Malaysia in Sudirman Cup 2015: Great start but luck didn’t last any longer.

This year, the 14th Sudirman Cup is currently being held at Dongguan, China from 10th to 17th May 2015. It is a prestigious world mixed team badminton championship which takes place once every two years. There are five matches in every round: men and women’s singles, men and women’s doubles and mixed doubles. The Cup is named after Dick Sudirman, a former Indonesian badminton player and the founder of the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI). There is no prize money in Sudirman Cup and only a trophy to be won; players play for their respective countries and to earn BWF world ranking points and national prestige.

Nations competing in Sudirman Cup 2015. Only teams in group 1 will have a chance to lift the trophy as the teams in other groups fight for promotion. The teams who finish last in the group will be relegated to the lower group, except the final group:

How is Malaysia performing in the history of this tournament? Not good. Malaysia has never win this championship before. The best our country did was back in 2009 when we advanced to the semi-final. Just that. Not even a single final appearance in the history of Sudirman Cup. At least we have better records at Thomas Cup. And just like Thomas and Uber Cup, China won the most. They are indeed one super strong nation in this particular sport currently.

I’m particularly interested about the result of this Sudirman Cup 2015 recently, particularly from our Malaysian team as this also marked the return of Lee Chong Wei, our most credible men-single player to the sport after he was banned from playing for eight months due to a doping case last year in World Championship. And as usual, he delivered on all the matches and shown to the world that after a long break, he is still one tough opponent to challenge (besides than Chen Long and Lin Dan of course).

Earlier in the group stage, Malaysia surprisingly knocked down another badminton giant, South Korea by 3-2. I did watched parts of the matches, and I’m quite impressed by my country’s performance. Hey…we stand a chance at least to go to semi-final! South Korea is also unbelievably poor this time and delivered many mistakes and obvious weaknesses. I’m quite shocked that we defeated them. Next was India and we won them too by 3-2. This win is quite predictable.

Then, Malaysia advanced to the quarterfinal. Wait…this is a good sign for Malaysia. Let’s hope that we will be drawn to play against weaker opponent in the quarterfinal like Germany or Chinese Taipei. But, luck is not on our side. Malaysia was drawn to meet South Korea again of which the latter defeated India to get into Top 8 standing too. And so, in yesterday’s quarterfinal, Malaysia lost by 1-3, without the need for final match (mixed-doubles). Luck felt short for our country in the time when it mattered the most. South Korea had a successful revenge on us. And actually, the system is a bit wrong. How can we deal with the same opponent again? Badminton World Federation (BWF) have to look seriously into this matter and improve the tournament’s system.

To be honest with you, after my observation in these recent matches, I find that our boys have the potential to excel to further improve their skills. They always delivered the points for us. But certainly not the girls. Sorry, this is not gender discrimination but a fact. We lost in all of our matches in women categories in the tournament (don’t count the mixed doubles). And yea…only the woman in that mixed-double has some hope. The girls have to really look into themselves and work hard quickly to achieve at least a not so embarassing outcome like this. Not to be harsh to them, but please, all have to improve and should not only depend on Lee Chong Wei to give an almost absolute winning point. Even if that is so, Lee Chong Wei is getting older and his strength and momentum on court is decreasing eventually.

Hmm…when can we go back to our country’s golden era in badminton?

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Japan won Thomas Cup for the first time. No luck for Malaysia this time.

Ohh….that was the last word I shouted before we turned off the TV. That is sad. The FINAL match between Japan and Malaysia in Thomas Cup, world’s most premier international men team badminton championship had just concluded. And unfortunately, Japan won. My country, Malaysia lost. The match started at 5.30pm (3pm at India time as the event was held at New Delhi for this edition) and had just ended approximately on 11.30pm (took six long hours). Must be a five neck-to-neck matches in the FINAL. Yes it was.

As expected, Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia overpowered Kenichi Tago of Japan (21-12, 21-16) easily in the first men single match, proving that he is someone very hard to be defeated in this sport eventhough he is now almost 32 years old. We were very confident of him and he secured the first point for our country. Fantastic. We were very happy as it is a good start for our national team. Next came our first men double pair; Hoon Thien How and Tan Boon Heong against Japan’s Kenichi Hayakawa and Hiroyuki Endo. Our pair won the first round, and we thought that we could win this match too. Then, everything should be safe and smooth for us.

However, we were disappointed in the end. The Japan’s pair fight back to win the second game before triumphing again on the deciding game. Our Malaysian pair contributed quite a fair performance and I can see that both of them fight very hard. However, luck is not on their side especially on the last few crucial points which were then awarded to the Japanese pair. The result of this match is 12-21, 21-17 and 21-19 in favor of Japan. Now, it’s 1-1 (draw).

