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Date: Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:51:37 +0800
From: al_ahbab@yahoo.com.sg
Subject: Holiday in Thailand ..
To: hadaratulmaut@yahoo.com







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Holiday in thailand..??? AWASSS..

Hi All

This is a true story as told by my friend"s relative from Malaysia , while in Bangkok airport. So be careful.

Regards
Azman

Dear friends,

Kepada kita yang suka melancong ke luar negara ........ satu peringatan.

I would like to relate to you all an incidence.................. quite recent, i.e. about two weeks ago............

After my daughter's wedding in early February, I had gone to Shanghai (saja nak enjoy lepas penat menguruskan perkahwinan) and my cousin went to Bangkok with his wife and brother in-law.. Dia orang ni pun penat juga menolong buat hantaran dsb.

Nak dijadikan cerita, waktu nak pulang ke KL menaiki Air Asia, my cousin dan isterinya berbelanja di Duty Free Shop di airport. Mereka membeli chocolates untuk cucu-cucu dan rokok untuk dirinya sendiri. Mereka telah diberitahu bahawa pembelian chocolate mereka ada free gifts berupa chocolate juga. Semuanya ini mereka letak di counter bayaran.

Waktu hendak membuat bayaran, mereka ternampak ada sebungkus rokok diletak di atas 1 karton rokok yang diletak di casher, berupa rokok dari brand yang sama. My cousin telah membayar kesemua chocolates dan 1 karton rokok tersebut dan meletakkan ke dalam beg untuk di bawa keluar, tanpa memperdulikan sebungkus rokok yang terletak di atas karton rokok beliau.

Nak dijadikan cerita, isterinya menunjukkan kepada rokok yang sebungkus itu yang sangkanya diberi percuma. My cousin terus mengambil sebungkus rokok tersebut dan berlalu untuk ke dewan berlepas (departure hall).

Sewaktu di Dewan Berlepas, beliau telah didatangi oleh seorang sekuriti dan bertanya kepadanya sama ada my cousin ada membeli rokok. Dengan ikhlas my cousin telah menunjukkan chocolate dan rokok yang dibelinya di Duty Free Shop tadi..... bersama dengan rokok sebungkus yang disangkanya diberi percuma.

Sekuriti menuduhnya mencuri rokok tersebut dan mahu membawanya ke balai polis untuk didakwa. My cousin offered to pay for the cigarettes kerana salah faham beliau.. Tetapi pihak sekuriti nenolak dan masih berkeras untuk membawanya ke balai polis. Manakala isteri my cousin disuruh pergi menaiki kapal terbang. Isteri my cousin tidak mahu meninggalkan suaminya di sana dan berkeras untuk ikut sama ke balai polis.

Di Balai Polis (yang terletak di kawasan lapangan terbang itu juga) my cousin telah diminta membayar ganti rugi sebanyak RM30,000 jika mahu dilepaskan. Kalau tidak beliau akan ditahan sehingga wang tersebut dibayar. Oleh kerana mereka tidak mempunyai wang sebanyak itu, my cousin telah dimasukkan ke lock-up di situ disamping ramai lagi tourists yang mendapat nasib yang sama. Manakala isterinya menumpang di rumah salah seorang kenalan mereka di Bangkok . Bersama beliau di lock up itu ada seorang tourist dari India telah berada di lock up itu lebih sebulan lamanya kerana keluarganya belum dapat mengumpul wang sebanyak US$70,000 kerana beliau dituduh mencuri pen ( padahal tourist tersebut mengambil pen tersebut untuk membuat pembayaran di kaunter. Waktu mencari kaunter pembayaran, beliau terkeluar sedikit dari kawasan kedai tersebut, terus ditangkap dan didakwa mencuri! )

Sewaktu my cousin ditahan di balai polis tersebut, adik iparnya yang menaiki MAS tidak mengetahui kisah yang berlaku kepada abang iparnya. My cousin's wife menghantar SMS kepada adiknya menyatakan kisah yang terjadi kepada mereka. Tetapi oleh kerana adik ipar ini telah memasuki pesawat, beliau tidak boleh keluar lagi. Setiba beliau di KL, beliau berpatah balik ke Bangkok dengan menaiki pesawat MAS juga. Disamping itu keluarga my cousin di KL telah cuba menghubungi Kedutaan Malaysia di Bangkok dan beberapa kenamaan yang lain. Pihak polis Bangkok tidak memperdulikan semua rayuan yang dibuat baik oleh Menteri-Menteri di Malaysia maupun pihak Kedutaan kita di Bangkok ..

