find any trace that would suggest and turnover. I was disappointed though as without support from the eastern bloc, no miracle could happen.

I clearly understood that if the religious gang remained at the seat in the parliament; the condition would be worsened.

I was working on the day of vote casting. I had switched to astro awani channel on the net and Malaysia Chinese News channel for a precast speculation.

The info I received was stunning as most of the commenter had claimed that Malay folks had switched their support to the moon/become-one pact as the bribery issues torched the arena.

I was disturbed the whole day and the vote count was not even half way when I drove home.

I slept late even though I knew that DSAI would not make the cut but yet I still cross my finger hoping for a miracle.

I woke up after few hours of sleep; hung parliament as expected.

The next few days are games of poker with bluffing and calling out for support.

Twisted view of how to form a parliament were presented over the media but politicians and experts. I still remembered the book written by Lord Jeffrey Archer, “First among equals”. It briefly described how the parliament would be formed after an election.

The status declaration was actually not the key for party’s leaders as proof of having enough support. However those backdoor walkers had tried to hypnotized the public about the SD myth since the triumph by Sheraton’s move.

The formation of government is something between the YDPA and various party leaders. Party/coalition with the most member of parliament electees will be consulted first and given a reasonable period to form the government. If the leader could not form the government by the period thence the leader with 2^nd most electees will be consulted and so on.

However those leaders from the religious/become-one pact had under estimated the wisdom of our ruler persistently trying to spread the news that they had enough SD as proof of support.

After 1+ weeks of struggle, a unity government was formed. The Brits had really done a good job of leaving back a good system. Every key component had acted accordingly and the name of back door had vanished and hopefully not heard again for a very long time….

It took another week for the cabinet to be formed and yet some supporter had expressed disappointment about the list as it was not distributed according to the ratio of MP.

I would praise the leaders of DSAI pact that they had done it beautifully generating the list. Attack from the racist bloc was fenced off with the rocket faction making way as a strategic retreat.

As I watched DSAI sworn in from the TV live; a thrill had flown through my nerve. I was excited and finally we got a chance to move forward. A small step at the moment but hopefully the path to my retirement in the homeland could be paved bit by bit in the future.

 

 

GE15 - the begining

 

The bolehland was having a rough ride after GE14. I was quite upset the result of the Sheraton move. I hate to see good fella leaving some crucial spot. However nothing could be done as everything was lost.

Those ministers from the religious based pact had expressed their point of views which were unacceptable from the point of view of human right and gender equality. I was hoping thing would change during GE15. However DSAI’s faction had slowly dissolved bit by bit as time passed. The result of by-election and early election of southern states had made me more worried. The chances of DSAI to gain control had faded and I was not optimistic about the final outcome of GE15.

Traitors and jokers were those figures that I wished to see their fall.

I had opted for oversea voting as I had not fixed my date for my home going plan when the rumor of parliament dissolution spread over the media.

We had four votes in the family as the age for voting was lowered. I did the application for four of us and hoping that we would get the ballot paper in time for GE15. The approval came shortly and all I could do was wait for the date.

When the date was declared and detail of oversea voting came out; my anxiety increased day by day. Over the chat group, some fellow Malaysian had gotten their ballot paper and there were no a single trace of our mail.

Finally the fedex envelops came and only 4 days left for me to return it to the office. No way to get it in time even if we sent it via courier.

However there were dedicated Malaysians in Taiwan who had coordinated a great project to get those oversea ballots to the proper offices in time. Collecting point was set up and all we need to do is to hand over our sealed envelope at the relevant spot. A network was established; volunteers would relay our ballot from the local pick up spot to the airport in Taiwan. Those home going Malaysians would spare their luggage capacity for those ballot. On arrival in Malaysia, more volunteers would dispatch the papers to the local office.

I was post call on the day of handing in my papers. I drove home after my shift, take a good shower and left our house with Ving. I called up the volunteer when I arrived in K City. The pickup point was in front of a tall business building. It was difficult to find a car park and I had walked 1km to the pick-up point. I called the fellow Malaysian and he had shown up minutes later. The handing over process was done in detail with proper signature. After the completion of the handover, I show my fist and told the fellow Malaysian, “lets drag them down” and he returned a grin….