Then, came the second men single match. Our team had Chong Wei Feng and Japan sent in Kento Momota. Chong appeared to have better statistics in early matches of this tournament, but now truly facing a great challenger. In the end, he lost out in two straight games (21-15, 21-17). Opps…not good, not good. The standing is now at 2 for Japan, and 1 for Malaysia. We had to depend on the second men double to save the day. And yes, fortunately, they successfully brought joy for Malaysia back as they won the match in three games (21-19, 17-21, 12-21). They delivered outstanding performance and put back the standing to a draw. Wonderful.

Now, all hope is on the last men single match to decide on the winner of this year’s Thomas Cup. We had Liew Daren and Japan brought forward Takuma Ueda. The high pressure mounted on the players of this match is inevitable. I find that Daren doesn’t have the spirit or energy to play in the first game, hence losing it easily to the Japanese. He also tend to make a lot of serious mistakes eventhough his opponent was showing quite poor skills on court too. That was bad. However, he fought back with much effort and won the second game. This eventually led to the final rubber game. Heartstopping moments then started. And….haaihh….we were all excited as their points were very close to each other but Japan permanently stood ahead two to three points. Accompanied with little luck only to the Malaysian, Japan won the last match (21-12. 18-21, 21-17). Hmmm…

 

(Uber Cup trophy on the left which was won by China after winning Japan yesterday and Thomas Cup trophy on the right. Uber Cup represents female team championship)

All our hope ended. So near yet so far. We couldn’t manage to bring back the prestigious Thomas Cup trophy back to Malaysian land. The last time we celebrated the win of this tournament was way back 22 years ago in 1992. This time, we lost again unfortunately. We can see obviously the looks of all Malaysians especially our local supporters over there in the stadium. Luck is not on our side. Year 2014 must have been a bad year for Malaysia. Anyway, both Japan and Malaysia had made this FINAL very intense and awesomely displayed some of the best badminton ‘shows’ I have ever seen in recent years.

A big congratulation to Japan on winning the Thomas Cup for the first time in history. Their performance now stunned and surprised me. They had seriously improved a lot until that they can even defeat China (always regarded as the badminton giant) back in the semi-final. They were proven to be a dark horse, and they successfully won it. Hope that our national team don’t give up, get up for further training on improvement, and fight back on the next Thomas Cup in 2016.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Wow…Malaysia make it to the Thomas Cup 2014 Final!

Thomas Cup, held once in every two years is no doubt one of the sport tournaments that Malaysians are very much looking forward to. Our country had won the tournament five times, including the first three in its history of over 65 years (first Thomas Cup was in 1949). The record looks great to Malaysia. However, in recent years, with presence of many other competitive countries in this particular sport (especially China) and the feeling of our badminton team’s dropping performance, Malaysians did not harbour much hope as compared to the good old days.

The Thomas Cup, the international male team badminton championship together with the Uber Cup (for female) is held at New Delhi, India in 2014. Uber Cup, our women team have lost. That’s predicted. So now, topic only on Thomas Cup. Placed in Group C, Malaysia won all the matches (against South Korea, India, and Germany) to top the group and succeeded to the quarterfinal. Winning the first few rounds would be quite expected for our team. There should be no major concern or resistance on the way. Then, Malaysia went on advancing to the semi final after defeating Denmark. That’s a good achievement. And I would think that Malaysia’s journey would ends soon.

I was wrong this time, but I was happy for the result, which is quite surprising. In the semi final yesterday, our team delivered a strong performance and successfully defeated Indonesia, our old rival in 3-0 and is now ready for the final against Japan tomorrow. Yes, I didn’t type it wrong. We are against Japan in the final. But where is China? China had been winning Thomas Cup from 2004 to 2012 (five times) consecutively. The most surprising of all is that China was defeated by Japan in their semi final match. Very unbelievable. Lin Dan is not even given the opportunity to turn things around as he is fielded as the third singles (last match) but Japan had already scored 3-0. This marks the first time Japan entering into the final in Thomas Cup’s history.

They are proven to be a team to watch out for. We cannot take it easily. Hmm…I predicted that it would be a tough match tomorrow in the final tomorrow. Very excited to watch it. Of course I’m rooting for my own country, Malaysia. We had last entered the final back in 2002 (lost) and the last time we had won the cup was way back in 1992 (22 years ago). We would love to celebrate the moment of winning the cup again! To be honest, I have never predicted they could go to this far. With only Lee Chong Wei being the most confident on securing a point for us, other players are mostly unfamiliar, new and not experienced enough. Their performance in this tournament took me by surprise completely.

Good luck and wishing all the best to our Malaysian badminton team! ‘Malaysia Boleh’ spirit is still there! Very excited for the final between Malaysia and Japan tomorrow at 3pm (India time) – that means 5.30pm here in Malaysia.

This is insane; Dubai is going to build a replica of Taj Mahal, but with four times bigger!

