Medan Kota

Alright.. I haven’t been blogging for a longggg time.. that’s simply because.. 1. I am busy with life and  2. I have nothing interesting to entertain … ^0^..

Anyway.. this morning, a friend send us a link.. he said someone wrote that Medan is “Worst. City. Ever.”.. well.. honestly, I wasn’t expecting much of what the article is going to be about anyway.. but mine oh mine.. just the first paragraph alone had me feeling sick to the stomache..

Alright.. I am not going to deny that I am not a big fan of this city, Medan.. I have lived for a decade by now.. and though it is not the best city on earth.. (Bangkok, my hometown, received ‘world’s best city” this year).. but I have to defence on behalf of Medan people that.. ‘NO!!  Medan is not the Worst. City. Ever.’

enough said.. but here’s what Mr ADAM GARTRELL wrote on July 19, 2010 for www.theage.com.au..

“Dear Medan. I hate you.

I visited you recently and found you the most unpleasant, charmless and thoroughly depressing city I’ve ever encountered. And I’ve visited plenty of s—holes in my time.

Now, when it comes to big Indonesian cities I have pretty low expectations.

I live in Jakarta, the biggest of them all, so I know what I’m in for: traffic, pollution, heat, noise, chaos, the stench of human waste.

And you, Medan – Indonesia’s third biggest city – you provided all those things. In great abundance.

In fact, even though your population, at three million, is a quarter that of Jakarta’s, I reckon you’re worse on just about every count.

Quite an achievement.

But Medan, you’re awful not just because of your many failings but because you appear to have no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

You’re slim pickin’s for hotels, you don’t seem to boast a single, decent restaurant and from what I’ve heard, you’ve got no real nightlife.

Your airport is a Boschian nightmare, your roads a mess, your buses an embarrassment and your taxis … well, if I ever find one I’ll let you know.

And ever heard of trees?

Okay, so you have a big mosque but it’s also the closest thing you’ve got to a tourist attraction. And you have a few shopping malls but what city doesn’t?

I understand now why you consistently feature on people’s “Worst. City. Ever.” lists.

You’re at the very top of mine.

Okay, I admit, there’s a personal element to this. See, I got robbed in one of your hotels.

It wasn’t a very nice hotel. It promotes itself as a four star hotel when in actual fact it’s closer to a two. But that’s fine. I don’t need luxury and it cost less than $100 a night.

Except, in the end, it actually cost a couple of grand. Because while I was out one night scouring the streets for a decent meal – in vain, of course – someone broke into my room and stole a giant wad of company cash from my suitcase.

Why did I have a giant wad of cash, you ask? Well, because Indonesia is a mostly cash economy, so I’m forced to travel with plenty of it. But why didn’t I put it in the safe? Well, because the hotel didn’t provide one.

And when I brought the robbery to the hotel’s attention the staff were predictably – and perhaps deliberately – unhelpful.

Security staff at first said they could give me a keycard lock report, so I could see if anyone else entered my room. But then – for reasons not properly explained – they suddenly couldn’t.

But that was okay, they said. They could show me the CCTV footage outside my room instead.

Oh no, wait, sorry! We don’t actually know the password to review the CCTV!

Can you say “inside job”?

Needless to say I moved to a different hotel for my final night. I woke up the next morning in blood-stained sheets. Mozzies never take any interest in me but your Medan mozzies made quite a frenzied exception.

I didn’t get malaria. But I did get spectacularly, violently sick about a week later from an intestinal parasite, which I’m certain I picked up from you, Medan. I just know it.

I’ve never been so happy to board a plane as I was the one that whisked me away from you, Medan. And I never want to see you again.
AAP”

Popularity: 20% [?]

I have always been obsessed with properties.. I love looking at the layouts, the floor plans etc.. in my younger years, my mum used to bring me along each time she went for any property viewing.. so it could be that, that I have always enjoy looking at the showflats, the miniature of the development.. understanding its direction etc..

