D-U-A (it doesn't mean two by the way...)
We were standing under the scorching sun, waiting for the feeder bus that never came. In my heart there was this feeling of futility to wait at this motor cross racing circuit, but I'll rather not risking letting my feelings known for the sake of not ruining the mood.
While the kids were chasing the Spiderman balloon, we got some reprise under the shade of some trees beside the road. The final straw came when Darwisayah popped the balloon right under Haziq's nose, much to his chagrin. I directed all to move along to the Kota Iskandar Main Square.
"Takpe, kan kita sekarang tengah enjoy?" Dahlia gestured.
"Ye ke Umi? Sekarang kita tengah berdiri dekat bawah panas matahari, tunggu bas yang tak datang-datang lagi. Enjoy ke ni?" I retorted.
Since we both have this kind of weird humor of laughing at our own selves, we broke out into this loud laugh.
"Ha, ha, ha!"
.
.
.
Earth...
Air...
Water...
Long ago, the southern state of West Malaysia decided that they would make the King's Birthday celebration with all of the elements. Then, everything changed when we found out that most of the highlights were just indah khabar dari rupa. Only the kid's smile and our patience saved this day from a total mess.
And although the organizer team seems to be cool and hip, they still have a lot to learn in planning and organizing before they ready to step it up in the next year. But I believe they can...
.
.
.
We're at the D.U.A event of the celebration of the Sultan Johor's birthday. D.U.A is the abbreaviation of Darat, Udara, Air - elements that they fits in the activities all around the Kota Iskandar. Pretty hip and neat, don't you think?
We came for the hot air balloon ride. At RM10 per pax, it looks like a steal. A big surprise for all of us when we arrived at the Main Square that morning - there were no hot balloon in sight.
According to the buck tooth girl at the counter, they have to cancel the ride on that Saturday morning due to safety reasons because of the strong wind.
Several changes could actually prevent this mishap. A fast check on the weather forecast on the area could actually changed the activities that they would've planned.
(And according to my office colleague, her family even went to all the slots for the hot air balloon (all 6 of them for 3 days), and still didn't managed to ride the balloon. With the numbers of people that showed up, the organizer only flew one out of three of the balloon that they prepared. All slots were quickly taken.)
The least that they should have done was to put someone more presentable instead of the buck tooth girl. I'm genuinely pitied her when she was busy attended the inquires about the hot air balloon.
And now here we are waiting for the feeder bus to take us to the other zones for this D.U.A events. There are several zones - namely alphabetically. It was a good thing that we're at the scrambler bike racing circuit - for the Darat element of the event. So under the El Nino sun we basked in all the Darat element - the dust and all. Not my cup of tea though.
When we finally climbed unto the feeder bus - the refreshing cool aircond air breathed through our tired body. Found out that the reason the buses were missing in the inner circle of Kota Iskandar was due to the Johor Royal family members that launching the event. Pretty ironic because the roads that buses went through in the inner circle don't even coincide with the main event in the Main Square.
Hip but not experienced enough? That what I thought about the whole event.
So right now we're riding the bus to go to the C Zone - where there was the helicopter exhibition and supposedly a helicopter ride resides.
"Jomla kita naik helikopter, paling kurang kita tak pernah naik lagi kan?" Dahlis suggested.
Usually I would balk at the RM140/trip, but this time I may have to agree with her (after checking my wallet of course) just for the sake of this trip.
From afar, we could saw three helis on the field. We hopped from the bus to the heli in the main center. This heli have been used as the main attraction for this Udara event. People can hopped in from the front, get their photos taken inside the heli, and get out from the center belly.
But the heli ride was nowhere to be seen. Strangely, when I inquire about the ride to the officer manning the displayed heli, he was also confused with the event's brochure about the heli ride.
"Tak tau la bang. Saya pun confuse juga bila ada helicopter ride dalam brochure ni, Helikopter saya ni tentera punya. Tak boleh suka-suka terbang naik."
Huh? With three hiccups throughout the day, I don't think this is all coincidence.
A brief history about Kota Iskandar. Being established in 2008, it have been earmarked to be the administrative center for the state of Johor mirroring the Putrajaya. While the location of the city is quite controversial at one time - being too close to the Singapore army's firing field and far from the JB city, it can't be denied that the landscape of the city is a nice view. The roads should be larger to accommodate bigger traffic, but the buildings and trees will be something that can have that calming effect.
Especially for me in this situation.
After having a go with the Udara element, we went to the Puteri Harbor to get some of the last element in this event - the Air element.
Puteri Harbor is a complex which houses the indoor Hello Kitty and Thomas Town theme park. Just besides the complex we could see some Lotus sport cars racing each other in a two loop short course. Along the water ridges, there were some water skis demonstration.
Since it was already almost noon, we stopped by the Sushi King restaurant in the complex for our lunch.
The kids were the most excited in the complex. Darwisyah were happily running along the big pavement between the shops, ambivilous of the people walking around her and purposely tripping herself along the way. Haziq being excited by the Toy R Us shop that managed to caught his eyes. Their father felt some flutter in his heart seeing the DC Shop & Cafe alongside the stairs heading to the Marina.
Except for Darwisyah, both Haziq and their father could only weep inside seeing the prices shown.
It's mind boggling. Running a niche business in a faraway complex which locals can't even afford?
In this economy climate?
This is my first post in 2016 and already I ranted a lot. Should've stop right here.