Is this true? Well, it is. The master developer of Falcon City of Wonders, a huge development planned in Dubai several years ago which involves proposal of several replicas of world famous landmarks unveiled a project unlike any other recently. They planned to build Taj Arabia, a replica of the iconic Taj Mahal in India, which is one of the seven wonders of the world. But that is not enough for Dubai, known as the most ambitious city on Earth. Taj Arabia is going to be four times the size of the original monument. So you think Taj Mahal is grand? Wait till you see Taj Arabia!

 

(A rendering of proposed Taj Arabia. Image source: http://dawncompk.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/taj-arabia-670.jpg)

 

I have visited Taj Mahal before, and it’s such an impressive building. Taj Mahal itself is already a giant building of mausoleum surrounded by plazas and other smaller buildings in a huge complex, and I can’t imagine how big Taj Arabia would be when built. Well, I didn’t read in details regarding the proposal highlighted through worldwide media but I believe Taj Arabia would some sort comprises of luxurious resorts. Taj Mahal is built as a symbol of love and romance of former Mughal emperor Shah Jahan to his deceased wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Taj Arabia would be built with similar objective but in different purpose (not to be a mausoleum but a resort as mentioned earlier).

 

(The proposed Falcon City of Wonders. Image source: http://www.clusterflock.org/fc_picture03_13.gif)

Honestly, I like the idea of the whole city planned to be comprises of replicas of famous landmarks around the world. It is something like Las Vegas but in much bigger scale and proportion. However, from my perspective, I find it would be better if Dubai planned to build its own wonders (not copying the existing ones) all in the vicinity of the proposed Falcon City, which then would be greater and contributes own identity to Dubai. Anyway, if these kind of proposals are going under construction, then it’s a sign of Dubai getting better on recovery from high financial debt the city faces currently.

Hmm…The developer informed that the project of Taj Arabia is going to be completed by 2014, which is only two years from now for such an ambitious project. I seriously had doubt on it (two years are too short). Besides that, Dubai had been putting stops to many proposed megaprojects which some had been revealed almost a decade ago but until now sees no progress to turn those into reality. So, there is still no confirmed fate to this Taj Arabia project and yet it already receives very much popularity due to its overwhelming scale as well as idea of copying other buildings. Hmm…I think if this project goes on, India would take a strict action for copyright infringement.

Future proposals coming soon are construction of replicas of Leaning Tower of Pisa, Eiffel Tower, Great Pyramid of Giza and Great Wall of China all in Falcon City. Well, well…well…That would be totally insane if they proceed with all that once their financial status is stable. One wonder is certainly not enough for that masterplanning of Falcon City. But for all that to be built, it’s going to take at least one to two decades only if everything went smooth, unlike in Dubai’s current situation, when the city still falls in debt. So, for me, the chance of getting Taj Arabia built before 2014 is somehow only 10%. So, don’t put high hope on it yet…it’s just a proposal now.

7 Days 5 Nights India Trip on CNY 2012…Uniquely different and memorable!

Uniquely different! This is my overall opinion to the 11th oversea trip I had, which the country we went to is India. The trip lasted in 7 days and 5 nights and I have just returned home this early morning. Feeling tired but happy over the experience gained from the trip, I am now ready to share what’s going on throughout this ‘Incredible India’ tour organized by GTT travel company. Time flies, and the trip was over. Over 600 pictures were taken, over 10 places visited, 3 cities travelled, and priceless experience gained.

22nd January 2012 (Sunday)

The flight is in the afternoon, and so it’s a usual morning, but we need to get up quite early for the rituals to be done for Chinese New Year tomorrow, and also for last preparation for the one-week long trip. I bought quite a number of shirts and jackets for the trip, so that I can choose what to wear, without much restriction. Sometimes, I agree I do wear nice clothing. Haha…back to the trip, we reached Kuala Lumpur International Airport for international flight to New Delhi, the capital of India. This is the first time we met the other tour members in the group consisting of around 40 people; a very huge group.

After a comfortable time of approximately 5 hours with in-flight entertainment provided in the plane, we finally arrived at Indira Ghandhi International Airport. It’s a very beautiful and spectacular airport, which I hardly expected from a poor country like India. It’s very cold in Delhi at night, and I was shivering. We get back to the hotel, ready for the official touring days to start tomorrow. I can’t sleep well that night, probably due to the in-adaptability to the cold environment there at the moment.

23rd January 2012 (Monday)

Early in the morning, I woke up and took the first look over part of Delhi, the capital of India from my hotel room. I can see that many are poor, and that their living condition is not really well in this densely-populated city. The environment is dusty, and the street is quite filthy. Now I can see Kuala Lumpur is way better than Delhi. The houses there are of flat roof, with no clear planning to the construction of those houses. It’s a huge city!

