My Very First Blog

It's just a few more days to Chinese New Year of the Horse! I'm excited!


Horses at Pavilion KL

One thing I must do during the first day of Chinese New Year is to welcome the God Of Wealth! According to feng shui expert Joey Yap, the God of Wealth is really a wealth star that you can activate simply by opening the door that faces the direction of that star. This year, it's located in the North West and the best time to activate it is at 12.30am on the first day of Chinese New Year.

This is very important since so many things are going to cost more in the new year. I definitely need all the help that I can get! I'm also expecting lots of angpows to come flying in my direction after activating this God Of Wealth. Haha!


Angpows with Lord Kubera riding a horse from World Of FengShui

Red. This is the color synonymous with Chinese New Year. I had been trying to shop for red clothes and red shoes last week without much success. It's frustrating! It's not that there was no abundance of red clothes and shoes out there, it's just that I have limited time to shop! LOL!

But guess what? I just found the perfect place to shop for my Chinese New Year clothes! It's an online shop called Zalora and they have the perfect red shirts and red shoes that I want! Talk about convenience! And especially to all my female readers who are celebrating Chinese New Year, you really do not want to miss Zalora's Chinese New Year collection!

With shopping taken care of, I had more time to go mall hopping to take photos of the Chinese New Year decorations. You might be wondering how come I was able to go mall hopping but not shop for Chinese New Year clothes? LOL! Well, taking photos is a breeze, and not really time consuming, but shopping for clothes … that takes a lot of time especially when I'm fussy too! Haha!



The one food that I always look forward to during Chinese New Year is yee sang. That's because I only get to eat it during Chinese New Year. I remember buying some rather tasty salmon yee sang from Aeon Supermarket last year. Maybe I will do the same this year!

I saw these plush toy horses on display at the KL Convention Centre. They seem to be the rage this Chinese New Year. I thought they were rather cute!



They can be found in Petaling Street and many other shops. Sure beats that Astro's Mali twin horses that are currently being sold in Tesco and Popular bookstores, don't you think?



Since it's the Year of the Horse, many shopping malls in Klang Valley are using horses as their main decoration theme. I will be sharing the Chinese New Year decorations in my next post.

In the meantime, to those who celebrate, here's wishing you a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year!

Continued from Part 2

Towards the end of the 2014 Feng Shui & Astrology Seminar in KL, Joey Yap provided a list of date and time to activate wealth, relationship, health, and more.

To activate the sectors, you can choose to move furnitures around, drill a hole in the wall and hang a picture, or even play loud music.

Activating is somewhat similar to acupuncture. Just like acupuncture where the needles are used to stimulate and unblock certain meridian points in the body so that qi can flow smoothly, in the same way, moving furnitures or drilling a hole in the wall can trigger the stars in that particular sector.



WEALTH ACTIVATION
3 dates to choose from …

1. 13th March 2014, 5.30pm - South West 1 (Clash : Ox)

2. 17th March 2014, 1.30pm - North East 1 (Clash : Snake)

3. 1st June 2014, 3.30pm - West 2 (Clash : Rooster)

Note #1: Clash means if you have that animal sign in your Bazi Chart, then that particular date is not suitable for you. Choose another date instead. You can choose one date to activate, or you can activate on all 3 dates if none of the animal signs clashes with you.

Note #2: You can also activate the wealth stars by installing water feature at these sectors for 2 weeks.


RELATIONSHIP & MARRIAGE
3 dates to choose from …

1. 16th February 2014, 11.30am - South West 1 (Clash : Rat)

2. 29th March 2014, 1.30pm - South West 1 (Clash : Snake)

3. 20th May 2014, 5.30pm - East 2 and/or West 2 (Clash : Rooster)


HEALTH
2 dates to choose from …

1. 16th April 2014, 11.30am - North East 1 (Clash : Pig)

2. 4th May 2014, 11.30am - South West 1 (Clash : Snake)


HIDING & ESCAPE FROM PROBLEM
Not really sure what this means, but I think activating this will make you invisible to those looking for you, in other words, escaping from your problem. The effect will lasts from 2 to 7 months, so if you want to be noticed, do not activate this one!

29th May 2014, 7.30am - South West 1 (Clash : Horse)


HUNTING/FINDING
Joey did not explain this one, but my guess is it's for you find or hunt something. Also to overthrow your opposition and take control of the situation.

