Few days ago, I called a semi government body to ask about something:
Me: hello… Saya nak buat pertanyaan (I would like to make an enquiry)
Lady: ok..
Me: Saya nak tanya tentang blablabla (I would like to ask about…)
Lady: wait!
Me: huh?
Lady: do you want me to speak in English or Malay?
Me: errrrr (since I’m speaking Malay) anything will do.
Lady: sorry sir, I cannot speak to you until you choose Engish or Malay!!
Me: *o* ! errrrrrr
Definately another Malaysia Boleh moment.
As usual, I will end my Kota Kinabalu entries, with some miscellaneous photos.
Sooo big until cannot see whats going on behind
Tekesi Bermeter – home made + wrong spelling
My buy 1 free 1 luggage bag. Big bag nom small bag!
-__- what a headline.
After our trip to Kuala Penyu, we stopped by Beaufort, a small town located outskirt of Kota Kinabalu.
We initially wanted to try Beaufort noodles at one popular Chinese coffee shop but it was closed.
We ended up at one Muslim restaurant by the name Malaysia Restaurant. Although a Muslim restaurant, it is run by a Chinese Muslim man.
The recommended dishes of this place are their Butter Pao and Kuih Bom.
Yam cake! So-so only though.
Pao is served on a plate. Take as many as you like. The rest you can leave it there.
The butter pao is filled with butter but ‘lai yau’, a yellowish sweet filling. The bread is green in colour. It tasted damn good. So good that I had 2 pieces of it!
Kuih Bom on the other hand is an egg shaped pastry (supposed to look like a bomb though). The outer layer is as hard as an egg shell. I had to use force to crack the layer. The filling of kuih bom is hollow with few strands of turnip inside. It was my first time seeing such item and the taste was rather unique. It wasn’t sweet but it was salty.
Map (rough estimation)
Address
Restoran Malaysia
Lot 14, Block B,
Beaufort Jaya,
89808 Beaufort,
Sabah
Tel: (00)(60) 087 223 548
Got this from a forwarded email.
Click on image for bigger picture
Left side – Biolyn Advertisement
Right side – Nescafe Advertisement
On Friday, while on my way to Court, I received a SMS stating “5 LAC (Legal Aid Clinic) representing clients last night! Solidarity & protest gathering 10am TODAY, Duta Court. Wear court attire”.
What happened was ..
5 legal aid lawyers – Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, Ravinder Singh Dhalliwal (KL Bar Committee LAC Chairperson), Syuhaini Safwan, Murni Hidayah and Puspawati Rosman – were ARRESTED at IPD Brickfields at about 11.45pm, 7 May 2009 in the course of rendering legal assistance and representation to a group of 14 detainees.
As at 4.30am, 8 May 2009, they are being held overnight and may be remanded further or charged later in the day. The police have denied access to counsel and family, and despite repeated requests, have refused to provide further details as to their next course of action.
I was disgusted. It was clearly an abuse of power. How can the police arrest lawyers who were there to give assistance to detainees? We are empowered by the law to do so!
The notice to gather was rather short. It was early in the morning and most of lawyers haven’t check their emails. (A mass email was sent out too).
Immediately after my matter at Court, I headed to the foyer to meet up with other fellow lawyers. The response was low initially. But the numbers begin to swell and had around 200 lawyers later in the day. This is not inclusive of those who had came for a while. Reminds me of my high school days..peeekkk yaaauuu arrr!
Couple of police officers came to the foyer to keep an eye on us. But gathering was rather uneventful.
Earlier in the morning…
Most of us were waiting for the lawyers to be brought into Court to be charged. However, no one knew where they were and their handphones have been turned off. These lawyers were only 2 -3 years in practice and what made it worst is that 4 of them were girls. It put us men to shame when girls were in the police station helping out detainees while us men were at home watching TV or fapping to porn.
We waited and waited for the lawyers to appear in Court. The Bar Council Chairman and the Selangor Bar Chairman gave a speech to all of us but it was cut short by the police.
Credits to Malaysiainsider.com
Fortunately, by 3pm, the lawyers were released without charge. It was a huge relieve for us.
Video on how the incident unfolded.
The Federal Constitution provides the right to legal representation to all citizens. It is saddening that the lawyers were arrested for discharging their duties and to have the police withholding that every citizen’s right to legal representation.
The Bar Council will be holding an EGM on the 15 May to condemn what has happened. I hope something good will turn out from there.
Related Links
Malaysiakini – 200 lawyers protest against arrests
Malaysian Bar – Lawyer arrested? Unbelievable!
Malaysian Bar – Picture of the lawyers who were arrested
Menumbuk is a small village located not far from Kuala Penyu.
It has a small port which allows people to take a boat to Labuan Island. We made a trip down to to the port to check out the scenery.
Rusty Ship…
The name ‘Menumbuk’ means punching in Malay. There are 2 legends which gave rise to the name ‘Menumbuk’. The first being through a fish by the name ‘menumbok’ fish according to local dialect which was extra ordinary huge. Second version is about a time when a river which flowed to the sea during high tide and caused a punching effect. Doesn’t make any sense to me though.
There were not many things to see in Menumbuk port.
There was a Chinese temple cum car park though.
The other end of the port has a small beach which one can see Labuan Island.
Hmm..where is Labuan..
Barely an hour in Menumbuk, we left for Beaufort for lunch.
Stupid arr these Pulau Ketam people??? Of all things they send off, they sent off 300 dogs to a remote island. Send me some seafood better la tiu!!
So now some people have started an online campaign to raise funds and to recruit volunteers.
For more information, check out http://www.mycen.com.my/rescue/. I suggest you look at the pictorial slideshow at http://www.mycen.com.my/sightings/sightings030509_pulau_ketam_dogs.html. It made me sad 🙁
To donate or help, e-mail TV Smith at tvsmith@mycen.com.my or Sabrina Yeap at yeapwen@yahoo.com
KP town only has few rows of shop. There are couple of convenient stores and coffeeshops. There’s also a video arcade filled with kids. Got Daytona. Not bad.
We had drinks at one of the coffeeshops in the town. Nothing good to eat. Their yao char kuai tasted like bread as it had too much flour.
As we will be heading to Menumbuk (in Malay it means punching), we took a toilet break at the coffeeshop. The owner found an ingenious way to replace their broken lock I.e with a string and long nail.
tadaa~
Next stop: Menumbuk
Kuala Penyu (KP) is a small town located around 2 hours from Kota Kinabalu City.
Driving around the outskirt of KK City was relatively quiet and easy. There was not much traffic on the 2 lane roads except for some occasional slow coaches on the road.
The drive to KP had loads of interesting sights. Villages are mostly inhabited by natives while the towns are mostly Chinese. It is interesting to see Chinese villages and towns in remote places of Sabah.
Caught Mat Rempit in action
G*Mart – Now everybody can shop! (similar with Air Asia’s tag line, Now everybody can fly!)
When we were about to reach KP, we ended up on a dead end. There was a river in front of us.
The only way to get across is a chained ferry.
The ferry, made of metal, pulls a metal chain which cuts across the river.
It could fit around 8 cars per trip.
Cars have to line up to wait for their turn as there is only 1 ferry and it takes around 10 to 15 minutes to get across.
You can take a small boat across as well
There was only one life boat.
The service is free as it is maintained by the government.
We were there…
Kuala Penyu on sight!