Cars in Malaysia since February 2010

Hi Everyone,


This post is just for information only. I collected my Proton Persona on February 9th 2010. I have been driving for more than a year now. When I bought the car, my car number plate is WTM 15xx. 


For Malaysian number plates, it is three characters, followed by four digit number. Therefore, each character (WTM, WTN...) has about 9,999 possible numbers (about 10,000 cars). Also, we skip the characters, O, I and Z. These few days, I have spotted cars bearing the number WUX 2xxx. 


Therefore, since I bought my car, there are over 330,000 vehicles sold over the past 1 year. There are over 330K additional cars in Klang Valley alone. People are forced to buy cars because there is lack of transport here. For myself, the nearest LRT (light rail transit) station is at Bandar Tasik Selatan, about 10kms away. I also need someone to drive me there or I drive to get to the LRT station. 


However, there is good news. Our government is planning a MRT (mass rail transit) line from Sungai Buloh to Kajang. It will pass by densely populated areas such as Cheras, Bandar Utama, Kota Damansara, Bukit Bintang, Sungai Buloh and Kajang. This will improve the public transport system here in Kuala Lumpur. It also helps the environment as there would be less cars on the road. People can drive to the train station and take a train to work instead of driving there. It would reduce traffic jam in KL too. More cars will mean more traffic jam.


That's all for now.


Cheers,


Rogerkoo

Stieg Larsson: The Girl Series

http://www.mphonline.com/books/nsearch.aspx?do=detail&pcode=9780307743435Hi Everyone,

I have completed my reading on all the Stieg Larsson's The Girl series of three books, namely The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and the Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest a few months ago.  Now available in a set of trilogy at bookstores nationwide.

 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo introduces us to the characters of Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist trapped by a libel conviction was asked to investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families 40 years ago. Her uncle continued to seek the truth all these years. Through the investigation, he met Lisbeth Salander, a personal investigator and also a hacker at Milton Security led by her boss, Dragan Armansky. Together with Lisbeth, Mikael went to investigate the mysterious circumstances that led to the disappearance of Harriet Vanger. As you read the book, we will also begin to uncover Lisbeth Salander's past. We will see more of her past in the 2nd and 3rd book of the series.

After the adventures of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Mikael Blomkvist decided to run an expose of a wide-ranging sex trafficking operation. Just before it is published, two people were brutally murdered. The fingerprints was found to be that of Lisbeth Salander. As a friend, he is convinced that Lisbeth is innocent and then plunged into an investigation onto the murder. More of Lisbeth's past is mentioned here. Her father, Alexander Zalachenko a.k.a Karl Axel Bodin made his appearance here in The Girl Who Played with Fire. We will begin to know who he really is and the hatred of Lisbeth towards her father. Lisbeth meanwhile is drawn into a murderous game and is forced to face her dark past.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Next, the 3rd and final installment of this series continued directly from the last chapter of The Girl Who Played With Fire. It starts with Lisbeth lying in a critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care of a Swedish city hospital. When she is released, she would stand trial for 3 murders. Now, her journalist friend, Mikael Blomkvist will help her to prove her innocence with the cooperation of various parties and to denounce those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, Lisbeth herself to suffer abuse and violence. Lisbeth is also plotting a revenge against the man who tried to kill her and the corrupt government institutions that nearly destroyed her life. We can see how a division of the government also actually covers up certain things that led to the public belief that Lisbeth is a mentally ill person. We can see how corrupt these people are and how they actually took measures to protect a Russian defector and their own interests.

All the three books are very thrilling and filled with suspense that you will always want to read all the three books until the end. The main characters are mainly Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander but we also see these characters as well:

• Erika Berger (Editor-in chief of the Millenium where Blomkvist was working and Blomkvist's friend)
• Dragan Armansky
• Christer Malm
• Henry Cortez
• Holger Palmgren
• Malin Eriksson
• Anders Jonasson
• Dr. Teleborian
• Inspector Bublanksi
• Inspector Edklinth
• Annika Gianini (Blomkvist's sister)
• Monica Figuerola

There are others not mentioned here.

This is indeed one of the series of books that I enjoyed reading best. It is different from other crime / mystery novels such as those written by Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, James Patterson and Michael Connelly. I truly recommend these three books to all of you.

You can find out more at this link: 

MPH Online

Amazon doesn't have the entry the box set that are currently sold by MPH so individual titles will be displayed.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo