Hanoi Scenes (I)

Ah, it was in March when I had a short holiday with the family in Hanoi, but heh, heh, I've just only "processed" the pictures we took ;) So here's a selected first set of photos of the scenery in and about Hanoi. The next set will have more pics of me and the family. Enjoy ;)

Legend has it that in the mid-15th century, Heaven gave Emperor Ly Thai To
a magical sword which he used to drive the Chinese out of Vietnam

Thap Rua (Tortoise Tower) in Ho Koan Kiem (Lake of the Restored Sword)
where a tortoise restored the sword to its divine owners

Hanoi Old Quarter, or 36 Pho Puong (36 Streets), with over a thousand years of history
remains one of Vietnam's most lively and unusual places, where you can buy anything
from a gravestone to silk pyjamas

Ho Chi Minh Residence

The neo-Gothic St Joseph's Cathedral (1886)
takes you back to medieval Europe

Buddhist devotees praying at a quaint little temple sandwiched
by a little path between 2 shops along P Nha To. Blink and you'd miss it.

The busy and crowded streets of Hanoi Old Quarter

A dragon-guarded incense holder at the Temple of Literature

The renown Halong Bay was just a tad too far to travel for a short trip to Hanoi,
especially with a 2-year old, so we settled for a day trip to Tam Hoc.

While Halong Bay has huge rock formations jutting out of the sea,
Tam Coc has them jutting out of the rice paddies.

The best way to see Tam Coc is by row-boat on the Ngo Dong River.

A villager tends to the paddy fields. Tam Hoc is a.k.a.
Halong Bay on the rice paddies.

It was a great day for 3 hours of boating as well!

Tam Coc means "3 Caves". The boats actually rows
through the caves, the longest being 127m.

Village houses by the river

Children playing by the river. Tam Hoc is a village near the
town of Ninh Binh, 2 hours south-west of Hanoi.

Siem Reap

After a hectic 6 months of election preparatory work and election campaign, I've finally found some time to take the family out for a short holiday (before Parliament starts) at Siem Reap, Cambodia, the access to the world renown, Angkor Wat. This place has certainly changed a great deal from when I was last here with Ting Fong, back in 2001. ;-)

Will blog more soon after I return ;-)

(Can't get my phone to work the entire day... my SIM card is having roaming issues... Ting Fong is pretty happy about it...)

Tokyo - A Livable Metropolis?

Tokyo skyscrapers

As blogged earlier, I've just gotten back from Tokyo early this morning. As most of the time, I was stuck in the hotel attending the conference, I didn't manage to do too much sight-seeing, but I did manage to squeeze some time out to do some (will post pictures later - pics posted here from public sources).

One thing however struck me really hard during my brief visit was how remarkably "livable" the metropolis was (for those who experienced otherwise, do share your views here). Lets get some facts out of the way:

Over eight million people live within Tokyo's 23 wards. During the daytime, the population swells by over 2.5 million as workers and students commute from adjacent areas. This effect is even more pronounced in the three central wards of Chiyoda, Chūō, and Minato, whose collective population is less than 300,000 at night, but over two million during the day. The entire prefecture has 12,790,000 residents in October 2007 (8,657,000 in 23 wards), with an increase of over 3 million in the day. (source: Wikipedia)

The population density for Tokyo is 5,796 persons per km². This doesn't take into account an additional 2-3 million workers who commute from outside Tokyo into the city. In addition, this number does not take into account the fact that officially, several outlying islands are official part of Tokyo "land area" as well, which means that the density is likely significantly higher. This compares also against 6,489 persons per km² in Singapore.

Now, given such immense density and skyscrapers within the inner city, one would certainly have expected a certain level of traffic congestion, and probably a significant number of highways criss-crossing the city.

More Tokyo skyscrapers

But no! Right in the city centre, during peak hours, I hardly see many cars on the road. All cars which stopped at traffic lights will get to clear them in one go, and the lights actually switches pretty fast to cater to pedestrians. Where did all the traffic go? And trust me, their skyscrapers are just humongous!

