Fitness Level Up

My fitness journey has taken yet another level up.. this time around, I upgraded my gym membership of Fitness First to the dual membership which allows all access into all Fitness First Malaysia and Celebrity Fitness Malaysia clubs..

The dual membership also allows unlimited entry (because I am passport platinum level in FF) into all Fitness First Asia and Australia clubs..

All for just RM15 more each month, which I felt was worth paying for, considering that I moved about KL and travel quite a bit..

So I have been visiting back clubs like Midvalley, 1 Utama and Bangsar Village where I used to go before I switched to Fitness First in 2012..

And I find I train a lot harder in Celebrity... hmm maybe it's because I don't know anyone there hence less chance of chit-chat and more focus on serious workout.. .

In FF I am bound to start talking and you know.. half the time is spent chit chat hahahaha... over the years I've made friends with people who gym alone..

The Intern

2 days after I had Intern 3, I just had enough of him and his nonsense.. I let him off my team.. I did not want to mentor someone with that kind of attitude.. I gave him to another team, yeah and his new supervisor was fuming mad at him day in day out..

I wish him well, but I have serious doubts where he'll go, if data entry is where he's comfortable at, being a college graduate-to-be, so be it..

The day my intern pisses me off

So now I have a team of my own.. a staff and 3 interns.. one of them said something today that I felt shouldn't be said by any employee, not just interns.. Sometimes I wonder what these kids learn in school/college..

Intern 1:
Fast and eager learner, able to grasp what was taught easily and able to repeat it back to me without difficulty, and do them fast and almost correct.. Only thing is likes to play phone and relies too much on google translate, we all know how wonderful google translate can be sometimes..

I can live with this - as long as work gets done, I'm really ok.. dependency on google translate is something that can be worked on..


Intern 2:
Did not turn up on second day and half the day on third day, without informing anyone, I gave him the benefit of the doubt of his reasons two days in a row, I did not question him further because I honestly think he doesn't understand my question (on why he didn't turn up/late).. Takes forever to complete his assignments..

Again, as long as he does what is asked of him, however slow, I'm ok, although I would probably make some remarks in his report about his missing-in-action-days, as I believe it won't be the last..


Saving the best for last... Intern 3:
So Intern 3 learns things quite ok as well, but slow in execution and full of spelling,                   spacing                          and cApiTaLiSatiOn errors.. I am kinda OCD on this: uppper case where it should, and lower case other times.. He has a weird fascination of random capitalisation, or not where it should, and an inconsistent use of spaces..

I decided today I would teach him something new so he can move forward and help me down the weeks as I was planning the workload for them all..

Barely a minute sitting down with him, he asked me something which left me stunned, "Do I really need to learn this? We don't learn this in college. I don't think I need to know."

Ok - I admit it's a tough one, but if one is to work in a travel industry, one has to know this even the basics..

I was stunned..

I crafted a seemingly innocent sarcastic reply, "If you think you don't want to learn this, it's ok".

And I just walked away..

And for the rest of the day, I basically just ignored him, gave him some tiny updating work to do and leave him be.. and he also did not ask if there's anything else he can do instead, all he did was sit there and play with his phone and took his own sweet time to complete the simple task in an hour or two (which I could do it under 10 minutes myself)..

They all learn at different pace so I have to teach them separately, which is fine, I am more than happy to sit down and guide them, and then I do my work and double checking their work at night.. and as interns, they are paid too, not to photostat and do filing like many other companies out there, but to actually learn and do the work as a full time staff would..

So it's that kind of attitude that really puts me off..

Birthday Trip: 5D4N Chiangmai-Chiangrai (part 4/4)

Day 4: Exploring the city

The last day before we return the car, we went around exploring the city.. First we went up to Doi Suthep temple perched atop the mountain 15km away from Chiangmai city, however, it takes about 1 hour drive as the drive isn't an easy one.. 

On our way, we witnessed a fatal accident, the victims' bodies were twisted from broken backbone and there was a lot of debris on the road, we dare not look and just drove on.. Luckily I wasn't driving.. 

