The fastest way to contact everyone

During the last Chinese New Year holiday, Chui Shan, Shin Hun, Yee Harn and I hang out at Alvin's house.

As usual, Chui Shan was busy checking her stock market investments during gathering

Like usual we chit chatted for hours and finally we got bored.

We decided to ask all of our friends previously in SMK Derma to come out and gather at Alvin's house so that we can meet everyone before the holidays end.

However all of us were lazy to call all our friends one by one so we decided to do this:

We sent SMS to NTV7 to call for a gathering at Alvin's house. Minutes later our message was displayed on the bar on top of the TV screen.

We sent:"To all SMK Derma alumni, please gather at Alvin's house. I am Yong Chui Shan."

For the first time ever, Yong Chui Shan's name was on TV.

So to mark down this "historical" event, we took video and some photos.

After the message was shown on TV, we finally realized that it was a bad idea because we don't think that many people will watch NTV7 3pm in the afternoon...

Not a single person saw our message and we ended up calling our friends one by one.

Flashback: My first day in UNITEN

5 years ago, mid of June 2003, I stepped into another stage of my life. I decided to enroll in the accounting degree course offered by UNITEN Muadzam Shah.



My first day was exhausting as I had to go through a lot of intake procedures early in the morning like taking picture and some other paperwork along with hundreds of other new students.

In between the waiting time I was able to know some new friends but in the end I was only able to remember a few names as my tired brain cannot “process” so many names in a short period of time.

After all the troublesome procedures, I finally got my keys for my apartment room. I was so anxious about my new apartment because I’ve been to many other university provided apartments or dorms and they were like crap. It was a 1km journey from the old campus to my apartment so on the way there I was praying hard to every god that I can name in this world that the apartment room is in a good condition.

When I reached there I was glad that my prayers worked.

Not 5 star hotel standard but it's nice and clean

The apartment room is in tip top condition. It was brand new. I can still smell the new paint in the apartment.

Once I am into the apartment I went to the toilet and when I came out to wash my hands, I noticed something not quite right.

My unshaved face and messy hair, don't laugh ok.

I forgot to shave, and my hair was very messy as I slept in the car during the journey from KL to Muadzam Shah.

No wonder some people looked at me weirdly during the intake procedures session. And the most important is that I had that kind of messy face being taken as photo in my student ID card. Certainly not a good first impression.

My dad and my little brother helped me to unpack my things in my room while my mom started her “mom-talk” to me.



“Ah Yang ar… remember to drink more water, eat more fruits, eat more vegetables, do sports, cover your blanket at night, don’t get sick, remember to pang sai…”

My mom still giving "mom-talk" when my dad took her photo

I can tell that she was pretty worried at me being away from home for a long time. Luckily I listened to what she said and I graduated healthily.

After an hour, my family decided it was time to leave. Since that moment, I am on my own and started my studying life for 5 years in UNITEN.

My nightmare

No more nicely prepared hot Milo on the dining table every morning in Muadzam Shah.

Cameron Highlands: Tea Farm

Cameron Highlands is 5,000 ft above sea level and is a place where people grow strawberries, tea plants, vegetables and all kinds of flowers. It has several simple towns like Tanah Rata, Brinchang and Ringlet where schools and shop lots are situated.

Sounds like it’s just a cold and simple place with farmers every where, but when you go there on weekends or public holidays, you will spot more Singaporeans than the locals. At first I couldn’t understand why Singaporeans like to drive for hours just to come to Cameron Highlands to see vegetables, but after Amy brought me around, I instantly like this place. A lot.

One of the major reason I like Cameron Highlands is that the weather is cooler with temperature rarely above 25°C all year round. If you stay in Perlis which is a place where it once holds one of the highest temperature records in Malaysia which is more than 40°C, you will love the cool fresh air in Cameron Highlands. At Cameron Highlands you can walk around in town at noon without sweating, try this in Perlis and you will be sweating profusely.

There are two roads entrance to Cameron Highlands, via Tapah and Simpang Pulai. The Tapah road is for people coming from the south of Peninsula Malaysia while the Simpang Pulai is from the north.

For me I like to use the Simpang Pulai road because it’s way better than the Tapah road. First of all it’s safer as the Simpang Pulai road was built like a highway, it’s wider and you won’t easily crash into the steep valleys. But if you think that you can drift at the Simpang Pulai road as if you have a car that carry tofu then you will definitely crash.

