Hello world!
Let me introduce myself..
My name is Benjamin Siew Wan Siong, or better known as Candidate Number 5 in the "So You Wanna Be a Pilot" competition.
And the other person next to me here is Low Yi Yang, or better known as Candidate Number 3.

I'm 22 years old.
Yang is 25 years young;
I'm working as a trainee aircraft maintenance engineer.
Yang is working as an "Oreo-chemical" engineer;
I love exploring the internet and travelling as a hobby.
Yang loves drawing and break dancing as a hobby;
I'm vegetables lover.
Yang is a profound carnivore.

I and Yang did not know each other prior to the "So You Wanna Be a Pilot" competition, organized by AirAsia.
From the above "prescription", it sounded like a recipe for disaster if we were to be put together.

Believe it or not,
I and Yang only got acquainted after both of us got short-listed as one of the few potential candidates to compete in the then final 10 spots for the "So You Wanna Be a Pilot" competition.
In all rights, we are competitors.
And in any competition, competitors usually try to put each other down in order to emerge as the winner.
But surprisingly, that wasn't the case for me and Yang.
We were like buddies for decades when we first came in contact with each other.

We got so comfortable with each other to the extend of even organizing a trip to Kuching, Sarawak for all the short-listed candidates. Yang even trusted me and bank in money to my bank account to book for his flight and hotel(I was thinking either I'm a very trustworthy person or Yang is a very generous person! Hahaha!). Although none of the other candidates join us for the trip, I wouldn't consider the trip as a total failure.
We still went ahead with the Kuching trip and treated the trip as a "celebration" for being the finalist after AirAsia's Blog Team (You know who!) announced that all 35 short-listed candidates will be in for a life changing interview this coming June.
For all those people who missed out on our little adventure, here are a few photos for you to ogle at.

Kuching's only public transport. The SAMPAN... Just Kidding.

Welcome to Kuching, Sarawak! It's so damn developed that the traffic there is some time more worse than Kuala Lumpur.

Me and Yang chilling at "Bing!". One of the best franchised cafe there! Can beat the living daylight out of Starbucks and Coffee Bean combined, anytime!

For those people who still thinks Sarawakian still lives on trees, yeah they still do. Except they are made out of bricks and has an elevator!

Yang, don't simply touch other people's pussycat.

Me and Yang with FO Jasper on AK 5219 cockpit. (Look ma, we three have no necks!)

So yeah, although we touched down around midnight, and both of us have to work the next day, we undeniably had a great deal of fun for the weekend. The flights were affordable, food there was cheap and tasty and Kuching was a great place to unwind. Kuching could very well be a weekend destination instead of a what used to be an out-of-reach holiday destination, made possible by AirAsia.

So to put things in perspective, all these would not have happened if wouldn't because of a great company with great employees as their asset.
I wouldn't have met a great buddy.
I wouldn't have a shot at living my dream career as a pilot.
I wouldn't have a channel to voice my happiness here at this blog.
Millions of thanks to those who made this world a smaller place to live in.

Here i just wanna share this story regarding the Quality of AirAsia staff, which really open my eyes widely how this thing change my point of view about Airasia . This flight was operating to kuching from LCCT .

A mother and a young sweet little girl 7 years old was sitting next to my row. After 30 minutes departed from the airport suddenly the little girl vomitted on her shirt. She cried because her shirt and seat wet and full with vommit. One of the flight stewardess ( flight stewardess NORHAIZAH ) which called by the mother, immediately attend the call button and realise what had happened. She hold and carry the little girl and the mother to the toilet to clean up eventhough the little girl full of vommit. After a while the mother and her child coming out from the toilet and the little girl not wearing any shirt because she said the shirt was too dirty and smelly. Other passenger around us pity to the little girl because she only wearing her pants and its very cold inside the cabin.
The flight stewardess asked the mother to get any cloths from their luggage,but unfortunately the mother said their luggage inside the cargo. I suggested the mother to buy any shirt from the aircraft but she said she dont have money and she only have rm 7 left, she plan to get a cloth for her daughter as soon we arrive in Kuching later . The little girl nearly cry again when everybody look at her. The flight stewardess really pity the girl and she said she dont want to see the little girl freezing and she bought and pay the shirt for them with her own money.
Honestly I really amazed ,AirAsia have an amazing staff and i believe with a good quality of staff really bring AirAsia to higher level and the best airline..last but not least,morale of the story, after flying with airasia that day really change me into somebody more responsible and caring now..Thank you and bravo AirAsia!!

