Food Garden @ LCCT - KLIA

Food Garden inside LCCT

Thank God I can have my first spicy food after ½ month in China.
I just notice they also sell other food instead of Mc Donald’s and Chinese Food.
I found this Food Court, which is called “ Food Garden” which is also situated inside the LCCT terminal, near to Domestic Arrivals.

It’s quite weird for a person who work in a travel agency, that this is my first time found out about this food court. Do you guys know such place as well?




At last I found my Favorite Food after 15 days locked up with Chinese Food

Now Aliens can enter China with Visa

This morning before I depart to the airplane which taking me back to Medan, via Kuala Lumpur, I notice that China has allowed Alien to enter Earth, via China.
WOW…… what a great breakthrough………?

Searching for Perfect Business Partners

I think most people starting their own business collaborating with their old – time friends or ex – colleagues, including me. I have a few notes needed to be share with you all regarding this issue. It’s very critical to choose the perfect business partners, from the start, because it will affect your overall business plans.

A Good Idea or Good Planning is not an issue at all. Everybody can come up with spectacular ideas or plans. The most important issue here is WHO is your future business partners? When I mean WHO here, it means you should know them inside and outside of that LUCKY PERSON who will become your future business partner.

No, I’m not talking about how’s their relationships with families or friends, I’m talking about their personality, visions, what he can do and cannot do, and how’s their attitudes towards work.

But on top of the criteria I mentioned, the most important is their visions, how can they see about an idea or plan, and where can they take it into future? Analyze if their visions are visible, and how far can their vision be? After that, match their visions with yours, is the gap too far? And can you guys rediscuss it?

A lot of business which is falling apart because of the partners are not sharing a same vision of where they can take their ideas / plans to.

I’m not saying that you should not do business with your old – time friends, it’s just you have to review if he/she eligible for the position. My point here is BUSINESS IS BUSINESS, AND FRIENDSHIP IS FRIENDSHIP. You and your future business partners should be able to differentiate this term very well, as I saw lots of old – time buddies are too easy to skip over / react to the other party if they make mistakes.

An old – time buddy can be a great business partner if they are aware of the term mentioned above, and be careful, an old – time buddy can be a NOBODY by the time they realise they don’t share a same vision with you in business.

So, guys, reviews on your friends are important if you want to ask them to become your future business partners.

Another Show in the middle of Pazhou Fair

One interesting part during my trip to Pazhou Fair is that there is one expert hired by a ceramic manufacturer to put a show in one of their booth

Finding Foods in China

Most international travellers will have difficulty getting some foods that suit them in China.
I recommend some of the restaurants or fast food counter that may suit international travellers.

There is fast food restaurant in China that serves healthy foods, well, this is my favourite part, as we know that, most of the fast food restaurant serve quick but unhealthy foods. The fast food restaurant is called “ Real Kungfu” (真功夫)

Kungfu Restaurant at Hangzhou Airport


Nice restaurant near to DongMen Road, Shenzhen

Most of the food served are steamed, instead of fried, and they also have ginseng and other Chinese herbal inside. Wondering how come nobody from South East Asia get their franchise and open one here, since healthy food has become a major concern in today’s society.

Also recommend to try-out a mix of Western and Chinese food in Café de Coral (大家乐) and one great restaurant near DongMen Street, Shenzhen.

If still, most of you cannot stand on Chinese food, you can find lots of American fast food restaurants in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which are quick but unhealthy food.

Or even, a little bit pity, you can buy fast - oven food at 7 Eleven or any convenience store, they do sell Small Boxes of rice with beef (just like in Taiwan)

The Rice Box I bought at 7 Eleven

"Going Green" China

Metro


Motorbike

Motorbike used for transporting goods

It has been several years that China government is putting more attention on using electricity instead of using gas in daily life. It can be shown from the Metro System, Electric Bus, and encouraging its societies to use electric vehicle, and even bicycles are still encouraged to use ( there are traffic signs especially for Bicycles)


Electric Bus

Electric Passenger Car

From Guangzhou to Hangzhou

This morning we catched a flight to Hangzhou, which is famous of its beautiful scenery, but no, that's not the reason I flew to Hangzhou. Well, I must pass through Hangzhou in order to get to Yiwu, because it's cheaper rather than I took the direct flight to Wiyu.

It takes about 1.5 hour from Hangzhou Airport to Yiwu by bus, and you can purchase the bus ticket just outside the arrival gate No.5 , and it costs only RMB 60 per person.

Yiwu is famous of its textile industries, including the related ornaments. We came here because there is a fair regarding the garment ornaments. While we are arriving, the weather here is rather cold, 20 degree, if compared to Guangzhou.

We have been too tired during the trip, that my dad starting to get sick, so we just stayed at hotel (hotels here are very cheap). During our waiting time at Guangzhou Airport, we have visited a booth of Yiwu, in which a kind lady has explained to us there is a fair during our stays in Yiwu.