2 dates to choose from …

1. 8th May 2014, 7.30pm - South West 1 (Clash : Rooster)

2. 6th June 2014, 9.30am - South West 1 (Clash : Tiger)


WISH FULFILLING
To activate this, just face the direction and make your wish!

23rd May 2014, 3.30pm - sit South West, face North East (Clash : Rat)


TO KEEP 5 YELLOW AT NOMINAL LEVEL
The 5 Yellow is the most dreaded star and accidentally triggering it will be devastating. Joey Yap provided this date for us to activate so as to lessen the effects or to keep the 5 Yellow at nominal level.

4th February 2014, 9.30am - North West 2 (Clash : Rat)


GOD OF WEALTH
During the first day of Chinese New Year, most Chinese practise this ritual of welcoming the God Of Wealth into their homes to bring in wealth. The ritual usually involves some prayers and setting off firecrackers. According to Joey Yap, the God of Wealth is really a wealth star and we can activate it without resorting to firecrackers (although the loud firecrackers will definitely activate the star!) but simply by opening the door that faces the direction of the star.

31st January 2014, 12.30am - North West

Note : Besides activating the God of Wealth, you can also at the same time, activate North for business success, West for career success, South for happiness and East for help from noble people. 


BEST DAYS TO START WORK AFTER CHINESE NEW YEAR
Starting work on the right day will have good implications for the rest of the year, especially if you own your own business.

1. 4th February 2014 (5th day) - 9.30am (Clash : Rat)

2. 5th February 2014 (6th day) - 9.30am (Clash : Ox)

3. 8th February 2014 (9th day) - 9.30am (Clash : Dragon)

4. 10th February 2014 (11th day) -  9.30am (Clash : Horse)

Note : The BEST day is 5th day (4th February 2014) but if you have Rat in your Bazi Chart, you will have to choose another day.

This year, Joey Yap did not provide activation dates for RESOLVING PROBLEMS, ACADEMIC SUCCESS and SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT. If anyone of you knew the dates (probably from a separate seminar with Joey Yap), please share with me! Thanks!

This ends my posts on Joey Yap's Feng Shui & Astrology Seminar 2014. I hope you find the information useful. Here's wishing everyone a Happy Year of the Wood Horse!

Continued from Part 1

This year, Joey Yap gave a very interesting talk NOT about feng shui but about the mind. Yes, he talked about the powers of the mind and even threw in The Law of Attraction and The Secret.

But what have all these got to do with feng shui? Plenty, it seems.

If you are into feng shui, you would have probably heard about the theory of the Cosmic Trinity. This refers to the three factors that influence our lives - Heaven, Earth and Man. Each of these factors exerts an equal influence which is about 33 percent.

Heaven refers to a person's destiny which is set at birth. It is through Bazi that one gets to know one's destiny. Earth refers to the environment where a person lives. This is where feng shui plays a huge part in helping one improve on his or her luck. Lastly, Man refers to the actions and choices one makes in life. You can have a fuller understanding of this important concept HERE.

As you can see, feng shui only contributes one third to the total outcome. That means, even if you have really good feng shui, but if you don't take action, you will not get what you want in life. Another example would be if you are destined to be rich, but if you live in a place with terrible feng shui and also you are lazy and do not work hard, then you will probably not be very wealthy.

But during the Feng Shui & Astrology Seminar, Joey Yap revealed one more factor that exerts an invisible influence in our lives. This factor is the Universe, also known as the Spiritual Realm. It contributes 1 percent to the overall outcome.



It would seem that even if we have a good destiny and we have taken the effort to improve our feng shui and took the correct actions, we may still not get what we want. This is because there is still that missing 1 percent that works against us.

When Joey mentioned about this Spiritual Realm, it quickly reminded me of Lillian Too's talk last year about the third dimension of feng shui, known as Spiritual Feng Shui. I am still in the midst of blogging about Spiritual Feng Shui but you can read more about it HERE.

Now if I understand it correctly, Joey equates the Universe to the power of the mind. It is no longer a secret that we can actually use the mind to manifest reality. The process works like this -  the Mind results in Thoughts that leads to Actions which produces an outcome called Reality. This is the process that leads to all things in life.

It was a deeply profound subject that Joey attempted to tackle that day. He posed these questions to us - Where is the mind located? How big is the mind? Is the mind inside of you or outside of you? Even scientists do not know! Modern science have yet to prove that the mind exists, but we all know it's there. Proponents of the Law of Attraction and The Secret attest to the powers of the mind. And this forms the basis of the another branch of Chinese metaphysics called Qi Men Dun Jia.