The Simpang Pulai road: high speed bends, less traffic and heavy fog

The traffic at Simpang Pulai road is also lesser compare to the Tapah road as most tourists from KL and Singapore use the nearer Tapah road. You can drive slowly on the Simpang Pulai road while enjoying the view, believe me, the Simpang Pulai road is one of the best driving road in Malaysia.

Whenever I visit Cameron Highlands, I never fail to visit a place. For me it is a must-visit place because it has the most beautiful scenery in Cameron Highlands.

The tea farm.

Yes, you can do this in the tea farm. But you cannot pee on the plants.

The tea farm is owned by BOH Plantations Sdn. Bhd., the largest tea manufacturer in Malaysia. The company has tea farm in many places at Cameron Highlands and only a few are open to the public. Sungei Palas tea centre is the latest offering by the company and it is the most beautiful among all tea farms.

The tea farm is all over the hills as if the hills are covering a tea blanket. The scene is absolutely breathtaking. I can sit there all day just admiring the view.


The Sungei Palas tea centre has a café where you can sit down sipping BOH’s finest tea and enjoying the view of the tea farm while the cool fresh air makes you stop thinking about deadlines and pressures. The café is usually packed with tourists during weekends and holidays, so if you want to enjoy the tea and the view quietly, go there on weekdays, explain to your boss or lecturers about wanting to take a day off to the tea farm, maybe they will follow you there as well.

This is the huge crowd if you visit the tea centre on holidays

Inside the tea factory

Tourists can also visit the tea factory behind the tea centre. There will be factory guides to bring tourists around the factory and explain how the end products are made. The tea factory is filled with the fragrance of tea because of the grinding and heating process, so everyone coming out from the factory will smell like tea.

As a profit-minded commercialized tea company, BOH also set up a gift shop in the tea centre which sells different kinds of tea products and other tea-related products like t-shirts with a big “BOH” logo printed on it. But since the tea centre is a tourist destination, the pricing is also damn expensive. The cheapest item in the gift shop is the RM1 postcard.

Choosing postcards can be a headache for Susan

My advice is that if you want to get the ummph from BOH tea, buy it from Tesco or Carrefour.

The Sichuan Earthquake

If you are now sitting comfortably in front of your computer reading this, you are a very lucky person.

Compare yourself with the victims of the Sichuan earthquake.

I have been following up the news of the earthquake and to be honest, the pictures almost make me cry.

Worried parents trying to find their children under the debris

A survivor waiting for rescue

Some pictures showed that the rescuers had to cut the legs or hands of some survivors buried under the debris of collapsed buildings in order to get them out before they bleed to death. There was even a case where the rescuers cannot reach to one young female survivor buried under tons of debris and that the survivor had to cut her own leg in order to survive.

Temporary shelters for the survivors

I also watched the live television news report where I found something worth sharing. The reporter interviewed an injured girl who was rescued from the debris of her primary school that what she did when waiting for rescue under the debris. The little girl answered something amazing: “I read my textbooks using the sunlight that came through a small hole.”

The reporter suddenly became speechless, so did I.

Imagine this, studying while being trapped under debris, not knowing when will be rescued and got nothing to eat or drink. Not everyone can do this. Even I have problem studying continuously for more than one hour in a comfortable and bright air-cond room.

The Olympics is just months away, the China government faced several setbacks in hosting the first Olympics in their country. The Sichuan earthquake undoubtedly slows down the pace of the Olympics preparation a little bit, but I am very confident that the Olympics will be a successful event.

Obstacles make people stronger, I hope that the people of Sichuan can go through this difficult phase in their life.

Stupid Telekom Muadzam Shah

When I was studying at Muadzam Shah, me and my friends rented a house outside the campus of UNITEN. In order to get Internet connection, we had to apply for a telephone line for the house. So I used my name to apply for a telephone line, that’s where the trouble started.

Telekom office in Muadzam Shah is just a small office with not more than 5 employees. For me I think that 5 employees are more than enough to serve the whole Muadzam Shah residents. This is because every time I visited the office there, some employee will be SLEEPING inside a parked car under a tree, and some will be out for “makan kuih” time… Since the employees there can still manage to perform these kinds of “exciting” activities, I figured that the demand for their service is at a very low level.

