Novel Introduction

Team 1 - obviously ....Sorry about harping on with my recent trip to Damai Laut. But I promise that this will be the last installment. I wanted to touch a bit about the activity we had on the second day. We doctors have this often uneasy relationship with the Pharmaceutical companies. We depended on them for perks and in my case help for research. Over the years, I have been asked to attend their meetings, sponsored to travel to conferences and lately to be speakers in their medical meet-ups. I supposed, part of being an academician is to provide teaching talents, and I had made it known that it was something I loved to do. I went a step further a couple of years back when, during a chance meeting with an old friend - who studied in Sheffield with me, and was then working for a Pharmaceutical company - we discussed the possibility of organising sessions clearly targeted at up and coming doctors other support parties - Pharmacists an Dietitians. The doctors invited were mainly Medical Officers and the aim of the talks were to demystify come of the concepts that they see in their day to day practice, but may not have been thought well as they were having their training.

Desmond giving instructions at the beginningFirst task - make 9 nails stand on one!After 10 minutes of trying, the Pfizer rep took pity on us and showed how it was doneThe ‘Masterclass’ was born and in 2008, we had the first installment at Avilion Admiral Cove, Port Dickson. Last year it was held in Penang, and Damai Laut was the third. Obviously the program had evolve, and will continue to do so. I was proud to be involved at the planning stage, but due to my work commitment, the Pharmaceuticals provided the logistics and support. The target audience stayed the same. We managed to extend the invitation to almost 100 delegates. What the organiser cleverly did was outsourcing the event management to a third party. They also organised what I thought was a novel paperchase events, akin to the amazing race without the race - and some might say the amazing bit as well. What they did was organised the participants into groups, and they were given some tasks to do, similar to teambuilding exercise while having the chance to explore the resort. The exercises and tasks were centered around the products that the sponsor wanted to sell to the participants. We had the chance to mingle and network, while exploring the resort. The sponsors got the chance to introduce their products without essentially nailing it to the participants’ head. A win-win situation.

Heading to the first stationFlurry of activitiesPuzzle to be solved after the third stationThe fifth task - hit some targets with the bow and arrowYup! Our Dr Harre Haren is no Robin HoodThe Mohd Noor sisters doing some Charlie's Angel pose for the last taskYes! My team came last … and as the old adage said - it was not about the winning, but the taking part. Loser! And another thing. The event organiser I thought was very good. In the odd chance that you need an event sorted out, do give apxara a shout. The team leader for the event was a gentleman called Desmond. Do contact him through email here for more info.

Teluk Intan

I left Damai Laut just after lunch, after my friend KT Chua, got his pick-up. The weather was gorgeous, so I decided to take my time driving home. I wanted to sample the mee rebus in Teluk Intan while havong a look at the famous menara condong (leaning tower). Left the hotel at 1.45, and reached Teluk Intan ‘City’ - yes, it has city status for a few years now - just before 3 pm. Parked my car right in front of the stalls overlooking the tower. Unfortunately I cant find any stall selling mee rebus there. The one with the signs were closed at the time. Too early I guessed. I settled for some mee hailam instead. Just taking my time.

Walked across the road into the tower. It was smaller than I thought. The surrounding building forming a barrack surrounding the plaza where the tower stood did not help matters when it came to scale. Weather was gorgeous, quick snaps, then I stepped into the tower building.

Kudos to the City Council for putting effort into both preserving the building and making it accessible to the public. There were a few buses taking local an foreign visitors arriving at the plaza at the time I stepped in. All with their cameras, standing a distant away to have their pictures taken with the leaning tower behind them. Really happy to see that some of them were Malaysians. Honestly, this is the first time I have been to Teluk Intan as far as I can remember.

In the belly of the tower - where the main entrance lead to. The lady was leaning to peek into the well located right in the middle.A look into the wishing wellThe tower was opened to the general public. Entrance was free, and there was a visitor’s book for you to sign in as a token for the visit. Although 7 stories high, only the bottom three were opened. The upper floor housed what used to be a water tank - for the town - that was now emptied. There was also a clock which still belled every 15 minutes. I can see the pulleys and ropes everywhere, well greased to show it was still in great working order.