And in the Tokyo suburbs (e.g., Seputeh or Petaling Jaya), most amazingly, the roads are tiny, often barely enough for 1 vehicle to pass through in their residential roads. Yet at the same time, the city generously allocates and cordon off a sizeable portion of the road for pedestrians and cyclists' use. Throughout my stay there, I've never seen these residential roads streaming with motor vehicles.

Yet in Petaling Jaya, many neighbourhood residential roads are becoming main access roads, while access roads have become thoroughfares, and highways such as LDP become massive car parks, especially during peak perids. And we don't have the population, its density and the skyscrapers to match cities like Tokyo or Singapore.

Very simply, the solution is really in creating and building an efficient public transportation system. And this unfortunately, is rather non-existent in Petaling Jaya. If you need to get from Taman Mayang to SS2, there is no option except taking a taxi or your own private vehicle.

In Tokyo, I've never had to wait longer than 5 minutes for any train, even during off-peak hours (didn't get a chance to try their bus system, especially since I'd seriously lack the language skills!)

Hence, if businessmen, developers, some politicians and civil servants are to argue that we need to develop Petaling Jaya further to boost our economy, raise income and wealth levels, I do not totally disagree. In fact, I would agree also with the fact that Petaling Jaya still have plenty of room to "develop" further, especially when contrasted against cities of the developed world.

However, as highlighted in my earlier post yesterday, all new (yet to be approved) major developments must cease so that the city and the state can catch its breath and take stock of the cost of unplanned development, without the necessary mobility infrastructure in place. And as long as the various federal ministries in charge of public transportation do not get their act together and drastically reform and improve the current system, then development will unfortunately have to be limited to the low-rise horizontal sort, instead of the more profitable vertical sort.

The Paradigm - Where did the hills come from?

Looking for example, at the "visual illustration" of The Paradigm mega-development project next to Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP), you would notice how it gives a false sense of space and tranquility with all four corners of its surroundings lined with open spaces and pretty trees. There are even trees-covered hills at a not too far distance away (no idea which part of PJ is that! ;-)).

The buildings are in no doubt top class buildings from a reputable developer listed on Bursa Malaysia. I'm not questioning their quality. I'm just asking, whether we, the city, is ready to cope with such projects cropping up all over the town. Or should it continue to be build first, cope later, like the policies of the previous government.

The trip to Tokyo, sponsored by the Asia Society, certainly opened my eyes a fair bit on how "good" things can still be, despite humongous developments. It's much better than even the state of affairs in enviable cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

Footnote: I've received a fair bit of response from volunteers who are willing to help me with the petition in PJ. I'm still looking for more, so email me if you are keen to help turn PJ into a more livable city.

Asia 21 Society Conference in Tokyo

I'm now in Tokyo for a 3 day conference - Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative Summit - and should be back in Parliament on Monday morning. For those who are trying to reach me - my Malaysian number is incapacitated as I do not own a 3G phone (other systems don't work here, unfortunately).

For any urgent matters, please email me (I still get to check periodically) or call/sms the Damansara Service Centre Hotline 016-2208867.

London Trip

I'll be making a trip to London, UK for a conference in about 2 weeks for a few days. For those Malaysians in UK who'd like to catch up (if time and venue permits), please email me directly at tonypua(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Hanoi, Here We Come!

Okay, I must really apologise to loyal readers out there for I really have been slacking in blogging for the past month or so. But its certainly not because I've lost interest in blogging. However, as you can tell from the recent announcements, I have been extremely tied up with various activities from attending press conferences, to preparing statements to giving interviews, to attending to the various needs of the political party I have just joined ;).

Last weeked was also a period of attending various open houses, as well as holding two of my own. What's more, I'm in the midst of renovating my community service centre, the counselling centre as well as a tuition centre, which is scheduled to be launched on the 18th March - all are welcome, and more details will follow. So for a first time in a fairly long time, I'm consistently lacking my much needed beauty sleep! ;)

Well, I'm at the KL LCCT at the moment awaiting my first visit to Hanoi, courtesy of super cheap tickets from Air Asia. Hopefully I'll get to catch my breath there during this short trip, and return recharged for more excitement next week.

