Turning It Up A Notch

If anything, the recent trip to Malaysia (yes, I’m still going on about that), has made me realize one thing – that I should concentrate on writing. I know that sounds silly, given that seems to be the only thing I’m doing, but truth is I’ve never really given writing as much attention as I should.

The trip however, made it clear. Writing has always been the one skill that’s pulled me through. It’s seen me through school. It’s found me jobs, and helped me through work even if they weren’t related to writing. In other words, it’s helped put food on the table, if not become the main reason why food is on the table to begin with. More importantly, it’s helped me meet terrific people, experience new things, and enriched my life more than anything else I’ve done or tried to do, and I’m not even doing it full-time.

Hence, it’s obvious. Why should I not be writing? I’ve decided therefore, to turn it up a notch, and take on more assignments, try to write as well as I can, and see where and how far I can go on this journey. Of course, it’s not that easy. I’ve got obligations to fulfill, things I’ve started in the past which need to be maintained, and if anything, I will not allow myself to slip and forget to fulfill them. That means it’ll be a long and difficult road but like I said, we choose the battles that are worth fighting, and writing has time and again proved to be a worthwhile pursuit.

So anyway, back to Malaysia (of course), and finally let me just post those pics I’ve been meaning to put up since I got home, since there are so many, I’ll stick to Valentine’s Day.

First let’s talk about my room:

my fabulous room..

which even impressed Pam of all people, who by now has tried all sorts of hotel rooms all over the world. The tub is right beside the bed (there’s a divider), but you’ll leave it as is just because it looks so cool.

Each room has a nice office that just makes you wanna work on it even if you’d rather sleep, and yes we all get a 42″ plasma TV.

Speaking of TVs, there’s even another one below the rotating shaving mirror, (which I didn’t manage to get to work).

And some ironing gear..

which of course I used a lot.

I had a terrific view..

and a wonderful bed..

who could ask for more? Finally it was time to work, so I got into my ‘journalist’ garb:

and found a nice balloon and chocolates at the door, it being Valentine’s Day.

But of course, before that, we ate..

and ate..

and ate..

until we had to do this thing called ‘work’, where we basically hurled inane questions at important people like Matt Rothschild of Nokia..

who showed us a bunch of neat things..

which are all well and good, except that it got in the way of food..

and more food..

…

It was quite a challenge..

but by golly, somebody had to do it..

At any rate, it got into our heads that it was a good idea to go to the mall, look at some sights and maybe get a bit of culture, so off we went to the MRT..

so we could gape at the huge mall..

gape at a huge building..

gape at a huge bookstore..

and uh.. gape, or rather walk around, a huge Chinatown area.

All this gaping made us very hungry of course, and since it was Valentine’s Day, we decided to eat a five course dinner at a Chinese restaurant in the hotel. I know that doesn’t have much to do with Valentine’s Day, but who cares? I just want to put more pictures of food.

Finally, it was off to bed, where a scented candle kept my luxurious room smelling like something from a… well, I can’t remember, it just smelled really nice :)

Very early next day of course, we hied off to the airport, via Malaysia’s very fast highways, with the traffic going the other way. It’s a good 45 minutes away even at a standard 120kph.

Another round of gaping around the humongous Duty Free of Singapore’s airport.

with free internet access..

and of course, more food..

and finally, we were back at Manila by 5pm. Luckily, I managed to hitch a ride with Brightpoint’s Edel Ortiz, who is a terrific guy and it turns out, grew up in more or less the same place I did as well (San Juan and Mandaluyong). Edel and I talked a ton about many things, and we’re likely going to see each other soon again. Anyway he offered me a ride only if I’d accompany him to dinner at a Korean resto he liked since he hadn’t eaten yet..

which I grudgingly (ahem) obliged, and where our needs were dutifully tended to by a Korean looking waitress who fittingly looked like that girl in Jewel In The Palace.

And that concludes my photo tour of my stay in Malaysia. Strangely enough, if anything I learned that one of the most important things to remember is not to eat too much, primarily because you want to stay alert. I know the pics above don’t show it, but it was a strain for sleep-deprived me, as I struggled to keep focused from lack of rest from the ton of work I had to do during the days leading up to the trip.

I would have wanted, for example, to mingle with the other journalists a lot more, and I did, except that I didn’t have a calling card (I’m only a contributor), and I wanted to trade with them. It would have been great to ask the Indian reporter I met about telecoms stuff in his country, and the two Singaporean guys I met were friendly and we had a great time joking about the fancy meal we were given the night before.

I would have also wanted to ask the Nokia people a lot more things in and around 3G and the Philippines (I noticed that every other journalist liked to ask questions specific to their country rather than the new phones in the free-for-all Q and A), and there were certainly chances should I have pursued them. But I was too tired, and a little too frazzled as a result. I would have gotten at least 1 or 2 more articles out of that if I did. Dang.

At any rate, overall I enjoyed it and it was cool. My article will come out on the 23rd, Lifestyle section of PDI, where I hope I managed to get Nokia’s point across and educate some future buyers along the way. (BTW, like I said in my last post, the Nokia 6103 and 6125 won’t be available in the Philippines).