Happy Chinese New Year! It’s the first day of the lunar new year of dragon! According to the tour itinerary, we would be heading to several tourist destinations in Delhi like Laxminarayan Temple, India Gate and Raj Ghat (a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi). All that were cancelled as the Republic Day of India (on 26th January) is coming very soon and all the major roads in the city area are closed including those places of attractions. We can only take a view and few pictures of Lotus Temple from a far location.

What an unlucky day, and I still wonder why the authority close the roads and places so many days earlier!? Very disappointed…the day ends up with no places to visit, and after lunch, we head straight to Agra city through a 5-hours bus ride. Along the bus ride, we get to stop by and visit a gigantic temple called Jaigurudev Temple, a white-marble temple with Mughal architecture, something similar to Taj Mahal too. It’s a very nice building anyway.

We finally arrived Agra, a city with much poorer condition, but famous for the main tourist attraction; Taj Mahal. It’s already night and we went straight to the hotel we are staying for dinner too. It’s Radisson Hotel, a very beautiful hotel with excellent buffet provided for our breakfast, lunch and dinner, but we felt bored after having the similar food for two days continuously.

24th January 2012 (Tuesday)

This is the place we have to visit definitely once you are in India; Taj Mahal. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The bus is not allowed to stop near there, and we have to get on electric-powered vehicle to get to the entrance to Taj Mahal, a huge mausoleum built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in dedication to his deceased wife, Mumtaz Mahal. There is a very stringent security check before entering the area bordered by walls, plazas and gardens before proceeding to the iconic white marble structure of Taj Mahal.

The place is filled with many people, and many of them are busy occupying those spaces where they can take beautiful photographs of Taj Mahal. It is very hard for us to queue up and squeeze in just to get a good spot and take photographs in a quick time before the others take over. Taj Mahal is no doubt very beautiful in photographs, but is definitely much more impressive when seen from the eyes directly. I really love the feeling of being there looking at the structure with emphasis on axis and symmetry.

I took a lot of photographs there. Since we are given not a very long time in the place, I have no time to visit the mosques and the other structures surrounding Taj Mahal. The time limits me to observe the surrounding in details, but overall I can still feel the wonder of the place. Leaving the place, we couldn’t also get any time to buy the cheap souvenirs from the many stalls lining up outside the place.

After Taj Mahal, we went to Agra Fort which is also known as Red Fort. It is a gigantic complex of structures with great defence and is famous for having a beautiful view over the nearby Taj Mahal. It takes quite a long time if you want to go through every corners in the fort, and so we only covered major areas in the fort; particularly some main corridors, the prison, castle building, halls and plazas. The structures there are very planned, massive and intriguing.

25th January 2012 (Wednesday)

In Agra, we saw a much poorer and worst condition of the streets. We even saw a huge empty ground filled with people, and try to guess what they are doing? The answer is that they are shitting! Yes…shitting, filling the ground (an open space of public toilet) with ample of human turds that I can even see some clearly from far, from inside the bus. Luckily, we are not out there at the time, if not, it must be very smelly and much more disgusting to only just seeing that.

Today we left Agra and proceed to Jaipur, another city to be a must-visit in India. Along the route, we went also to Fatehpur Sikri, an abandoned city complex up on a hill. The structures in there are not much different with those we have seen from Agra Fort but those are now in much more vibrant red colour. There is also a very vast plaza near the entrance that appears to be very welcoming to visitors with a very beautiful 360 degree view.

After a 5 hours bus ride, we finally arrived in Jaipur, the pink city. It is a well-planned city with many buildings in terracotta colour. Because there is no terracotta term in colour, hence the city is defined as pink city instead. We went to textile and carpet factory and shop to see the demonstration over the products, not buying. After that, we proceed to the nearby spice shop and painting shop, and also no buying in the end because all those products are not suitable for us. At night, we stayed at Cambay Spa and Resort, which is not really good as food served are very limited.

26th January 2012 (Thursday)

Today is a very beautiful and sunny day. The first destination is Amber Fort, a giant and impressive-looking fort with many structures up on a hill surrounded by thick walls. A long barrier wall is also spotted over the hills around the area, which is used to protect the old city in the past. It is something like Great Wall of China, but with shorter length (still quite long).

It is a very long queue for the elephant ride up to the fort which is above a hill. Luckily we came earlier, if not, much more time would be wasted. Finally, it’s our turn and it’s a very shaky ride up to the fort on a pathway full of elephants’ droppings; smelly! We arrived at a plaza surrounded by mainly yellow-coloured facades with beautiful backdrop of the hills and blue sky.

We went up and up, going through ramps, stairs, tunnels and corridors and it is no doubt that it is another huge and amazing structure to visit. The main attraction is the Hall of Glittering Mirrors where at night, one flame is enough to create a sparkling environment due to the multiple reflection from the reflective materials used to built the hall. The views from the fort to the old city of Jaipur is also quite impressive.