There's really plenty plenty to blog about, and I'll certainly try to catch up on them if I can get proper access in Vietnam, and if the missus allow me the indulgence! ;) Will see if I get to shoot some photos worth putting up here as well.

Ciao! ;)

Love Affair With Air Asia

There's enough vitriol spewed over the last few weeks in Malaysian politics to make one nauseous. Well, it's a Sunday, so I thought I should have a change in pace and blog about my love affair, well, one with Air Asia. (So don't expect to find me caught on camera a la CSL ;-))

I wrote an article a few weeks back which was published in The NutGraph (which they re-titled "Loving Air Asia")

I have the greatest admiration for Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes, and I'm not abashed to loudly proclaim the fact that I'm a fan of Air Asia, and what it has done not only for travel in Malaysia, but for the entire region. A former colleague of mine once told me, if there's anyone who deserved his datukship, its Tony Fernandes.

Air Asia's mantra of “Now Everyone Can Fly” has really taken millions places, many of whom have never flown before. The airline is of course not without criticism, one of the most ticklish was the perversion of its motto to “Now Everyone Can Wait” for the frequency of flight delays, particularly in its early years. I've often been a victim of Air Asia delays myself, but it's a price and risk I'm willing to pay, in exchange for the affordability it affords me in travelling. After all, I've also suffered delays on trips with either the Malaysian Airline System (MAS) or the world renown Singapore Airlines (SIA).

Now, I know there are many out there who have negative sentiments against Air Asia, some of whom are my Pakatan Rakyat fellow Members of Parliament, especially over the recent issue of the still-born Labu "KLIA East" airport. But if you read my story, you'd know that my "love affair" is personal. I further believe that since I don't hold back much when "whacking" things I find distasteful (e.g., Barisan Nasional), I should also do the same for things which I really like, even if its against the grain.  You can read the full story at The NutGraph here.

I do have a part II to the above story, focusing a little more on the KLIA-East but given all the other urgent and critical things happening around us today, you may still have to wait a little before the second part sees the light of day ;-)

I'm also a big big fan of Tony Fernandes as a real entrepreneur, and I'll put him right up there with the best in the region. In fact, anyone with real ambitions to become an entrepreneur in Malaysia (I for one, had only half-ambitions, prefering early retirement ;-)), should emulate his "gung-ho" spirit. Unlike many of our country's pseudo-pretend-entrepreneurs who rely on government concession and oblique guarantees to become multi-millionaires, Tony made it big with no government guaranteed passenger traffic, protected air routes, monopoly license or government underwritten loans.

His "politics" could of course do with some improvements (speaking at Shahrizat's campaign trail(?!) Faint!) but everyone makes an honest mistake now and then ;-) After all, I was sympathetic to Pak Lah at the start of his reign, and Jeff Ooi, my fellow compatriot today, even campaigned in 2004 for BN!

For everyone's information, I don't own any shares in Air Asia although I watch over its performance. I have Tony Fernandes' handphone number, but we're not drinking buddies. I don't fly free on Air Asia although they sponsored a ticket each to Macau and Bali for my Charity Golf Tournament in October last year (Tony, I'm sure you can do better than that!!) And Tony is certainly no crony of Tony's for there's nothing I can offer except to buy air tickets at bargain basement prices. ;-)

Sightings in Beijing (I)

The imposing presence of this ancient incense-burning pot
@ Hongluo Temple in the outskirts of Beijing

Guarding the Supreme Harmony Gate (Taihemen) @ the Forbidden City

While these pair guards the Heavenly Purity Gate (Chaoqingmen) @ the Forbidden City

Let's learn the pose in preparation for 916... oh, are we too late? ;-)

The imposing 15th century Arrow Gates of Qianmen of the Ming Dynasty inner city walls
overlooking the newly renovated heritage street along Qianmen Dalu

The Temple of Heaven Park was a hive of exercise and activities in the morning

Early morning Chinese Chess @ the Temple of Heaven

Musical basking galore all over the Temple of Heaven park

The Red Gates with Lion knobs stands between
all who enters and exits in Imperial China


The Olympic Badminton Drum outside the Temple of Heaven

年年有余 - As literal as you can get ;-)