Happy Easter!

12 hours in KK. No, not giving birth to a child in a hospital, but at Kota Kinabalu (Borneo island, 3rd largest in the world) today. Landed at around 10.30 am & headed towards Warisan Square to meet my friend Shirley. I had recently befriended Shirley when I chanced upon her souvenir shop Sabah Decor (Lot 28, 1st Flr, Blk D, Warisan Sq.) 3 weeks ago. Shirley has this quaint little shop and I especially like the art painting on cloth by local artists; they reminded me of places like Bali & Seychelles. As I got to know Shirley, I found out that she is actually a cancer survivor. She went through chemotherapy 5 years ago & had since recovered. Shirley had a family (husband & son) in Taiwan but she returned to Kota Kinabalu alone 5 years ago when she found out about her illness. It was a sad story. Luckily for her though, she was strong & managed to recover with help from her doctor & eating organic food. I was told she also exercises regularly to keep herself fit, including taking classes for some kind of Shaolin Kungfu. She now treasures life very much; according to her, it's like rebirth.

Shirley @ Sabah Decor

In life, we sometimes have to grapple with unexpected & sudden calamities. Sometimes, the lucky few managed to recover, like Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong. Some are not so lucky, as with DBS Bank's CEO Richard D. Stanley who passed away just today.

Life is perhaps best viewed not as a continuous journey (some truly believe they have 80 years to live!) but rather renewed daily. As Forrest Gump's mama used to say "life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you're gonna get". Live each day as your first & last; do what you hope to do today, not in distant future. Resurrect yourself (spiritually, if not physically) before it's too late!

Contact: Shirley Tay Piak Ching (郑碧清) 013 8701730. KK Taxi - Jul (Moblie): 016 8486506, Plate No. HS 993. Airworld Travel & Tours Tel: 088 242996, Email: airworld@tm.net.my. Airworld-Desmond China Chien Hung (M) 016 587 9780, Email: chiachienhung8778@msn.com

Today's Read: Las Vegas trophy project becomes symbol of trouble, Immigration can speed economic recovery

Today's Video: Landsat Image Mosaic of Antarctica (YouTube), Easter egg art in Slovenia (Reuters)

Journey through Borneo

Cultural Show @ Sarawak Cultural Village

Was at the Sarawak Cultural Village early this morning. It's a lovely place. A few ethnic houses to depict the variety of architectural designs & also the culture of Borneo. Indonesia has something similar but on a much larger scale. It's the Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) commissioned by the ousted president Suharto's wife (the first lady, ie) Ibu Tien in 1972. If you visit Jakarta, make sure you take time to visit this miniature park which showcases houses from Indonesia's 26 provinces (back then in the 70s, ie).

John from CPH Travel came to pick me up around 8.30 this morning. It's a little early & the weather is perfect for a good sleep in! Oh no, what have I got myself into! Good Friday morning & the city sleeps in, yet here I'm, going on a 1/2 day excursion to the village! After the initial inertia, I managed to enjoy the rest of the day even though it was drizzling for most part of my stay at the village. I was telling Bill & Jill (a couple from Melbourne who joined us for the trip) about how the rain makes this place a little more fairy like. The clouds enveloping the mountain, the long houses and stream of water make everything ethereal. I love it!

Our tour of the village includes 7 distinctive architecture, each representing the diffferent ethnic groups in Sarawak. We began with the Chinese Farm House where we sampled the living quarters of the Chinese. My first sight of pepper tree (btw, white & black peppers come from the same tree, it's the processing that makes them different!).

Next, we moved on to the Malay Town House. I was delighted to find congkak, a mancala game which I loved to play as a child. That brought back great memories. There were many games we played as children & had since forgotten. This sighting instantly transported me back to my childhood; what a great experience! Outside, we were also treated to the Malay game gasing (top spinning). The top can weigh as heavy as 5 kg!

A few steps further is the Melanau Tall House. As with the Malay Town House, this one stands on stilts. The rain amid the cloudy mountain makes this a beauty. Very picturesque! Here, I found out how sago pearls are processed. Geez, didn't know those white stuff came from the bark of the tree & I had eaten them all my life. Did you know that?

The next house is the Orang Ulu Longhouse. The Kayan, the Kenyah, the Kelabit, the Lun Bawang - they are graceful people with keen interest in songs, music & dances. I tried my hands on the xylophone & had a great deal of fun playing Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music. Bill posed with the guitar but Jill blamed it on his lousy sense of music for the bad photo, hahaha...

At the Penan Hut, Bill finally got to show off his hunting spirit by trying the blowpipe. Ooops, he missed again even with 3 trials! Remember, Bill! Do not blow from your mouth. Blow from your chest & stomach! N e x t !

Iban Longhouse is where we are treated to the art of weaving pua & some delightful Malay snacks. Ibans were renowed for practising headhunting.

As we got closer to the Bidayuh Longhouse, John was eager to show us his tribe. The Dayak people are the 2nd largest group after the Iban. The Bidayuhs are the Land Dayaks (inhabitants of land) while the Ibans are the Sea Dayaks. Traditionally animists, many are now Christians or Catholics. In the past, they had the unique tradition of hanging bodies of the dead on trees & left to rot away. The skeletons are then left there as a reminder of the dead! GROSS!!!

Well, time for more pleasant activities. We're all ready for the cultural show! Let's move on!!!

I enjoyed the show tremendously. It's a great one with colorful ethnic costumes, fashion, music & dance. The welcome dance begins with the Angklung & ends with the exciting bamboo dances! Great shows! I truly enjoyed my time here!

Contact: John Sim: 0198179695, CPH Travel Agencies: 082 243708, 242289, 414921.

Tour Info: 4 hours trip to Sarawak Cultural Village, RM 90 (all inclusive). [RM 60 for entrance & 45 mins cultural show while the RM30 is for transport & guide.] 2 cultural shows daily: 11 am & 4 pm.

I checked with Jenny a day earlier, if u decide to take a cab, the cab fare is RM150 for day trip to Semenggoh Wildlife & Sarawak Cultural Village. Return trip to Bako National Park is RM90.

The Road Less Traveled

Ricky enjoying his afternoon @ Semenggoh Wildlife Centre

I began my tour of Kuching this afternoon. Instead of seeing cats (which is exactly what Kuching means in Malay), I was heading towards the Semenggoh Wildlife Centre In Padawan (where the orang utan are housed; they are only found in Borneo & Sumatra). It was quite a wait to get those sexy chimps down from their high places! Relaxing... enjoying life to fullest, that's all these apes are doing! All they had to do was getting fed & yet they are taking their own sweet time! Life is a bliss, isn't it? Makes me wonder about what life is all about. Lucky fellas!

But, as Forrest Gump said it well "Mama always said life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get". We humans rush through life... makes us wonder what we achieved in the end. Instead of preserving humanity (look at some of the children in Africa), we are preserving these orang utan instead. I suppose as human as I'm, I do think human life is of much higher value (from human standpoint, that is). Oops, my friend Ivan will surely give me a kick on that!

I was having a discussion my colleagues just last week about Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie adopting kids from Cambodia, Vietnam, Namibia, Ethiopia... I wonder why they did what they did and if they have a higher purpose in doing so. With their own biological children, will they be as fair as they could be? Just having questions, not looking for answers though.

Today, I also saw some Pitcher Plant at the Wildlife Centre. Jenny (小玲) who shares the same Chinese name as one of my cousin drove me there. It's the first time I've seen such carnivorous plants. I was informed by one of the park guide that the liquid in these plants have been used to make shampoo! Is this for real?!?!?!

We then went to the Kuching city center in the evening. It's a nice compact city with British touch, obviously. Many of the old buildings are still around & well refurbished. This area reminds me very much of Melaka (Malacca). Kuching is a pleasant surprise. I won't mind retiring here at all!

Contact: Jenny (Mobile) 012-8800138. Plate No. HQ863.

Today's Read: Chimps exchange meat for sex (Fox News), For chimps, candy is dandy but steak is quicker (Reuters)

Today's Video: Forest Gump - Life is like a box of chocolates (YouTube), Germany's whistling Orangutan (Reuters)

Cloud Computing

I was on the flight from Singapore to Kuching, Sarawak, East Malaysia this afternoon. It was a short flight & all I had to entertain myself with other than my MP5 is the Straits Times. One article in particular caught my attention. It's about Cloud Computing. As I looked out of the window on the plane, I wonder if the person who coined the term Cloud Computing thought of it while on a plane too. We now have so many terminologies which have never existed a decade before! If one has been in coma for an extended period (say 5 years or more) and wake up today or tomorrow, he/she will be in for culture shock!

In finance, CDO, CDS, call & put option, ELN, ETF, covered warrants, mini-bond, virtual crash.
In technology, Y2K, SIM card, iPhone, iPod, MP3/4/5, HDTV, on demand TV, wifi, mobile broadband, google (as verb), PDA, netbook, blackberry, 3G, nanotech.
In marketing, B2B, C2C, B2C.
In travel, virtual tourist, A380, E-ticket.

In communication, Twitter, Digg, SMS, RSS, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr.

Now, if you are still not confused, let's discover what cloud computing is!

Here's the answer...

Today's Read: What Cloud Computing really means (Info World) Putting a price on social connections (Business Week)

Today's Video: A car that runs 200 miles on compressed air (YouTube)

The Invisible Hand

Bailout, bailout & more bailouts...
Regulation, regulation & even more regulations...

