Gunung Semanggol Rest & Service Area

Another Rest and Service Area (RSA) that i always frequent when i travel back to Penang is the Gunung Semanggol RSA. It is located at KM190 of the North-South Expressway, 500 metres away from the Bukit Merah interchange exit no. 150.

The place is Wi-fi enable!

However, please be careful when you order the food. The food at the RSA might be cold and stale!

You can see from the picture that the RSA has been heavily decorated with Malaysian flags in conjunction with the celebration of 50th anniversary of the independence of Malaya!

Wantan mee @ Restaurant Sai Lam

Restaurant Sai Lam is situated at the junction of Carnovan Street and Chulian Street, in Georgetown, Penang. At night the junction is alive with famous hawker stalls like fried fishhead mee-hoon, porridge, fried yee mee, curry mee and fruit juices. And not forgeting the satay with sweet potatoes sauce!

Penang is not famous for its wantan mee. But there are a few exceptional places where i like the wantan mee. One of it is located at Sai Lam Restaurant. Beside wantan mee, they also offer beef soup mee. The stall open throughout the day and night.

The wantan is great filled with pork filings but no prawn. While for the dry wantan mee, it is a bit crunchy but perfectly cooked! There are some pieces of chicken and char siew added to the mee. The soup contained beef stock but they are quite stingy on it. You will not get a bowl of soup if you do not order additional wantan. For RM3.70, i get the wantan mee with 7 pieces of wantan.

The Nuffnang Community Goes Green

Today Nuffnang community goes green and fulfill a dream by using its influence to help an environmental organisation, WWF and Honda project i.e Honda - WWF Rhino Rescue Project.

This project with a pledged of RM5.00 million over a period of 5 years to save the Sumatran Rhino.

The Sumatran Rhino (Dicerorhinis sumatrensis) is one of the most endangered of the rhinoceros species!

As influenced by the Nuffnang community, I do my small part by contributing this little blog and embedded the cute little green rhino icon on my Blog!

Flaming Platter for One @ Manhattan Fish Market

Manhattan Fish Market, originally uploaded by See Teck.

I was with my doctor friend having dinner at Manhattan Fish Market in Penang, Queensbay Mall.

The picture showed how the flaming of the prawn when you ordered Flaming Platter for One, one of the Manhattan Fish Market specialty.

This platter consisted of one large grilled catch of the day and 3 pieces of the awards winning flaming prawn.

Totally agreed that the flamed prawns are good!

The Gift of Life (Malaysian Donor Card)

I hereby announced to the world at large that on September 9, 1999, i've pledged to donate after my death, all organ and tissues, including of kidneys, heart, liver, lungs, eyes, bones and skin, may be removed for the purposes of transplantation.

I was 34 then and healthy!

After 8 years later, now, i'm, scare and worry that all my organ and tissues may not be that healthy anymore to be donated.

My Blood

This is a digital image of a drop of my blood magnified under a microscope. I took this sample during one of the Bio Young campaign in Ipoh Parade on one weekend.

My blood type is under ABO Group "O" and Rhesus (D) Positive.

Must get my doctor to analyse it.

Australian Wagyu Beef @ Maria, Ipoh

Last Saturday, August 11, 2007, i brought my family together with my mother-in-law to have western lunch. An occasion to celebrate MIL coming birthday. Though my MIL dislike western meal.


Having read so much of Maria Restaurant, an uptown western restaurant located at the Greentown, Ipoh, we decided to patronise the place.





MIL ordered Grill Salmon, my wife ordered set lunch i.e grill chicken in traditional herbs while my daughter, Ernni ordered Pineaple chicken chop. As for me, i always wanted to try kobe/wagyu beef. Looking at the price list, Japanese Kobe beef cost RM165/100 gm and Australian Wagyu beef cost RM75/100 gm.

I ordered a 230 gm Australian Wagyu beef, grill to medium well done. Recommended to eat the beef either medium or medium well done.

How is it taste? Grainny, juicy and tender. I like it despite the price! The cost, RM172.50 for a 230 gm piece of Australian Wagyu beef! I couldn't wait to try Kobe beef.

I'm featured in The Star Biz on August 7, 2007

Transocean to meet RM40mil capital requirement

Tuesday August 7, 2007

By SHARIDAN MOHD ALI

PETALING JAYA: Transocean Holdings Bhd, a Penang-based logistics company, will comply with Bursa Malaysia’s requirement to increase its minimum issued and paid-up share capital requirement to RM40mil to remain listed.
Bursa decided to grant an extension to Transocean until Aug 18 to submit a proposal to comply with its listing requirements.

Financial director Chong See Teck said the company was trying its best to submit the proposals to the relevant authorities before the deadline.
He told StarBiz that Bursa had granted the extension in view of the agreements signed with Kumpulan Kenderaan Malaysia Bhd (KKMB) and Usmeta Manufacturing Sdn Bhd, both wholly-owned companies of Nadicorp Holdings Sdn Bhd.

In the first agreement, Transocean agreed to sell 12 million of its shares at RM1 each to KKMB. This exercise, which will boost Transocean’s current paid-up capital of RM28.9mil to over RM40mil, is expected to be completed by year-end.

Chong See Teck“KKMB will have a 29% stake in Transocean and the proceeds will be utilised to acquire the total equity interest in Usmeta for RM8mil,” Chong said, referring to the purchase of Usmeta in the second agreement.

“The remaining RM4mil will be useful to enhance our tight cash flow and working capital.
“Going forward, the company is seeing ia reduction in its gearing,” he said, adding that as at March the group’s total borrowings stood at RM17mil. He also stressed that Transocean had been disposing of its non-income generating assets since 2003.

To date, the group has sold its land in Sungai Petani (Kedah), its land in Balik Pulau, old head office and a double-storey shop lot in Seberang Perai Tengah (all in Penang), and a double-storey shop lot in Pasir Gudang (Johor) for a total of RM6.2mil.
“We expect to see improvement in our financial performance by the end of our next financial year,” Chong said.

He said Usmeta, which manufactures and rethreads used tyres, would boost the group’s cost efficiency in tyre usage after the takeover.

Transocean, which has been in the red since 2002, was suspended from trading since Nov 28 last year due to its failure to comply with the minimum paid-up share capital requirement.

It posted a loss of RM3mil on revenue of RM43.8mil for the financial year ended May 31. In its third quarter ended Feb 28, it recorded a cumulative loss of RM1.1mil on revenue of RM32.2mil. But Chong was confident that with the improvement of its cash flow, the company would be able to focus on its core activity in providing bonded land transportation and haulage services between Penang and Singapore. Currently, these business segments contribute 70% to the group’s revenue.

“The recent liberalisation of haulage tariff and one-box rate for both 40-footer and 20-footer containers are improving our operational costs,” he said.