The Plants' Protest and The Promises

When I returned from my recent oriental trip, I was sad to see the state of neglect that I had caused to my orchids and the green brothers at my balcony. They have clearly displayed their desire and deprivation of water, nutrients, attention and love that I promised the day I took them home. One of the green brothers had died. The other 3 are surviving and holding on to the few green and yellowish leaves. My orchid Ning has stopped singing and now barely supporting her dried thin structure that used to be the flourishing yellow petals. The great Violet has lost all her glory that once made her firm and proud. Orked has been in the same state - flowerless; but upon a closer check, I was on top of the world again. Orked is expecting! A few green buds are getting greener and visible at the end of her stems. Soon Orked is flowering her white petals again and I am renewing my promises to be a better custodian for the members of my balcony.

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Last year I was assigned to lead a workshop on project handover. The workshop has a great importance since our factory is now expanding. By September 2009, our operational capacity will be increased by 200% to support the forecast utilization and production. There are many kinds of work going on parallelly. We have the recruitment of new associates, learning of new technology, starting the new process, toying with new ingredients and recipe, installing new facilities and equipments, commissioning them and so forth. So this workshop is intended to incorporate all elements, the existing, revised and new, and formulate our own way of managing the change and executing the way forward seamlessly. I have a team members from Engineering, Maintenance, Logistics, Production, Site R&D and New Product Development. It is a team with complex kind of people. The 4-day- workshop started well, then there were arguments over arguments, disagreements, confrontations and finally we found peace and sort out our differences and interests. It was hard for me at certain points as the team leader and being new to the business. I will have to stick with this team even after the workshop to ensure the implementation of the action plan until the end of 2009. Miss Operation Manager commented after our workshop presentation, "the team has shown great maturity in forming, storming and norming their differences in creating a great template for greater results. Well done!". It was great hearing it, a spot-on comment. It was a great feeling that I have the control of the complexities and ambiguities and I am on top of it. I guess it must have been the same feeling a lone ranger must have felt when he is able to tame the wild powerful horses and riding his way to the wild wild west.

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Last Wednesday I read through a work permit. It was a busy day at work and I was trying hard to make sense of the content. Then I signed on a dotted line and put the date under my signature - an ISO compliance in signing on a paper that has been part of my subconsciousness. The date that came by default from my subconscious mind was 17/2/2008. It struck me that my mind still thinks that 2008 is the year it is, when in reality, 2009 is reaching the end of February! Then I realized that the speed of time in the life I'm living now is greater than that of my mental system which is struggling to synchronize. Oh No! Is it an early sign of mental deterioration or plainly, let's face it, mental ageing? I read in an article some time back, when one's mind is busy with new thoughts and experiences, it slows down its natural ageing process. So right now I am seriously thinking of ways to keep my mind busy. I am optimistic about this. This is another promise.

48 Hours

This is one thing that I like about the people in Dubai. They are fast. On my last evening in Saigon,I made a long distance call to our travel co-ordinator in our office in Dubai.

Me : "Mallesh, I need you to change my flight. So listen..I'm in Saigon now. I need to get into the first flight to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow afternoon. You must make sure I have 48 hours in transit in Kuala Lumpur and then change my return flight to Dubai from Kuala Lumpur. Clear?"

Mallesh : "I need to check. Give me half an hour."

Me : "Fine, thank you"

* * * * * * * * * *

Within 10 minutes, Mallesh called me.

Mallesh : "There's Malaysian Airlines at 16:30 tomorrow and Emirates flight to Dubai at 00:30 on 7th Feb from Kuala Lumpur. But there is differential cost, who will pay?

Me : "How much?"

Mallesh : "AED 1,560"
Not that much, but I can really buy many stuffs with that (cheap-skate thinking).

Me : "Can't you put me into Economy class so we don't have that differential cost?"

It's the instant thought that came from creative accounting.

Mallesh : "No. You'll NOT be covered by insurance if you board an economy class. Company policies don't allow you to travel for business without insurance coverage"

Now he talked like a smart a**.

Me : "Ok. I'll pay"

Mallesh : "We'll send the e-ticket to your e-mail, which e-mail?"

Me : "Yahoo"

Mallesh : "OK"

Me : "Thank you, Mallesh"

In less than an hour, I received the e-mail and my mind had already reached home.