Image courtesy of The Limitless Self

It was the first time that Joey Yap introduced Qi Men Dun Jia (QMDJ) in the annual seminar. In English, QMDJ is loosely translated as Mystical Doors Escaping Technique. We have all heard about people being in the right place and at the right time. Well, this is what QMDJ is all about. It utilises a technique that calculate with great accuracy the exact moment in time to which one can embark on a specific action to produce the desired outcome. Sounds amazing and scary at the same time, no?

Originally used in the battlefield and military situation to identify the right time and place to attack the enemy, QMDJ is also known as the other "Art Of War". Many famous military strategists in ancient China like Zhuge Liang of The Three Kingdoms and Liu Bo Wen of the Ming Dynasty used QMDJ to win military battles.

So what can QMDJ do in the modern context? Well, it has the ability to help one improve the chances of success in negotiation, marketing, exams, interviews, competition, dating, debt collection, getting loans,  date selection and more.

To learn how QMDJ helps you do all that would require a separate and proper seminar all on its own, so what Joey taught that day was just a simple way to ask for what we want and get what we asked for!
Something like the Law Of Attraction or The Secret, but this one more advanced and powerful with the exact direction that you need to face when asking for what you want!

This is how you do it...

First, print out your Personal Bazi Chart if you have not already done so. You can download your Bazi Chart HERE.

With your Personal Bazi Chart in front of you, look for your Destiny Palace.


Image taken from seminar's booklet

The QMDJ Chart comprises of 9 sections called Palaces. There are 8 Deities, 9 Stars and 8 Doors in the Chart. The Chart can be plotted for yearly, monthly, daily and even hourly. In other words, the Deities, Stars and Doors will move around and be in different palaces at different times of the day, month, or year.

This is the QMDJ Chart for 2014. The Chart changes every year with the location of the Deities, Stars and Doors also changed.


Image taken from seminar's booklet 

The 8 Deities (circled) are somewhat like the Guardians Angels or Spirit Guides in Western culture. Each Deity has different characters. The Deities are the most important part of the QMDJ Chart as they help you manifest your goals simply by you asking and visualizing what you want.



Note : All Chart images are taken from the seminar's booklet.

The 9 Stars (circled) represent Heavenly matters and govern what happens to you.



The 8 Doors (circled) represent Earthly matters and govern the actions that you take.



Joey Yap did not really explained the functions of the Stars and Doors due to the seminar's limited time so he focused only on the Deities.

In 2014, the Chief Deity resides in the North palace. From the name alone, you can guess this is the commander of all the Deities and the most powerful. If your Destiny Palace is North, then this year, you are protected and no harm will befall you. Also, enlisting the help of the Chief Deity will help you win over your competitors and rivals.

Everyone has his or her own Personal Deity. Check the Guardian of Destiny in your Personal Bazi Chart to find out your Personal Deity. If your Personal Deity is the Chief Deity, then you are one lucky person because your ability to manifest your dreams will be stronger. You will also be immune to all curses and black magic! That's how powerful the Chief Deity is.

Now even if your Destiny Palace is not North, you can still take advantage of the Chief Deity simply by waiting for the month when the Chief moves into your Life Palace. Let's say your Destiny Palace is North East, then in January 2014, you are in luck as the Chief moves to North East from January 5th to February 3rd. Refer to the QMDJ Chart for January 2014 below. Can you see the Chief Deity in North East?



Or if your Destiny Palace is East, then February will be a good time for you to manifest your dreams as the Chief Deity moves to the East Palace.



But what are the steps you need to take in order to make it work for you?

First, you must be in an Alpha state. This is a state where you are completely relaxed and meditative. As you can see, it has a lot to do with calming the mind. Our mind is restless when we think of the past or the future. It's the past that makes us unhappy or the future that makes us worried. But if we focus on the present, we are completely at ease - no worries whatsoever. It's the present where the real power is.

Secondly, tap into the direction of your Life Palace. Meaning, you sit with your back to the Chief and face the opposite direction. For example, if your Life Palace is in the North and the Chief resides in the North this month, then sit facing South. Note that you can sit anywhere - not necessarily in the South sector of your home. You can be anywhere - inside or outside your home - as long as you face South with your back facing North.

Once you are facing the correct direction (please use a compass by the way), the third thing to do is to ask for what you want. You do not have to think you are talking to the Deity as this is not something religious. Simply imagine you are just talking to your Higher Self will do the trick. Ask in a positive manner and believe and expect that your dreams will come true. Then take the appropriate action to work towards achieving your goals.