Where did everything begin? How did it all happened? Actions by Americans are now affecting the entire world & even future generations. Some argues it was partially attributed to the Chinese. It's the chicken or the egg dilemma. Others like Soros is now chanting about the 'downfall' of America for the next decade. We are all in a mess but life still goes on, albeit slowly & painfully. I'll leave the analysis to the media, regulators & market participants. Am hardly in the position to argue a position, if I've one to begin with, that is.

Las Vegas, where the invisible hand rules

In the last decades, I've seen enterprises across the world deviated from their original goals. What they set out to do is no longer of concern (or had been long forgotten). The only key measurement for many is ROE. It is not a matter of survival but a matter of maximizing profits (and many a time, not for the shareholders, but for the employees' and directors' renumeration; up up & away, super performer, we had been told). The system is set up in such away that one is compelled to adhere to crowd behavior. Join the crowd or be left out of the race. Stiglitz (2001 Nobel Prize winner) argued instead that "the reason that the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it is often not there" & " ... research since then has further clarified why free markets, by themselves, often do not lead to what is best. "

This idea has since come full circle, it seems. The ethics of businesses & institutions are being questioned. Corporations' internal audits come into scrutiny. High fliers have been told it's payback time. Instead of pay it forward, they had collected it in advance! So, it'll be interesting to see if the Obama administration is able to enforce some kind of order into the world we are all living in now. Thanks, but no thanks, invisible hand!

Today's Read: Stiglitz on current financial crisis & state of the economy (Columbia Business School), Obama's Ersatz Capitalism (NY Times), Soros says U.S. faces 'lasting slowdown' (Reuters)

Today's Video: Future of Capitalism (FT)

Another earthquake

I was told by a broker friend that we're seeing the beginning of another bigger bull run than that of the last. I'm sorry, Kenny my friend. I very much doubt it. Yes, we're indeed seeing another mini rally, a technical rebound much needed after the last 6 months of doldrums. As for the beginning of a bull run, not this moment I'm afraid. The world is still reeling from the tsunami of Sep. 15 and the numbers are simply the worst we've seen. & it might well gets worse before it gets better. I'm hopeful it will get better after the gigantic amount of concerted measures taken by various governments to pump money (by simply printing, it seems!) into the system. How long it'll take? My take is about another 6-9 months. We should be recovering sometime around Sep. 2009 to Mar. 2010, just in time for the 2010 Expo in Shanghai (May 1 - Oct. 31). In the mean time, I'm expecting a little more run-up in the markets around the world before another big correction in a month or two. Currently (& for next 3 months), it's probably range trading for the Dow around 7000-9000. For the Hang Seng, around 13000 - 18000.

Some asked, what do you based those on? Experience & intuition. I was really uncomfortable with the market levels in early 2007 (granted Hang Seng index shot through the roof for quite some time before it took a reversal as with the SSE Composite (Shanghai Stock Exchange) index), so I took off work & left for continuing studies. It was intended for a year but it stretched into two instead. Now that I'm back to work, exactly about 5 days after I was back to my desk, markets around the world began to turn around. That was exactly a month ago. For the past 2 weeks, the gains are tremendous. Some stocks have as much as doubled or tripled from its lowest point. In a mere 2 weeks! If that's not euphoria, what is?

From my past experiences, the markets always over adjust; be it on the upside or on the downside. It fell off the cliff for 6 continuous months & then it is now correcting that. Has it over corrected on the upside? Perhaps not. There should still be some more room to go (after some intermediate dips). Despite all these, it is still not a bull run to me. A bull market is one where at least the world economies are operating normally to begin with. It is not one whereby millions of jobs are being lost, bankruptcies are rampant & homes are being foreclosed on a daily basis. How can financial markets be in a bull run when it is precisely due to all the frivolous & irresponsibility of Wall Street bankers, fund managers (& hedge funds) & speculators (& derivative traders) that we are where we are today?! Have we so easily & quickly forgotten the lessons from the past run-up? My gut feel tells me another 'earthquake' (in the financial markets, that is) is just around the corner...

Speaking of earthquakes, another one strikes Central Italy today. Since the last big earthquake in Sichuan, there had been an increasing number of earthquakes around the world. Most of them are minor, yet, if my recollection hasn't failed me, there is an increasing number of quakes in recent months. I once saw a documentary on supervolcano & wonder if indeed we are nearing one. Just a passing thought...

Today's read: Soros says U.S. banks "insolvent" (Reuters), Note to Sun's Board: Don't be the next Yahoo (Business Week)

Live and Let Live

It's sunday & after 4 days of blogging, I think I need a break, hehe...

Here's something reminiscence of my trip to Ireland 4 years ago.

To live, that is to love

what best your soul can attain;
To live, that is to work
to reach ever higher aims.

To live, that is to seek
in life the finest worth;
To live, that is to strive 
towards truth in all your work.

To live, that is to forget 
injustice and untrue ways;
To live is, like the sea,
to mirror your heaven's face.
~Anders Vassbotn~

Today's Video: Spanish Guitar, My All, Have You Really Loved A Woman (YouTube)