♠ Early Holiday

Happy Chinese New Year in advance to all, cos I know I will forget.

Last couple of weeks have been challenging and demanding.

I went back on a friday; second final weeks of January and I got robbed.

I wont talk bout the incident cos the memory is still fresh and I'll get traumatised again. I'll talk bout it in detail next time.

The sad thing is I got my sis involved. We got wounds; superficial ones. My sis's wound is going to take some time to heal. We are lucky we are not stabbed.

Cities in Malaysia have become unsafe, especially for travellers. Try to separate the passport and other important documents from visible bags.

For my case, I've lost everything I was carrying; camera, cash, clothes, passport, IC, driving license, work permit, hp etc.

I feel bad for losing my sis's camera cos the first time I got robbed, I lost my camera. Now's the second time. *Aih..

First thing to do after got robbed; make a police report and dont lose the original copy. All details of stolen items must be stated clearly or unable to be compensated.

I spent the first 2 days getting my IC and driving license using that police report.

In Malaysia, procedures to do stolen IC requires 2 original thumbs; if both thumbprint matches with the old record, one can get the IC in 2 days (in Putrajaya) or less than 1 week (other office). If one thumbprint doesnt match, one can get in less than 2 weeks (in Putrajaya), but requires followup like calling the collection dept every two weeks. If both thumbprint doesnt match, have to wait at least 6 months (in Putrajaya) to get the records. All those above applies for east and west malaysians.

But if you lost a passport due to robbery, the process is long and heavy.

In Malaysia, procedures to do stolen international passport requires IC (temporary IC requires a supporting doc to verify that temporary IC can be used) and birth cert.

Since I do not walk around with my birth cert with me everytime I go out of the house, I'd have to do a "Cabutan Sijil Lahir" or Birth Cert Pick at Putrajaya (headquarters in East Malaysia) which will only take couple of hours. So, I went to the "Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara" or JPN as we called it to do the birth cert pick only to be told I'd need to fill a diff form cos I'm from West Malaysia, and that process takes a few days. Crestfallen, I went back to the Imigration Dept to see if they have a different solution for my case.

Let me tell you one thing; Putrajaya's Imigration Department officers sux big time. Really bad services and not helpful in the least, the IC dept offers a lot better services. What big difference between local dept and international dept, what a sad image the Imigration dept is portraying to non-Malaysians cos non-Malaysians will not get the friendly treatment from the local dept cos they do not have IC.

After asking all the necessary questions, I called to the Imigration Dept in Sarawak; my birth state. Over the phone, I finally decided to go back to Sarawak to do my passport. Cos if I do in KL, I will have to go back to Putrajaya to talk to the same faces again, and I really do not want to talk to them at all based on my impression on them. Headquarters are supposedly to be faster since they are the head and supposedly have all the info; NOT in Putrajaya, KL.

Since my case is a robbery case, I have to prepare all the documents for the Imigration Dept to open an investigation case file. Since this is my first case, I think it will be less than 2 weeks than 1 month as they stated. And the officer who handles my case is a lot more polite and sweet than the sarcastic guy at KL.

So, I went back to Sarawak on the next morning's flight. Which is another adventure of itself. Which I will tell..another time.

Thus, here I am..working from home in Sarawak while waiting for my passport to approve. Called my company's HR to apply for emergency leaves and called my boss to tell him where I am and going to be for the next 2 weeks. Since I have projects to launch, I'd need to work from home.

After this, I'll have to learn the process of applying for stolen EP in Singapore.

And get new camera for Nat. And re-apply those bank cards. And get new sim card. And new moisturiser. And new dress. One step..at a time.