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\nFirst time visit Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1999.<\/p>\n
Malaysia, so called true Asia, is the first country I went abroad
\nin my life. It was a winter in 1999, Shanghai was already
\nvery cold and I was informed to go Kula Lumpur for CMS\/Lotus Notes
\ntraining.<\/p>\n
There was no more than ten days left, I even didn’t have passport
\nyet. No one can easily get a passport that time. Even
\nfor the application form, you have to have a invitation letter from
\nforeign company, a introduction letter from the archive holder,
\nwhich normally was a state owned company. After that, you
\nneed fill the application form, get the archive holder chopped that
\napplication form means that the company let you go. It looked
\nlike the company has the ownership of the employees, a very bad
\nfeeling. <\/p>\n
Shanghai Foreign Service Company, which is my archive holder, had
\na related company, which did service for getting passport and visa.
\nThe official period will be two to three work week to get the passport,
\nand the company can get the passport in one week. It
\nwas said that the son in law of the director of Shanghai Foreign
\nAffair owned the service company, which was why they can do the
\njob so quickly. All the employees for Shanghai Foreign Service
\nCompany have to go through that related company to get the passport.
\nThe price was 200 RMB, several times higher than the normal price.\n<\/p>\n
Even though, I need faster service. There was only less than
\nten days left, and I need get Malaysia Visa also. Even worse,
\nMalaysia only had consulates in Beijing and Guangzhou can issue
\nbusiness visa that means I had to fly
\nBeijing or Guangzhou after I got my passport.<\/p>\n
Eventually, I got the passport in three days through my \u300cpowerful\u300d
\nfriends after paid 2oo RMB to that service company.
\nI mailed my passport to FCS Guangzhou through EMS. Ned Quistorff,
\nthe PCO of FCS Guangzhou, sent the passport to Malaysia Consulate
\nin Guangzhou by himself and got the visa. I flew to Guangzhou
\nthat morning, got my passport and visa back and flew to Kuala Lumpur
\nthat afternoon.<\/p>\n
I went there with the same flight of two Guangzhou colleagues.
\nWe took cab to the Mandarin Oriental hotel. I had no any idea
\nof Kuala Lumpur, which I knew before I went there is the famous
\nTwin Tower and hot weather.<\/p>\n
I didn’t see the twin tower that night. I decided the first
\nthing I will do at the next day was to look for the Twin Tower.<\/p>\n
Next morning, I woke up and open the window frame. I found
\nthat the Twin Tower is just there about 200 meters away. The
\nTwin Tower was really high; Shanghai didn’t have Jin Mao Tower that
\ntime.<\/p>\n
We had training in the hotel for three days. I didn’t go
\nanywhere at daytime. Bill Lawton, Huang Zhiqiang and I went
\nto Chinatown free market after supper. I bought a Seven
\nYears in Tibet<\/i> video CD, which Sam and I wanted to watch it
\nfor a longtime.<\/p>\n
The only thing I still remember is that the weather was really
\nhot. I even cancelled my following trip and escaped to Hong
\nKong.<\/p>\n
\nFirst time visit Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1999.<\/p>\n
This is my second time to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is
\nalso the first time I did OCIO (Office of Chief Information Officer)
\nWindows 2000 network upgrading by myself only. <\/p>\n
Malaysia isn’t the place I like, so I set the itinerary end at
\nFriday. It was not only I can avoid weekend in Malaysia, but
\nalso I can get more per diem.<\/p>\n
I felt Kuala Lumpur didn’t change anything in the past three years.
\nI could still recognize the street and shops there. Bill Zarit
\narranged me stay at Regent Hotel. It was a very good hotel
\nat the best location, but it was also the only five stars hotel
\nwithout broadband connection in Kula Lumpur. I had to buy
\nthe Internet dial-up card to access Internet. <\/p>\n
There are three racers in Malaysia. Indian, they are very
\nsmart, lazy and dirty. I even met a cab driver can talk
\nabout the mathematic with me. Indian are famous of their bad
\nsmell. And I did feel they are very lazy. I remembered
\nthat I asked an Indian to move something for me, once the first
\nitem moved; the person will just stay there. He won’t move
\nif you didn’t tell him to move the next item. Malay, they are very
\nclean, honest and slow. I don’t want to say they are stupid,
\nbut slow is a word to kind for them. Chinese, they are very
\nhardworking, smart and bad. I still remember my experiences
\nfor taking cab. If the driver is a Chinese; he normally will
\nask more than the meter.<\/p>\n
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