Connectivity still patchy

But the good thing is that connectivity is improving.

A source has told me that the cable to China has been fixed, and it's almost running back at 100% capacity. The cable's have been repaired. While jeff reports that Google has managed to reroute their services (google, gmail, blogger etc) through their caching servers worldwide, this has not had a affect on me. I still have to use basic HTML to login into my gmail. Ironicly, AJAX filled hotmail is coming down fine, albeit a bit slow, but still usable on my side.

The crush of rerouted traffic to AU and NZ has kinda subsided, with me able to login into NZQA and Auckland U. AU uni's are also finally coming in slowly, despite that their connections, via the AU uni network which is routed with its international POP in the US west coast.

Things are still slow through. logging into blogger was a pain, really.

Internet links down for the whole of South East Asia

First, a plea to all Malaysian's:PLEASE DO NOT PLAY ANY ONLINE GAMES, TRY TO BT AND/OR DO ANY FORM OF P2P ACTIVITIES!!!!!

As you should know by now, all internet connection links, Streamyx espically, have been very slow since yesterday. This is because of the earthquake off Taiwan yesterday around 2.01 am Malaysian time has broke the APCN2 cable that loops around SEA to the US. Unfortunately, I cannot post up pics of the cable map due to bandwidth limitations. When we get back more capacity, I will do a full report.

What I can tell you is the cable broke off between Shantou(china)-Tanshui(Taiwan) under the sea. APCN2 is managed by (deep breath) 26 telecommunications companies, namely Advantel, Cable & Wireless Global Network (UK), Cable&Wireless HKT(Hong Kong) , China Telecom, China Unicom, Chunghwa Telecom(Taiwan), Concert, Global Network Services(US), Global One(US), Japan Telecom, KDD Corpration(Japan), Korea Telecom, KPN, Layer 2(US), MCI(US, formerly a branch of AT&T), WorldCom(now defunct and under restructuring), Metromedia Giber Network Service, NTT Com, NCIC, OneLink Cable Network, PLDT(Philipines), StarHub(Singapore), SingTel, Taiwan Fixed Network, Teleglobe(Canada), Telekom Malaysia, Telstra(Australia) and Williams Communications.

As you can see, many countries rely on the cable. The crucial part is the part between the Taiwan strait. That is where it branches out from Asia to the US. And thats where the problem starts.

Many of you may not know, but all our content and most makor websites are all in the US. Blogger is hosted in California. Friendster is hosted in the US. Google and Yahoo have mirror and load balancing servers all over the world (read up about Akamai and understand how distributed content works) , but it all goes back to the US and Europe. Deviantart is hosted in the US. MSN (Microsoft) and YM (Yahoo!) are all centralised chat systems, which means everytime you log into MSN and YM, you are acctually contacting a server in SanJose (for MSN. Dunno about YM). Hotmail is hosted in Silicon Valley. Animesuki is hosted in Germany. Youtube is in the US. Narutofan and Kyuushi is behind New Dream Network, which has its data centre in Colorado(I think). Boxtorrents is in Tampa, Florida.

So as you can see, we are VERY HEAVILY reliant on content in the US. And all it takes is for the cable to the US to break, and all is gone. All that we use on a daily basis, MSN, Friendster, blogger, is all slow, out of service, or just plain gone!

What I do know is that Malaysia alone lost 7Gbits (7500Mbits!) of bandwidth thanks to the cable break. &Gbits of international bandwidth! Tmnet is managed to reroute some of its connections via Europe, and Jaring has (I think) managed to drag out a old satelite link dating back to 1996 from Bukit Jail to the East Coast of the US. Either way, these are not ideal. Both diversions are not ideal. As you guys can feel from the slowness.

For the meantime, I have disabled all images on my blogger and limited the front page to 3 posts. I will post later on the technical details. Its a bit difficult when I cannot show any images. BP1.blogger.com is still down for us Malaysians, and imageshack is not any better. The fact that I can even still blog about this is nothing short of a miracle!

To my friends are relatives overseas, can anyone leave me a message, either in the comments section or the shoutbox how are their links to Malaysia are? A good benckmark will be www.jeffooi.com, www.lowyat.net/v2/, forum.lowyat.net and www.unimas.my. All these websites are hosted in malaysia. For those who are a bit more tracert savvy, or know how to use Visualroute (Han Choong), can you guys give me a tracert from your side, be it NZ, AU or anywhere! All visitors are also welcome to give me a tracert log. Thanks.