I handed over 5 papers and please don’t ask me how those envelops were sealed….

I told Ving that we had done our part and the fate of our homeland would be decide by all other our fellow Malaysian...

I enjoyed a good hong kong styled lunch and headed back home for a good nap before my night shift that day….

home going- final leg

 

The next day was a thrilling one, as we had planned a tour up north to visit some of my aunts. It had been 3 years since my parents visited their relatives and some of them had been not well since the covid.

We had a good dim sum meal and started the journey. I had driven the Sorento in the past and it had similar setting like the fefe I had currently. Well, something was not right when I drove out from the petrol station. The steering could not be fluently steered. Definitely something wrong with the power steering, my heart sunk but yet I could live with it, I had read about power steering failure which leading to heavy steering during drive and it seems like a kacang puteh in my currently situation.

All I could do was prayed, hoping I could complete the journey of 700km….Long way to go and yet I still felt piece.

We had reached Malacca after 2 hours drive with 2 stops for refreshment. We met with aunt(mother’s side) and her family. I had a good chat with my cousins and exchanged our view about the bolehland. 2 weeks to go before GE15, the discussion was pessimistic as it would be a great challenge for DSAI's pact to have enough seats to command the parliament. We left Malacca after lunch and reached Seremban at 4+pm.

I had dropped my parents at the hotel’s lobby and proceeded to the basement for parking. The orange 4wd light was lit on when I parked the car. A green 4wd symbol will lit on when the 4wd mode was engaged but the orange light means trouble.

Double jeopardy !, I yelled to myself. Now I had two problems to worry about. Could I complete the left over 500+km or should I turn back. Turning back means I had to leave Ving at her house and met her at the KLIA on the day of return flight. Proceeding means I had to tolerate the thrill of facing major problem of the car the whole journey.

I was too tired to think more and dipped into the bed for a short nap after a good hot bath.

I woke up 1 hour later and gone to the famous baked crab shop at the Seremban Seafood Village for dinner.  

The orange 4wd light was on again as I driven out the car from the basement. I called up my Hyundai mechanic at K city during the dinner with my parents. My mechanic told me that it should be fine if the drive is smooth. The light is most probably due to differential lock malfunction which means the car lost its AWD mode and driving in 2WD only. It was a relief when I change to the output distributing page while driving. Indeed, the page had shown that power is only limited to the front wheel only.  

The crab was tasty but not my cuppa of tea; the sauce was not sweetened like the one we had at the Seremban Siew Pao restaurant. I slept early that night despite of the anxiety regarding the drive. I had to surrender everything to the great one as the rest of the 500+km lies at his mercy…

We woke up early the next day and had our dinner at a shop nearby. I had dried pork noodle and pao which were deliciously made. We visited my elder aunty and later proceeded to KL for another night stay.

Despite the disturbing orange light and steering, the drive was smooth. We spent a day in KL and I had wandered around the Pearl Point that afternoon. It had been a long time ago, when three of us (my cousin, my bro and I) roved around that area. We were high school student then. My cousin who was same age as us was not very good at study and took up a job as electrician after high school. He never got married and stayed with my aunt. He had always been an optimistic person. He had suffered from an bike accident few years ago and had recovered fully after months of using crutches. We had a good chat that night, a simple life he had led and may grace be with him always…

We proceeded to Setia alam to pick up Ving the next day. It would be the final day for us and we would be travelling back to Taiwan the next day. After the unsatisfying crab meal, we headed again to the Seremban Siew Pao city restaurant for another trial of crab dish. It was as cheap as it was and delicious.

The journey back to Kulai was uneventful and we had made stop at the R&R and bought some Malay biscuit.

I had only told my parents during our dinner back in Kulai about the car condition. They were shattered but nothing to shout about as I had completed the amazing journey with grace. The visits to our relatives was priceless, I was the messenger as assigned….

