Sheffield - Thirsk - Helmsley - Scarborough - Whitby - Middlesbrough - Sunderland - Coldstream - Edinburgh - Manchester - Sheffield - Malaysia

Yup. That was the trip I made in the past 1 week. Extremely exhausting I would say. The Sheffield - Thirsk - Helmsley - Scarborough - Whitby - Middlesbrough - Sunderland - Coldstream - Edinburgh - Manchester - Sheffield (which shall be called Leg 1 from here henceforth) leg was by car. And of course the Sheffield - Malaysia leg is by air.

This post will be focusing on Leg 1. I would say around 98% of it. (Apologies for the slightly blur pics as I shrunk them to save time uploading the whole lot)

OK, so part one of Leg 1. Sheffield - Thirsk - Helmsley - Scarborough - Whitby - Middlesbrough

Thirsk and Helmsley are small historical market towns. About 3000-5000 residents. Very small towns, nothing much really but at least it’s still a different scene compared to the cities.

Thirsk had lovely tearooms and fish and chips shops. LOTS of them!

The stone cross in the middle of Helmsley’s carpark.

Click here for a panoramic view of Helmsley’s market square!

The main road at Helmsley was pretty narrow but the pedestrian walkway was jam packed with tourists.

Next stop was Scarborough. We had tea there. A coastal city. Loaded with fish and chip shops. But we’re just too full to eat anything so we opted for a light and refreshing cup of English tea instead.

We spent approximately 30-45 minutes in each town before proceeding to the next town. After Scarborough, we stopped by Whitby. Another coastal town. Whitby is a lagoon where lots of yachts dock. For a full panoramic picture of the lagoon, click here!

After Whitby, evening has almost come to an end and it’s time to find some shelter for the night. We stopped by Middlesbrough to spend the night. There wasn’t anything interesting in Middlesbrough, it is said that the city is the dung of England. All the dirty industries are located there. Oh well, let’s fast forward to the next day.

Day 2, part two of Leg 1. Middlesbrough - Sunderland - Coldstream - Edinburgh.

First stop Sunderland. Another coastal city. We stopped there for some brunch and to restock our food supply for the trip ahead to Edinburgh.

We visited Sunderland’s Museum & Winter Gardens.

After Sunderland was the border town of Coldstream between England and Scotland. It’s on the Scottish side of the border.

We had high tea in Deakins Tearoom. Forgotten to take pics of the food because we were too hungry to wait for pictures to be taken.

After Coldstream, we’re off to Edinburgh. Starting from here onwards, I’m going to dump a whole load of pictures so I’ll just be describing the pics as I am just too lazy to tell you everything I did in Edinburgh.

The Royal Mile (Edinburgh’s historical stretch of road)

A medieval friend that we’ve met on the Royal Mile

One of many churches along the Royal Mile

Just another random road in Edinburgh

Ruins of St Anthony’s Chapel on the hills of Holyrood Park

The view of Edinburgh from the ruins of St Anthony’s Chapel. Click image for larger view.

Yours truly on Holyrood Park

Some swans at the pond in Holyrood Park, there were ducks too but they’re boring. Swans rock!

The National Gallery along Princes Street, I think that’s Queen Victoria sitting on top there.

Queen Victoria marks the end of Leg 1. Leg 2 of the trip, Edinburgh - Manchester - Sheffield wasn’t really eventful as we were rushing back to Sheffield to attend the convocation ceremony the following day and the trip from Edinburgh to Sheffield is about 5-6 hours.

Leg 3 was THE MOST uneventful leg of all 3. The pure boredomness of a 17 hour flight from Manchester to Dubai and then to Kuala Lumpur. Not to mention a 3 hour transit in Dubai. I stayed awake throughout the whole flight except for a short 30-45 minute nap on each flight which brings to a total number of hours awake to 36 hours.

Exhausted by the end of the flight and fainted on the bed for 13 hours.

Oh well, that isn’t news anymore. The news is that I’m back in Malaysia!!! Woohoo!! Food food and more food, here I come!

Competitiveness II

Once again, my previous post on Malaysia’s competitiveness which our beloved Prime Minister claims to be in eighth place in the world is given a smack in the face. This time not by me, by The Star newspaper.

The Star

17 May 2008

Malaysia Improves on Competitiveness Ranking

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia has improved on its world competitiveness ranking in the International Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) World Competitiveness Yearbook 2008 (WCY08).

In a report issued by the IMD on Thursday, Malaysia moved up four spots to 19th place with a score of 73.2 points out of 100.

Last year, Malaysia was ranked 23rd with 74.1 points. The United States maintained its first placing, while Singapore and Hong Kong maintained theirs at second and third respectively.

RAM Holdings Bhd chief economist Dr Yeah Kim Leng said the ranking was a “timely boost” for the economy.

He said the rise was mainly due to significant improvement in the delivery system and other measures taken by the Government to improve efficiency and competition.

He said the country still faced a host of challenges despite moving up the rankings.

Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd economist Wan Suhaimi Saidi said that while the measures taken did have an impact, the ranking only gave a “first impression” to investors.

Despite me taking the rankings from a different source (WEF), WEF found we ranked 21st and the IMD ranked us 23rd, so it isn’t too far apart a dispute. There’s still no where to be found that Malaysia ranked eighth.

How is our Prime Minister going to explain himself? Sadly, this question is going to be unanswered.

Chief Minister in Economy Class?

Have you seen a Chief Minister sit in Economy Class? I have.

by Mr Manager. Quoting from the post - “Chief Minister with the people’s spirit”. Kudos to our CM!

Happy Map

Found this interesting map on global happiness. I guess we Malaysians are very happy indeed!