Then, we proceed to Jaipur’s waterfront to take a closer look to the Water Palace in the middle of a man-made lake. It is built over 200 years ago as a place of retreat for the past emperors. After a short while, we proceed to the gem stones and jewellery factory for a little demonstration and we were brought to the shop. No buying definitely.

Then, we went to Jantarmantar Astronomical Observatory for a look over the scientific knowledge, research and determination of Indian history in astronomy. Those weird-looking structures and equipments available there are for the purposes like knowing the time of a day, determining the horoscope of the month, determining the angle and height of the Sun from the Earth, and many others. I hardly understand how most of the structures work eventhough the tour guide had explained it briefly.

Then, we proceed to the City Palace complex of Jaipur which houses several museums now, including paintings, armors and weapons, royal clothings, jars, etc. No photography is allowed inside and so I can only take pictures from the outside. We are also being brought to a hall of royal gathering which is very impressive, and also to a plaza surrounded by intricate peacock-styled gates.

After the tour in the palace complex, we went to the nearby local bazaar for a quick and dangerous shopping. Why quick? Because we were given only an hour for that long street of shops. Why dangerous? Because it is very challenging to even just cross a small road, knowing that the traffic is bad and the reckless driving behaviour of the people. We only bought some magnets there after some bargaining. We also see the Wind Palace along the street, with over 900 windows for women to look out in the past.

27th January 2012 (Friday)

Today, we proceed back to Delhi through a 5-hours bus ride. It’s quite boring staying so long in the bus. As soon as we reached Delhi and had lunch in a Chinese and Japanese Restaurant, our bus passes by the roads surrounded by embassies, and also the Presidential House of India, which is the world’s largest house for the head of state. It contains over 300 rooms and is previously known as Viceroy’s House.

What’s more interesting is that we saw there are many roundabouts in New Delhi, and that those places are filled with many people loitering around, relaxing with some playing small games including poker cards under the sun. The roundabouts are turned to something like a park. Then, we reached India Gate, a gigantic War Memorial gate-like structure of over 40 metres high for the 90 000 Indian armies who lost their lives in World War I. It’s a Western-styled gate and is supposed to be the center of New Delhi, with a very visible strong axis leading to the Presidential House.

At first, the itinerary already mentioned a tour to Raj Ghat, a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, the father of independence of India. However, the place is still closed and we can’t get in there. Disappointed again. Then, the tour guide dropped the Lotus Temple tour too because it is quite far and might delay our time back to airport for flight home. Another bad decision! I couldn’t see the interior of the magnificent temple already! And yet, we are given an hour plus to visit a shopping mall near the airport.

It is so strict for the security check in the mall. You have to be inspected including your bags even before you can enter the mall. My goodness…I even give up on entering several shops in the mall as there are ample of guards watching you as if you are a thief. So, the shopping trip ended with nothing bought. Another disappointment. The authority was so afraid that we would bomb their place.

Finally, after an early dinner near the airport, we finally went back to the Indira Gandhi International Airport for flight back to Kuala Lumpur after a tiring trip. The procedures through the immigration and check-in are so annoying and wasting much of our time. The authority is too strict on that. Some last few pictures-taking and also some quick shopping in the airport before we leaved, and board the plane. We bought some chocolates, some small souvenirs (key chains, silver plate of Taj Mahal, and also a model of Taj Mahal). Okay…we were back to Kuala Lumpur International Airport in a very early morning, and we waited so long for that baggage reclaim. We had a breakfast at McDonalds in the airport before going back home for a sleep.

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That’s the end of my trip. Yes, it’s already ended, and the conclusion is that the trip came with some disappointments (not able to shop on products we wanted, and also not able to visit some places as mentioned in itinerary, some delays from the traffic congestion) and also some surprises (surprises over good quality of hotel and food we are attended to). It is definitely a uniquely-different trip, as we saw many new and memorable perspectives from India which appears to be a fresh location as this is our first time being in this huge country with population of over a billion people. It is still an unforgettable trip for me, and the experience gained from the trip is priceless. It is fun and certainly different visiting India. Want a future trip to India next time soon? Not really also….The trip is over and I’m back blogging as usual again…

(All the pictures from this post are taken by myself, please credit if you are sharing or re-using it…for the full 400 pictures of the trip, you can go to my facebook photo album and see all that fascinating images easily)

Places I’m going to visit at India next week

It’s always good to have a bit of knowledge or information regarding the places that I am going to visit throughout my India trip next week so that as soon as I reach there, I know a bit more about those places like their history or significance to the nation. I will always do a bit of research before every of my oversea trip so that  I would be ‘carried in’ further once I really stepped into those places.

It is not awesome for a trip to just enter and visit a place without you knowing the story behind the place. Yeah, the tour guide would explained briefly on the history of those tourist attractions, but not in detail which I love to explore more. Hence, internet is a very good option now for me to do a bit more research on the places I am going to visit next week in three different cities in India; Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. I would be following a big tour group for this trip, which is under Golden Travel Tourworld (GTT) company.