Review of Qantas new Video on Demand System

aka my flight from AKL-SYD-SIN-JBH-KCH.

Maybe I should post this up on the a.net trip report forum.....

Good news for cattle economy class passengers: more and more airlines are implementing Video on Demand (VOD) systems in economy class. What was once a special privilege of First Class passengers has finally trickled down to the masses!

VOD means that you can control what you want to see, when you want to see the in flight entertainment in your own time. A LONG LONG time ago, all you got was a communal screen showing a movie in front of the cabin. If you got a movie. More often than not all you got was a small slideshow telling you where you were. Which was not very interesting really.

Then I think SIA was the first to implement individual screens in economy class. So now we didn't have to crane our neck just to see the screen. But the movies shown were just looped endlessly. It kinda sucked when you were watching a triller and the movie freezes and you hear the captain announcing that a meal would be served. And in the cramped Economy class, there isn't much room, and eating airplane food and watching a movie was not a real option at times.

Now, with VOD, you can pause the movie when you have to go to the loo, and when meals are served, you can hit pause and eat in peace, safe in the knowledge that the movie will pick up from where you left off. Well, thats the theory anyway. I've used MAS', Air NZ and Qantas' VOD systems. These 3 airlines VOD are quite different. Maybe I should do a review of them.

Anyway, the review:


My Qantas flight was actually a SYD-SIN-FRA flight. So the saftey announcement was in English and German. I think the pic above says "Please enjoy the flight"

EDIT: I didn't see the English at the top of the screen when I was initially composing this post.


Now this is a first: The VOD system comes in several languages. Neither MAS nor AirNZ has this. 8 languages to boot! For fun I chose Chinese, but it's in Traditional Chinese. I'm not very good in reading that......


How the menu system looks like in Chinese. The VOD was reasonably easy to navigate and use, through I had to flick into the in-flight magazine to find out what the colored buttons do on the "remote". It was also quite responsive too, unlike the AirNZ one which was quite sluggish.


You get the usual radio stations.....
Quite a range actually. I could chose from Australian music (Bob Evans anyone?), Classical music (good for calming down the nerves), a business briefing (on a 9 hr flight?!), popular music from the 60's, the kids channel, jazz tunes, country and Japanese and more. Just can't remember them all.

But first, a word from our sponsors meal fest:


Covered. I can't find the menu. It came in English and German.


I had the Chicken in oyster sauce or something like that. Was very nice. Qantas catering is quite good I must say. I usually don't like airplane food. Can't remember what was the other choice.



Desert was a nice cold ice cream! Note the "remote" on the table.

I must say, Qantas' VOD system is one of the best I've used so far. It's easy to use, with little delay of switching between the menu's and the response after you hit the "play" button is quite good. I managed to have some fun with it.


Like watch Top Gear! I paused it coz I had to eat my meal. So while I was eating I was amused by Hamster's facial expression. The rewind and fast forward buttons are quite good. You can adjust the speed, and when you hit play, you aren't too far from where you want to be. Unlike other VOD systems. The only problem is that if you leave it in pause for too long, it will go back to the menu. And you have to start ALL OVER again! No resume feature! It's not too bad with top gear, being only 45 mins long, but just imagine if I was watching a 3 hour movie! AND I WAS NEARING THE END!

The movies offered were quite good, through I think offering "snakes on a plane" was a bad idea. We had "The devil wears prada", "monster house", "pirates of the (something)", and "ladder(something)" about the heroic NYFD during 9/11. In addition to the classics (the sound of music anyone?) and the not so old ("storm breaker") and Australian films.


And Appolo 13.

The only problem with the VOD was this:


I got this WAAAAAAAAY to often. After a bit of observation, I realised that the popular movies (like Devil wears prada and top gear) always gave me this error, while the not-so-popular ones (like The sound of music) would load. So I guessed that the VOD system is not ready for the whole of cattle class to watch "happy feet" at the same time, which BTW, is an Australian production.

But to be fair to Qantas, the captain did warn us that the VOD system was very new and there were a few bugs, and if it hung "please call a member of the cabin crew and they will reset it for you". 0.0

Still, at least I got VOD. I'm actually not supposed to get a VOD system on flights between SYD and SIN, according to their website. Oddly, between Adelaide, Brissy and Perth to SIN has VOD. Weird.


