Stand aside Myspace, here comes Virb. Similar to Myspace, Virb is a social networking site, with a good taste. I have always thought myspace is ugly, and how could so many people in the world put up with such ugly theme for their blogs or sites. The thing about Virb is that, it is more than just a blog or social networking site, it is an Art Festival. From Photos, to Music and Video, it is an all in one web presence. If you ever want to leave myspace for a better application, Virb is the one. Within minutes, you can create a Web 2.0 look type of blog, and I am so jealous of it, it made me thinking of dumping my paid host to join Virb. Virb users are given a great deal of flexibility to configure their site with CSS, and if you dont know what CSS is, there are also easy drag and drop menu to use. Just to give you a taste, check out the screen shot below of Musician Andy Davis. See the difference between Myspace and Virb?

Musician Andy Davis @ Myspace:

Musician Andy Davis @ Virb:

Virb is not new to the web scene, they are the same people who brought you purevolume.com, and this explains why they look quite alike. Purevolume.com is a site that provide musicians the means to share their musics online. These days, almost all musicians, especially those without a label, owns a myspace site and they share their music, interact with fans and blog. UMI (Unborn Media Inc), who started purevolume.com must have seen the success myspace have brought to the musicians. Since they already have a succeful music sharing platform, why not take it a step further and embed in the blogging and social networking features, and finally, throw in web 2.0 features and look. This should be enough to wrestle myspace, but with countless numbers of social sites, Virb is in a crowded room.

On my recent trip to Bukit Larut, my digital camera failed to operate a couple of times with the error message E18. This Canon A95 of mine is already 2 years old, and incidentally my first digital camera Nikon 2500 also broke down 2 years plus. It looks like digital cameras don’t last that long do they, at least from my perspective they don’t. The Nikon 2500 had a sensor problem, and I did not send the camera for repair at that time, mainly because I was in the US. I got the Canon A95 as a replacement. This time round, I sent the Canon for repair, because I could not afford a new camera at the moment and also I wanted to test out the how was it like to service camera.

I sent the A95 to the closest Canon branch, and they said the camera will have to be sent to KL. It will take 3-4 weeks to repair, and should not exceed 4 weeks as stated in the receipt. The camera can also be tracked through an online ticket, to find out where or what’s the status of the repair (awesome). One could option to check the repair status online, or through the mobile phone. If only other service industry have this tracking system. Its kinda like tracking UPS shipment, however, there are not that many check points, and so, what it says is just “Repair in Progress”, like this will help a lot, but having a system like this is the first step. The dreaded part is no photo taking for one full month, and I don’t think the service industry have gone that far as providing a temporary replacement.

Update: Got the camera back within 3 weeks, fixed, and best of all FOC… yeahoo…

Bukit Larut, is the post colonial name of Maxwell Hill, located right at the edge of Taiping town. The Hokkiens call the hill “Kopi Sua”, which means coffee hill. Not sure how this name came about, nevertheless, this sleepy hill is set to claim it’s place in history again. Taiping have its share of many first in Malaysia, starting from the first rail, to museum and even the first news paper were mention. This Everlasting Peace (Literal translation of Taiping) town can now boast to have the first Tulip farm in Malaysia. This should go into the Malaysian Book of Records, if it have not.

The tulip farm is located at Cendana Bungalow on Bukit Larut, and accessible through a government run 4wheel drive transport service. There is no booking ahead, and visitors will have to go early at 8am in the morning to buy tickets for the day. Visitors have to specify what time they want to go up and what time want come down and it cost RM4.00 per person round trip. If you are adventurous, you can option to hike up, which takes an average 2hrs 45 minutes (1 way), vs the 25 minutes Jeep journey.

The Tulip farm, is not like those abroad. It has a special air conditioned room for germination, and once the plant is mature, it will be brought to the greenhouse to bloom. The tulips also does not follow the usual spring cycle, instead, it blooms 2-3 months after plantation, and so in Malaysia, one can get tulips twice a year, one in December-February Period and the second in July. I visited the farm last Monday, and it is almost at the end of the blooming season. The keepers mention that the current batch of flowers are the last, and they will ship them out soon, so be quick to go if you want to catch this round. Else, just wait till July or end of the year in December to visit.

Bukit Larut have not changed in the past 20 years, except for the up-keeping and a new suspension bridge walk. It was the same when I went up as a kid, and it was the same when I brought my then girl friend there, and it was the same last Monday when I visited the tulip farm. The hill is full of greenery and a lungful of fresh air makes it the ultimate place to relax and forget the rat race. I must warn that this hill maybe a nature haven, it is also a dead boring place for the ipod generation youth. There is zero entertainment up in the hill, except for the fun of enjoying nature. My photos above is all the hill have to offer (click to view album), unless you are going up for bird watching, or staying at the bungalow, 2 hours is more than enough.

With the surge of new visitors because of the tulip farm, I sincerely hope the government will put in more effort to make the hill as a Green resort. The temperature and climate makes it perfect place to house many of the beautiful plants from the cold climate, and all the government have to do is to invest into growing them as what happens with the tulip farm. This can grow the hill and the Everlasting Peace town below. At the same time, it can still keep it’s green theme, without making it another Genting or Bukit Tinggi.

Oh, I forgot to mention, entrance to the tulip farm is RM1 for non-Tulip season and RM2 for Tulip Season. You can purchase the tulips, RM5 each and RM15 for a pot of 3 flowers. The tulips can last about a week, and have to be kept in a cool environment, ie, your kitchen/toilet, or air condition environment. It is great for the ladies, and since Valentine is coming up, you can still catch the end of the bloom season. I bought a pot for my wife last year, and she was surprised speechless and she loved it.