Delhi is the capital of the nation, and in the city itself, I would have sightseeing over India Gate or known as War Memorial (a prominent arch-like landmark commemorating the 90,000 soldiers of the Indian Army who lost their lives while fighting for their empire), Red Fort (palace served as the residence of Mughal emperors), President House, Parliament House, Government Administration Building and a visit to Laxminarayan Temple and Raj Ghat, a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. Do you know who he is? If you have learnt history before, you must have known him. He is a very famous political figure in Indian independence movement back many decades ago. Back to New Delhi, the city is described as one of the ultimate cities of a lifetime to visit and explore based on National Geographic’s Traveler Magazine. So, I would fullfill that very soon…Since the city is a huge urban area, there are many structures from historical to modern to look at, especially the government buildings concentrated in the city alone. Ahha…I’m going to have opportunity to visit the famous Lotus Temple in the city too.

Next city to visit based on the itinerary is Agra. Agra is famous for? Can anyone answer? Of course, Agra is famous for Taj Mahal! One of the seven wonders of the world, and also being widely recognized as ‘the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage’. Agra is a historical city, and there are three UNESCO listed heritage sites in the city; Agra Fort (a walled city with many historical structures inside), Fatehpur Sikri (first planned city of Mughals but is now a dead city) and of course the wonderful Taj Mahal (a huge white marble mausoleum built in memorial to Mughal emperor Shah Jahan’s wife, Mumtaz Mahal). And good news is I would be going to all that three places! Time to explore the priceless heritage structures of India, all in one city; Agra…and that would be a priceless experience for me.

The last city to visit is Jaipur, famously known as the pink city. It is a major business centre of the nation, and is famous for the urban planning of the city. It is remarkable among pre-modern Indian cities for the width and regularity of its streets which are laid out into six sectors separated by broad streets 111 ft (34 m) wide and the urban quarters are further divided by networks of gridded street. The places I am going to visit in the city is Amber Fort, Jag Mandir (a lake garden palace), Jai Mahal (a palace hotel), City Palace, Jantarmantar (architectural astronomical observatory),  and sightseeing of Hawa Mahal (a palace with a unique five-storey exterior akin to the honeycomb of the beehive with its 953 small windows called jharokhas that are decorated with intricate latticework). There would be an elephant ride to the fort up on a hill. Cool…

So, basically the trip is going to grant me opportunities to visit a lot of forts, a lot of palaces, a lot of temples! This trip is gonna be a trip to heritage places in India, and I’m quite interested as I do like to explore heritage structures, looking at the architecture and how culture influences it. Looking forward for the trip that is going to begin this Sunday, on the day of Chinese New Year Eve itself.

Chong Wei won Indian Open 2011

When is my last post on badminton? I can’t remember. It’s been a long time that I did not watch any badminton tournaments and posting the result and my comment up here. Today is the final of the Indian Open 2011 Super Series, which we saw world number one, Lee Chong Wei from Malaysia up against Peter Hoeg Gade from Denmark. Finally I had the opportunity to watch the match at home and I expected Chong Wei to win it easily.

Lee Chong Wei really had won the match in three games, winning the first and the deciding games but lost in the second game. Eventhough he had won it, but he did not win it easily. Peter Gade is proven to be a tough match for him this time. In their previous meetings, Lee Chong Wei defeated Peter Gade a number of times very easily and that shows the real power of Chong Wei. However, for this match today, I think it is among the worst performances by him despite winning this.

I absolutely cannot believe that he lost in the second game, quite terribly to Peter Gade. Peter Gade is a strong opponent many years ago but definitely not now. However, he seems to be posing a certain difficulties to Chong Wei today. All that shows that Chong Wei had lost some of his glory which reached its peak between 2007 till 2010. He retained his world number one title for a long time due to his participation in a lot of tournaments and that does not prove his perfection in badminton especially when dealing with the real world best badminton player, Lin Dan from China. The whole team from China did not participate with no valid reason and this is always the same, and that is why I don’t like China’s team eventhough they are strong. They seems to have pay no respect to all these smaller tournaments.

It’s almost the time for Chong Wei to retire, probably after London 2012 Olympic Games. Really hope that he would do the best for the olympic unlike the previous final with Lin Dan.  There is no younger players from Malaysia that could follow his footstep to be a bright badminton player for the moment. Chong Wei might be our last pride in badminton’s world. Anyway, congratulation to him for winning the Indian Open 2011, his fourth title of the year.

Amazing opening ceremony of Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games!

The games is now declared open!

The much anticipating opening ceremony of the 19th Commonwealth Games, Delhi 2010 has just concluded around an hour ago. Finally, the games is open despite many reports and news of 3D (Delay, Damage and Danger) during preparation before the games kick start.

                        

The opening ceremony took place at the renovated Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium with seating capacity of 60 000 and began from 7pm (9.30pm in Malaysia) and ended around 10pm (12.30am in Malaysia). The whole ceremony took around 3 hours.