Click on image to see the bigger picture.

This is the SYD-SIN sector. The SIN-JBH sector will come in the next post!

Kenny Sia is blocked in New Zealand

My library at least.......Kenny's too popular.....

Can any one tell me what sort of "inapporpriate content" is on Kenny's blog?

Of Chinese festivals and the chinese diaspora

A few days ago was the 冬至 festival. Its celebrated by the chinese here marking the winter solstice, aka the shortest day of winter. Most countries in the northen hemisphere celebrate something like that. Even in the southen hemisphere like NZ we mark the winter solstice in May or something like that.

I was cycling around my area 2 days ago when I noticed that half of the shops were closed and those that were still open at 6pm were devoid of customers. Even the Hui Sing hawker centre and the coffee shops were by and large closed. Which is unusual for a Thursday.


Pic of the 汤圆 stolen borrowed from the great eichi aka icigo-san.

I dunno if it's a fuchow thing, but people went out to the temples and ate 汤圆. Don't get me wrong; 汤圆 is very nice to eat, but this made me think, as I ate the sweet balls and drank the cold "soup" in the noonday heat, how relavent these festivals are for us Malaysian Chinese in this modern day and age. These festivals were brought over by our ancestors, the very things they celebrated in China. Calendars in those days were still primitive for the masses, so festivals was how the normal people marked the passing of time.

This set me thinking: all our ancestors were all iliterate farmers, pesants with little and no education. One thing I learnt in trying to discover my roots is that the Chinese disapora in Singapore, Malaysia and Sarawak were all the poor people who took a risk, bonded themselfs to the Ah Longs of the time and braved their souls to a foriegn land called Kuching. Or Bintulu. Or Singapore. The luckier ones managed to scrape by and sell of their things to come here. Remember, it was the last days of the last emperor, and the begining of the 20th century. China, to say the least, was a mess. Those that could leave left, tired of the 国民党 and the Commine bastards fighting. If you didn't die in the journey to Malaysia, you'd die in China anyway. The smarter ones like the scholars, doctors, those with professional status in 1920's China all had fled to Taiwan and Hong Kong, assuming they weren't Commine supporters.

So in this essence, the Chinese diaspora in SEA were the dregs of the poeple. The laboures. The pesants. The rubber tappers. Not exactly what you'd call the professional, upper class with brains. And the legacy, it reflects in our society today. Just look at what sort of Hokkien we use and the Ah Beng's and Ah Lian's that are in our midst. Like the one that can't shut up in the cinema when I'm trying to watch a movie.

How relavent our these festivals we celebrate today in modern China? Some of the festivals we practise today are no longer even thought of in China. Like the practise of 满月 for instance. It was in a time where hygene and sanitation was unheard of, and if you lived beyond 8 years you were lucky (just look at my family tree. So many died young in China). The first month of a baby's life was crucial. When he/she made it, it was a cause of celebration. Today, with modern sanitation, health care, the battery of doctors, I think I can safely say that 99% of those born normally will live beyond the first month。 So why do I still get a hard boiled egg from relatives? Not that I mind, but I can tell you that the Shanghaineese don't do that anymore. A mention of that will have them call you "provincial".

I feel, after being and living with (a) Mainland chinese, that we overseas Chinese diaspora in Malaysia are acctually more "Chinese" that the people from China. Honestly.

They may look down at us because we are not "real" chinese in their narrow minded point of veiw, but I say, we chinese diaspora are 10, no 100 times better and more civilised than the Mainland Chinese!

And before any flames start coming in, I'm Chinese in race and I can speak and write 华语。

Noel joy in the mountains

Noel joy in the mountains

In the remote highlands of north-eastern Sarawak at an altitude of some 1,000m is a world of heartfelt community ties, vibrant Christian faith and miraculous signs, discovers ANDREW SIA.

LIKE many Malaysian Christians, Martha Tagal decided to go home for Christmas this year. Unlike most, however, hers was a journey of more than 24 hours of travelling to reach her remote hometown in the Ba Kelalan highlands in Sarawak.

Martha, a secretary-turned-housewife who lives in Kuala Lumpur, flew to Kota Kinabalu, then drove with her sister, Rangai, a Sarawak Education Department officer, to Lawas before catching another flight to Ba Kelalan.