Also, you can take as long as you want or you can just take a minute or two to do the asking. It's up to you.

A WORD OF CAUTION : The Deity is neutral, meaning you get what you asked for whether it's good or bad. Make sure you only ask for positive things because if you start to think negatively, which is common for most people, that's what you will get too!!

The power of this system increases when the Chief Deity is at the same location or palace in the Year, Month, Day and Hour Charts. For example, if your Destiny Palace is North, then if you find the exact time when the Chief Deity aligns to the North for the Year, Month, Day and Hour - the chances of your dreams becoming reality will be increased many times over!

If you do not want to wait for the Chief Deity to land at your Life Palace, you can still ask for your wishes by watching where the Deity lands this month and then put your back in that direction and face opposite. For example, if your Destiny Palace is West, but the Chief Deity is at the North this month, then you can still do your asking by facing South. Do you get what I mean?

Of course, it will be more powerful to do the asking when the Chief Deity lands at your Life Palace.

Although the Chief Deity is the most powerful to help you manifest your dreams, the other 7 deities have their own specialties too. This year, the North West is the location of the Surging Snake Deity. This Deity has the ability to increase your sixth sense and intuition. You can ask for car park space and even control the weather by tapping into the direction of the Snake Deity!

The West is the location of the Great Moon Deity. This deity governs all knowledge and secrets. Searching for information on your upcoming project? Get the help of the Great Moon Deity!

The South West is the location of the Six Harmony Deity which governs relationships and communications. Looking for love? This one may just help!

The North East is the location of the Nine Heaven Deity. This is a vision star and it has the ability to warps reality. Sounds powerful eh? Remember we are taught to visualize our dreams for them to become a reality? Well, this is the case where what you can see can become true for you so make sure you are seeing only positive things!!

Joey Yap mentioned that in the book Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, the author wrote about the late Jobs using reality distortion to create the impossible. Interesting!




The East is the location of the Nine Earth Deity which governs money and wealth. If you were to demand for profit ideas and wealth ideas when this deity lands at your Life Palace, you will never run out of money!

The South is the location of the White Tiger Deity which gives you infinite energy and stamina. It's the perfect Deity to ask for more energy to accomplish something. Joey Yap said activating this Deity can make you sleep less but still have ample energy!

Lastly, the South East is the location of the Black Tortoise Deity this year. Joey said this Deity has the ability to make you tap into the minds of others (somewhat like Darth Vader) and you can mesmerize, influence, brain wash and mind control others! Awesomeness?

It appears that QMDJ is currently the most advanced feng shui system and is gaining popularity as the results are quicker and more powerful. If you are interested to learn about QMDJ, you can sign up for a two-day seminar called "Getting Whatever You Want, From Whatever You've Got" which is conducted by Joey Yap himself in KL!



Interested to know more about QMDJ? Shoot me an email and I will get back to you. My email address is mvfblog@gmail.com

In Part 3, I will share with you the dates and time to activate the good and beneficial stars coming your way in 2014, so stay tuned!

To be continued ….

NOTE : MY BLOG POST ON JOEY YAP'S 2018 FENG SHUI & ASTROLOGY SEMINAR IS OUT NOW. READ IT HERE. 

This year, I attended Joey Yap's 2014 Feng Shui & Astrology Seminar at KL Convention Center on the 12th of January.



Every year for the past few years, Joey Yap had been conducting the annual seminar in English as well as in Cantonese. Last year I attended the Cantonese version, so this year I decided to switch back to the English version, which was held one day after the Cantonese seminar.

I actually prefer the Cantonese seminar as it's more fun, but copying down notes is a huge challenge as I can't write in Mandarin!



The Plenary Hall where the seminar was held was almost full when I entered. The seminar was scheduled to start at 10am, but I heard that some people were already there as early as 7am to get the best seats! Too bad I ended up sitting very high up, and very far from the stage. I later learned that the turnout this year broke the record as the largest ever.

In fact, the Plenary Hall exceeded its maximum capacity and some participants had to be seated in a separate hall to watch a live feed of the event! Looks like Joey Yap's popularity is going from strength to strength!



For the very first time, Joey Yap introduced a branch of Chinese metaphysics called Qi Men Dun Jia. It's a totally new subject to me but I think it's very fascinating! Will go into more details about Qi Men Dun Jia in Part 2.



