At first I don’t know why he asked me to go home, until he said the word “State Election”.

To be honest, I haven’t register as a voter yet, and haven’t have the desire to do. Maybe the affection of all those political thing haven’t really reach me yet; maybe I will not be getting anything from voting yet, I don’t know.

But I like the term “Go home” though. Because I would love to see some improvement made in Sibu. But that remind me of… The Sibu drivers skill… When a horn is a deadly thing to press; when their father owned the road. The word “What’s the point?” came in… So… Yeah, I’ll be still sitting here doing the same thing I do everyday – Work!

I don’t find any productivity here in Sibu anymore, or maybe all this while.

Too many distraction in Sibu. From “tea time” to “Look at the dog“. Those gaming desktop computers were back here after my brother doesn’t want to stay at the house in Kuching. So there is my gaming zone as well.

That’s why I’m not planning to come back if possible already. At this age, I think I put my priority on my career first, then only my wife. Which is why last night was… Just a movie night. As long as I have a little time, I would rather take a rest than go full force on something doesn’t help my career.

Back in Puchong, real working hours were around 10 hours per day. Here in Sibu, 4 hours top, 6 hours miracle.

From broken bowl to phone numbers to drawing. Maybe that is how we rocks the toilet.

Even though Sibu was promoted to have had the best toilet in Malaysia, one of it kind conceptualized public toilet and so and so. But none of those are really… Functioning.

Why?

It is not because we all want to be competitive, but we don’t like to be offended for being… Too luxury, well, if you even understand that.

Try one and you’ll see how Sibu Chinese works. Greeting like, “Wow, seems like you’re having a nice life here“, or a simple “Getting rich by the day eh?“, or sometimes, even “How do you do?” may be a very offensive questions. To defend themselves, only to put themselves into a smelly drain.

They’ll go, “Neh, making a hard living to meet end needs.“, “So, so, unlike you having a great car and etc.” or something similar, they will re-directed the questions back to you instead.

Perhaps, it is not about the questions, it is more about getting to know you than to let you know more about themselves. Either one will share it to you, or they will be offend when you question their life.

Come on, it’s Chinese New Year now. We all are good

Anyway, this Chinese New Year, is different already, and it’s good. At least I get to do something else at home Bought some fuente cigars back while in LCCT, thought to have some relaxing days here, but don’t think I will smoke that for now.

There will be another few more days before my wife will be here. So for now, with Chinese taboo stuff, I’ll be staying at home most of the time. That is when my jobs become my only companion Well, it’s good to see things still flowing…

Like I always said, a dusty place

Some said, Indonesia is a food heaven, but Medan, is the center Might as well spend a good food tour back home later next week. The bad thing is, there is a need to burn belly fat fast after new year. Can’t deny, Sibu too, is a heavy of cheap food.

So I’m going to spend the whole Chinese New Year with food-related town/city. What do you expect? I think… 5kg?

Last weekend, I went to Kuchning to find some dealer on post card printing and signboard to be made. Saturday morning, with all kind of excitement, I went back Sibu by boat, I was surprise to see the river level when the boat entering Sibu coast.

The whole Sibu is like an underwater World now. Roundabout became an island, you wouldn’t know where is the corner, unless you drive around daily to know the routine.

I am, finally stucked at home again. The last time I encounter flood in Sibu was 2007, after that I did not go back that frequent, and now I thought of permanently staying in Sibu, it happen again!

Well, like usual, people started to complaint about government this and government that… I hope the newly elected MP of Sibu can handle those complaints, as it is now become he who did not work but not the previous one Get some education you moron Sibuan, stop dumping and logging to make a living…

A few days ago, they carried a road upgrade work on my resident area without notice, without help.

A lot of residents here are shock paniced with the surprise work SMC brought in, and did not called to extend our bridge. We all here have to spend money building a new one, which SMC just whipping their arse and leave.

But the story doesn’t end there. Today they came again to apply tar onto it, after almost a week! However, due to their overly clever engineer and accountant, that is all they can “afford”

The rest are on our own, again! Means, we resident here is going to need to spend our money for their upgrading work again.

Yes, local election is needed!

Sunday, a day after I felt better with my fever and sent my parent to airport. My wife and I decided to take a look into the so-called South East Asia biggest temple, in Sibu. Weird, I know, how can a small tiny unknown town could have built this kind of temple.

This temple actually allocated a few small temples inside it, which I forgot all their name and did not tend to remember it too. By the look, it seems like a tourist attraction place. However, there is merely a place to hide from the sun. It was all open-air over the place.

Well, if you ask me, I would say it has lots of empty space. Let’s just say it is the most spacious temple in South East Asia.

Anyway, it was a bit hot the weather so we headed off to get our face wash for acne and do some light shopping before heading home to call it a Sunday, a hot Sunday indeed.

I personally monitoring Sibu eCommerce closely. I wanted to see how it grow and how it works currently.

Forum as a starter

A lot of Sibuan like to start off with a forum, or selling in a forum instead. Having their own eCommerce store is time consuming and waste of money. After starting off a forum, they will offer a very competitive and affordable banner advertisement in forum, to get themselves going longer.

I can easily name more than 5 Sibu forums which all have above all points, banner advertisement, selling products on (specialized) thread and they are still young.

Well, look closely, each of those forum actually linking each other or buying advertisement with each other, spliting visitors all around the web and hardly get royalty and ended up not much sale on forum.

In short, those forums does not actually provide a platform for the seller (or themselves), but are looking for a profit themselves through the forum. That is the problem with forum as eCommerce.

Unfriendly user interface

Majority, if not all eCommerce store are using the same China made eCommerce script. I’m not saying it’s not good, it’s good and I did a test myself as well, function wise is great, but front-end interface is not.

Like most China website, crowded with images, big and small, and lots of text on the front page.

A while back, I spend a lot of time with my wife outside in malls, we find out that a lots of those stock are from Internet. Those eCommerce stores are actually more protifting as a wholesaler than a retailer. (You can check into forum too).

The key-point to actually winning in eCommerce store, is to get to know more retailers instead.

Login before paying is so yesterday. It is now against the concept of eCommerce nowadays, the convenient become not so convenient. Let me tell you more about the so-called, payment.

Payment gateway

There is absolutely no payment gateway on those eCommerce stores I visited. Don’t mind those Maybank2u or Credit Card logos on the footer.

Forget it, I ended up a message telling me “Our representative will contact you within next 24 hours.” Some even ask me to made the payment first and contact them about the payment and item I needed, right! What is the whole point of having a product clicked and added to cart?

So far, the best thing about eCommerce in Sibu is that I don’t get cheated. I am ensured with the location. With population of 25,000 only, basically to get to know a person and location is easier than flipping yellowpage.

Do I continue shopping online? Yes! The hassle are all away after I know the price is competitive compare to retail