Keesokkan harinya setibanya adik ipar my cousin ini dengan pesawat MAS dari Kuala Lumpur , beliau terus saja ke lock up untuk melepaskan abang iparnya. Dari RM30,000 telah diturunkan ke RM20,000...... tapi adik ipar my cousin ini tidak punya wang sebanyak itu. Beliau hanya ada RM11,000. Maka setelah beberapa lama berbincang, akhirnya pihak polis bersetuju dengan pembayaran sebanyak RM11,000. Belum pun sempat my cousin keluar dari balai tersebut, polis-polis ini telah membahagi-bahagikan wang tersebut sesama mereka dengan bangganya. Mereka juga menunjukkan wang-wang yang diperolehi yang terdiri dari matawang asing......... dan mereka sedikit pun tidak menunjukkan rasa bersalah dengan rasuah yang diperolehi itu.

Keesokkan harinya my cousin telah dibawa ke mahkamah (pesalah hanya berjumpa majestret melalui tingkap saja). My cousin telah disuruh mengaku salah dan didenda sebanyak 2000 baht (what happened to the RM11,000? Tak disebut pun......what the f***...). Nasib badan...!!

Sewaktu mahu membeli tiket kapal terbang pulang (tiket ini diuruskan oleh pihak imigresyen Bangkok ) beliau telah diberitahu bahawa semua tiket Air Asia telah habis terjual. Yang ada cuma tiket MAS yang ternyata lebih mahal. Oleh kerana my cousin tidak punyai wang yang banyak, beliau mau menggunakan kad kredit untuk membeli tiket MAS. Yang peliknya bila my cousin kata nak bayar tunai tiket air asia, tiba-tiba saja pegawai ni kata ada tiket lagi dengan air asia ................. (nampaknya semua peringkat yang mengambil kesempatan)

Pihak imigresyen Bangkok telah mengecop Pasport my cousin dan isteri beliau sebagai 'Thief'! Bukan itu saja, my cousin telah digari untuk di bawa ke pesawat. Setiba di pesawat pasport beliau telah diserahkan kepada pihak Air Asia dan apabila sampai di KL pihak imigresyen KL diminta mengiring my cousin ke pejabat imigresyen di Lapangan LCCT. Waktu di pejabat tersebut my cousin telah diberitahu bahawa kejadian ini setiap harinya terjadi kepada rakyat kita............ tapi yang peliknya kenapa perkara ini masih dirahsiakan dari kita semua? Pihak kedutaan kita pun menyatakan perkara yang sama...... dan menasihatkan my cousin supaya memberitahu keluarga dan sahabat handai untuk tidak ke Thailand dalam waktu yang terdekat ini sehingga keadaan politik di negara tersebut kembali stabil.

Sekiranya ini tidak terjadi kepada keluarga saya sendiri, saya pasti tidak mempercayainya...... macam cerita wayang saja....... tapi percayalah..... memang ini kisah benar. baik my cousin teringat kisah tourist yang didakwa bersama beliau yang keluar tanpa meminta surat dari pihak berwajib tentang penahanan beliau, lalu ditahan kedua kalinya sewaktu mahu pulang di airport Bangkok . My cousin meminta mereka mengeluarkan surat menyatakan kes beliau telah selesai dan beliau dibenarkan pulang..

Fikir lah habis-habis jika anda ada rancangan nak berangkat holiday ke-THAILAND..the country with most common pratice of corruptions..

* Don't smoke- Experiment from experts proves that smoking a cigarette after meal is comparable to smoking 10 cigarettes (chances of cancer is higher).

*Don't eat fruits immediately - Immediately eating fruits after meals will cause stomach to be bloated with air. Therefore take fruit 1-2 hr after meal or 1hr before meal.

* Don't drink tea - Because tea leaves contain a high content of acid. This substance will cause the Protein content in the food we consume to be hardened thus difficult to digest.