At first I thought that my application for a telephone line will be processed fast, but no… it took them a whole week to process it and to set up my phone line.

Really opening up macam-macam stupid possibilities

After the phone line was fixed, I used the phone line to access Streamyx Internet without much problem.

But when I am graduating from UNITEN, with my last exam paper on 6th April 2008, the trouble of dealing with Telekom Muadzam Shah started again.

Since I will no longer staying in Muadzam Shah, I went to Telekom Muadzam Shah to cancel my telephone line on 7th April 2008 morning. I brought the rented telephone and all the required documents there and found out that the office was empty, maybe there were “busy”, yeah right. There is nothing that I can do but to go back and came back an hour later. To my surprise, the office was still empty on my second visit. Finally, it took me my fourth visit that I can meet with the person-in-charge.

Thanks to Telekom Muadzam Shah, I never imagine a telephone can bring me so much trouble

Luckily the line cancellation procedure was easy, so I managed to depart from Muadzam Shah to KL the day after.

I’ve been staying at KL for almost a month now, and guess what, Telekom Muadzam Shah still manage to piss me off with their latest piss-your-damn-customers-off marketing strategy. I can tell you, their damn strategy is really “good”.

I received a call a few days ago from Telekom Muadzam Shah and the man on the line said that my cancellation of telephone line is not yet processed. After hearing this I am shocked and angry, I am angry because I have to pay one more month of RM20 plus telephone rental charge for nothing. Trying hard not to yell at him, I asked him why. He told me that he didn’t receive the telephone and my documents.

I don’t know what to say, I am speechless for a moment. Then I told him that I already gave Telekom Muadzam Shah all the things that they wanted a month ago and I am now in KL. It’s his turn to become speechless. After a while, he told me that he will cancel my line immediately and I said thank you. The end.

Seriously, I don’t know what is his definition of “immediately”, but if I ever to receive telephone bills from Telekom Muadzam Shah again, I will definitely call and yell at them.

Or shoot their buttocks

Stupid Telekom Muadzam Shah.

Going back

It’s been almost 5 months since I last went home.

After settling all my things at KL, it is time to go home. Although I will be at my home for just 5 days, it’s enough time for me to meet my family and friends back there.

Mom, I am sorry I made you celebrating mother’s day alone last Sunday, so I am coming home for dinner to celebrate belated mother’s day ok? If possible no outside food, you cook, can ar? Because I miss your home-made dishes so much.

Dad, maybe I will go KL just before father’s day. But don’t worry, we can celebrate the occasion earlier. If possible, we go to the Arowana Restaurant ok? Because you are an expert in ordering the best food in Perlis.

Ah Juan, although I will not be seeing you back home, I also want to wish you good luck in your coming examinations. And drive carefully when you get your car.

And for friends who are in Perlis, let the lim teh sessions begin! I miss the lim teh time at Buluh.

I already bought the bus ticket to Kangar. At first I thought of driving back, but since I am unemployed, I should save some money for future expenses in KL, the fuel and toll expenses can easily top RM150 for a single trip from KL to Kangar. RM33 VIP bus ticket versus RM150 tiring drive, I chose the former.

I’ll be taking the 10.30p.m. bus back to Kangar tonight.

Home, here I come.

Tasik Biru

Tasik Biru (Blue Lake) is one of the favorite “tourist destination” for UNITEN Muadzam Shah students. Situated at Bukit Ibam, it is only 15 minutes drive away from Muadzam Shah.




Bukit Ibam is a very small town, it’s even smaller than Muadzam Shah. The town is still “alive” only because there are several factories and quarries there. One of the Malaysian Air Force Army base is near there as well, so UNITEN students are quite “lucky” because they can see multi millions fighter jets flying up on their head quite often.



Tasik Biru got its name because the water is very blue, it is so blue that as if somebody poured blue water color in it.



See the difference between a normal lake color and color of Tasik Biru?

I found this place special because you don’t get to see this kind of lake every time. Some people said that the lake is blue because of some kind of water plants growing in the lake. Some people also said that it is because of constant dumping of chemical wastes into the lake by the factories and quarries nearby.

I studied accounts and have zero knowledge in lakes. I am still looking for answers regarding the color of the lake.



So what do you think? Natural or man-made?