* * * * * * * * * *

Saigon is indeed a nice place that I wish to come back. No, definitely not for shopping. I had enough this time. There is this Cu Chi tunnel that I want to crawl into. It was a network of underground tunnels used by the Viet Kongs in their war against the Americans. It was located about 70km north of Saigon. It never occur to me that I could convince Madam Personnel Manager or Miss Operation Manager, the shopping queens, to come along. So I passed the idea. Further north of Saigon there is a coastal area which is claimed to be one of the most beautiful bay in the world. Far from the coastal area, there is waterfall and lake of Da Lat. The night before I left Saigon to KLIA, I was only able to google at the photos of the places that I missed this time around.

Well, perhaps someday I'll be there. In the mean time, so long Saigon...

* * * * * * * * * *

The flight from Saigon to KLIA was only 1 hour 55 minutes. We touched down around 7PM and I left the airport after half an hour. I didn't call my wife to inform about my 48 hours transit in KL. I planned it to be a surprise. So she would probably still be at the hospital or in her car in the long traffic queue on the Federal Highway. So I went to my mother's house, had dinner there and took my car, a 7-year-old Waja which is now driven by my mother. Then I went home. It was about 10PM. My wife was watching TV (She's not a typical medical specialist who reads medical journals and stuffs at home. At home she watches American Idols, Akademi Fantasia, Macam Macam Aznil and the likes). My daughter was struggling with her homework and my son was arranging his Power Rangers toys on the coffee table. When I came in.... it was a good surprise!

* * * * * * * * * *

So the next day, I bought a sushi set for two and a bento set from Subang Parade and brought them to UMMC. I had them as lunch with my wife in her late lunch break. Then I drove back to fetch my son from his school. After that he suggested that we went to a new playground that he has never been and I agreed. So he was a happy boy playing in the playground and I was the sleepy dad trying to catch a short afternoon nap. My daughter was happy to see us waiting for her at her school gate. In my Waja, we had this little conversation.

Hadiff : "Papa, are you quitting your job in Dubai?"

Me : "No. Why? You want me to?"

He nodded.

Me : "But I like my work there. You've been there, don't you like Dubai?"

Hadiff : "I like.... but I miss you"

Me : "You really miss me? Or you just want to have me to take you to the playground"

Hadiff : "Mmmmm. Fifty, fifty...."

He heard the word 'fifty, fifty' from the animated movie Madagascar 2 and he uses it frequently whenever he gets confused. Funny little fella. Aimi didn't say much. She seemed to have some words choked in her throat.

Some valuable hours out of the 48 hours were wasted in the traffic jam. The traffic in Klang and part of the Federal Highway had been worse than I last remembered. My wife took half day off on the second day but we had wasted the hours at the bank and on the phone talking to silly bank officer to sort out the problem with my credit card from a Malaysian bank. Anyway, the transit was short but it was worth it. I was happy to be with my family, even for a while. My flight back to Dubai was emotionally painful, after having to say good bye to my wife, my mom and my kids. Hadiff's word kept echoing in my mind....fifty, fifty.

Saigon Surprises

Now they call it officially as Ho Chi Minh City, but it has always been Saigon to me. Having heard the word Saigon, the mental gate opened and oozed out dark memories of grim image of a war-torn city. But as we touched down, we were surprised. After having the bitter past experience and cherishing reunification and peace, the Saigonese never look back. They are looking ahead and they have achieved so much. First, we were impressed with their new airport, open about one or two years back. The airport is 10 times better than Manila Airport (KLIA is still the best, though). Having a Malaysian passport, I need no visa, the fact that I only came to know 2 weeks before the trip. The immigration officer was not really friendly, but to my surprise I was given a booklet of places of interest in Vietnam and numerous suggestions on how to spend my money here. Madam Personnel Manager having a dual nationalities and one of them is Canada, had the same treatment. Miss Operation Manager having an Arabic look and an Egyptian passport got stuck for 15 minutes of unnecessary questioning. She grumbled on our way out, "They must've never got to see many Arabs in this part of the world....."

On our way to our hotel we were surprised to see that the streets and buildings on each side were so clean. I am really impressed that they are able to retain tall trees along the streets. Those trees are the left over from once a primary forest and have survived the bombings during their war in the 70s. The limo driver said there are traffic jam but not at the hour we were on the street. But I bet the traffic jam is not as disastrous as Federal Highway in KL and as unpredictable as Dubai's Sheikh Zayed Road. The advantage that these roads in Saigon have is there are more motorcycles and scooters on the roads compared to cars. These two-wheelers hit the road like a swarm of bees. The streets look busy but the traffic moves.