Even then, Martha and Rangai, two of seven siblings to come home to celebrate Christmas with their retired missionary father, took the “easy” route.

The Tagal sisters are among the many well-educated Kelabit and Lunbawang adults – partly thanks to the staunch Christianity practised in their communities – who have left the highlands to work in Miri, Kuching and Kuala Lumpur. And like the women, many have made the long trek home this time of year.

Christmas for the Lunbawang who live in the mountainous Ba Kelalan area and the Kelabit in the Bario plateau is worlds apart from the way urban Malaysians celebrate the festival.

In this land, there are no large churches, shopping malls or traffic jams. Instead, water buffaloes still carry goods along forest trails to far-flung villages and deer refers not to Rudolf but to the main dish at the longhouse Yuletide dinner.

Long, long road

Whereas people in the Peninsula have highways, railway tracks and jetliners to “balik kampung”, the homeward journeys here are far more difficult.

There are regular flights on Twin Otter propeller-driven planes but with only 19 places onboard, getting a seat is far from guaranteed. Everything, including passengers, has to be weighed and if passengers or luggage are overweight - the number of seats may be reduced.

A senior pilot who has been flying to the area for the past 15 years explains that if there are strong winds, heavy rains or mist in the mountains, the flights are usually cancelled. Experienced pilots have to negotiate between mountains and land by eyesight on very short airstrips.

It’s almost like landing on an aircraft carrier – but with zero electronic guidance. And in the days when the Ba Kelalan airstrip was grassland (it has since been tarred over), upon a flight’s arrival, the grazing cows had to be chased off!

My trip to Ba Kelalan involved flying from KL to Miri, where I switched to a Twin Otter for Lawas. Then, it was a six-hour ride on a logging road which involved 10 of us packing into the standard highland workhorse – a Toyota Hilux 4WD pick-up – at RM60 per pax.

The Hilux roared through shin-deep mud and slipped dangerously sideways at times. Yes, this is what happens to road maintenance when the logging is finished.

It may seat only 19 people but the Twin Otter propeller plane is the common mode of transport to highland settlements like Bario (above left) and Ba Kelalan.

Sang Sigar, an art teacher in his mid-40s serving at at the local school, said his “balik kampung” record was three days, set a few years ago!

“The truck became bogged down. We tried everything to get it out of the mud until we were exhausted. Then, we just slept in the truck with mud all over our bodies. Next day, we resumed the battle.”

To reach Bario, most Kelabit return by flight (now twice daily). Even then, folks like Maran Radu, 78, of outlying Pa Lungan village, still have to walk another four hours through narrow, muddy hill forest trails to get home. Ditto for his seven children who are working in KL, Miri, Bintulu and Brunei. And if they have lots of luggage, they will have to hire a four-leg-drive “lorry” – a water buffalo!

Those who can’t get a flight to Bario can opt for the 15-hour muddy 4WD experience from Miri. Just last October, logging (and its attendant road) reached Pa Berang and Ramudu, on the fringes of Bario. From there, it’s a short boat ride and another 4WD trip to central Bario.

Not so long ago, the land route to Bario involved a three-day boat ride from Marudi to the uppermost reaches of the Baram River and another few days of jungle trekking – making the Twin Otters the only practical (and crucial) link to the outside world.

Teething problems during FAX Airways' takeover from the MAS Rural Air Service caused a severe shortage of diesel and food supplies in Bario in August. It was alleviated only by emergency airlifts of rice, sugar, biscuits, cooking oil, flour and milk a week before Merdeka.

The new land-river supply route has eased things. But the travails of transport still push up prices drastically. According to Sang, a bag of cement costs RM17 in Lawas, RM40 in Ba Kelalan and a whopping RM150 in Bario! Similarly, a kilo of sugar goes for RM3 in Ba Kelalan and RM5 in Bario.

Need a new pick-up truck for Christmas? Vehicles used to be flown into Bario on a boxy cargo plane, aptly called a Skyvan, at RM6,000 per pop! The service had been stopped since the 30-sen petrol price hike, said eco-tourism operator Douglas Munney.

And how does anyone from the outside world call home if their flight is cancelled? Bario and Ba Kelalan have five public telephones (radio-operated) between them.

“We asked Telekom to reconfigure the phones so that people can call in,” said Sang. “When it rings, hopefully somebody is nearby and picks up. Then he has to walk to whoever’s house to convey the message.”