"Metro" - ing around Guangzhou

I found that the MRT system in Guangzhou quite useful for either society or travellers. The condition of the MRT station is clean, almost the same like in Singapore, and the languages used for announcements include English, Chinese, and Canton. The interchanges between different lines are also easy to access, as you don't need to walk very far to reach another line.

The cost is very cheap. The nearest destination only costs RMB 1, and the furthest destination is only RMB 12. With RMB 12, you can travel to other city (Panyu). There are a few of ticket - selling machine in each station, and if you are having difficulty or you don't have small change ( the machine only accept maximum RMB 10) buying the ticket using the system, there are counters where there are officers selling the tickets manually. If in Singapore, when you buy a single - trip ticket, you get a one thin plastic card, but in Guangzhou, instead of getting a card, you will receive a plastic coin. Be careful with the coin, you can easily loose it.

Visiting Pazhou International Exhibition Center - Pazhou

These few days I ve been extremely busy searching around Guangzhou for lady bags. My girlfriend wants to sell ladies bags in our hometown, and we have heard that Guangzhou is the place if you want to find cheap and good quality lady handbags. So there I was, in a Leather Center, wandering around and bargain to get the cheap and nice quality.






I really like the way that China Government organizing the business complex here. In Guangzhou, for example, they have A Massive Building specialising in Garments (Textile, garment accessories), another business complex specialised in Leather ( Shoe, Ladies Bags, Travel Bags), and another business complex specialised in IT products. Inside the business complex, there are hundred until thousand of related companies. So you don't need to wandering around different places just to find the related products.



This morning the weather of Guangzhou is not nice at all. There is strong wind along with raining cats and dogs from early morning until this evening, and the result of such weather is a lot of people can get sick, including me. So most of the time I spent today is at home.

Guangzhou - 16 April 2008

This morning, after having Chinese breakfast in hotel, we depart for Guangzhou by An Extremely Fast Train. I still remember, about my last trip to Shenzhen 4 years ago, we still have to travel 3 hours by train to Guangzhou, but now... according to my dad, it only takes 1 hour approximately. The tickets are about RMB 75 ( my father accidentally bought the 2nd class ticket), but the train is extremely nice, compared to the train 4 years ago. The new train is called GSRC , and we take it from Shenzhen Train Station. No kidding, the train runs on 201 km/h ( well, this is my first time boarding the train that runs for 200 km / h, but I noticed there are 400 km / h train in Shanghai).




After we arrived at my friend's house, I went to a bank to register a new account in China, for my future business purpose. After that, we went to Liu Hua to register as buyers at 103 rd Guangzhou Trade Fair by Guangzhou Metro (My friend told me that it's better to register in evening period, to skip the long queue). The MRT in Guangzhou is very nice, even compared with Singapore one. One tips if you want to visit the Guangzhou Trade Fair is that it's better if you ask for an E-pass from the Canton Fair Official Website, which can save you RMB 100 each person, and you must do this at least a week in advance.



Well, the site is so large, that it takes us 4 hours just to walk through 10 % of the whole exhibition site, and we are just focusing on garment site (as my father is doing garment accessories business), so I haven't had the chance to look at other sector. For those who cannot speak Chinese, there are lots of interpreters outside the exhibition site waiting to help, on a reasonable cost. But from what I noticed, most of the buyers that have decided to go for this exhibition, are able to speak in fluent Chinese, no matter they are from which part of the world. I 'm surprised, in order to do business with China, they are willing to learn Chinese language.



After a tiring walk throughout the garment site, we decided to come again tomorrow, to explore the rest of the garment site. O yeah, one tips for the buyers, please take a luggage with you when you explore the exhibition site, as you need it to keep all the brochures and catalogues that are given to you. Trust me for this, because for tomorrow, I'm taking one as well.

Shenzhen - 15 April 2008

Arriving Shenzhen Bao An International Airport, we took the 330 airport bus towards city center, and it only costs us RMB 20 per pax. The trip takes about 1 hour from Bao An International Airport to Hua Lian Bus Stop. I was told that we should stop at Hua Lian, because it's quite crowded there, compare to the last stop (Train Station), so we can take a cab to our hotel. Well, taking a bus is a good option, because we can save much for the cost, and the interval of each bus is about 10 - 15 minutes only. I heard the taxi cost about RMB 170 to RMB 200 to go to city center, but I have no idea if there is extra charge during midnight.






After check in, we went to nearest restaurant to have dinner (Thank God during 11 o clock the city still crowded, but there is not much options left). I have a bad time during the flight, so I skip the dinner during the flight, and reaching hotel, my belly starting to scream like hell.






Well, have to get to bed soon..... Tomorrow early morning we have to catch a train to Guangzhou... Until then.....

