Meeting

http://mykuantanapartment.blogspot.com/2008/08/act-633-maintenance-and-management.html

Heard that the meeting was not too successful. Not many attended, not enough quorum?

Presumbably everyone living or owning those apartments are in a preserved comfort level.

And anyone wanting to write about Kuantan (Pahang, Malaysia) may volunteer to join this blog by providing e-mail address (for approval) for inclusion into "Permission". (Inappropriate article published will be deleted).

The Beach

Kuantan has got one of the nicest sandy beach in Malaysia (probably that is just my personal opinion, others may disagree). The above photo shows what Teluk Cempedak Beach is like looking North.

And looking South. Hyatt Hotel is the building you see on the land side right, behind the trees.


But Hyatt is imposing in this photo.


The walking path on the beach is beautifully constructed and maintained.


And if you need some (western type) snacks, you can always go into the nearest KFC or the Big Mac across the road.


Along the coast north and south of Kuantan, you will meet similar sandy (and lonely) beaches.

Kuantan is a beautiful place where beach is concerned. The downside is that some of these beaches are dangerous as they have got very strong sub-surface current. Many have drowned, especially if you enter the water during monsoon seasons. The other not so obvious downside is that security from petty thefts are not guaranteed while you are frolicking in the waters with your belongings left on the beach. If you observe, there is no ‘clothings and personal safe deposit kiosks’ on the beach, not only near Kuantan Town beach but also in neighbouring and further away beaches.



And anyone wanting to write about Kuantan (Pahang, Malaysia) may volunteer to join this blog by providing e-mail address (for approval) for inclusion into "Permission". (Inappropriate article published will be deleted).

Gourmet

Kuantan (Malaysia) does not lack good food, be it Malay,

Indian (North and South, and in Kuantan there is even a chain of Indian restaurants), Western (steak houses) or Chinese (mostly non-halal), or even Thai food (to local Malaysian tastes). Just take your pick and you get your food; tasty, cheap and fresh (and for the Muslim you may find mostly halal food as well). The food may not be up the standard of AFC, but they are reasonably good. However one must know the locations of these gourmet establishments, otherwise one may end up in places where the hygiene is questionable, taste not to one’s liking and food may not be that fresh, for example bad meat are from frozen meat or fish imported from Thailand.

Local folks who are familiar with the restaurants in Kuantan may direct you to these local gourmet establishments. Meals can be as cheap as RM 6.00 per person, for a plate of rice, fish or meat or chicken curry, a vege and a soft drink (USD 1.00 = RM 3.30). But even local folks may not know such, as many do not care where they eat or many do not care to have meals in good (to one expectation) restaurants. Their excuses may be that these good local gourmet establishments may charge them a bit extra; for the unique taste, for the location and/or for the comfort.

Many just take on the safe side and have meals in the restaurants at hotels, and there are good hotels in Kuantan Town; one 5 star hotel is right by the beach and the food there is of international standard. The food may be expensive and you are assured of good food and maybe good service, though not always. (This is one of the best bet if one need not find oneself having to go to the toilet. Toilets in Malaysia, almost everywhere except on the Malaysia Highways and in some other places which you may be lucky to find, are notorious for its ‘not clean’ state; after visiting the toilet you will be put off your meal)

There are also eating places places called kopitiams, these are really coffee shops where you can drink a variety of coffee or tea, locally made, freshly brewed ,most of the time, or you may also have foreign and imported coffee or tea, served black or white and with sugar to your taste. And they also served light sandwiches or toast with butter or ‘kaya’ (a cooked mixture of sugar, egg and coconut milk), and a variety of local snacks, mostly very tasty to local taste but priced a bit steep which is really worth paying for.

One Indian restaurants which I blogged earlier at,
http://when-i-m-65.blogspot.com/2008/06/soth-asian-restaurants.html

and a doughnut place at,
http://when-i-m-65.blogspot.com/2008/06/doughnut.html



And anyone wanting to write about Kuantan (Pahang, Malaysia) may volunteer to join this blog by providing e-mail address (for approval) for inclusion into "Permission". (Inappropriate article published will be deleted).