We had a good night sleep and boarded the flight back to KL operated by MAS. It was a smooth flight and we had stopped again at the old town café at KLIA for the final meal before boarding again.

It was another perilous journey which was completed by passing so many obstacles. Everything had to be in order and no mistake was allowed. The planning stage and the execution stage was not flawless; with hiccup, I was able to retreat in one piece and I had to admit that the walk with the Great one was truly amazing…..

Home going - arriving home

 

After reaching my in law’ house, I had proceeded with the sim card installation. You just can’t leave home without any connection nowadays. Well, it took me awhile to finalized the setting as the scanning via OUR phones (yes…all the phones available in the house) were not successful.We hit the road at 5pm and reaching Subang airport at 6pm. It was a slow drive as we got trapped in the rush hour array. I was grateful with my bro in law that taken his time to sent my there.

Subang airport was one of the memorable places for me. It was the main hub for travelling since my college days. I had remembered the drive to the airport. I had always felt sorrow on the way to the terminal as I need to leave my love one behind during those days.

Well, the Subang airport had transformed into a domestic airport. Rumors had said that double A had tried to take over the terminal as it home base but was rejected by the government. Subang airport is located just outskirt of the capital; one could consider it as one of the most convenient airport. It is currently flown by MAS owned firefly and a few flight companies operating domestic flight.

The flight to choose from was limited and I had to settle for the flight at 8pm. The arrangement had allowed me to enjoy a dinner at the food court. I was not sure about the info over the net but yet I had laid my eye on Malay food. Nothing comparable to a good spicy Malay dish followed by a desert as finish. I found the shop Kopitiam after a short tour around the terminal. I joined the queue line to order food. Two Malay ladies had ordered nasi goreng plus a ABC kurang manis. ABC kurang manis; first time ever I had heard such ordering.

Well, without hesitation, I had ordered a mee goreng mamak and ABC kurang manis. I was served in a short while and the mee goreng was a thumb up and the ABC kurang manis was as sweat as I could tolerate. Well, imaging how my sugar level would rise if I had ordered a normal ABC.

After 3 years, I finally had a classic malay meal....I grinned while looking at the empty plate and bowl; I am finally back to homeland…..

The flight was slightly delayed to make way for a newly form airline. Not sure if the airline had pulled string to get this kinda of advantage. I boarded the flight as planned and reached Senai airport as planned. The airport was not crowded and I found my way to the taxi stand without difficulty. I was greeted by my parents at the gate. It had been three years since I saw them….

They had prepared a load of night market food for me as supper. I had shared part of my food with my bro’s newly adopted pet dog.

I did not slept early that night as I had a in depth discussion with my younger niece; from computer to novel and loads of topic. Discussion about THREE BODY with a standard six kids ? Well, both of us had exchange our view and broaden our imagination….

home going - D day...

It was all set to go by October. I had finalized everything; flight and hotel were properly booked but still, no peace of mind had I.

It was a long streak of shift before the start of journey. I had a run of 4 day shifts in a row. On the D day, I was exhausted and decided to ask for an early leave of 1 hour. K gladly complied and I reached home by 8pm. I took a small nap and awaken by 9:30pm. The push off was delayed as we had to return to the house to pickup Ving’s credit card.

We officially hit the road by 11pm. It was 360+km after all; we could reach the airport easily within 5hours. I drove in a relax manner; cruising at 110km. We reached Clearwater R&R by 2:30am and took a short nap before we resumed the journey.

Ving had hit dreamland during the journey; she was too tired packing and cleaning the house for the past few days. Dragoncat was sent to the Vet for temporary lodging as no one could took care of her in her current state.

The intermittent rest had helped to counter my fatigue. The driver assist was truly a very convenient tool; you just laid your hand on the steering and stay alert. Using it in the night is much more dangerous in the daylight and half closing your eye is not an option (yeap, I did it before during daylight). It is good enough for me at the moment; even if it had FSD grade of driver assist I would still not comfortable using it in the current driving environment.