Close look at the motif of the pagoda-like roofThe exhibit on the wall in the towerAccording to Wikipedia, the tower was built in 1885 by a local Chinese entrepreneur. It was meant to serve as a water reservoir, a clock tower and a site where the whole town folks congregate. The tower were also lit for ships entering from the sea - Teluk Anson as it used to be called used to be a useful port town for tin and petroleum - to navigate. Over the years the erosion and silt made the river mouth shallower and Teluk Intan lost much of its business to Lumut, to its north. A few years, it was discovered that the tower was built on an underground river, causing one side of the tower to lower, causing it to tilt. It was not exactly the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but the tilt was quite obvious.

There are small walkways on the balcony of each of the tower floors. You can see the flags adorning the sides - it's World Cup fever baby!View from the balconyThe pulleys on the still working clock. It chimed every 15 minutes.So what was there inside the tower? Old pictures and writings about the history of the town. It still need a bit of curation but the fact that the place was preserved in the first place spoke volumes. Maybe in the coming years, there will be more exhibits on the tower floors. I spent some time looking around the building itself. The World Cup fever had definitely hit the tower. Flags adorned the side of the tower and there was a small football fiesta going on on the plaza next door. I wished that I did not have a time limit as I would have loved to explore more of the local building. There were a nice mixed of colonial, Malay and Chinese architecture in the town shophouses. Would love to go there again one day for a photography day trip. It was pretty scenic if you know what you were looking for.

Damai Laut - Part II

View of the nearby Pulau PangkorI actually got up before the morning 6 am morning call! An achievement. I realised that there were a few mosquitoes in my room as well when I got up. I slept like a baby even though the bar was still belting out some disco numbers at the time I took to bed. My room was near the main reception, where the bar was situated and I can hear the music coming in through the windows. Shower, got dressed, took my 7D and went straight to breakfast. It was still too dark to go out for snaps at the time.

It was nice to be valued, especially just before being covered by swarm of jellyfishYup, it was SaturdayWalking up to the main lobbyBreakfast was pretty basic, and on the whole considering this being a four star hotel and the form of last evening’s barbecue dinner, I was expecting more. There were the usual assortment of continental, English and local breakfast, but they lacked variety. I settled for some omelette and cereals. Had a chat with the other delegates and introduced myself to the speaker - Mr Raja Badrul from UPM, the other being my friend KT Chua. I then had around half an hour to explore the hotel with my camera. The hotel was facing west, and it was still overcast, so no beach pictures yet. I snapped the facilities and the pool. Had a walk around the compound, before heading back into the room to get ready. I was chairing the session that morning, so had to be on time.

Felt like dropping everything an just lay there

The morning session started early, and was wrapped up by 10. However we were not finished yet as there were more activities later. The organiser had arranged a kin of paperchase for the delegates - which I will talk about in the coming entries. That was the time when we managed to explore the resort further, having the chance to sample archery and the lot. Being a sensible photographer, I took my camera along. Suffice to say that we came last …..

One of my junior colleague, Helmi, checking out the poolYes! I got the idea.The room provided for me was the sea view deluxe. It had a couple of balconies - one facing the sea, an another facing …. a wall. Due to the short stay, I never really had the chance to sample what the resort had to offer. From the limited time I had, I found that it was what to expect from a four-star resort. The food was reasonable, with a good selection for room service. The ambiance was very soothing. There was a comprehensive spa service, a karaoke lounge, herbal garden and sports facilities, such as archery, watersports, beach volleyball and soccer. There was also a tennis court and for the avid golfer, there is an 18-hole par 72 nearby. If you fancy an apartment, or even bungalow villas, there were a few units, which you pass through on the drive to the resort.

Karaoke anyone?Or for some ice-cream?

The swimming pool looked tempting, but the sea front was quite small, and there was a big warning sign about jellyfish. I think, I would recommend sticking to the pool. The was also a wading pool for the kids. Will I come here again? For the price of around RM350 and if you don’t mind a lightly disappointing - at least to my standard - level of food selection, it will be worth a visit. The danger of staying more than a couple of nights would be you might be left with nothing much to do, unless you were on your honeymoon of course. Personally, I was willing to give the resort another chance. When? Not soon I don’t think. We were planning to go down south for the next holiday.

For more information on the resort, please click here. I have also uploaded the slideshow of the visit here.