Without further ado, let's go straight to what Joey Yap had to say about 2014, the year of the Wood Horse. As is the case every year, anyone attending his annual Feng Shui & Astrology Seminar is required to bring along his or her Personal Bazi Chart.

Not sure what is a Bazi Chart? Read HERE for a short introduction to Bazi.

You can download and print your Personal Bazi Chart HERE. All you need to do is register first if it's your first time, and then enter your birth date and time.

Now let's take a look at the Bazi Chart for the year 2014.


Bazi Chart 2014 taken from seminar's booklet

From the Chart, you can see that there is an excess of Fire element while the Water element is missing. Fire is therefore the most prosperous element in 2014. As such, it is safe to conclude that Fire industries will do well this year. Fire industries include restaurants, airlines, petrol, technology, computers, electric and electronics.

Now take a look at your own Personal Bazi Chart. If you have Fire elements in your chart, then generally you will have a good year.

If you do not have Fire in your chart, look for the second most dominant element for 2014, which is Wood.

No Wood in your Personal Bazi Chart? Then, look for the third element, which is Metal. If you have all three elements (Fire, Wood and Metal) in your Bazi Chart, then this year will be a very good year for you!

This year, Metal represents cashflow, so if you have no Metal in your Personal Bazi Chart, then you may experience cashflow problems in 2014.

Wood represents profit, so if you are in business and you have Wood in your Personal Bazi Chart, then it's a profitable year for you. If Wood is missing but Metal is present in your Chart, cash will still come to you but may not come from your profits.

Fire represents sales, so if you have Fire in your Bazi Chart, then you will do pretty well at selling yourself this year.

What if you are unfortunate enough to have no Fire, Wood or even Metal in your Bazi Chart? All is not lost however. You can rectify it simply by befriending people who have Fire, Wood and Metal elements in their Bazi Charts! It's somewhat akin to borrowing their elements. And yes, that means start getting to know people around you and checking out their Bazi charts! LOL!

Now most people will expect that since Fire is in excess this year, there will be lots of fire-related occurrences like volcano eruptions, infernos and explosions. However, although that may be true, Joey said that since a strong Fire will melt ice, we may end up with excess water and experience water related problems like flooding as well.

Water in general represents intelligence and wisdom. Since the Water element is missing from the 2014 Bazi Chart, wisdom is therefore missing. Expect people to do more stupid things. Also this being the Wood Horse Year, and the Wood Horse represents battle, expect more fightings and war to happen.

The Bazi Chart has four pillars which is made up of the Year, Month, Day and Hour pillars. The Year and Month pillars represent external influences while the Day and Hour pillars represent internal influences. If you have Fire, Wood or Metal in your Year and Month pillars, then majority of your luck comes from external influences ie. social circle, industry and job. However, if they appear in your Day and Hour pillars, then your luck comes from internal influences ie. family, relationship and home.



Image courtesy of Joey Yap Store

During the seminar, Joey Yap also touched a little on Face Reading. I could not remember everything that he said but here are some of them. Regarding the eyes, if someone has clear eyes, he's currently enjoying good fortune. If his eyes is gloomy, then he is having some problems. If the eyes look glossy like marble, then he's the third party in a relationship!

On the eye brows, Joey Yap said that if a person has no eye brow, then he or she will not have a profitable year. By the way, fake eye brow or tattoos do not count. The eye brow also represents partnership. If someone does not have balanced eye brows, it's better not to partner him or her.

As for the ears, they should be same height as the eyes. If the ears appear higher than the eyes, the person is considered smart. But if his ears are lower than the eyes, he's having cash-flow problems.



Image courtesy of cardetailingblog.com

Joey Yap also explained a little about the concept of Smart Money and Dumb Money. For the uninitiated, Dumb Money is money you earn without having a clue as to how you earn it. Smart Money on the other hand is money you make when you know exactly what you did to earn it.

The Bazi Chart is made up of two horizontal rows. The upper row is knows as Heavenly Stems and the bottom row is known as Earthy Branches. (refer to Bazi Chart above). Now look at your own Personal Bazi Chart. If you have Fire, Wood and Metal on your Heavenly Stems (upper row), then you have Dumb Money this year. But if you have those three elements on your Earthly Branches (lower row), then you have Smart Money.

However, if you only have those three elements in your Hidden Stems (the third row right below Earthly Branches), it means you will still make money but you need to put in much more effort.


Joey demonstrating how to use a compass to locate the sectors 

Joey Yap also mentioned about three astrological animals that represents wealth. They are Dog, Rooster and Ox. If you have these three animals in your Personal Bazi Chart, then you will enjoy good wealth in 2014.