Watched by her curious children, Rina Rahayu weaves a mat from kabar pandan leaves that will be used in the longhouse or to sun-dry rice.

Dari mana?

Everywhere I went, people stopped to talk, starting with the question “Dari mana?” (Where are you from?)

“That’s the way it is here. From ‘Dari mana’, next thing you know, there is an invitation for tea, and then to come over for Christmas,” explained Neal Nirmal, our trip organiser from Taiping, Perak, who used to stay for weeks in Ba Kelalan in the early 1990s.

At Pa Ukat, housewife Rina Rahayu, mother of two young children, was weaving a mat from kabar pandan leaves which she had cut from the jungle and painstakingly removed the thorns stalk by stalk.

After interviewing her and taking many pictures, I thought it would be nice to contribute RM10 as a small Christmas ang pow to her family. Later, as my 4WD was about to leave, she suddenly presented me with the mat that she had been working on for the past two days.

“Christmas present,” she smiled, leaving me flabbergasted by her generosity.

Celebrating Natal

“Christmas is very good here,” attested Martha. “The Holy Spirit ministers to people and the people are touched. I really feel the sense of joy here.”

And it is very, very community oriented. Said Jaman Riboh, an eco-tour guide operator in Bario:

“People always look forward to come home for the celebration. They will pack gifts and Christmas goodies for relatives in the villages.”

“In churches, candles are placed in a small bamboo knot on the Christmas tree. They are lit when the congregation sings Silent Night. That’s the highlight of the service. After church, people will visit friends and relatives until late in the night.”

Henry Jala Temalai is expecting his children home for Christmas.

Bario Penghulu Henry Jala Temalai, 74, is expecting his son Idris Jala (Malaysia Airlines managing director) and other children from Australia and Kuching to make it home for Christmas.

But for Mubulun Selutan, 78, of Pa Ukat, none of his seven children in various towns are returning home this year. Instead, he will go to Miri, where four of his children are.

In Ba Kelalan, the gift-giving would have been in the form of a telematch yesterday. According to Rungu Aris, wife of the local village chief, the telematch would have offered gifts sponsored by those who are working in town, while old and young had fun gunnysack racing and running with eggs in spoons.

I had the opportunity to attend a pra-Natal or pre-Christmas service at Bario’s central church on Dec 17. Here, there was none of the traditional sape (a stringed instrument) and hornbill dances often shown to tourists but electric guitars and keyboards, lots of clapping and raised hands plus exuberant singing much like a modern, urban charismatic church.

And the sermon was titled Apa yang kamu akan buat selapas Natal? (What will you do after Christmas?) with a call to spread Amanat Agung, or the Great Message. Different choirs – from the kaum ibu, bapa dan belia (mothers, fathers and youths) performed. Silent Night was sung in Kelabit, while prayers – to bless the fellowship, the music and to bind the evil spirits – were in Malay.

Above the stage, a huge banner declared: Roh Kudus Penolongku - The Holy Spirit, My Helper.

I could not understand the words of many of the songs but somehow there was a certain energy in the air and I could not stop crying. As a Theravadan Buddhist who is open to the goodness in all religions, I believe something sacred was working on me that day.

Here's wishing Christians Do' Aco Krismas and everybody Do'Umak Lak Meberuh, which is Lunbawang for Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Related Stories:
Forest feast
Salvation and miracles

Things I saw Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann city

Some more pics I took when I was at the Kino at Ngee Ann City. They wrap up all their books, so I couldnt really have a real look around. And with security guards hovering around looking quite scary. So all pics were taken with no flash. But there are quite a few gems in this pics.


Saw this in a book about the chinese diaspora around in a chapter on the chinese society in Malaysia. Quite interesting.

I KNEW WE HOKKIENS WERE NO 1!!! All my life I've been quite sore about the cantonese. They have singlehandedly defined what "chinese food" and "chinese culture" is in the western world. This is because while Commine china was locked up from the rest of the world (and should have stayed that way IMO), the only chinese who had/have the means to travel around the world was the HK cantonese.