With that, over the last several years.. I have been eyeing to buy some for investment.. and I am the type of girl that do detailed research and calculations.. and yes I once paid some US$5000 for a property investment course… and after listening to what, why, and how .. as well as what to look out for.. how to manage.. knowing the difference between residential and commercial property and its benefits… I found myself knowing too much and calculate too much which ended with me not finding any right one at all..

Then during my past December break in Bangkok.. I saw one.. of good value and one that over so many years I spent searching.. it’s the one that I knew it right away that I was gonna make money.. it sorts of put all the green ticks on my checklists..

Having seen how payments are made in Thailand… my husband and me immediately felt that we probably will not be buying any property in Indonesia till some changes to the Laws are made… let me tell you why… however, please note that this is my own personal view..

the down payment.. in Singapore.. it used to be 5% and that was it.. the 95% balance is paid upon receiving the keys.. though the laws have now changed… in Thailand, a 10% down payment is required with the payments being spread over the number of months till the unit is done .. the 90% is then made upon receiving of key.. in Indonesia?.. well 10% is required almost immediately.. and the rest of the payment began just about as soon as you signed the purchase order..  and I’ve just found out that my father-in-law bought one unit in Jakarta.. has since paid it in full some 1 year back.. and today.. the building is not even ½ done…

part of acquiring property for investment is to get some rental yield… in Medan.. there is no possible way that the rental income will ever cover the cost of the mortgage!!.. the rental here in Medan is really something to laugh about… it’s so so cheap that not just me alone but all expats seem to agree with me…

many times.. good properties are owned by the rich.. so each of them has the attitude that.. unless you are offering some crazy price to buy.. only then they will sell it to you ..else it’s like.. ‘this is the price I want to sell.. if you are happy, then buy it.. if not.. then goodbye’.. its never about being reasonable … or the realistic price..

and many times.. what you see is never what you get..

having said all of the above.. one thing that you can be quite certain about property in Indonesia is that.. most of the time.. you will get capital gain.. which I have to say that it’s was the main reason why I wanted to invest in Indonesia initially…(before the $5000 course)  but now with.. read too much.. calculate too much.. listen too much.. seen too much.. Indonesia is definitely not on my list for the moment…

Popularity: 21% [?]

It has been many many years since we last applied for a credit card… we hold the HSBC and Citibank.. and is given to us since we have accounts with them… the application for the cards were applied on behalf for us by relationship manager or the RM which is safe and sound…

anyway, about 3 weeks back… we had lunch at Taipan… as we were leaving the restaurant, we were approached by the Mega credit card people… 2 youngsters who definitely have no appeal as a banker at all… came to us… saying “ko.. cie.. free first year and now with Mega cc, it’s 50% off at Taipan”… hubby looked at me… father-in-law turned and said “50% off leh…“… so I said to the salesperson and asked..” how do I cancel it should I want to discontinue the service after the 1st year”.. (after that BCA incident… it’s gonna be my first opening question to all these people..)… anyway… I am not that keen…and I didn’t want to manage another account… but the in-laws and hubby went ahead…

First they asked to fill in the standard information on the form that has the usual empty dotted line for address, billing address, income etc… next, copy of the personal identity card.. which obviously we don’t carry the copied version… so they ended taking out their handphone and capture the ID… Third, asking for a copy of the credit card that we already hold… and again, since none copying machine insight, again both guys used their mobil phone to capture the front and the back of our credit card…

I was sitting nearby and seeing how the whole thing being process…. something striked me that could these people be a fraud?… darn.. they took all our details!! …including our credit card details for both front and back!!… as an online person… what we gave them is more than enough for them to go online and have a big shopping extravagenza!!!..

I seriously didn’t feel right about the whole thing… so I turned to Hubby… explained my whole concerned .. and asked them both if they are those freelance credit card salesman employed by the Bank? or the full time employee…. well.. they replied ‘No’… which was not a relieved to be honest…. whether they are one or the other… they definitely have more than what is needed to be known….

somehow… hubby went ahead with the application… he just received a call about further verification… and frankly… this will be our last … the more I think of it, the more I feel unsecured !!!… well.. do take precautions… Medan does has scammers… actually in all places around the world… but it’s the way they do things here that make it worst… and the law does not protect the credit card holders like how it used to be…. so watch out…

Popularity: 4% [?]