However, it matters where they are located in your Bazi Chart. If any of the three animals appears in your Year Pillar, then it's your friend who will get rich, not you. If they appear on your Month Pillar, your career or business will do well. The Dog and Ox are especially good for career, but if you want to be an investor (and not just a business owner or entrepreneur), you will need the Rooster.

If you do not have any of these animals in your Chart or if you have only one or two of them, do not worry. You just need to befriend people who have those animals in their charts!

Besides the Bazi Chart, Joey also made use of the Flying Star Chart to determine the good and bad sectors of 2014.

North is afflicted with the Three Killings, with North 2 being afflicted with the Year Breaker as well, so absolutely no renovation in this sector. However, North is a Wealth sector this year and as such, using this sector will enhance your income and make your business grow.

Although North is a Wealth sector, it is secondary compared to the South, which is the major Wealth sector in 2014. If your house's main door is located in the South, you will enjoy good financial returns and recognition in your career. You can activate this sector by placing yang-natured items like fans, clocks and television here.


Image taken from seminar's booklet 

The dreaded Five Yellow flies into the North West this year. As such, the North West is the most dangerous sector in your homes or office - you need to avoid it if possible. Noise and renovation will trigger the Five Yellow, so keep this place quiet. If for some reason, you can't avoid the sector, you can neutralize some of the negative effects by placing items made of brass, iron or copper here.

The East is afflicted with Illness Star. Avoid this sector if possible and also no renovation here. However, if you are not able to avoid this sector, it is advisable to place items make of brass, copper or bronze to minimize the effects.

The North East is afflicted with the Robbery Star this year. Renovation will trigger it, so be very careful. However, this sector is good for education and study.

The West sector is a good sector this year. Activating it will give you the ability to make decisions and to get things done. It will also enhance your network capability and influence at work.

The South West is a Noblemen sector. Activating it will attract noble people into your life. This sector is especially good for those who are highly ambitious and wish to build an empire.


Image taken from seminar's booklet

The Centre where the Star number 4 resides this year is good for academic pursuits. Education will be a priority in the year 2014. But the Centre also has the Hexagram of Poison - this means there will be some form of contamination or poisoning similar to a SARS epidemic.

Knowing which sectors in your house is good or bad is all well and good, but what happens if you or someone else accidentally trigger the bad sectors? Luckily, Joey Yap offered a solution in the form of the 4 major Auspicious Stars.

The 4 major Auspicious Stars are the Moon (West 2), Sun (South West 1), Fortune Virtue (East 2) and Dragon Virtue (North East 1).


Image taken from seminar's booklet

Activating these four stars will provide some form of immunity from accidentally triggering the bad sectors. You can activate the stars by doing some simple refurbishment at the sectors where they reside, or you can simply move furnitures around or even nail a wall and hang a picture. Alternatively, you can place a water feature at these locations for about 2 weeks to a month.

Joey Yap did not provide the date and time to activate these stars, so I guess we can probably activate them anytime before 4th of February 2014 when the energy officially changes.

To be continued ….

Last year in June, I made a 4-day solo trip to Penang. Since it was a solo trip, I decided not to drive. I was undecided whether to fly there or take a bus. In the end, I decided to take the Aeroline bus to Penang.

A month before the trip, I had booked and bought a return ticket via their website www.aeroline.com.my. It's a pretty user-friendly website and you can even select the seats that you like. However, you would need to go to the Aeroline service centre to print out the boarding ticket.

All you need to do is to present your PIN number and your ticket will be printed out. There is no need to print out your confirmation email, so please save paper!





The above is my boarding ticket for the journey from One Utama Bus Terminal in Petaling Jaya to the Sungai Nibong Bus Terminal in Penang. The price is RM60. Notice I chose Seat 8A which is somewhere in the middle because I do not like to sit too front or too back. LOL!

For the return journey, another boarding ticket is issued. If you are one who easily lose stuffs while traveling, it is better to print the return journey's ticket just before you board the return bus home. This is because if you lose the ticket, you will have to buy a new one!

Note that they only accept the boarding ticket for you to get onto the bus. Any other documents or proof of purchase are not considered valid, so make sure you are there at least half an hour before the bus departs to get your ticket printed.

This is the Aeroline service centre at the One Utama Bus Terminal.