Herer in Malaysia we have their TVB drama's. Dont get me wrong; some of them are quite nice to watch and follow. Its just that if it wasn't for the BM subtitles in TV3 and NTV7, I wouldnt be able to understand anyting they say. Its weird through; all my life with a (kinda) steady diet of TVB drama's, I still can understand and speak any cantonese at all. The only thing is that the Mainland chinese in NZ all think that the "chinese" (diaspora) in Malaysia can all speak Cantonese. Dont ask me what gave them that impression. But at least I can counter by saying that I can speak Hokkien.

The cantonese are no 3 by distribution (19%). Yet they control the country! And the TV stations. and the ad's. How many Hokkien ad's can you count? I've lost count of the Cantonese ones!

there is just one small problem with this data through: WHERE ARE THE FUCHOWS?! They cant be that small in numbers? I mean, you cant go anywhere in Kuching without seeing Fuchows in buisness. Like Global upline, who is going the Kuching airport and the flyover at BDC. Owned by Ting Phek Kiing. The our chickens come from CCK, owned by the Tiong family. Then there is KTS, who owns the papers (Borneo post, See hua etc etc), managed by the Lau family.The list can go on and on and on........

Anyway, moving on.......


I didnt know Kashimashi ～ガール・ミーツ・ガール～ was also in a manga. For those who dont know what it is, believe me, you dont want to know. If you must know, google is your friend. Just one warning: its girl on girl action.



I read FMP:overload in Borders Auckland, which is the manga verson of FMP:Fumoffu. There is only one word to describe it :ROFTLOL! :D Once you get past the pansu shots, it is damn funny!


Suzuka. The manga. At S$23.80. Not cheap. Suzuka is quite a relative easy manga to understand, so I can (barely) survive on the chinese translations. If they are only in 简体. I　cant understand 繁体 very well.



Note Honoka-chan. Ignore the mature content part. The manga is pure rubbish. The anime has more to go for.

Damn, I'm sick of typing lah.......

Home Cooked food....

I like home cooked food......beats sandwiches anytime!

More manga pics....

This is really really turning into a photo blog. Even with this crappy screamyx connection, my blog is loading ULTRA slow. No connection can really keep up with this blog in Malaysia. I promise once I get pass the backlog of picture posts, more text heavy and bandwidth posts will come along.

In the meantime:

TSUBASA NI KAWARU~~~~~~~~~~~

Chuang Yi is the best friend for any poor student who's chinese is rotting.


And 凉风.......


This is why I like Chuang Yi. English and only S$7.90!

Pita Tennnnn~~~

Blew S$60 on a boxed Pita Ten manga set (4 volumes) in Singapore. Still in shrinkwrap condition. 100% new. And its addictive! Pita Ten~~~~~~~



Front of the box..



Side view


Back view


Ouch.....this part is the most painful one...



Side view


The Top


The bottom

Yes, yes, I'm a sucker for anything cute.....

Plane models

A few plane models I saw in one of the airport shops in Auckland airport. Leong, this post is dedicated to you! If you can access this website in the first place.


A Lufthansa 747-400


A Very old MD-11 from Garuda, believe it or not!


A SIA 747-400 with the Star Alliance livery.


The old AirNZ colour scheme.


A model airport.

AMD diversifies into making manhole covers

Saw this somewhere in NZ. AMD drain covers.

Yep. The processor market is going downhill all right.....

STOP PRESS! This just in!

The New Paper, a tabloid newspaper distributed in MRT stations has just publised an article on Cosafe!


Web version archived in image above. Click on it to see the HUGE picture.


A little bird managed to scan the original article and put it online. All credit goes to him/her/it.

My boss is 16
Teen runs cosplay cafe with French maids
By Esther Au Yong
December 16, 2006

IF YOU ask this 16-year-old what's her occupation, she'll tell you 'businesswoman'.



Miss Ferlyn Tan, who has just completed her O levels at Tanglin Secondary School, runs a restaurant - and it's not the school canteen.

Step into the outlet in Chijmes and you will be greeted with a chorus of 'Okaerinasai Goshujinsama'.

That's Japanese for 'Welcome home, Master'.

And at Cosafe (pronounced 'co-sah-fey'), you can expect to be served by 16 waitresses dressed as French maids.

Yes, this is going to be Singapore's first costume play - or cosplay - cafe.

The waitresses, with red pouty lips and ponytails, will be in lacy, pink-ribboned, black-and-white outfits.

Hugely popular in Japan, a maid cafe is where cosplay enthusiasts gather to role play and show off their latest costumes.

They usually dress as characters from manga, anime and video games.