Kuantan shoppings

Kuantan though progressive in one way, has remained stagnated in other ways. Shopping malls and complexes in Kuantan for example are very conservative. They have their locally grown supermarkets having their stores all over the town, but the products they sell are rather similar and not really of high quality. They are what I call mundane products. The variety is there but the quality remains very low. They are actually the bigger versions of the main street shops or even corner shops.

And most other shops in Kuantan Town are really similar to the main street shops/corner shops variety.

Then a trend became apparent when more shopping complexes were built, but again the these are what I call the duplicated of main street shops/corner shops, but in this case these are shops in a more formal environment, centrally air conditioned and more comfortable for shoppers to shop in. And the products sold became more specialized and specific.

Then after, bigger and more sophisticated shopping centres and supermarkets came into being; bigger floor area, selling more varied products and more organized, a part of the chain of national supermarkets, close to hypermarket but cannot really be classified as such.

Recently a new shopping complex was being built. It incorporates a hypermarket, and the facilities to be built are for higher end consumers. A hotel complex and conference facilities included. And also included are areas for the local business community to show off their products (and handicrafts I presume), like places known as Malay Town, Chinese Town and Indian Town. These I trust will make these Towns unique in that they will sell products (and handicrafts) to cater for all Malaysians but of origin by these various communities. Similar to what are available for example in Kota Baru (Kelantan, Malaysia) they have Pasar Siti Khtijah where local Malay products (and handicrafts) are sold, and in Kuala Trengganu (Trengganu, Malaysia) they have Pasar Payang which also sell such products produced by the locals. These above mentioned Pasar actually become shopping places for local tourists, and visiting places for foreign tourists.


Currently, as far I know, Kuantan Town does not have similar shopping places for local products, places like that of Pasar Siti Khatijah and/or that like Pasar Payang. In Kuantan, one can hardly get local products (and handicrafts) of quality such as batik or songket unless you go the places where these are made. These are mostly out of the Town area. And to get to these places are in most cases a hassle, you need the transport and the guide. With the new shopping areas such as what is being built now; Malay Town, Chinese Town, and Indian Town, it is expected that shopping for local products (and handicrafts) and souvenirs will be more pleasant in Kuantan Town. However it must be borne in mind the prices of products (and handicrafts) sold must be competitive and be able to meet the local shoppers pockets and needs. Those sold in Pasar Siti Khatijah and Pasar Paying are very reasonably priced and Kuantan new shops have to compete with those.

Just as an additional information, the new complex being built also include an area for a ICT hub.

My only concern is that the population of Kuantan, which at the time of writing is less than 400,000 may not be able to sustain the turnover of these various local shops, old and new shopping malls. Even including visitors which may push the shopping population figure up to 500,000, there is still that worry as many may go to Kuala Lumpur to buy high end products and Trengganu which is just next door for the lower end products.



And anyone wanting to write about Kuantan (Pahang, Malaysia) may volunteer to join this blog by providing e-mail address (for approval) for inclusion into "Permission". (Inappropriate article published will be deleted).

Sports in Kuantan.

Kuantan Town has a large functional footballl (soccer and multipurpose) stadium if not for anything else. In reality Kuantan Town has got a few football fields where football are played by the town's folk all the year round (except during the monsoon season).

And there are facilities for indoor sports and swimming but these are presently not well maintained, (at least the Olympic sized swimming pool is not well maintained at all).


And anyone wanting to write about Kuantan (Pahang, Malaysia) may volunteer to join this blog by providing e-mail address (for approval) for inclusion into "Permission". (Inappropriate article published will be deleted).

Kuantan River

The photoes are,

Kuantan River mouth, observe the colourful fishing boat at the jetty opposite,


And looking upriver from a fishermen landing jetty at Tanjung Api (literary translated as Fir Cape. Probably in the old days they might have a light house over there)


I blogged what I saw earlier, and it was to my mind very interesting. The River would be a beautiful river if the authority in power takes more good care of it. It can be dredged, deepened, banks maintained to an acceptable standard all along the river banks and probably establish a Kuantan River Keeper post in the Goverment services.

http://kiss-met.blogspot.com/2005/12/kuantan-river.html

There is the Kuantan River cruise service run by the Kuantan Municipality. I have been on that cruise once.