Muadzam Shah

To be honest, most UNITEN students don’t like this place. But the weird thing is, I just spent 5 years of my life there. Since secondary school, I always thought that when I m going to university, I finally can go out from the small town of Kangar and go to big cities like Penang or KL to get the feel of living in the city. The reason I ended up 5 years in Muadzam Shah is that the branch campus of UNITEN was set up there. The branch campus is basically the business school of UNITEN (The engineering and IT courses are in the Bangi main campus). Since I decided to further my studies in the accounting field and got a scholarship for studying in UNITEN after my SPM, I headed to Muadzam Shah without thinking much. I thought that since there is a university there, the place won’t be that ulu.

When I first reached Muadzam Shah for the UNITEN intake session, I am almost speechless. This place is nothing but a very small town with a university, it’s even smaller than Kangar. It’s so rural that it is surrounded by millions of acres forests and palm oil plantations. There is even a forest rangers’ office just opposite of the old UNITEN campus.There’s no turning back, I’ve paid my fees, signed the scholarship contract, and checked into my apartment.

To be exact, Muadzam Shah is a town under the district of Rompin, Southeast of Pahang. Muadzam Shah is 100km away from Kuantan and 80km away from Segamat. Muadzam Shah is so ulu that not many people know about this place. So every time people ask me about where I study during my university times, I have to explain where the place is.

Relative: “Ah Yang ar… u study in UNITEN right? Bangi good or not?”

Leong: “Actually I study in UNITEN Muadzam Shah, it’s a branch campus.”

Relative: “Huh? What Zam what Ah?”

Leong: “Muadzam Shah.”

Relative: “Muzam Ah? Got place like that meh?”

Leong: “It’s MUADZAM SHAH.”

Relative: “Huh? Come again?”

Leong: “Actually I study at Kuantan.”

Relative: “Ooo… Kuantan hor… I know that place.”

Leong: “… …”

I m sorry I lied, but that’s good for my brain you know. At least it won’t explode.

In Muadzam Shah, you can find everything that a simple town needs, Petrol stations, grocery shops, hawker centers, restaurants, cyber cafes, stationery shops, clinics, banks and erm… a big pond.

Slurpee is a hit in Muadzam Shah

It is so simple that when 7-11 opened an outlet in the town, the whole Muadzam Shah went crazy, everyone flooded the 7-11 just to drink the colorful Slurpee drinks. Something new in town always gets the attention from the locals and UNITEN students.

Driving at night around Muadzam Shah is very dangerous, because some part of the roads are surrounded by forest and are very dark. You have to look out for idiot motorists who rather to invest in sport rims than to replace spoilt tail lights. Besides, you also have to look out for wild boars crossing the road. I am not kidding here, some wild boars cross the road in order to get to the other part of jungle for food. I’ve been stopped in the middle of the road by wild boars 2 times in Muadzam Shah.

Whenever there are wild boars crossing roads, the last thing you want to do is to honk at them, because wild boars usually travel across forests in groups, together with some “cute” little wild boars. If you honk at the wild boars, they might get mad and run towards your car. A grown up wild boar is weight more than 100kgs, a group of wild boars equals to thousands of kgs. Thousands of kgs of brutal force on your car… think before you honk.

Bad things aside, there are some good things that I like Muadzam Shah. First of all, no traffic jams! The population of Muadzam Shah is so low that sometimes you can lie down on the road during “rush hour”. No need to plan your trip, no need to listen to traffic reports on radio, I love it.

The standard of living is also very low. Food is cheap in Muadzam Shah, here you can get 4 pieces of fully stuffed curry puff for RM1. Parking in town is free, you can park anywhere you want as the town council officers in Muadzam Shah are very kind hearted, no summons will be issued as long as you do not block the entire traffic.

Morning at Muadzam Shah

The level of pollution is very low in Muadzam Shah because it is surrounded by forest. The air is fresh and every cold morning there will be fog, just like Genting Highlands.

No matter what, Muadzam Shah is still the place where I spent 5 years of my life, it is the place where I study for my degree and learn new things in life. With UNITEN and other several education institutions like MRSM and Politeknik, Muadzam Shah is developing slowly. More and more shop lots are built around town, 7-11 is just a start, and maybe sooner or later there will be a shopping mall and a GSC.Erm... Sorry, I think the shopping mall and GSC is impossible for another 100 years.