In August, Miss Tan and her friend Julia Teo, 21, a Temasek Polytechnic student, represented Singapore in the nine-country World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya, Japan.

Earlier this year, Miss Tan, dressed as female warrior Lunamaria Hawke, and Miss Teo, as songstress Lacus Clyne, both from the Gundam Seed Destiny anime, beat 30 other contestants at the local Cosfest V - The Reunion.

While some may not take to the idea of a maid cafe, to others it is oh-so-kawaii (cute in Japanese) and refreshing.

Said Miss Tan: 'We hit on the idea after we came back from Nagoya. There, such cafes are very popular and very successful. I believe there's a market for them here too.'

Miss Tan, who will be paid a monthly salary of 'more than $1,000', is in charge of coming up with promotions at the cafe. She will also handle public and media relations.

Said Mr Floyd Tan, 25, her brother, who runs the cafe as its managing director: 'We spent about $200,000 setting this up, half of it from my mother. I contributed the other half.

POTENTIAL


'Although I don't cosplay, I think there's potential in this.

'We reckon there are 4,000 to 5,000 cosplayers in Singapore now, compared with about 400 four years ago.'

At the last local Cosfest event in July, some 8,000 people gathered at Downtown East.

In 2004, there were 2,500 visitors.

Mr Tan, who used to be an army regular, said his investment came from savings and money made on shares.

Said their mother, Madam Kathleen Liew, 50: 'At first, of course I had my worries.

'I wondered whether my children were serious about their plan to open the cafe, and whether it could be sustained.'

But after accompanying Miss Tan to Japan, 'where I saw first-hand how popular the cafes were', and after looking at her children's business plans, she gave the go-ahead and lent them $100,000.

'I want to encourage them to excel, to support them in any way I can,' said Madam Liew, who used to be an editor in a publishing company.

Their father, Mr Richard Tan, 50, a manager at Cold Storage, also advises them.


The maid costumes cost more than $100 each, and rent costs 'more than $7,000 a month'.

Miss Tan says the cafe will be 'good clean fun'.

She added: 'We have decorated our cafe in a clean, breezy and open manner. The girls have also been told that there should be no physical contact with the guests.

'Unlike in Japan, we don't have any private rooms available. Everything is in the open, so customers who have other ideas will be discouraged.'

The open concept also helped to win over the landlord, Suntec Reit, which manages Chijmes, Mr Tan said.

'The management agreed to lease the space to us after we assured them that our concept was wholesome. We have the space till the end of 2009,' he said.

OPTIONS

Places like Heeren, where cosplayers often gather, were considered but, in the end, 'the options available were either too small or too expensive'.

The cafe will serve Japanese and European cuisine.

'We have wine champagne mushroom linguine priced at $16, and Japanese curry rice, also priced at $16. A glass of housepour wine will go for $9,' said Mr Tan.

The menu was drawn up with the help of a relative who is an executive chef running a few restaurants.

He also helped them recruit and train the kitchen staff.

The 'maids' are selected and trained by the siblings.

The first batch of girls were selected from 200 applicants, aged between 17 and 23.

Although they need to role-play, they need not be cosplayers.

Miss Tan said: 'Our girls are talented. For example, one of them has been taking opera lessons for a long time. It's her own private interest, but she has agreed to perform on stage soon.

'We will also have theme nights, like a Geisha Night, when all our maids will dress and act as geishas.'

There will also be a ladies' night when instead of 'maids', six young 'butlers' will serve female customers.

Miss Tan, who is awaiting her O-level results, plans to help run the cafe for a year before going overseas to study.

For cosplayer Michelle Lim, the cafe comes at the right time.

The 19-year-old student said: 'Cosplay is becoming more popular now.

'I'm delighted that there will be a cafe and a proper gathering place for us cosplayers now. It's cool that we can go there and check out other cosplayers and their costumes.'

Well, this article solves some questions.....

1) S$ 100 for the MAID costume?! When my sis asked one of them, all they said it was "very expensive". What, is it like a secret of what? Well, at least we know what the costs are like. $100 for a costume........tell me again why we never see Malaysian's do REAL cosplay...........

2)Rent is "more than S$7000 a month". Assuming that the upper stastical limit of that statement is S$7500, they Maid cafe, mathematically, the Maid cafe would have to make a profit of S$250 a night!!!!!! I know its CHIJMES, I know its a up market place, I know its smack right in the centre of Singapore, but S$250 a night!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? This explains why the prices are HIGH until going there costs me a arm and a leg!