Shhhhh... Looks like the kids and their mom were sleeping, leaving me driving the car alone. Again.
 |
| I'll get that balloon! |
 |
| Believe me! |
 |
| Didn't I said so? |
"Takpe, kan kita sekarang tengah enjoy?" Dahlia gestured.
"Ye ke Umi? Sekarang kita tengah berdiri dekat bawah panas matahari, tunggu bas yang tak datang-datang lagi. Enjoy ke ni?" I retorted.
Since we both have this kind of weird humor of laughing at our own selves, we broke out into this loud laugh.
"Ha, ha, ha!"
.
.
.
Earth...
Air...
Water...
Long ago, the southern state of West Malaysia decided that they would make the King's Birthday celebration with all of the elements. Then, everything changed when we found out that most of the highlights were just indah khabar dari rupa. Only the kid's smile and our patience saved this day from a total mess.
And although the organizer team seems to be cool and hip, they still have a lot to learn in planning and organizing before they ready to step it up in the next year. But I believe they can...
.
.
.
We're at the D.U.A event of the celebration of the Sultan Johor's birthday. D.U.A is the abbreaviation of Darat, Udara, Air - elements that they fits in the activities all around the Kota Iskandar. Pretty hip and neat, don't you think?
We came for the hot air balloon ride. At RM10 per pax, it looks like a steal. A big surprise for all of us when we arrived at the Main Square that morning - there were no hot balloon in sight.
According to the buck tooth girl at the counter, they have to cancel the ride on that Saturday morning due to safety reasons because of the strong wind.
Several changes could actually prevent this mishap. A fast check on the weather forecast on the area could actually changed the activities that they would've planned.
(And according to my office colleague, her family even went to all the slots for the hot air balloon (all 6 of them for 3 days), and still didn't managed to ride the balloon. With the numbers of people that showed up, the organizer only flew one out of three of the balloon that they prepared. All slots were quickly taken.)
The least that they should have done was to put someone more presentable instead of the buck tooth girl. I'm genuinely pitied her when she was busy attended the inquires about the hot air balloon.
And now here we are waiting for the feeder bus to take us to the other zones for this D.U.A events. There are several zones - namely alphabetically. It was a good thing that we're at the scrambler bike racing circuit - for the Darat element of the event. So under the El Nino sun we basked in all the Darat element - the dust and all. Not my cup of tea though.
When we finally climbed unto the feeder bus - the refreshing cool aircond air breathed through our tired body. Found out that the reason the buses were missing in the inner circle of Kota Iskandar was due to the Johor Royal family members that launching the event. Pretty ironic because the roads that buses went through in the inner circle don't even coincide with the main event in the Main Square.
 |
| Haziq was all smile after he got another balloon - this time Ultraman |
Hip but not experienced enough? That what I thought about the whole event.
So right now we're riding the bus to go to the C Zone - where there was the helicopter exhibition and supposedly a helicopter ride resides.
"Jomla kita naik helikopter, paling kurang kita tak pernah naik lagi kan?" Dahlis suggested.
Usually I would balk at the RM140/trip, but this time I may have to agree with her (after checking my wallet of course) just for the sake of this trip.
From afar, we could saw three helis on the field. We hopped from the bus to the heli in the main center. This heli have been used as the main attraction for this Udara event. People can hopped in from the front, get their photos taken inside the heli, and get out from the center belly.
 |
| Quite a strong wind |
But the heli ride was nowhere to be seen. Strangely, when I inquire about the ride to the officer manning the displayed heli, he was also confused with the event's brochure about the heli ride.
"Tak tau la bang. Saya pun confuse juga bila ada helicopter ride dalam brochure ni, Helikopter saya ni tentera punya. Tak boleh suka-suka terbang naik."
 |
| Bergambar dengan abang helikopter. |
Huh? With three hiccups throughout the day, I don't think this is all coincidence.
 |
| "Apa tengok-tengok?" kata Darwisyah |
A brief history about Kota Iskandar. Being established in 2008, it have been earmarked to be the administrative center for the state of Johor mirroring the Putrajaya. While the location of the city is quite controversial at one time - being too close to the Singapore army's firing field and far from the JB city, it can't be denied that the landscape of the city is a nice view. The roads should be larger to accommodate bigger traffic, but the buildings and trees will be something that can have that calming effect.
Especially for me in this situation.
After having a go with the Udara element, we went to the Puteri Harbor to get some of the last element in this event - the Air element.
Puteri Harbor is a complex which houses the indoor Hello Kitty and Thomas Town theme park. Just besides the complex we could see some Lotus sport cars racing each other in a two loop short course. Along the water ridges, there were some water skis demonstration.
Since it was already almost noon, we stopped by the Sushi King restaurant in the complex for our lunch.
The kids were the most excited in the complex. Darwisyah were happily running along the big pavement between the shops, ambivilous of the people walking around her and purposely tripping herself along the way. Haziq being excited by the Toy R Us shop that managed to caught his eyes. Their father felt some flutter in his heart seeing the DC Shop & Cafe alongside the stairs heading to the Marina.
Except for Darwisyah, both Haziq and their father could only weep inside seeing the prices shown.
 |
| With the Batmobile |
It's mind boggling. Running a niche business in a faraway complex which locals can't even afford?
In this economy climate?
This is my first post in 2016 and already I ranted a lot. Should've stop right here.
Shhhhh... Looks like the kids and their mom were sleeping, leaving me driving the car alone. Again.
 |
| I'll be back! |
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