Linking the Two Malaysias

Inspired by Kristen Grady in her interactive map of flights over New York City, I have the idea of creating a roughly similar map of flights connecting two regions that made-up Malaysia. Obviously, I am yet to apply and master some of her methods in creating the smooth visual image. But, I just give it a try using my own way for now.

The map above was produced by obtaining coordinates of all domestic flight routes that occurred between the two regions of the country on Wednesday, 22nd July 2015. The flight routes coordinates were obtained from flightaware.com. I compressed the flight routes happening within 24 hours into just 60 seconds, revealing patterns of how important air travel is in linking both regions. 20 years ago, perhaps a similar map like this may show significantly less flights. Air travel can cost a fortune in 1990s. A one-way airline ticket for a 1,600 km, 2.5 hour flight from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur was RM600 one-way. That easily cost a month of salary for many back then.

Unlike the neighbouring archipelagic nations of Indonesia and the Philippines, sea travel between two regions of Malaysia is not a viable option. The distance covered is just too great and that requires traversing the waters of Indonesia. But, that is not to say that alternative option wasn't tried. Ferry services was promoted starting in 1986 as a cheaper alternative for the masses to travel between two regions. It was part of a national integration strategy that was (and still is) an increasingly important agenda for the federal government.

The sea travel service was popularly known as 'Feri Malaysia' using a Finnish made ferry vessel that can accommodate up to 650 passengers and 240 cars. The one-way service took 7 days if the journey began from Kota Kinabalu to Port Klang. The service lasted until 1997 owing to losses and unpopularity with the public due to long duration endured during journey. Four years later, AirAsia became the first low cost airline in the country and in Asia to offer cheaper air travel to the masses. The entrance of low cost airlines in connecting both regions in the country is proven to be more successful in enabling millions to travel between two regions than travel by ferry, where it is cheap enough for the masses to travel on air at almost the speed of sound.

Scenic Road Views in Sabah

I have to admit that I am quite thrilled to sample the Street View feature in Google Maps in my home state. Below are some of my most memorable views of Sabah as I would behind a vehicle's windscreen. There are many others, but the timing (the weather) wasn't good enough by the time these shots were taken by those 360-degree camera mounted cars.

The best weather, in my opinion to visit Sabah is from February to March as the weather is dry and sunny. Visitors are most likely to experience the views like some of these during that period. Though, any day of the year will do.

A (Probable) Glimpse Into How We Live In the Future

Have you all watched a film called "Her" recently? I did. I watched it at HBO Channel and the storyline is interesting. It revolves around a man that intimately befriended an Operating System that can actually exhibit humanoid feelings. Just think about an advanced Siri or Google Now or Cortana that can actually understands your emotional desire more than assisting you your everyday tasks. However, I am not going to delve into that or review the film's storyline itself. 

Being a graduate of urban and regional planning myself, I am more interested into the way the film's producer gives us some glimpse into how we might live in the future. The future of Los Angeles, according to the film, is a megalopolis of high rise buildings spread across the Los Angeles Basin. Those of us who truly understands how cities became what it is today do realise that Los Angeles we see and understand today is a grand example of a city of some 4 million people (plus, another 10 million living in the greater Los Angeles area) where urban density is dominated by low-rise buildings. It is impossible to travel anywhere without having a car. The urban model of Los Angeles, and generally American cities are being copied everywhere, including Malaysia. You don't have to look far. Kuala Lumpur and the rest of Klang Valley is an urban sprawl with mostly a car-centric society, a home to some 7.5 million people.

So, what film producers of Her trying to show us? It is a future of urban living that is the opposite the very way we live in our cities today.

Figure 1

Today's Los Angeles contains high rise buildings at fairly small concentrated area. The rest of the city is just a sprawl of low rise buildings, where public transport services run thin, and it is more efficient to travel using one's own car. Smog is a major environmental problem in the city, caused mainly by vehicles' emission. 

Photo Source: http://mashable.com/2014/04/30/most-polluted-cities-us/

Figure 2

A future of Los Angeles, according to Her is a city of high-rises where workplaces and residential towers sit side-by-side.