Worth it though. It was nice. And a new experience. And the potential to say that I was the first Kuchingits there.

3) 16 years old and having a buisness?I'm 19 and I still cant charge for my computer services! Thats it, from now on all tech support will cost you guys something!

4) Potential? In Singapore maybe. Call me a cynic, but I'd be surprised if the cafe lasted anything more than 2 years. Singapore may be big, but the market for such a niche and a specific cafe is SMALL. I mean, even if I had all the money on earth, I can only go so many times before the novelty and appeal wears off. And I think this applies to 99% of the otaku. There will be that 1%, but can that 1% keep the place in the black?

Still, it was a once-in-a kind experience. Secretly, somewhere in me, I'm hoping that this works out, and that the prices drop to a more sane level. The pratical side of me doesn't see that happening through.

THE FIRST KUCHINGITE IN SEA'S FIRST MAID CAFE!

FIRST AND FOREMOST: I think I am the first East Malaysian, Malaysian even, to visit the 1st (and most probably the only) maid cafe in South East Asia! So remember folks, you saw it here first, on ninghua.blogspot.com!

A few months back I blogged about an article that appeared in TodayOnline entitled "Master want a cuppa?" about the (potential) opening of a maid cafe in Singapore.

Well, I was in Singapore last week, and it just happened that I saw this announcement in a forum posting. It said that it was going to be opened on the 12 of Dec, which is EXACTLY the same date I'll (just) be in Singapore!

The only problem was that I wasnt very familar with Singapore (still a bit blur)and I was like "Where the hell is CHIJMES?". As a matter of fact, WHAT is CHIJMES?
Yes, I know that I'm a East Malaysian. And yes, Kuching and Singapore are on different planets.

CHIJMES BTW, stands for Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus or something like that. It was a church turned VERY up class and up market place. So armed with the "singapore guide for tourists", I made my way to Raffles City MRT stop. It wasnt that hard to find CHIJMES, but stopping myself like acting like a country boy entering a big city was.

Anyway, here are some pics I took. I'm acctually thankful it even worked. I'm cursed with a failing battery when ever I'm around girls. Its a fact of life. For me. EVERYTIME I try to take a picture with and/or girls, my camera will GURANTEED die! Its the Law of Tim it seems. :(


The sign board outside the cafe. All "Cosafe" has is just one shop lot in CHIJMES, so its quite small. The eating place is all outside, kinda like alfresco at night.


The outside of the maid cafe. With maids gurading gracing the entrance into the harem cafe.


The eating area outside. Since I went at night (after spending the day at Sim Lim!), I cant take very good pics. And my camera JUST HAD TO choose that time to die on me!


The guy on the left stupidly walked in front of me when I took this picture. Just focus on the maids.


More shots outside, with a view of the back side of the maid uniforms. The picture was an accident in the sense that when I pressed the shutter she was standing outside looking cute, but when the camera focused and ignighted the flash and took the pic, it was EXACTLY that time someone called her inside. hence the accidental back side view!


Another shot in front of the cafe. Its not a big shop lot. All the dining and drinking is all done outside. The inside is where the maids waitresses get ready their masters' food and drink.


Maid asking the people how is their meal. this pic was taken after she came over and asked us how liked the food, aren't we going to order something to eat, please come back coz we need yr support etc etc. I would support, but its going to cost me an arm, a leg and a bank loan to even order anything!

Hint: I'm a poor student who rarely has money to splash out. But when I do I go crazy.....


The Asian touch: a boquet of flowers on the first day of opening.


What the place looks like after my 3rd bottle of beer...no, acctually, its just a pic taken with no flash and a time of 1/8 secs.


The menu. A place where drinks cost S$6.50 (RM 14.90) and Pasta costs S$20(RM 46 for us poor EAST Malaysians).If I ever am going to enjoy me self there, I'm going to need a JOB.

And the pics that all of you guys have been waiting for:


Me with the maid that served me!

The contrast couldnt be more stark through. Me and my absolute and total ignorance of any type of fashion, and this bute maid in a meido costume. Yes, I know that I look horrible....

There are more pics, but I cant put all of them up in one setting. But I still like this pic amongst all of them...