The opening ceremony started with a quick normal countdown with nothing surprising. Then, the world largest helium balloon is raised at the middle of the stadium. Giant puppets are raised and performances of different drums are displayed. This part took quite a long period of time which made me bored someway.

Next, is the Parade of Nations. 71 nations with their participating athletes are out on the stadium with their costumes and flags. Australia came first as the previous host (Melbourne 2006) and India came last as the current host. The other nations came in based on alphabetical order.

Then, comes the boring part when four VIPs delivered their speeches, full of those greeting and welcoming words as well as words of wisdom, which are very typical but still received large applause. Finally, the baton reached the stadium and handed over to Prince of Wales, representing Queen Elizabeth II whom did not attend the ceremony. The President of India finally declared the games open.

Parade of Militaries Army came along with the Flag of Commonwealth Federation which is then raised proudly. Next part of performance came, with different type of Indian dances displayed on the centre of the stadium. Next, a yoga-based performance is shown, and then a drawing performance commemorating Mahatma Gandhi is shown. Everything is colourful and beautiful here. Many models of typical objects seen in ordinary lifestyle of Indian people are enlarged in scale and brought to the stadium to showcase the culture of India.

Finally, the finale of the show, when AR Rahman sang the official theme song for Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games, as well as the famous Jai Ho song featured in successful Bollywood movie, Slumdog Millionaire. The opening ceremony concluded with fireworks display that seems to be only okay for me. The fireworks display does not impress me totally eventhough I love fireworks a lot.

Overall and generally, the opening ceremony is still a success. One point I’m going to stress here is that this opening ceremony is good but not as good as the opening ceremony of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The latter one is definitely the best opening ceremony in history of mankind. For me, Delhi 2010 opening ceremony is not really synchronized, bored in some parts, not impressive, but still colourful and brilliant display of India!

(All pictures are from TheStarOnline and Getty Images)

It’s Commonwealth 2010’s eve!

It’s Saturday, the day before the opening of 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi, India from 3rd to 14th October 2010. Today is the eve of the world third largest games, and yet I’m very curious and anticipating for the opening ceremony to be held tomorrow at 7pm of India’s time (means 9.30pm in Malaysia)! Everything is prepared by now, despite many reports of delay and danger previously…

 

I love to watch opening ceremony! I am being amazed by previous ceremonies including closing ones of Doha 2006 Asian Games, Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games and Beijing 2008! These are the best three games with opening and closing ceremonies I have seen so far! Let’s wait and see tomorrow’s one…

     

       (A bit spoiler…rehearsal of the games’ opening ceremony)

The organizing committee have spent a large sum on money for the preparation of the games including the opening and closing ceremonies! So, I expected more, and since they promised for the opening ceremony better than the Beijing 2008 one, my expectation rises much higher now! However, many are believed to be in the hand of corruption! Amidst all these negative reports of falling structures, dengue fever, safety concern, etc, India promising for a great games this coming two weeks!

      (Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, venue for the opening ceremony)

Even the President of International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge is going to attend the ceremony, so I must be there in front of TV for it! I am waiting for surprises…for those brilliant and creative performances, like dances, songs, parades, torch lighting and my most favourite; fireworks! Ahh…proud again because my nation, Malaysia had hosted it before in 1998 as the first Asian host, this time India is the second Asian host…And last thing, don’t forget to check out the new header of my blog for this month, presenting this prestigious games as well!

New Delhi not ready for Commonwealth Games on eleventh hour!

I just got this news from many articles around the world, and it did shocked me, because in these few decades, those cities that are selected to host international games like Olympic, Commonwealth or Asian Games will definitely succeed on preparation before the games opening. Those lucky cities which undergone hard process of bidding, had finally emerged as winning host cities, and have the right to bring the global games to own country. However, in this case, India does not appreciate this golden opportunity.

                        

It is not easy to win the right to host 2010 Commonwealth Games. New Delhi, representing India won it few years back, and they definitely had more than enough time for preparation. Furthermore, they are not building many new stadiums, their main jobs are to only upgrade and repair existing stadiums and facilities including the main stadium used for opening and closing ceremonies and athletics competitions. However, they failed to do that, to accomplish that, until now.

There are only around two months left before the opening ceremony. Yes, two months left, and many of the venues for the games have not been completed and passed the sports requirements yet! Terrible, isn’t it? I got this article from this website: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2007643,00.html/, entitled ‘Will India be ready to host the Commonwealth Games?’

The rains that hit New Delhi recently were bad news for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the biggest sporting spectacle ever to come to India. The event’s two shooting ranges, one of them inaugurated just 60 days ago, were extensively damaged in the downpour. A week earlier, the temporary roof of the table-tennis court in the Yamuna Sports Complex collapsed under another deluge, and the new Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Swimming Complex, hyped as the best aquatic arena in the country, is now a mess of debris, electric cables and leaking eaves.