We are also surprised with the effort made by the Saigonese to retain the colonial buildings. This makes Saigon sentimentally historical. I like some part of Penang for the same attribute but Saigon is way better. The craze of having hypermarkets escapes the fancy of the city planner and therefore we were surprised to see many thriving small street shops selling not just their goods and services, but also promoting their local identity in the midst of modern Saigon.

The Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica

We stayed at Park Hyatt Hotel. As we got out of the limo, three ladies in their ao dai (Vietnamese dress) greeted us at the lobby and each took us to our respective room. There was no front desk check-in. The check-in was done in our room in a brief and personalized manner. I was only asked for my credit card number and I was left alone in the a colonial-themed room with elevated bed and the 2 tall pillars and the view of Saigon streets from the wooden windows. Surprisingly, the bathroom instead of retaining the conservative colonial concept, it has a transparent glass panel on one side that would again serve the sexy ambience as what had been said by this future top architect.

The sexy ambience, but not as sexy as in Manila Shangri-La

The view from the wooden windows

All the surprises we had on our first day were delightful. However, the surprises on the following day pissed us off. The room rate was USD290++ (It's the love-hate thing that the people in Saigon have with the Americans, they hated them and ousted them out of their land but now they adore their dollars and business transaction in USD is very common) and I got moody the next morning knowing that breakfast was not included. Madam Personnel raised her thick eyebrows learning that the meeting room rate is USD400++ for office hours only and coffee and lunch are charged separately. We bitched about the ridiculous charge of USD0.20 per minute for the internet connection in our rooms. So here the Saigonese in their clean, humble and smiley nature, are pretty nasty at ripping off foreigners. Our duty in Saigon went as planned. We met the local recruitment consultants and interviewed 6 candidates. We accepted only one applicant. Language is a great barrier for these young Vietnamese, though they may be very skillful with their hands. There are more meetings with other consultants to strategize the next recruitment plan. Unlike in Philippines, in Vietnam, there are certain red-tape, unique labour export policy and contract terms that we need to get familiar with. After work we went out of the hotel to explore the streets and to shop. Shopping in Saigon was a good experience. Things were bought at very good prices after we had surveyed many different shops and we bargained madly.

A Saigon woman in her china hat selling petty stuffs by the roadside

Miss Operation Manager posing like a Miss Saigon at Ben Thanh Market

A kapcai parked proudly by the roadside. Louis Vuitton arcade stood majestically aross the junction

The pigeon hole houses that tell thousands of stories over the years of sadness, hopes and happiness

The best landmark sculpture I saw in Saigon - the boy playing his flute

Another sculture of a political figure and his propaganda

There are many artists and painters in Saigon. There are many small art galleries displaying and selling paintings along the streets. The hotel itself is a gallery with many exciting paintings. The one below has been my favourite, the faceless Miss Saigon in her white ao dai.

"Dear Miss Saigon, will I meet you again?"

Our work was done. We were one day ahead of schedule. Madam Personnel Manager and Miss Operation Manager called our office in Dubai to reschedule the flight to Bangkok and then they looked at me. I was really tired doing all the shopping with them in Saigon and I could not stand another day of shopping with these ladies in Bangkok. So I asked myself, "What is better than Bangkok?". The answer is home.

Mission in Manila

On the 29th January 2009, the Emirates limo arrived on time in front of my building. It was a very foggy day. I was doubtful that our plane could take off from the airport under such poor visibility, less than 50m!

It was my first time departing from Terminal 3 Dubai. They said it is huge and one needs to be athletic to cover the walking distance. I did online check-in the night before so I wasted no time at the counter. I tried to get the E-gate pass so that I would not get stuck in the long queue at the immigration check point. I paid 200 dirham but it was returned because my thumb prints, both left and right, were not readable. They tried on my other fingers - all negative. So I took back my money and threw a thought that I should have been a professional criminal, for I have the advantage of doing my things and leaving no fingerprints that could be traced. I met my colleagues at the business lounge and had breakfast.