* Don't loosen your belt - Loosening the belt after a meal will easily cause the intestine to be twisted & blocked.
* Don't bathe - Bathing after meal will cause the increase of blood flow to the hands, legs & body thus the amount of blood around the stomach will therefore decrease. This will weaken the digestive system in our stomach.

* Don't walk about - People always say that after a meal walk a hundred steps and you will live till 99. In actual fact this is not true. Walking will cause the
digestive system to be unable to absorb the nutrition from the food we intake.

* Don't sleep immediately - The food we intake will not be able to digest properly. Thus will lead to gastric & infection in our intestine.

In 2007, in an end-of-year message to the staff of the National Neuroscience Institute, I wrote: 'Whilst boom time in the public sector is never as booming as in the private sector, let us not forget that boom time is eventually followed by slump time.

Slump time in the public sector is always less painful compared to the private
sector.'Slump time has arrived with a bang.

While I worry about the poorer Singaporeans who will be hit hard, perhaps this recession has come at an opportune time for many of us. It will give us an incentive to reconsider our priorities in life.

Decades of the good life have made us soft. The wealthy especially, but also the middle class in Singapore, have had it so good for so long, what they once considered luxuries, they now think of as necessities.

A mobile phone, for instance, is now a statement about who you are, not just a piece of equipment for communication.
Hence many people buy the latest model though their existing mobile phones are still in perfect working order.

A Mercedes-Benz is no longer adequate as a status symbol. For millionaires who wish to show the world they have taste, a Ferrari or a Porsche is deemed more appropriate.

The same attitude influences the choice of attire and accessories. I still find it hard to believe that there are people carrying handbags that cost more than thrice the
monthly income of a bus driver, and many more times that of the foreign worker labouring in the hot sun, risking his life to construct luxury condominiums he will never have a chance to live in. The media encourages and amplifies this ostentatious consumption. Perhaps it is good to encourage people to spend more because this will prevent the recession from getting worse. I am not an economist, but wasn't that the root cause of the current crisis - Americans spending more than they could afford to?

I am not a particularly spiritual person. I don't believe in the supernatural and I don't think I have a soul that will survive my death.. But as I view the crass materialism around me, I am reminded of what my mother once told me: 'Suffering and deprivation is good for the soul.'
My family is not poor, but we have been brought up to be frugal. My parents and I live in the same house that my paternal grandparents and their children moved into after World War II in 1945. It is a big house by today's standards, but it is simple - in fact, almost to
the point of being shabby.
Those who see it for the first time are astonished that Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's home is so humble. But it is a comfortable house, a home we have got used to. Though
it does look shabby compared to the new mansions on our street, we are not bothered by the comparison.

Most of the world and much of Singapore will lament the economic downturn. We have been told to tighten our belts. There will undoubtedly be suffering,which we must try our best to ameliorate. But I personally think the hard times will hold a timely lesson for many Singaporeans, especially those born after 1970 who have never lived through difficult times.

No matter how poor you are in Singapore , the authorities and social groups do try to ensure you have shelter and food. Nobody starves in Singapore. Many of those who are
currently living in mansions and enjoying a luxurious lifestyle will probably still be able to
do so, even if they might have to downgrade from wines costing $20,000 a bottle to $10,000 a bottle. They would hardly notice the difference.

Being wealthy is not a sin. It cannot be in a capitalist market economy.
Enjoying the fruits of one's own labour is one's prerogative and I have no right to chastise those who choose to live luxuriously. But if one is blinded by materialism, there would be no end to wanting and hankering.
After the Ferrari, what next? An Aston Martin? After the Hermes Birkin handbag, what can one upgrade to? Neither an Aston Martin nor an Hermes Birkin can make us truly happy or contented.
hey are like dust, a fog obscuring the true meaning of life, and can be blown away in the twinkling of an eye.

When the end approaches and we look back on our lives, will we regret the latest mobile phone or luxury car that we did not acquire? Or would we prefer to die at peace with ourselves, knowing that we have lived lives filled with love, friendship and goodwill, that we have helped some of our fellow voyagers along the way and that we have tried our best to leave this world a slightly better place than how we found it? We know which is the correct choice - and it is within our power to make that choice.

In this new year, burdened as it is with the problems of the year that has just ended, let us again try to choose wisely. To a considerable degree, our happiness is within our own control, and we should not follow the herd blindly.

*The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute.*