At the bottom of the stairs up to Doi Suthep

Looking back down from the top

Fortune telling sticks

A section of the temple

Fresh orchids

A Hmong girl resting after a hard work "performing" 

So spiritual that this tourist was chanting at the tree

From the entrance to Doi Suthep

On returning to the city, we stopped by Chiangmai Premium Outlet where each of us bought a shoe and some clothes.. it's not your usual premium outlet, the big brands were missing, only the mid-range and some unheard of brands..

Beside the premium outlet is a Starbucks outlet.. it's unique and it's pretty..

The side entrance

Front facade of Starbucks

Inside Starbucks

 After enjoying a drink inside Starbucks, we proceed to return our car near the airport.. The office of Budget Car Rental is located opposite Centralplaza, however not many Uber drivers know this place. there's a famous Korean grill restaurant beside it, and it's easier to find rides using that as the pickup point..

Office counter

Found a perfect parking spot just right at the door

After that, we just grabbed a ride to the Night market.. it's so huge that from 5pm to 12am we were there, we only managed to cover 1 street.. there's like 3 or more stretch of the night market that we didn't even cover..

And yes, it is super super crowded and packed, people jostling for space.. I would say it's 10x worse then Connaught night market, famous in Kuala Lumpur..

Near Tha Phae gate

This trip was made possible sponsored by my friends for my birthday and they also bought me dinner to celebrate..

Birthday Trip: 5D4N Chiangmai-Chiangrai (part 3/4)

Day 3: Watching sunrise on the summit of Doi Inthanon

4am.. Woke up to the freezing temperatures of around 4 degrees Celcius, the water was too cold to shower so all we did was just to wash up and freshen up, had a quick bite, and then drove off to the summit at 5.30am..

When we reached around 6am, there was already a long queue of cars and scores of people scrambling for the best spot to catch the first Thai sunlight..

6am - Still dark but in the horizon, the ray of the first sunlight

Slowly  but surely

The crowd, when it was bright enough for photo

Just before the first sunlight

And the sun

Here's the timelapse videos:

Once the sun is up and bright, we make our way down to Phra Maha Dhatu, the twin pagodas built to commemorate the 60th birthday of the Thai King and Queen.. 

Shhhh I am meditating

The twin pagodas facing each other, taken from the parking lot

It's windy and freezing still, overlooking the mountain range

Another shot of the mountain range, the Himalayans end here

After this, we left the national park for Chiangrai, from here it's a 4.5 hours drive, mostly along mountainous terrains, except for the flat 20 mins bypassing Chiangmai city.. 

Half way to Chiangrai, I gave up driving as it was too tiring and too sleepy for me to drive the entire way, so I pulled over and had a friend take over the wheel for the rest of the day in Chiangrai, while I catch up on some rest and sleep in the backseat.. 

We reached Chiangrai around 2.30pm and for a quick lunch before visiting the White Temple and Blue Temple..

The front of the White Temple, before the entrance booth

I guess it looks good on pictures only but nothing great in real life

Legends has it that one must never backtrack or reverse as they cross the bridge

Pretty right?

Entrance of Blue Temple

The pagoda behind the main hall

After visiting the temples, we adjourned for dinner in Chivit Thamma Da (or as I pronounced it, Chivit tamada).. It is a huge complex in a series of bungalows that depict different areas..

It need a signboard!

At the courtyard of the main dining hall.. It's a very Victorian style kinda building..

Part of the dining hall

The verandah where we were seated, overlooking the river

And this is where my friends celebrated my birthday dinner here.. 

I chose a chocolate mousse cake, cos I love chocolate cake, served on a Victorian styled plate

After dinner, we drove back to Chiangmai, a distance of 200km and takes 3 hours across the mountain range, often a single lane highway which is Highway 118, notoriously dangerous and all those deaths and accidents that happened between Chiangmai-Chiangrai that we read in the papers, all happened on this highway.. 

Highway 118 is so bending and winding that you need 200% concentration and full alert when driving this road.. You cannot see much ahead of you due to the darkness and sharp bends every corner, definitely not for someone who's not used to driving Genting or the old Cameron route, and multiply that difficulty by 10.