KL International AV Show 2018

This is a yearly event which I was always keen to attend. Not much of an audiophile nowadays but I like good recording. The current hifi setup I had was bought after attending one of this event a couple of years back and it was a good event to see new gears and just have a good look.

This year's venue was a departure from the last one. It was held at Sunway Putra Hotel, right next door to the old The Mall opposite PWTC.

I'm legit!The venue was smaller than before - JW Marriott at Bukit Bintang. But the concept were the same. Using hotel rooms emulate our living room to a certain extand, which gave better acoustics rather than open spaces. But walking through hotel corridors did pose some unique problem. The traffic flow around the venue as well as queue for the lifts proved testing.

So, did I hear any good stuffs? I sure did.

This must have been the most expensive kit on display Some of the gears were deduct loudly expensive and relatively unknown. The rigs were too big and difficult to maintain. I wanted a streaming system which is more practical and would fit both my budget and space.

The one which caught my eyes were the system from Linn. Not an all in one like my Naim set, but sounded excellent. The units were not yet available in Malaysia though. The unit on show were from Singapore although I was welcome to order.

There were some good clearance deals as well as it was the last few hours of exhibition. And I was guilty of picking up a Bluetooth amplifier. I have yet to get a speaker for it at the minute but the deal was just too good to ignore.

Now to the poor man's area ...Headphones were also seemed to be making a comeback ...There were units going in excess of RM100k with great sound. But it would depend on the source. Just a plain CD would not be enough to explore the real quality of the system. Most of the units either use a specialized streaming unit or turntable. Not practical really for casual users like myself.

I may have a closer look at the Linn system once a local unit is available. The sound were good enough for me ...

Rainy Hazard

Peak hour traffic in the heavy rain was never fun. There might be water logged road, slow traffic and slick driving surface. There is another hazard in Lembah Kelang however especially on the highways.

Motorcyclists!

They smart danger in clearest of weather but during rain, they tended to stop as a group under shades of bridges. This morning, they occupied the two left lanes along Federal Highway under a few of the bridges as I was making my way to work.

It happened on both sides of the road ...This created extra jam as the lanes were practically closed. Imagine if you were driving fast having to apply your brakes on such atrocious conditions.

Federal Highway has their own motorcycle lanes but they were not well maintained and tended to be closed at areas where constructions were going on - which in KL meant everywhere! Ten year back, motorcycles were banned on rolled inner city highways. But the ban had been lifted since. They use the highway for free and weaving in-between the fast lanes will create problem.

A few months back there we're mbps ends where a car ploughed into this crowd of cyclists causing a few deaths. I guessed the lessons were never learned ... I am not campaigning that they were banned again but a solution must be found and the way I see it, they need a dedicated lane for themselves as well as proper shade stops during rain. Good luck to that ...

Cempedak Luar Pagar

My late father loves jack fruit. There is a small plot of land opposite his house on which he planted a few trees. One of them was a jack fruit and for the last few years it had been yielding some fruits.

Not bad actually. And fresh from the tree, my Mum would fry it. I went to visit Mum last Sunday and we had exactly that. Good stuff actually. Yum yum!

Japan Expo Malaysia 2018

I stumbled across the event during he last installation in 2017. I happened to have a free after noon with Anita and the boys away to Port Dickson. I went for a spot of lunch at Pavilion and saw all the commotion. Apparently Pikataro was there and I managed to get a video of his performance from the top floor of the mall.

This time around, with the new Facebook Local app, finding out about the happenings in town turned out to be a lot simpler. Irfan had been keen on Japan lately so, after work, I brought him to have a look.

Can somebody explain about the guy in the blue bear costume?She doesn't look impressed ...Welcome ...Exploring the upper floors ...The whole thing appeared overwhelming to him and after a short walk, he decided that he has had enough. We had just missed the Cosplay parade at the time and there were a few singers performing at the time. The crowd was not as big as the one last year but maybe it was because the venue was more dispersed rather than concentrated at just one area.

Exploring some digital artsDrawing on the wall ...Stories to listen toStill halfway ...

We explored the six floor area near Tokyo Street where pop-up stalls were located. Plenty of offers for holidays in various parts of Japan on show, even some stalls from Japanese universities in case we were interested. Plenty of food stalls of course but Irfan was not very keen as he was not sure if they were Halal or not.

Air Asia was also in the act with some flight offers to JapanThe stalls by the fountainGirl by the fountain ...Not sure who she is but she was giving away autographs ...There were also some stalls by the fountain at the entrance. Mainly food as well as some Cosplayer hanging around. Quite fun but the crowd were less than they were last year. Maybe there were plenty of events going on at the same time this weekend. There was Riuh at APW Bangsar as well as a Kakiseni event at Public. Will be checking those out tomorrow rather ...

High Speed Rail

There are many development plans from the last administration which would help elevate Malaysia to the next level. A national railway network would have been one of the steps to the right direction.

Imagine getting to Penang in 2 hours. 3 hours to either Kota Bharu or Singapore from KL? That would be awesome.

The plan was there but the implementation had created a lot of ill feelings. There were too many middle men making a quick buck escalating the cost. If we were to continue with the current plan, the cost per kilometer of a train service to Singapore would be among the highest in the world.

I for one agree that the rail network should go ahead but after some renegotiation. The current cost is just too high.

I was in Singapore last weekend. Both the journeys out and back were delayed. I spent more time at the airport than the actual travel. A clear waste of time. It would be more efficient to take the train instead. And with a high speed network, the journey would have been faster taking into account the travel time to the centre of KL from the airport.

Hopefully in the years to come, this would be built. We shall just need to wait and watch ...