Letter addressed to Shanmuganathan Suppiah, AirAsia Manager of East Malaysia & Brunei

Thank you for your prompt response to our request for help to save the life of a fifteen year girl who took PARAQUAT on the 31st December 2009.

According to the uncle, she has been brought for treatment twice but she is still suffering. Normally the type of cases dies within two weeks of ingestion. I had lost a niece, a nephew's son and a number of relatives prior to the "discovery" of the present "UNIVERSAL ANTIDOTE". Only after watching the death of my nephew's son in a local hospital, I was determined to find an antidote to paraquat poisoning. After asking around and then my "Traditional Healer" friend, the antidote can to my knowledge. Since then I had saved two lives from poisonings, helped to provide immediate relief and healing to two snake bites, three wasp's bites and one poisoning from caterpillar's urine. It is because it is effective against a wide variety of poisons, both chemical and natural, that I name the antidote, - "UNIVERSAL ANTIDOTE".

I have already spoken to Mr. Handry Jungab to collect the antidote from your Sabah Terminal this evening.

Thanks once more and please convey my gratitude to your Boss and CEO for his concern and permission to get the antidote to the victim. I will give you the feedback later.

YB. Hon Dr. Patau Rubis

-end of letter-

YB. Hon Dr. Patau Rubis further wrote back, "Just to update you on the fifteen year girl. She told her uncle that she is "feeling better" despite the small amount she could manage to take. I have asked her to take the full dose this morning. If she does, to-morrow we may better news though complete recovery may take about two to three days more."

We would like to congratulate Mr. Shanmuganathan who displayed exemplified action in saving a life. Mr. Shanmuganathan has been bestowed the Darjah Yang Amat Mulia Bintang Sarawak, which carries the title, "Ahli Bintang Sarawak (ABS)" in addition to being appointed as a member of the Board of Directors for Sarawak Tourism Board and co-opted Board Member for Sarawak Tourism Federation.

Truly, it is moments like this that makes us proud to wear AirAsia on our sleeve. This ones for you and to all our colleagues out there. To the acts that go rewarded and also the deeds that go 'unnoticed', all of you are the reason why there are more 'converted' AirAsians out there. We are not perfect...yet, but we are definitely getting there, together.

Never been to East Malaysia before, so flew with AirAsia to Kuching recently. Went to the Chinese History Museum, Kuching Water Front, mosque and Tua Pek Kong Temple, all located in Kuching town.

Also went to Semenggoh Nature Reserve to see orang utans and a Bidayuh Longhouse with a tourist guide that charged us RM150 per person.

At Bidayuh Longhouse, there is a head house where the head trophies are placed.

The picture below shows the Bidayuhs' lifestyle in the longhouse.

We also went to Gunung Gading National Park but saw only one rafflesia (not so big). Unfortunately, my camera had no battery that time and I was unable to snap shots of the big flower. We went there by bus through Lundu town which charge us RM10 one way per person. From Lundu town, we took a white bas sewa to the national park for RM10 one way. The entry fee to the national park is RM10. Overall, the cost of going there is only RM50 per person.

We lived in a budget hotel and the budget hotel price is from RM45 onwards. We had good food also where our friend from Kuching treated us to seafood. The fried oyster at Kuching is different from the Penang fried oyster where the oyster was fried like a big keropok (cracker) and the oyster stick on the keropok.

We also ate laksa sarawak, its soup was like curry mee soup only brown in colour and also cook with coconut milk. It is cooked with mihun with prawn and chicken meat.

Also ate mee kolok. Nothing special about mee kolok, only cooked mee mixed with soya sauce. The price of a bowl of mee is similar to Penang's price which ranges from RM2.50 to RM3.00.

Hope I have the chance to come back to Sarawak as I wish to visit Bako National Park. With AirAsia, average people like me can also travel, hope AirAsia expands its network so that traveling to all tourist attraction countries is possible, I am just waiting to fulfill my dreams.

I am into photography, and when I was asked to take more pics to accompany my blog entries, I was more than happy. However, if I were to walk around with a big DSLR in my uniform, one might think that I am not into my job (come on, photography is my hobby!!!).

These pics were taken with my only alternative (a lousy 2MP phone camera - on offline during cruising, of course!). At times like these....I MISS MY CAMERAS!

Let's let the pictures tell you what I saw....

(looking right)

(looking left)
(read more...)