 

(Construction material lies scattered outside the newly inaugurated Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, one of the venues renovated for the upcoming Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, on July 27, 2010)

But it’s not just bad weather that’s plaguing India’s efforts to get ready in time for its gold-medal moment in October. Inside the new showcase Nehru Stadium, construction of the weight-lifting arena was neglected until the end of July. A young swimmer this week tripped on a loose grill and hurt herself during the National Federation Cup, a test event held at the recently finished Talkatora Stadium. According to a six-month investigation and report by India’s top anticorruption agency, the Commonwealth Games’ infrastructure is in all-around bad shape, chiefly because of “large-scale corruption, usage of substandard material and repeated delays.”

TIME obtained a copy of the Central Vigilance Commission’s report, first made public on CNN-IBN on Wednesday, July 28. The report warns that the games, expected to draw at least 150,000 spectators, might turn into a hazard for athletes and spectators alike. Among the findings: “electrical installations not tested in 14 out of the 17 venues“; “quality-test records are fabricated to show compliance“; “quality of anticorrosive treatment on reinforcement steel was found poor“; “concrete core samples taken from the already laid concrete also failed to meet the requirement of strength during testing in an independent outside laboratory.” The list goes on. “There is no guarantee of quality of the work done for the games,” the report warns. “Electrical mishaps cannot be ruled out.”

The Commonwealth Games, first held in 1930, draw athletes from countries of the former British Commonwealth and are billed as a prestige event. For a country that had been hoping to showcase its best to international tourists and media, India now seems to just hope to avoid disaster, with only two months remaining until the Oct. 3 opening ceremony. Whispers of corruption and shoddy construction have been making the rounds of the capital for months. On a recent visit to two of the 17 venues, the problems described in the Vigilance Commission’s report were obvious. There were loose tiles, loose grilles, unfinished staircases and seating arrangements, protruding iron rods, leaking roofs and walls, and debris inside and out.

(Delhi’s Connaught Place is still in chaos, alongside with many other sporting venues)

The report also found pervasive overcharging by the private contractors building the new venues. The Delhi government, the Sport Authority of India, and the central government, which bears most of the games’ cost, oversee construction for the games, but all have so far refused to comment on the problems found in the Vigilance Commission report. In an interview this week, Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the organizing committee for the games, absolved himself of responsibility for the construction problems: “It’s not our business to oversee the making of the stadiums. My job is to run the games, not construct stadiums.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday, July 29, minimized the problems. “I have reviewed the situation with the Cabinet Secretary on Wednesday, and I am satisfied that all necessary preparations are in place and will be in place,” he said. “We look forward to a very successful games.”

But the projected cost of the event has already exploded from an initial estimate of $75 million (3.45 billion rupees) to nearly $7.6 billion (350 billion rupees). And if the games go awry, there will be a political cost as well. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), India’s main opposition party, says the games are turning into a major embarrassment for the country and warns that it will hold the ruling Congress Party accountable. “There is no way out now,” says senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde. “And if, God forbid, the games flop, they have to answer to the nation and the world.”

This view is not limited to the opposition. A.K. Walia, a Congress Party politician from Delhi and member of the Commonwealth Coordination Committee, is not sure if all the venues will be ready by the Aug. 15 deadline, when they are supposed to be handed over to the organizing committee. After an inspection of some of the incomplete venues this week, Walia criticized the way the work was being handled. “The way the work is going on, I have doubts over some of the games venues, but I hope that they will be ready in time,” he said.

To make matters worse, many top athletes have already decided to give the games a pass, from Jamaican sprinters Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser to British cycling champion Victoria Pendleton and Australian tennis star Samantha Stosur. And for the first time in 44 years, Queen Elizabeth II will not attend, sending Prince Charles in her place. The Queen cited a busy social calendar as her reason for missing the games. Given the new concerns over safety, Delhi’s other invited guests may soon be sending regrets as well.

—Not only safety concern, they are many bad issues that India has not solved it yet for the games, like hygiene problem especially in rural or even at town areas, dusty and noisy environment, over population at dense town areas, etc. Athletes and important guests would be afraid of all these, more will be confirming on their absence to the games, then this will be disastrous to India, which is expecting a grand games for all, now from what we can see and read here, it will be the worst Commonwealth Games in history if nothing is being done on it quickly!

Another interesting articles about it…this one quite humorous though, but of course, very seriously written to show that it is very hard for India to be on track now for 2010 Commonwealth Games! http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/montymunford1/100049043/is-delhi-ready-for-indias-commonwealth-games-not-even-close/

But of course, there is something nice to see, especially inside of the newly-refurbished main stadium, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium that has seating capacity of 60 000.The labourers or workers are not doing nothing, they are just in a very slow pace now, maybe because of many other internal problems there too….