We walked to the departure gate and there was a huge crowd waiting to board the Boeing 777 to Manila. There were so many Pinoys in the crowd and my appearance allowed me to blend well with the crowd. The big crowd was then dispersed as we came to know that the flight as well as other flights scheduled this morning were all delayed due to the thick fog. Great! So we headed back to the lounge. I surfed the net and then after a few hours, I got bored.

Our 10:30 AM flight was delayed for about 4 hours. We got into our plane after 2PM. I was happy to get the window seat and next to my seat was vacant. The best priviledge one gets having to be in the business class is the ample space to stretch the legs; which I really appreciated in our 9 hours flight.

The stewardess addressed me by my name, pronounced correctly. Food was served in glassware on a white cloth. As the plane took off and steadied its way eastward, I peeked outside occasionally, to witness the magnificent earth contours. The one below was the bird's eye view of a spot along the Persian coast.

I ate and then tried to read but I slept after a few pages. It was a good sleep, interrupted only by a soft call for late night snack and a couple of nature's calls. The 9 hours didn't seem to be that long having the comfort to doze off most of the hours.

We landed the Manila Ninoy Aquino Airport at about 2 AM. I read through the entry regulations on the handouts. One thing that strikes me was that the Philippines has rather strict rules on intellectual properties and copyright enforcement. No pirated VCDs and DVDs are allowed to be brought into the country, as stated on the handouts. This prohibition appears about the same way they view the illegal trafficking of drugs and other serious stuffs. Their airport was not as modern, brightly-lit and polished as KLIA. Things are there for functional reasons, little has been done to impress the first timer like myself. We reached our hotel at the wee hour. We agreed to delay our schedule the next day by 1 hour. I hurried to crawl under the blanket to end the day.

The room was neat and comfortable except that it was kind of awkward to take shower in a glass panelled bathroom, visible from many angles. Taking the shower there, I felt like on a porn star on display. The interior designer for this room must have been a frequent patron to the red light district in Amsterdam and inspired by this strange concept of private openness.

We started our first day with a list of 16 shortlisted candidates to be assessed and interviewed. The candidates were divided into 2 groups and we gave them a group task and observed the group discussion. In between the sessions, we assessed their written electrical and mechanical competency tests. Then we had individual interviews. The same routine was repeated on the next day when we had another 16 shortlisted candidates. We were drained by the end of the days and barely had the energy to do other night activities other than just to dine and sleep. The only sight seeing of Manila that we had was the view from the 17th floor of the hotel building that presented part of the central Manila and Makati.

The economic situation in the Philippines is affected especially in the semiconductor and electronics industries which have retrenched many workers. The local newspapers reported that due to the global financial crisis more Pinoys would get poorer. We finalized our selection and brought hopes for promising future in Dubai for 9 of the selected candidates. To some other especially those who came with over-confidence and the attitude of I-know-everything, they had been intimidated in return and none of these guys fit into our company's associate's profile. We thanked them for coming and wished them good luck.

We had just the Sunday for fun. Having lived in a safe and blessed places in Malaysia and Dubai, the idea to visit the smallest active volcano in the world really thrilled us. So we went off to a place called the Tagaytay where the Taal volcano is erected from the Taal lake. It was about 1.5 hour drive from Central Manila. We drove up to a vantage point and enjoyed the splendid view.

There was an option to get closer to the volcano and we were adventurous enough to go for it. We drove down to the water edge and rented a bangka, which is a boat with the side extensions that spread like wings. We headed to the other side of the lake to get a closer look at Taal volcano.

It took us about half an hour to get there. Initially, it was fun but half way through, we had too much of water splashed on us. The ladies just had it when the Gucci bag got wet and they got too soaked. So when we reached the other edge of the lake, they got themselves a well covered rain-coat and wasted no time to head back. The complete package for this tour included a 5km horse-back riding to the volcano crate which I would like to complete it one day when I travelled with more compatible companions.

The Philippines is an archipelago, proned to typhoon, volcano eruptions, landslides, mudslides, earthquake and flood. It is highly populated and a big portion of the population live below the poverty line. The common aspiration of most of the poor little boys and girls in this country is to find their way one day to work outside their country and bring back wealth to support their roots. The majority of poor people here live simply, work hard and are forced to be resourceful. Yet when you meet most of them, they are happy and hopeful. They give me a good insight of being optimist in a hard life. I am sure I have another good insight, the Vietnamese version, next.