 Figure 3

Theodore (cast by Joaquin Phoenix) lives in a spacious high-rise apartment unit overlooking tall buildings in Los Angeles.

Figure 4 

Instead of sleeping under the star lights, in the future we may actually see lights of nearby tall buildings - very unnatural if you ask me.

Figure 5

There is one very element missing in the film - cars (Though the only scene where a car is actually shown is Theodore's friend showing a video game that depicted an electric car, not an actual car itself). Theodore is seen from going from places to places by just walk and more walk - very good for our health considering offices and homes are just a walking distance away. If you ask me, Her is shot at two locations, Los Angeles and Shanghai. The above photo is actually Shanghai, dubbed in as 'future' Los Angeles.

Figure 6

A future of cities exhibited in the film contain infrastructures of wide, vast and unimpeded networks of pedestrian walkways. Today what we have in Malaysia is just a 'kaki lima', or a narrow sidewalk on a road side.

Figure 7

Want to travel further afield? Train travel is a prominent feature in Her. There was one scene where Theodore went to the snowy mountains (probably the Rockies). He travelled there by boarding a long distance train where he sat a very spacious couch seat, akin to some of the Business Class seats in airlines today, overlooking some very nice landscapes.

You don’t have to watch the film itself to get a glimpse of how we might live in the future. Vancouver, Singapore and even New York are just some very fine examples of how high-density living, working and leisure can be bound together. The way we might live in the future might not be so far, we can actually see the future itself…now.

When Home Gardening Means Harvesting Your Own Food Supply

     Today when homes have lesser spaces for gardens and greens, living in a single detached home can be a blessing. Honestly, I never do any gardening whatsoever in my life apart from helping my parents to water the plants in late afternoons. I never truly appreciate gardening in the way that my parents do until my mother cooked us dinner where one of the dishes contains some spicy ingredients. She later told us that the spicy chilly flavor was outsourced from our very own home garden! From now on, my mother have one less food cost to worry about.  

     Whenever there are opportunities to visit some countries, she is eager to bring samples of some plants from there and bring it home and plant them in our home garden. There are chilies, tomatoes, pomegranate and also grape vines. If I remember correctly, pomegranate came from Saudi Arabia, the chillies are outsourced locally (Malaysia) and the tomatoes came from Sweden. I was skeptical at first because some of the plants may only grow in certain climate and may not survive the hot and humid tropical climate, like what we do have here 365 days a year in Malaysia. With practically nothing to do on a Saturday afternoon, I took my camera and shot some photos of plants my mother planted at our home garden.

 Purple coloured chillies, very spicy according to my mother.

 Light coloured chillies.

 A pot of daisies.

 Grape vines

 Red chillies

 Beautiful purplish flowers

 

 A tomato

 A pomegranate

 

 The overall view of our backyard garden.

 The best time to sit is actually in the early mornings and evenings.

 Our living room is just right next to the garden.

Let start growing our own food in the garden and save extra Ringgits and Sens!

Google Street View Now Arrives in Borneo

     Google Street View, a feature in Google Maps that enables viewers to survey the map by 'venturing' onto the streets online has been enabled for Borneo, specifically at Sabah and Sarawak. The Street View feature was initially enabled in Peninsular Malaysia beginning October last year, after Google painstakingly criss-crossing the almost entire road networks in that region using their fleet of Chevrolet cars, each equipped with special 360 degree panoramic cameras. After Peninsular Malaysia, the cars were transported to Malaysian Borneo to begin the same task. And now, with both parts of Malaysia, more or less covered by this feature, travelling the streets of the nation can never be more interesting.

Above is a Google Street View image of Kundasang, the nearest town to the famed Mount Kinabalu, the tallest peak in Borneo which is the 3rd largest island in the world. Note that this was taken in November 2014.

The nation is more or less are covered by Google Street View.

Peninsular Malaysia, being more populous (and more road networks), logically have more Street View coverage than Malaysian Borneo. Interestingly for Sabah, the stretch from Sandakan to Tawau devoid of any coverage, completely 'ignoring' the major towns of Lahad Datu and Semporna. My opinion is that due to the ongoing security concerns at the state's east coast, it is probably better for streets at areas with high security concentration be left in more 'privacy'.