I reached T city by 4:15am and found a convenient store and took a rest till 5am. I had booked a parking at the T2 basement instead of a outskirt parking facility. The parking facilities around the airport had received a lot of negative comment lately over the internet. The transportation to and fro from the airport might take ours and I don’t like to squeeze with load of passengers during the post pandemic area. The pre-booked promotion came with a 50% reduction of parking fee. As expected the parking is not packed and I found a “good spot”. A good parking spot means no parking lot located over the left and right side of the parking lot. Seems impossible but yet there is sometimes a few of such parking lot in some of the parking area.

The Cair departure is located at the T1 and we had to take the shuttle train to reach it. However it would be simple for us on the return as EVAir operation was mostly around the T2.

We hit the counter by 6am and checked in without difficulty. I had done a web check in and only baggage drop was needed.

The security check and immigration clearance was straight forward as usual. Nothing had changed compare to two years ago. We did not use the autogate as we did not renew our status after the APRC change due to passport renewal.

We had later proceeded to the lounge complimented by the purchase of air ticket with my credit card. The food was so so but yet the seat was nice for another round of nap.

The boarding was exciting for both Ving and I. After two years of trapping on the island, we would be leaving it again.

I did everything that was prohibited during the pandemic on the flight. I use the toilet a few times, enjoyed the meal and drinks served. The rule is simple now, no check = no contraction. The in flight meal was up to the standard with my favorite bun and butter as finish. I viewed part of the Maverick again during the meal. After the meal, I had failed to sleep and had played the Zombies vs Plants game during the lower half of the flight as I was too excited for this journey to come true.

We reached KLIA on time and took the aerotrain from the satellite building to the main building. There were still travelers donning full PPE suit waiting for departure…I presumed most of them were mainlander. I felt pity for them as the Main land was still imposing strict quarantine order.

The passing via autogate was stunning; no more finger print check….face recognition mechanism and I passed the gate within 20sec. I grinned while looking at the long q over the foreigner immigration checking counter.

The baggage claiming area was heart beating and thrilling for me as Xian’s baggage incident still haunted me until today but with grace, I　got our luggage in one piece.

The rest of the journey was uneventful as we passed the KASTAM, bought an airport limo coupon and reached our in law’s house smoothly.

No urge of kneeling on the ground and filled my eyes with tears was noted when I stepped on the Bolehland again. Everything was smooth until now but I had an uneasy feeling disturbing me… On the next day I finally knew what was waiting for me…

4 wheel change .... the prelude

 

Driving was something I enjoyed since I bought my first car. I had been a 7 seater man since I came here to work. From Serena , Zafira to Santa Fe; I finally returned to the family of SUV. One of the reasons is that I need to drive to work in a raining cat and dog typhoon day. The SUV capability of driving through flooded road was something that I needed. Fefe had one unique feature that other 7 seater SUV lack of; the third row blower. Well, Fefe’s diesel engine was pretty much solid and even though the paint started to fade, the leak was noted from the rooftop luggage tray fixation screw, it’s pick up was still good and reliable. The leak from the screw hole of the roof top started 2 years ago. A heavy down pour would leave the luggage compartment with water stain and it had worsened after 1 year.

I had tried to seal it with silicon and  water resistant GS3 glue however it only worked for a short period. The glue/silicon would fade away after a hot summer and the leak recurred. I was reluctant to change Fefe as those cars which are comparable to Fefe was in the range of MYR 300k; enough to buy a house and I was not ready to spend such a load for a car.

As time passed some of the electronic sensors had started to fail and I had to replace them one by one. I had started to source for a replacement since 1 year ago. 7 seater SUV was still my first choice but yet MYR 200k was the ceiling that I set. I had tested drive the 4.5gen Santa Fe and was impressed by its improvement over the last 10 years; but yet it exceeded the ceiling that I set.

I had broadened my choice to 5 seater SUV instead. I had tried Rav4, Kuga and I was satisfied with their performance but their space had made me think twice. I had decided to wait for the launching of Outlander and Xtrail which are both 7 seater and might probably fit my requirement.