Source

*Smile and the world will smile with you*

Chapter 1 in Malaysia’s New Era

Chapter 1 in Malaysia’s political era begins today.

Been catching up with the General Election results last night. Was expecting a slightly lower sweep for our beloved Barisan National but in my opinion still maintaining their 2/3 majority of parliament.

Surprisingly, BN lost control over 5 states and lost it’s crucial 2/3 majority in the worst ever election results for our National Coalition since 1969. Hopefully, this rings a bell and brings them an epiphany that the people doesn’t like what they’re doing to the country.

Penang, the Pearl of the Orient, will be once again ruled by the opposition in 39 years. Kelantan is still in the hands of PAS and likewise in Kedah, Perak and Selangor.

Hopefully, this ushers in a new era for Malaysia and a turning point on Malaysia’s delicate political, cultural and racial relations. Looking forward to Malaysia’s progress in the coming years.

Competitiveness

Was reading this article on The Star website regarding our beloved Prime Minister giving a speech telling people not to compare Malaysia with Singapore.

 The Star

18 February 2008

Pak Lah: Don’t compare Malaysia with Singapore

PENANG: Do not compare Singapore’s economy with that of Malaysia’s.

It is like comparing “first-class grapes (Singapore) with first-class apples (Malaysia),” Prime Minster Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said when addressing the Chinese community at the Penang Chinese Town Hall (PCTH) dialogue session yesterday.

“We are a population of over 20 million and we rank eighth in the world in terms of our competitiveness.

“This is not the Government’s figure and I am not telling you lies. This statistic is from an international survey.

“If I quote statistics from our own surveys, you will not believe us. Everywhere I go, the business community tells me that Malaysia is doing very well. These people are smart. You cannot fool them because they are well-read,” he said, adding that the Government had no reason to lie.

“Please trust us – we are your government. If you look at the economy, we are doing well. That is a fact proven by figures. But people still claim otherwise because of increasing prices. This is a very simplistic way of analysing the economy.

“Nobody is happy to see prices rising but this is out of our control. The question is not how to bring down prices but how to help the rakyat cope.

“Every country in the world is faced with rising oil prices except maybe Brunei but you cannot compare. The RM40bil oil subsidy we give out can be used to build better schools, roads, hospitals and infrastructure but we don’t want to burden the people,” he said, adding that education and medical treatment was also heavily subsidised by the Government.

“We subsidise even water and electricity, yet people are angry when they hear the word ‘toll’. We try to subsidise as much as possible but we still need to impose toll charges because we need to build roads,” he said before thanking the Chinese community for contributing to the country’s economy.

“The private sector is dominated by the Chinese and I want to say a big ‘thank you’ to the community for creating so many job opportunities,” he said.

1. If we don’t compare ourselves with someone better, how are we to improve ourselves?
2. We rank 8th in competitiveness in the world as claimed but according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report released last year, Malaysia ranks 21st in both Global and Business Competitiveness from 19th the previous year. (Where did he get this ambiguous and inaccurate information from? There’s no where else other than the World Economic Forum’s report to follow)
3. Read on the report further and you’ll find out that the top 2 most problematic factors in Malaysia are inefficient government bureaucracy and corruption. Oh dear, oh dear!
4. Yes, yes. You would argue that Malaysia is 21st out of 131 economics surveyed, that’s good. That isn’t my point, my point is where on Earth are we ranked 8th?

Hmmm. *ponders*

Probably I should go look at some anonymous global competitiveness ranking only approved by Malaysia and I might just find the answer there.

What Now?

Looks like Hindraf is going through an amazing chain of events going against them.

7th December 2007

The Star

IGP: Hindraf trying to garner support from terrorist groups

KUALA LUMPUR: There are signs lately that the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) is trying to garner support from terrorist groups, the police charged yesterday.

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said Hindraf has also set up a fund by misleading the public into believing that the money is to finance its activities.

“We view such matters very seriously. It is also very worrying especially when we live in a multi-racial society.

“The police will not hesitate to take stern action against anyone to ensure that peace and security prevails in this country,” he said.

Musa also said the group was trying to sow hatred towards the Government and that its actions could spark racial clashes.

He said such dangerous sentiments were being widely spread via Hindraf forums, distribution of books and leaflets, on websites as well as through the short messaging service.

“It is also trying to rope in gangsters to prevent local authorities from demolishing illegal temples in the near future.

“The fanning of such racial sentiments among the Indians is very unhealthy and dangerous,” Musa said, adding that the police would not hesitate to invoke the Internal Security Act (ISA) against those who abused technology to stoke racial hatred or unrest.

The IGP said those found guilty of spreading such messages through SMS or e-mail could be jailed up to three years, fined RM10,000, or both, under Section 28 of the ISA.

One of Hindraf’s leaders, P. Uthayakumar, was reported as saying in an interview in Monday’s edition of Singapore’s New Paper that that he would not rule out using violence.

He was quoted as saying that the protest by monks in Myanmar last September inspired Hindraf’s public protest.

“The monks were prepared to die for their cause. I’ve shown slides of monks getting shot and killed during my roadshows and I think it struck a chord with the people.

“I think it’s quite unlikely we’ll head down that path towards a civil war but there’s always that possibility. Some of the uneducated may resort to violence,” Uthayakumar was quoted as saying by the paper.

He also allegedly made similar statements in an interview with Indian national television in a programme called Times Now, where he warned of serious consequences.

What?! Now they’re terrorists? Why on earth would terrorists would want to hand over a memorandum to the high commission when they can just walk up into the building and blow themselves up once and for all?!

Someone’s not using their head properly…

Malaysia’s Identity Crisis in TIME

Found an interesting article about our beloved country, Malaysia.

It’s rather long though but it’s worth the time and effort to read every word.

Click here to find out!