In the meantime, do make street survey on how it is like on that particular area even before you travel there...

Flying Over Formerly Hostile Skies - Then & Now

     17th July 2015 will mark the first anniversary of the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. 298 passengers and crew died in the tragic incident. The cause of incident is now under investigation, headed by the Netherlands. A full report detailing the cause of the incident will be released in early October 2015, with criminal aspect of identifying those who is responsible of downing the aircraft will be expected to be conducted by a separate team of investigators well into 2016. Some quarters believe that MH17 crash was caused by a missile strike, blaming the criminals that have connection to Russia. While others believe it was caused by Ukrainian Air Force jet fighter, whose government is now backed by the West. Today's blog post will not delve into details or debate about who is the most probable culprit in shooting down the civilian airliner. 

Newsweek's 12th September 1983 cover of the KAL007 incident.

     There was one similar incident that echoes strongly to MH17. Almost 32 years ago, Korean Air flight 007 (popularly known as KAL007) was en-route from New York to Seoul, South Korea with a fuel stop at Anchorage, Alaska. With it were 269 passengers and crew, with the bulk of passengers being South Koreans and Americans. The plane was reportedly crashed into the Sea of Japan in the darkness of early morning of 1st September 1983, killing all on-board. Investigation into the crash revealed that the aircraft had strayed far off-course from its intended planned flight route, subsequently entering Soviet Union's airspace. At the time, USA and Soviet Union were locked in bitter Cold War distrust. The sudden appearance of the Boeing 747 into the Soviet airspace was immediately considered with alarm and suspicion, suspecting the aircraft as a US spy plane. Two fighter jets were sent to follow KAL007. Communication between the fighter pilots and the pilots of the Boeing 747 was attempted but failed, and warning shots were fired. That too never caused any reaction whatsoever from the pilots of that Boeing 747. The KAL007's fate was finally sealed when it was torpedoed by the fighter jets. Black box recording showed that the aircraft plunged into the sea in 12 terrifying minutes, killing all on-board. 

 KAL007's actual flight path versus its planned one. 

Sources: Asaf Degani, NASA, ICAO

 The Boeing 747 was shot out of the sky after being intercepted entering Soviet airspace. 

Source: www.rescue007.org

     Travelling from Asia to North America during Cold War era was not as straightforward as it is now. Cities such as Anchorage, Alaska became a popular stopover points between cities in North America and Asia because a direct route from, say, Seoul to New York would require a crossing deep into Soviet territory at Siberia. It was not possible at that time because Soviet airspace were largely closed to international civilian air traffic. Crossing the airspace by foreign aircrafts, without permission was deadly, as shown by the KAL007 incident. Since 2000, direct and straightforward airline routes connecting North America, Europe and Asia are now possible. Russia has since open up its airspace, enabling airlines to save fuel cost and travel duration. Below are two screenshots grab I got from FlightRadar24.com, a flight tracking website of two flights, KE81 and KE82. These Seoul-New York return flights currently operates on a daily non-stop schedule, in a post Cold War era.

Figure 1

Figure 1 - 32 years ago, a flight route such as this was not possible. This screen shot grab from FlightRadar24 shows Korean Air Flight 82 from New York's JFK airport to Seoul's Incheon airport. The aircraft crossed eastern Canadian including the length of Hudson Bay, then towards Arctic Ocean near the North Pole and back to crossing the land deep into Russian territory of Siberia. Then, the aircraft briefly crossed Chinese airspace, before landing in Seoul. However, notice that an ideal direct line (in red dash line) would take the aircraft directly above North Korea. The flight completely avoids the latter's airspace, presumably due to the hostile reaction of North Korea's government to foreign aircrafts passing through its airspace.

Figure 2

Figure 2 - The outbound Korean Air Flight 81's route follows closely to supposedly KAL007 flight path, completely avoiding Russian airspace. Nowadays, such flight was undertaken on such route to take advantage of strong tailwind due to prevalent jet stream at high altitude.

Thoughts and condolences to all the families of victims of all ill-fated flights downed by senseless acts of few.