Graduation Night of Bachelor of Accounting 2008

On 14th March 2008, we all final year accounting students from UNITEN Muadzam Shah organized a graduation dinner for ourselves, aimed to celebrate the ending of 5 years of studying accounting textbooks in Muadzam Shah. The graduation dinner was part of our final year project and the dinner was assessed by our lecturer so that the ratings can be included in our subject marks.

How cool is that? Accounting students got 25 marks out of 100 for organizing a graduation dinner. That’s the weirdest way to get marks. So, to score full marks, all accounting students worked like hell to organize it, the outcome? We got 25 marks!

The dinner was held at the Meranti Ballroom in Hyatt Regency Kuantan. I can say that almost every UNITEN graduation dinner was held here because it’s the nearest place from Muadzam Shah where we can organize such event. Furthermore, Hyatt is really good at their marketing strategies as they usually give discounted prices for students to rent the ballroom and 10 rooms for students to stay for 1 night at a cheaper rate.

The dinner committee really went to great length to make the dinner a great event. Although the money that we korek from sponsors was enough, but the major issue is that we don’t have enough time to prepare for the event. The dinner was held 1 week before final examination and we final year students have lots of quizzes, tutorials and assignments to consider at that time.

I did my job of getting sponsors and the rest is up to the dinner committee. At first I wasn’t expecting much from them, but after I arrived at Hyatt, I can see that they did it very well, they even got time to name each of the table in the ballroom. Obviously, each of the committee members has 8 hands and a time machine to stop time.

My table name - Ben Affleck (maybe only people with Ben Affleck looks can sit here)

When we were at our table, we were showered with plenty of gifts. Everyone got a bag of goodies, inside were a rose, chocolates, candies, scented candles, autograph book and my favorite, a nice pen with my name printed on it. These things aren’t expensive, but at least it shows the sincerity of the committee.

The event started late because all the students were waiting for some big shot VIPs to arrive, maybe the VIPs thought that they’ll get the attention when they arrived late. Come on lah you VIPs, people invite you and you were late, very fun let people wait is it?

The VIPs arrived late, so were our dinner dishes, the waiters only served the food after all the VIPs arrived, so all students just watched the shows on stage with a hungry stomach before the VIPs arrive.

Luckily, the shows were entertaining.

Because you don’t get to see Malay and Chinese students wearing nice prom dresses and suits dancing Bollywood-style dance on stage everyday. One of the dancers on stage told me that they just practiced the dance 3 days before the dinner, yet they managed to perform well with some quirky and funny moves.

The food served by Hyatt was ok, the menu was typical hotel food and nothing to shout for.

Supreme Four Season Combination Platter - long name but not enough for 10 people

The only thing to complain is that the fish served was not fresh, in fact, it tasted like smashed tofu, which is quite geli, like the fish was kept in fridge for trillions of years.

While we were eating, the committee showed us yet another surprise by playing some damn touching videos. The videos showed us all the places in Muadzam Shah that we will miss after graduation, and the summary of a student’s life from the very first day in Muadzam. Luckily the videos included some comedy elements, if not I will “gam dong” (touched) till cry.

A graduation dinner is never completed without selecting a prom king and prom queen. The emcee announced the names and the crowd went crazy shouting the names. Here, I present you the prom king and prom queen.

(Left) Prom Queen: Yeap Maysian, (Right) Prom King: Wan Mohd. Sabri

It’s almost 12am and its time for the dinner to come to an end. No one has the intention to leave, but since we are all good kids we have to go home and sleep. To wrap up the event is the photography session where its time for everyone to cam-whore. Since the VIPs already left, it’s time to go wild. Some go on stage to dance, some fooling around, some kacau cha bos, some kacau da bos, but most of the students took out their cameras and start taking photos. Suddenly the whole ballroom is full of camera flashes.

Since it’s a graduation dinner, everyone is busy taking photos because it’s hard to meet each other again in the future, everyone has their own separate ways.

The busiest man during the photography session is undoubtedly the prom king. He is so leng chai until almost every girl in the ballroom wanted to take pictures of him. I admit that I am not as leng chai as the prom king, nobody want to take pictures with me, so I got bored so I decided to fool around with Collin and prom queen.

I am pathetic, I know.