I was there early - about one hour before the bus departure time at 10.30am. There were not many people around yet, which was good! The picture above looks like the Aeroline office is closed right? Actually, the door is always closed. You need to press the button at the side and the door will open for you to enter : )

After having my ticket printed, I proceeded to the waiting area. I was pleased to find that it was rather spacious! There were seats for you sit and shelves for you to put your luggage. They also provide free wifi so you can go online using your smartphone or laptop while waiting.





If you are thirsty, you can also make your own coffee or tea. There are electrical sockets for you to charge your phones or laptops too. Not bad, eh?





Since I was early, I left my luggage at the waiting area and went into One Utama shopping mall and had my breakfast at Subway and shopped a little bit at Cold Storage to kill some time. It is safe to leave your luggage there but make sure it is locked and does not contain important documents, which you should carry with you at all times.

When I returned to the waiting area, the staff told me that the bus had been delayed. Oh no!! Luckily, I did not have to wait for long as the bus finally arrived at 10.50am - about 20 minutes late. By 11am, the bus left the One Utama bus station and started the journey to Penang.





The Aeroline bus is actually a double decker bus. The passenger seats are all at the top deck. The lower deck consists of a business lounge and a wash room. Note that the wash room is meant for light usage only, so please do not do your big business there!

By the way, the above picture was not taken at the One Utama bus station, but at a rest stop along the way to Penang.

This is how the interior of the bus looks like.





There is touch screen entertainment system offering a wide selection of movies, music and games to keep you entertained throughout the journey.





Head phones are given to each passenger for the duration of the journey.





I liked that they have a cushion to support my back. Nice!
Blanket is also provided if you request for it.





The seat also has a nice feature that provides good head and neck support, which is important for long journeys.





There is also a power socket available at every seat for you to charge your hand phones. Excellent!





The only problem is the power socket is located at the bottom near the feet area and it could get quite dirty. Maybe they should clean it periodically.

Seat belt is provided to ensure safety of passengers.





The air conditioning vents and reading lights above each seat.





I felt it was way more comfortable than flying AirAsia. No wonder the Aeroline's slogan is "The Convenient Way To Fly". LOL!

The bus made one short 20-minute stop halfway during the journey. Although the seat was comfortable, it's unhealthy to sit too long, so that 20 minute stop was a welcome relief to exercise my legs and for toilet break (especially useful for those who wish to do big business!)





During the 20-minute stop, I had the chance to take photos of the driver's seat and also the business lounge at the lower deck.





The lounge can accommodate up to 6 people and is especially useful for a group meeting or discussion.

Food and beverage (you can choose either coffee, tea or Milo) are provided. Every passenger is also given a bottle of mineral water. These are all included in the ticket price.
































During my journey, I was given a simple meal of chicken rice. Quite delicious actually. Maybe I was hungry!





The journey from Petaling Jaya to Penang was estimated to be about 5 hours long. The bus reached there ahead of time, at 3.40pm - about 4 hours and 40 minutes. The bus makes two stops in Penang - the first one at Queensbay Mall and the final stop at Sungai Nibong Bus Terminal.

I alighted at the Aeroline service centre at Queensbay Mall Penang.





Those who do not wish to alight at Queensbay Mall can drop off at the Sungai Nibong Bus Terminal. For the return journey back to Petaling Jaya, the bus picks up passengers at Sungai Nibong Bus Terminal first before going to Queensbay Mall.





I enjoyed traveling with Aeroline and had no regrets choosing it for my trip to Penang and back. The cabin crew were friendly and hospitable and were dressed smartly, comparable to stewards and stewardesses in airplanes.

The one thing I think is missing is free wifi. If Aeroline can provide free wifi onboard the bus, that would really make my day!

1. Welcome to the first Random Notes post of 2014!! Yeah, it's my 34th Random Notes. Still a long way to go before I can reach the 100th. For those of you who are not familiar with my Random Notes, well, it's simply a blog post where I talk about random stuffs. LOL!

2. I was shocked to read the news that Islamic authority JAIS had raided the Bible Society Of Malaysia and seized more than 300 copies of the Malay language Bible simply because they used the word "Allah" to refer to the Christian God.

I have a few questions regarding this issue.
Question 1 : Since when did Islam in Malaysia has the exclusive right over the word "Allah"? It is not the case with Islamic countries outside Malaysia. Or is it? Enlighten me please!
Question 2 : Are Muslims in Malaysia so weak they can feel threatened by another religion using the word "Allah"? Will Muslims easily convert to Christianity just because Christians use the word "Allah"?
Question 3 : Is this raid by JAIS legal? Can they do this without a search warrant?
Question 4 : Is this act by JAIS simply a ploy to distract us from other more urgent issues at hand?