The Kuantan River cruise however can be made more productive it is run in a business manner, and mindful of peak and low demands, and have the frequency of the trips to meet those demands. I have seen frustrated people going away at peak demand periods, and these people might never come back again especially if they are local tourists. And if it is made to stop over at interesting places where for example to see the kampong folks at Permu working on their fish products industries (most interesting to local tourists where they can buy some of these products), stop over for a tea break at the Air Puteh (White Waters) bridge where they might look over the Japnese gun emplacemenet (which must be cleaned and maintained of course), and the visit to the swamp made a bit longer and the swamp platforms be repaired to a acceptable standard in the eyes of tourists (foreign and local).


And if the Kuantan River is maintained properly, the sights would be more attractive.

And going on the Kuantan River tour I saw some very interesting sights, the few that I can record here but there are more of them that you can see when you take the tour,

fresh water otter,


the famous Kuantan eagles,


interesting swamps plants,


And as I mentioned earlier the historical Japanese gun enplacement location at Tanah Puteh.







And anyone wanting to write about Kuantan (Pahang, Malaysia) may volunteer to join this blog by providing e-mail address (for approval) for inclusion into "Permission". (Inappropriate article published will be deleted).

Recreation Kuantan style

If one is not so fussy, Kuantan (Malaysia) has got great facilities for family recreation. I am not talking about Disneyland type of recreation, I am just talking about recreation in places where you go together as a family at any time of the day (and night in some places).



Within a 5 km radius there are walking and jogging grounds (with walking and jogging tracks and lakes) well maintained (and well lighted). One can even walk up a hill slope track (in one of the other recreation spots) if one has the energy. And Kuantan is in the process of building another recreation ground to add to what it has now.

And sometimes one can join in public aerobics, like this Chinese aerobics,



or a foreign(?) language music,



or even accompanied by more uptodate music.







And anyone wanting to write about Kuantan (Pahang, Malaysia) may volunteer to join this blog by providing e-mail address (for approval) for inclusion into "Permission". (Inappropriate article published will be deleted).

Museum Tokoh

In Kuantan (Malaysia) you would see a road sign saying "Muzium Tokoh". But in reality you will not be able to know what it is; its actually a sign to show a white washed colonial single storey building where its supposed to be a museum exhibiting photoes and life history and descriptions of those Pahang born personalities who have contributed greatly to Pahang in its development and history. "Tokoh" meaning a person who has contributed greatly (I stand corrected).

But bear with me, you will not easily locate that building because there is no such signage at the building, photo shown. You would think that the building is just another building in the Government Office Complex.

I have visited the museum a couple of times. I must say that its as silent as a graveyard, and there is nothing substantial to see in that buildings other than a few photographs of famous people and things and replica of historical items. There is however a library, not so well maintained and the articles and books not seemed to be properly classified (to me at least). But two things that irked me. Firstly there is a canteen for the public inside the building (when I visited it, but may not be there anymore) and secondly I was not allowed to take photographs of the exhibits. Because of that I am not able to show what they have as exhibits over there in this blog. I have been to the Taiping Museum, and I was allowed to take photographs of the exhibits, the caretaker told me, "You can show the photographs to other people who then may like to visit our museum".






And anyone wanting to write about Kuantan (Pahang, Malaysia) may volunteer to join this blog by providing e-mail address (for approval) for inclusion into "Permission". (Inappropriate article published will be deleted).

A beautiful mosque

This the main mosque in Kuantan (Malaysia). The photo is taken against the rays of the morning sun to show the beauty of the mosque outlines.


And anyone wanting to write about Kuantan (Pahang, Malaysia) may volunteer to join this blog by providing e-mail address (for approval) for inclusion into "Permission". (Inappropriate article published will be deleted).

A game of chance

Kuantan (Malaysia) is almost like the centre of game of chance in Malaysia. You will not see so many such signs (per square kilometer) in other towns in Malaysia (I stand corrected, if anyone can tell me of other similar towns in Malaysia). The board can be in any format or in any colour or in any form but they all have the word 4D and TOTO.

You buy numbers in those places, and you earn a cash prize if can guess the correct number (in 4 digits or 3 digits) of a draw. I am not in this so I do not know the prizes or how they do the 'draw'. And how many times per week they do the 'draw'.

Many people buy such numbers, hoping that they win a substantial cash prize. Many have gambled away their hard earned cash to follows their dreams, and many properties have changed hands for those who are addicted to the 'game'.