Damai Laut - Part I

I had the pleasure to stay at this four star resort, in a secluded bay near the port town of Lumut last Friday. I was invited to give a talk there for a pharmaceutical company on a topic was very familiar with. I took both Thursday and Friday off, even though I went to he office on Thursday. As I mentioned in a previous entry, it took 4 hours for me to drive my way up there. I left KL after breakfast, but had to turn back since about 10 minutes out, Puan Anita called me to tell that I had left my laptop bag by the door. I was lucky that it was realised very early on. Imagine if I was already half way out! Not exactly a disaster because I stored one copy in the cloud and another with the organiser. But I will have to suffer the inconvenience of not being able to use my Mac. That would be unprofessional!

Entering my roomAt the end of a long corridor. The lift was on the other end.I reached Lumut just in time for lunch. Checked in and got myself organised. There was not much to miss outside since it was drizzling all afternoon. I was surprised at the distance to the resort hotel from the main road. It was 8 km of narrow road, driving past palm oil plantations and then the golf course and the resort apartments. The resort hotel sat right at the end of the route.

Unfortunately it was raining outsideThe first couple of session sailed by and it was time for mine. We planned to start things later than planned due to the traveling, and it was almost 7pm when I was done with my slides. A quick shower and it was time for dinner. The organiser got all of us a sumptuous sunset barbecue dinner on the waterfront. It has since stopped raining. Nice dinner, with nice music, good company. I was surprised by the lack of seafood on serve, as I imagine Lumut and Pangkor being a port, we will get some nice fresh seafood. There were some prawns and crabs, but they were hardly fresh. The chicken wing and ribs were aplenty. The venue may not be suitable if you were bringing kids however. Getting there include negotiating a steep back and the aisle and spaces between the tables were pretty limited. Then there will also be an issue with food, as it was mainly barbecue, there might not be food for the kids.

Nice, violet sunset. After the cloud had cleared.I think I must have gained 2 kgs by the time I was done. There was also a cultural show, featuring local dances. But then, out of nowhere, came an Iban dancer doing a demonstration on how to use a sumpit - a traditional jungle dart thrower. It was essentially a long hollow bamboo pole, where a long and slender poisonous dart was spat out by blowing one end of the weapon. Sounded basic, but oh my God, the dart just rocket through. The target were a few balloons on the ceiling and it was not hard to hit those! SHame that I did not carry my camera there that evening. It was too dark to use my phone.

Yup! My session was over! But look at the way my name was spelled! Haris Abdul Rahman should suffice.Someody clearly enjoying some nightswimmingAll that was left was some football. Even the waiters wear football jerseys in this bar.Dinner was done. It was time to settle in for football. Brazil was playing Portugal that evening. The game was not shown in the rooms, so we congregated at the main bar enjoying it on the big screen. With drinks flowing of course. Nobody was drunk, so everyone was well behaved. I was pretty tired at that point, but football kept me going. Got there a bit late since I had to make a few phone calls. My colleague, KT Chua was also just arriving from UMMC. It was close to 11 when he finally got things settled. We thought the surprise was over, but then came the half-time. There was a live band playing, and they were damn right tacky! The girls were belting out dangdut numbers in tight, football-theme outfit - half funny, half surreal! The next number - Lady Gaga! I rest my case.

Time to catch the zzzzzzMercifully the second half started. A bit slower tempo-wise compared to the first. I went straight to bed after the final whistle. After all, the morning wake-up would be at 6! The slideshow for the trip can be found here.

Trip to Lumut

Spend the afternoon giving a talk at a workshop in Lumut. It will just be an overnight stay. Expect to be real tired by the time I reach KL tomorrow.

Upon reaching Teluk Intan, I was surprised at how many more kilometers I have to driveI left KL just after 8. It was a 4 hour drive up. I left the PLUS highway off Bidor, then headed towards Teluk Intan and Sitiawan. The drive was not that bad. At least not as bad as I imagine it was going to be. It was raining when I reach the venue - Swiss Garden Damai Laut. First order of business, to check in. The organiser did the sensible thing in outsourcing the event management to the professionals. The checking in was smooth, everything went through like clockwork.

It had been raining all afternoon.... but the pool still looked temptingThen it was lunch. A pretty standard affair. I was starving anyhow, so I can't really complaint. It was really raining heavily then, so I just stayed in my room until it was time to register for the talk. I'll blog about the talks at the UMMC website rather.

So, it was just after Maghrib. It was too cloudy for a sunset pic. Waiting for dinner at the moment. Will blog more later.