The current craze in Medan right now just got to be the BlackBerry (BB)… literally.. everywhere go and turn.. both young and old….  and looking out of your car window, the big Billboards all over Medan, … you see this Black coloured Berry….

I am not a user… coz I’m not a geek person and my phone bill is less than Rp 50.000 with local usage….  from what I understand, for all blackberry subscribers, you have to pay a fixed rate of Rp 180.000 for Satelindo and Rp 150.000 for proXL per month…  the main benefits are that.. you get to sort of like get free SMS between the berries users and internet access 24 hrs… which I agree that for users who have limited internet connection, is reasonable…. other than that, its additional cost…

the craze is so bad that all current berries users are psychoing the non users to turn into one of the gang… which I got to say…. a fine marketing strategies (self promo)…  then u see a lot of Ibu Ibu holding one each… and this is becoz of the madness going on but not coz of the phone functions…. remembered the Nokia Communicator era… its kind of the same…  it has since turned into a must have Status thing….

but now it got worst….. it seems that the kids are asking for one from the parents too.. and this is coming from P4 students (primary 4 – age 9/10 yrs old) !!!!… frankly, I did overheard the kids asking from his dad…. and the dad replied… ” why don’t I get you the strawberry…”  hahahhah……  then my brother-in-law was telling me how his friends are buying these expensive stuff for this young kids coz he wants the child to learn the technology….  (lost for words.. cant argue to that myself… )

before I had kids, I never really quite understand the term peer pressure… but now… i totally do…. the other day, Jadon came home from school to asked me why I didn’t take him to Cambridge and JW Marriott hotel…  and continued to informed me that all his friends went there… (he went to both and didn’t realised that apparently..)    it’s really funny how kids these days grown so fast and asking for things that I wouldn’t have thought of… when I was 10, I remembered staying at home and played Barbie doll….!!!

to all Ibu Ibu… you will also want to know that there is this BabyBerry… It’s made especially by leapfrog, a company that makes products for the eductaion of all children…

BabyBerry have the LCD screen and the ability to send a text message with a puppy katakter funny creations Leapfrog results, although not able to connect to the Internet, so BabyBerry can not be used to send email or surf the web.  In addition, the calendar function there is to learn the date, the keypad and function call to study and play games.

really… why can’t the kids just be kids and pick BlackBerry from the Garden instead????

Popularity: 30% [?]

The price of gold has been a roller coaster ride during the past few months.  Many Chinese especially the old traditional grandma and grandpa often see gold as the traditional way of investment including some of the modern Chinese too.  They don’t believe in stock market for many reasons.  Any often, they buy the physical gold bar and keep it hidden in some corner of the house which surprisingly they build the secret place themselves too! but not at the BANK Safe Vault..

And how do they go about trading and making money out of it? First they deal the value/amount over the phone…  after which, they go to the goldsmith to collect the physical real gold bar and bring it home..  mind you, many of the rich in Medan, they do this on a weekly basis and deal in the volume of like 10kg!!!  that’s about US$270.000 in cash..  though they don’t walk around with the cash on hand, at least they are smart enough to they do bank transfer BUT the danger is at the part where you walk off the goldsmith shop with the gold bar on hand!!! and this goes the same way when they need to sell to make the profit…

worst of all, the trading value does not reflect the actual market price. The difference is almost $10!! To me personally, it’s the same as how you trade the gold stock only that you do not feel the physical ownership of it..  I have heard many of such stories and find it interesting….  to go through the danger of being rob off and the trouble of hiding the stuff as well as the times needed involve in the trading..  I would prefer the gold trading on the stock market…  and the current stock that trade gold with almost 1:1 in the actual gold price is the SPDR Gold Trust …  To see the most and latest update on the price of gold.. Bullion is the original source..

Popularity: 37% [?]