Muslims in Malaysia are not supposed to play the 'game' (Islam does not allow gambling), but I have seen many have entered those shops to buy the 'numbers'. And nobody enforces the Islamic rules, not in Kuantan presently that I know anyway.




And anyone wanting to write about Kuantan (Pahang, Malaysia) may volunteer to join this blog by providing e-mail address (for approval) for inclusion into "Permission". (Inappropriate article published will be deleted).

Kuantan Garbage Collection

I do not really know how Kuantan (Malaysia) Town manages its household garbage collection.

I would assume that they have privatised their garbage collection, like all Towns in Malaysia.

In Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) household garbage collectors come to each individual house and collect garbage from the bin or garbage/rubbish compartment. And in Condominiums over there or Apartments they have central household and other garbage gathering points and the garbage collectors go to these collection points to collect the household garbage.

In Kuantan, as I live in an Apartment, we usually place our household garbage in specially provided bins and these bins are emptied by the hired Cleaners to a centrally located point and the garbage collector’s lorry goes there and collects the garbage.

For household garbage in Kuantan , I do not see these rubbish collectors go to individual house. Probably not, that I have seen, they may of course do but I do not know. The evidence however indicates that garbage are not efficiently collected. These two photoes show how inefficient rubbish/garbage collection is in Kuantan Town.



If garbage/rubbish collection is that efficient, there is not need for the local folks to place their garbage such as shown those photoes. And I know, periodically the garbage/rubbish collectors come to collect the garbage/rubbish as shown.

But I doubt if the rubbish collection in Kuantan Town is that efficient.



And anyone wanting to write about Kuantan (Pahang, Malaysia) may volunteer to join this blog by providing e-mail address (for approval) for inclusion into "Permission". (Inappropriate article published will be deleted).

What we have

Our Kuantan apartment seems to be well equipped and self contained.

It has its own electricity supply substation, which was not supposed to be in that location in the original sales brochure, in fact it was not stated where it should have been.


A gazeboo,


A swimming pool,


A BBQ pit,


A children playground, more of a gimmick than anything else, the same thing with the BBQ pit perhaps.


The building, well its not bad looking but for it not being painted since it was first occupied about a decade or so ago.


And of course a security hut, with the security personnel manning it,


and in a sense looking after the security of the complex. Not much of a security though, people seems to come in and out freely without controll even in the middle of the nights and early mornings. If you are a light sleeper you would not be able to really sleep with all the dim of car engines and motorcycle engines revving while you are resting in bed at night.

I suppose we can live with all the shortcomings, and maybe we are not as well off as the other similar apartments in other parts of the Kuantan Town. But there is always the hope of improvement in the ways the apartment complex is managed and will be managed. And since we have already committed ourselves to purchasing a unit in the complex, we do not really have much choice.

But we do not have the community hall as what was written in the early sales brochure.



And anyone wanting to write about Kuantan (Pahang, Malaysia) may volunteer to join this blog by providing e-mail address (for approval) for inclusion into "Permission". (Inappropriate article published will be deleted).

Act 633, Maintenance and Management.

Not really familiar with the Act. But the current management of the Apartments have called for a meeting on 17 August 2008, to discuss on matters of maintenance and management. For the last 10 years or about there was no mention of this but I suppose the Act seemed only to be enforced in year 2008 (just to quote the letter calling for the meeting), so cannot really blame those who have managed the Apartments all these while. We have been religiously paying our maintenance fees of RM 150.00 per month and we have our Apartments maintained. However there was mention of sinking fund, so we do not really know how the previous management and/or the future management is going to repair and repaint the common properties of the Apartments. Where will the fund be from for such works?.



And anyone wanting to write about Kuantan (Pahang, Malaysia) may volunteer to join this blog by providing e-mail address (for approval) for inclusion into "Permission". (Inappropriate article published will be deleted).

Kuantan earlier blog

There were a couple of articles which I wrote on Kuantan, which I blogged earlier.

http://when-i-m-65.blogspot.com/2008/07/another-artist.html

http://when-i-m-65.blogspot.com/2008/07/after-being-ignored_05.html



And anyone wanting to write about Kuantan (Pahang, Malaysia) may volunteer to join this blog by providing e-mail address (for approval) for inclusion into "Permission". (Inappropriate article published will be deleted).