The last straw came 7 months ago when one of the lower arm and sensor failed together. The replacement took 2 days and I knew that the time had come and bit after bit I would need to replace its parts.

The replacement was inevitable but the time lost on replacement was what I could not afford. So I begun my sourcing again.

It was not difficult for me to narrow down my choice but yet spitting out part of the load which I had accumulated over those years is something that bothers me.

After a short discussion, Ving and I had finally made our decision and we decided to take a final look before we drop the deposit.

I called up the sales manager who sold me Fefe 10 years ago and asked for one more tour before I signed the agreement.

We took a good look and the manager had kept persuading us to settle with the petrol turbo hybrid model. A more efficient fuel saver but I wanted something with a better torque. The hybrid model would be facing battery problem sooner or later and I would not like to bet my future on this uncertainty. We had however stood our ground and make a purchase agreement for a 4WD diesel model.

The sales manager did warn us that the waiting period would most probably not shorter than 6 months. I still had Fefe to hang onto and I and not in a rush to get a new car.

4 Months had passed by since I paid the deposit and one day the sales manager called me up and asked me if I wanted another color as someone had left the queue and a blue color model was available. I reviewed the color with Ving and told the manager that we could wait.

2 days later the manager called us again and told us that our car had arrived….WTX I grumbled, it was fishing method to lure me to go for the spit out vehicle…well, I was happy though as I finally got the chance to tried out the drive assist...

 

 

 

 

Home going....the planning stage

The 0+7 quarantine rule was declared finally at the beginning of October. I had begun my trip planning as I promised Ving. Both of us were disturbed by our parents’ health and wished to visit them as soon as possible. Deep discussion was done as I had only a window of 5 days maximum due to my job.

We had decided to spend the longest time accompanied our parents. The plan would be arrived at KLIA and I continued my journey to JB. We would meet later and returned back here on D5.

It involved not only the flight back home but also connecting flight from JB.

A TPE- KUL was our only option but later the double A had announced their strike back – flight from KHH to KUL which would commenced on 2022/11/15. It was not only cheaper but the time was absolutely nice. Take off from KHH at 10pm and arrived on 3am. Return flight from KUL at 5pm and arrived by 9pm. Solid 5 days stays…what an attractive offer but yet it came from the NOTORIOUS double A….No margin for error; postponed or delay will deeply affect my connecting flight(my decision was right and the first flight debut was delayed…)

I opted for the TPE-KUL route even if I had to pass the 4hours drive up north.

3 flights to consider, CAir, EVA and Starlux. CAir is the first to take off and starlux the last.

There is no offer nowadays for to and fro ticket. Thence one can buy to and fro ticket from difference airway without hesitation. The flight to KUL was simple and I opted for the first flight out as I had decided to drive up instead of using HSR. Math is easy, per trip would be :

driving = N2500+ (fuel +tol)  plus tiredness of driving.

HSR = NT 6000+(ticket) plus NT2500 overnight stay.

It would be a road trip in the dark after day shift; with the level2 drive assist on the new Fefe; hopefully I would be able to complete the task in time.

We woule be splitting when we arrived in KUL. Ving would stay in Setia Alam and later in the evening, I would take Firefly down to JB. A thrill riding in a propeller flight.

The return flight to TPE was a struggle as I had to take a flight up from JB to KLIA. Only one flight available which was operated by MAS. The Airasia had cut down its flight from uncountable to 3….However MAS flight arrived at KLIA at 12 noon, Chair leave at 2:30pm, EVA at 3:30pm and Starlux after 4pm,…..I had considered until the last minutes and opted for EVA which was more expensive… the extra 1 hours is better than nothing, any delay of flight will lead me in a heart pumping chaotic condition.

I completed the purchasing smoothly even though the fear of seeing a fully booked message popping out when I did the purchase of connecting domestic flight haunted me throughout the process.

The trip was all about connecting, connecting and connecting; it was a big stress for me as no error should happen or else …..Even though I had allowed tolerable waiting time as margin for error, but yet, I knew only with grace that it could happen smoothly…