Car Racing inside Airport

Just arrive here at LCCT - KLIA, Malaysia. One interesting thing I found is that they also provide F1 Racing inside Airport. Well, of course I m not talking about the real racing inside the airport, but then there are game console using the real F1 car, and it's meant to promote F1 Race who is going to be held in Singapore on September 2008. Well, as every of us could imagine that Singapore are hosting a innovative night race inside the city (First in Asia and the world) on 26 -28 September 2008. If you are a die - hard fan of F1, don't miss this race ....

Stunning Book By Mr James Kynge (Business Journalist of the Year 2004)

"Let China sleep. As, if China wake up, it will shake the world"

by Napoleon Bonaparte

Due to my trip to China this upcoming Tuesday, I have bought and read the book called " China Shakes the World: The Rise of A Hungry Nation", describing why China become a new icon for world economic, instead of US or UN.

Some of the reasons behind are the long hours that Chinese can work in a day (some can even survive for 18 to 20 hours working time); the cheap labour that China may provide, which affect the overall pricing of finished product produced by China. In the book, it describes very well of how "Made in China" products have become threats for lots of European and US manufacturers, in which they may sell the products with half to five times lower than what offered in UN or US; which caused many of those factories are bought and sent to China, or some of the clever businessman, will move the whole operations to China.

The book also describes of how China manufacturers imitate or produce a slightly difference products compared to the genuine products, just like the time when Japan departs to what it achieve today.

Some of the Chinese Tycoon are also exposed and mentioning how they depart before they become of what they are today. RECOMMENDED for those who wants to understand what makes China Today!

Live A Green Life

Recently there are lots of news and articles regarding the earth is getting more and more dangerous. If we didn't do anything at all, in the next 10 years time a major natural disaster will hit our world, and cause death to millions of people. We can see this from the melt-down of Antartic's ice and the global warming effect.

Even now, we have experienced some of the impacts; floods everywhere, even in our capital city, Jakarta; earthquake; Animal extinction (that cause destruction in food chain), and higher air pollution in cities; haze (caused by burned forests); and these kinds of natural disasters besides bring troubles, also bring along diseases and other long term destruction

I found a nice non profit organization called Eco- Cell , which collects used phones for an exchange for USD 15 per phone (term and conditions applied), with free shipping costs and YOU CAN SAVE THE WORLD. Well, I think it's the perfect time for us to GENERATES IDEA to save our world, or at least PREVENT the world from getting worse, starting from our lifestyle; for example, optimizing the usage of paper in our daily and office life.

Quotes from Henry Ford

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young."

Henry Ford, founder of

A New " Checked Baggage Handling Fee" from Airasia

This morning, I got notice one of the advertisement by Airasia, stating there is a new cost added, called Checked Baggage Handling Fee, in which people who travel with Airasia have to register their checked baggage before or during check - in process, and PAY for it. The good news is if you register 24 hours before the departure time, you will get discounts, but the bad news is .... YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY.

First, I found the new add-on are rather annoying, because it should have included in the service of airline, and not should be us who should claim how many baggage we took during our journey, and WE HAVE TO PAY FOR IT, but after i browse on the policy regarding this, the site claims that it meant to lower the cost for those who travels without baggages (only Hand luggage), in which it pull out the handling fee from the fare.

But still, sometimes society are asking for convenience and efficiency compare to prices. I can't tell whether Airasia has been thinking about the statement above when they plan to launch the idea. Well, it's just USD 1 difference, in which we can tell that almost nobody will scream when they pay USD 1 or 2 in exchange for convenience.

Impact of Internet for Traditional Business

This morning when I chatted with one of my subagents, she complained to me about one of the famous hotel in Kuala Lumpur sell their rooms on internet with PRICES LOTS BELOW our current rates. Like I mentioned in my last blog regarding technologies, that Internet is becoming the best alternative way of communicating, pay bills online, and EVEN getting rid of middlemen.











Well, last time I expect the impacts of internet will only take effect on traditional business in another 3 to 5 years time, and the truth is internet is jeoparding traditional business NOW, at this moment I write about this blog. Especially in travel industry. I mean my hometown is the third largest city in Indonesia, and most of the people here still are not so familiar in Internet, due to the news of the highest fraud is in Indonesia, and most of them are not familiar with foreign languages.

But, still, the truth is that the minor users for internet are growing, and most of them helping those who are afraid or don't know what to do, to do online transactions.









My advice is, BEWARE of the internet impact's on your business, but the most important is ADAPT with the technology, because sooner or later, all business will be based on INTERNET, or, at least make use of INTERNET.

Busy Busy Busy

Well, it's just a week before I depart for Guangzhou, and it extremely busy now... I need to approve for inspection trip for my subagents to Kuala Lumpur, writing a proposal to my supplier for a brief marketing programme this year to promote IndoChina, and lots of administrative works. I just hope I can get faster to the day I depart for Guangzhou.

Anyway, I love quotes from famous people. The words that makes me think about my life, my career, and my business. Well, my favorite quote of the day is :

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)

Good Standards for Bars

A friend of mine drop me this picture, which I would like share with you all