Bad gas...

Have you ever noticed some burning smell when tailing big truck/lorry or buses even though your car window is fully closed?
Well, I have & it seems you MUST upgrade your browser if you want to look for more infor in JPJ website else you will get anything out from this website.
I thought there should be freedom to choose NOT to upgrade..…LOUSY webmaster!

Anyway, this post is actually about the tailpipe position. If you noticed most of the petrol sedan or familiy cars, they are rear positioned and the pipe output is facing straight to your car back from behind. Due to petrol comburstion nature, gas discharged is not visible/smelly & not so toxic that they are allowed to be at lower height.

But for trucks, buses & lorries which are using diesel, the carbon monoxide gas that is released should be channelled using the pipe pointing towards the air.






I can still see those with chimne-type pipe on the road but most of the heavy vehicles are positioning their exhaust pipe same height and position as normal as petrol consumption car.
That’s really annoying when you are tailing on this kind of vehicle & with my antic car’s air conditioning performance, no way you can escap in breathing in those toxic, smelly gas. Not forgetting to those fully exposed motorist.

To my surprise when googling, there are few complaints posted in the thestar’s reader section on this issue yet, the issue is still common & you can bet the authority is aiming on other “good & easy thing” to do.


Anyway, I do hope that this issue can be solved & saving the earth is not only by doing recycling but green house effect is also another concern to pay attention to.

*Pictures are courtesy from Wikipedia-> Exhaust System

Compound-ed Day- Part-2

To update my previous post on Compound-ed Day. This is how my experience in Dato Keramat's Police station goes...BTW, the Traffic counter (For you to pay saman, opens from 9am to 430pm)

1. There is no such thing called "Appeal" in this matter. What the counter police did was to check your compound number in computer & told you how much you need to pay. As claimed, all the figure are discounted already, so No Need for any appeal letter.

2. He even showed me this list where I found in the internet about the discounted rate AND it is NO SUCH THING and It is not from PDRM.

3. The compound that I got the day before is not yet in the system, so they need to manually do it. To our surprise, the amount is exactly the same as my friend "settled" and we are so happy that this was not in someone else pocket rather than the right authority. Hopefully they put to good use on my total RM250 contribution.

As usual, you can hear a lot of "good stories" in front of the counter where people complained different things and one thing to share is you better safekeep all the receipts that you've paid for the compund as I heard that one of uncle actually getting double charged but he lost the receipts.

This make us wonder what the use of getting a computer system or database if it ain't doing any good of keeping records. I guessed we will have to "settle" on what we "have" for now...

Share with me if you have other interesting experiences with regards to this matter...:). Till then, be safe on the road...

Compound-ed Days

For this post, I think I would like to share on what most Malaysian faced in their daily life on the road -> Saman / Compound from the traffic offences.
Recently, I am getting a "Big envelope" from PDRM (Police) due to speeding in PLUS highway & mind you the speed limit I travelled is 73km/h in 60km/h stretch: Guilty as Charged although I am not sure this is really the speed limit I am traveling as the offence occurred 1st Nov 2008.

Yesterday, when me and my wife were travelling back home after getting food in Sunshine Market. We were stopped by so called “road block” in front of Motorola or HSBC Building by 3 Police officers. The offence again read loud to me is “You can’t turn right when coming out from the Sunshine market”. The argument is there is no signboard stating you cannot do so but there is an white paint arrow drawn on the tar road…well..here is my another big Ang Pow.

To our surprise, the Corporal seems to repeatly asking if he can write the compound..well at least 3 times & he stopped his hand when I asked how much is the compound. He rudely said: RM300 then he says again: I write your compound now????. Me & my wife know what he is trying to do & I think most of the Malaysian know where is leading to. But we still insists on Not to brib* as we cannot stand his "attitude" in so called "up-holding" the pride of "Serving People" as this has been PDRM tagline. Here we are, going home with 1 additional saman on hand & unfortunately to my other friend too as he is making the same offence. I called him up when I get home & he said his one has been “Settled” with certain amount of..you know what. He also told me that he tried to appeal before & the process is so much hassle including travelling to Police Station to check on the status for at least 3 times before manage to get some percentage of reduction.

I am also preparing 2 letters of appeal & let’s see if it helps when I go to the Data Keramat Police Station today… I might post the Appeal Letter format if it works & let me know if you all are interested as I cannot really find an official appeal letter format in the internet...:P

No Kopitiam visit…

Me and my wife went shopping last weekend in QB mall in Penang & we stopped by *ld T*wn Restaurant for tea break at about 2pm.
This restaurant used to be a favorite due to it’s food Quality, Cost and logistic in the shopping mall. But last weekend’s incident really spoilt my perception toward this local expanding brand name.

Minus the recent price hike which was introduced, the customer service has really deteriorated. Actually my wife ordered a Double Toasted Kaya bread for starter & we were served Cold. I thought the menu stated “Toast” with reference to “Fresh Toast” if I understand it correctly but this is not what we were really getting. Secondly, we hardly see any Kaya inside the bread. After a few bites, we got frustrated with the cold bread and butter. We decided to complain to the Manager & after waving to the foreigner Manager (Judging from the costume he is wearing) to our table, we tried to tell him the toast is cold in both English and Malay language, but he seemed at lost, probably due to the fact that he do not understand those languages. Then, when we mentioned about Manager, he seems to understand and ask another local “Manager” to come over.

After explaining ourselves to that manager, he only asked 1 Question: How long has this being served? We replied: Just NOW! Then he just dumped the remaining bread to the plate and said: “I will get you a new one”.
We were surprised that the Manager did not even apologized & yet showing us his disrespectful look. The 2nd set was not so warm anyway and sadly, it was just the same as the first serving. Are we too choosy? Well you judge yourself in below photos.

Gosh…we were so pissed & I don’t think we will ever visit that restaurant again….well…maybe not in the near future.

As published in the website:

What we get