3. Who killed Altantuya? Who killed her? Who did it? No one. Nobody. Someone must have done it, but so far all those arrested had been released. And as the time passes, we will forget about this. That's the way it was, is and always will be. Sigh…

4. Let me introduce you the stupidest couple I have ever seen in my entire life. They are none other than sex bloggers Alvin Tan and Vivian Lee.



Why stupid? Here are my reasons…

Reason 1 : Alvin lost his scholarship at the National University of Singapore as a result of his pornographic exploits. What a stupid waste of opportunity!
Reason 2 : They were both arrested and charged for insulting Muslims with their "Selamat Berbuka Puasa" (breaking of fast) greeting on Facebook showing them eating bak kut teh, a pork dish. How stupid can one be?
Reason 3 : Alvin accused Vivian for being unfaithful to him. They had both admitted to being in an open relationship. So did he not see this coming? Stupid!

By the way, I do not want to insult Vivian, but seriously, if I want to watch porn, I prefer to watch a much prettier girl. Period.

5. Everything is going up, up and up!! Except our income, that is. Of course, this may not be the case for everybody - some of you may be filthy rich and have an ever expanding income - but I am speaking for the majority of Malaysians. Just last week, I talked to a friend who is in the construction line. He told me that he was having difficulty signing deals with his clients, who kept asking for discounts.

Looks like the economy is not in good shape. Time to tighten our budget! But I still see lots of people shopping and dining away at expensive outlets everyday. Are they rich or pretending to be rich? I do know however, that all my really wealthy friends do not drive expensive cars or eat at expensive restaurants.

6. I like this Mexican King bread from Lavender Bakery.



But last week, I was surprised to find that the bread was much smaller compared to previously. Even though they did not raise the price, they had reduced the size! Oh well, maybe I should be thankful that they did not reduce the size and raise the price at the same time!

7. Talking about the lack of money is bad feng shui. So let's talk about how much Mariah Carey made recently by performing just 3 songs for Prince Azim, the son of Sultan of Brunei.


Photo courtesy : Richard Young / Rex Features

She was paid a whopping US$1.5 million! That's right!! So easy to make money, eh? And not forgetting she was paid US$18 million for being a judge on American Idol last season!

8. Not everyone can see ghosts. But I know 2 bloggers who can smell ghosts. Yes, smell, not see. Can you see or smell a ghost? Thankfully, I have no such gifts!

9. Last year, for the very first time, I stood up and sang Negaraku, Malaysia's national anthem, before a movie in the cinema. In fact, I sang two times on that day because I watched 2 movies! LOL! I did not really sing however, as no one was singing in the cinema hall. I guess standing up and showing respect as the Negaraku was being played is good enough. There was a guy sitting two seats away from me who continued sitting and playing with his handphone while everyone was standing up. How disrespectful!

10. Talking about cinemas, have you watched a movie in IMAX 3D at TGV cinemas before? The ticket price is admittedly, very expensive. You can of course choose the cheaper seats (nearer to the screen) but sitting too near the big screen is not comfortable and may spoil the wonderful experience of watching in IMAX 3D.


Image courtesy : Cinema Online

Let me tell you a dirty trick that TGV practises (at least in my case) on unsuspecting ticket buyers. When I went to buy the tickets for me and my friend at the ticket counter, the staff showed me the seating plan on the screen monitor. He told me to choose one of the empty seats which he pointed out to me. I noticed those were the more expensive seats and so I pointed to the cheaper seats and asked whether they were empty. He reluctantly said yes. I bought 2 tickets straight away!

Now let's turn the table around!  Here's my little secret on how you can buy the cheaper tickets and yet still get to sit the more expensive seats! Here's how. Firstly, you must of course go on a day when there is not many people watching the movie. Weekend is out. Choosing a weekday morning or afternoon is best. Before you go, make sure you visit their website and check to see if there are still many empty seats (the expensive ones of course). You should do this about 15 - 30 minutes before the movie starts. This is because, if you check too early, there may be people buying the tickets later. You want to make sure that there are still some empty expensive seats right before the show starts.

If there are still a number of empty expensive seats, quickly buy the cheaper seats online. Or immediately go to the cinema and buy the cheaper seats from the ticket counter. Once inside the cinema hall, instead of sitting at the seats you bought, go over to the more expensive seats and choose any of the empty seats there! Get it? : )