I will be in INTAN Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur 27th March till 10th May for a Quantitative Analysis Course, a compulsory course for recipients of JPA’s Hadiah Latihan dlm Perkhidmatan (HLD).

My flight from KK was on 27th March. Arrived at KLIA 12.30pm. Took a taxi (cost RM66.60), arrived at INTAN Bukit Kiara 1.30pm. Traffic was light.

Accomodation

There are 2 Asramas/Hostels – Asrama Anggerik and Melur. I got the impression that Anggerik is for foreigners, and Melur, locals.I have since found out that actually there are some foreigners staying at Melur and that Anggerik is also open to locals if rooms are available. Most, if not all, of the foreigners are participants of the Malaysian Technical Cooperation Program (MTCP), which have been in existence since 1980. Shame on me for not knowing that. So, we do have something like JICA I suppose. The MTCP program will go on till end of April, so I suppose I can move to Anggerik after that, if I wanted to.

I was put up in Melur – there are a total of 200 rooms there.

I emailed the contact person as indicated in INTAN’s official letter about a month before I arrived asking a few questions, but never got a reply. But he sounded quite friendly and was helpful when I called him on taxi, on the way to Bukit Kiara and when I finally met him in person just before dinnertime.

To check in, one has to go all the way to Asrama Anggerik at the top of the hill first, because the only registration counter is located there. According to the person at the counter (En Kamaruzaman) Melur used to have its own counter/reception, but it was scrapped in December 2006.

After checking in, one has to walk all the way to Melur. It’s OK if one is not carrying any heavy luggage, but it’s a torture when one’s checking in and lugging those heavy bags. There are no lifts connecting all 4 levels of Melur, only steep and sometimes slippery stairs. Definitely not disabled-friendly. Strangely, Anggerik has two lifts!

It feels very warm in the evening, definitely warmer than in KK. I was drenched in sweat even while casually walking around the complex. No breeze, nothing.

Participants are given a single room with attached bathroom, with the usual facilities: mini fridge, 14” TV, hot shower. But the TV only shows TV1 and TV2. Once I select TV3 or NTV7, the video would fade to black, leaving only the audio. Are these 2 channels somehow being blocked? All the free channels are available. Some joker turned down the brightness and contrast on some channels, thereby making it seem as if some channels are blocked. No Astro in the rooms, but you really need to see Astro TV, there’s a TV at the lounge of Asrama Anggerik constantly showing Astro channels. There are no internet connection available from the rooms, either via UTP cables, phone cables or WLAN. There is a phone port in there, but a phone is nowhere in sight.

Everything is marked, even the soap and towels:

On weekdays, main gate closed 12 midnight. On weekdays and public holidays, there’s some confusion. The counter at Anggerik said it’s closed at 12 midnight (curfew for Diploma in Public Admin students is apparently 11pm), but several pamphlets I saw at the Kiara Point block noticeboards said 1pm. 1 pm? We’re not schoolboys in hostels anymore! After further clarification, I could breathe a sigh of relief, for the security guys at the main gate confirmed that one can come back by midnight Sunday.

View around Melur accomodation block

A ready made photography point

This 2 storey tall man-made waterfall is located smack in the middle of INTAN Bukit Kiara

Facilities

Cash machine/ATM – the nearest ATM in the complex is Bank Islam’s ATM located at the guardhouse at the main gate. It is quite a walk from the asramas/hostels. Yes, the ATM is attached to the guardhouse. I suppose the bank want to make it accessible for the general public too – no need for them to come in all the way – INTAN don’t want anybody to simply walk in.

Sundry Shop (aka Kedai Runcit, Kedai Koperasi, KESKI) – next to Dewan Seri Perdana. Closes 10pm. One can have minum petang inside and outside its premises. There is even a burger stall there, complete with free delivery to the rooms.

Ironing room – many, several on each floor.

Self-service laundrette – almost one on each floor, free to use, except detergent/softener have to buy at the sundry shop (Kedai Runcit).

Computer Room with internet connection – I could see signages on almost every floor pointing to computer rooms in that floor, but after going to every floor, I could only find one computer room. In there, there are 4 PCs, and only one is functioning. Internet connectivity OK (=quite fast) but rather unstable. Condition of room is deplorable – AVRs scattered about, wallpaper coming off, unsightly rust & moss around a pipe coming into the room with the hole looking very unprofessionally done, sliding door not sliding at all – I attempted to slide it, it felt heavy and makes screeching noise – obviously this has never been maintained – oiled – I could even see a cigarette butt on the floor railing! Another 2 PCs simply could not be switched on, and one could be switched on but the display remained dead. The PCs are apparently Pentium 4s but all running on Windows 2000 – not even XP – come on, this is *the* INTAN Bukit Kiara!

State of the computer room on the 3rd floor – notice the chair’s back and UPS on floor

Internet connection in general – INTAN uses DHCP, so no settings necessary on your PC/notebook. But I suspect they have some kind of content filtering going on – I could not access my own blog hosted on my own domain. In fact, some other “perfectly clean” websites could not be accessed. Access to SabahNet mailserver is possible both via smtp or webmail, but very slow. Timeouts are common. Sending mail out is more painful than receiving mail. I could not VPN to SabahNet at all. I am saying this after testing from the computer room, the library and the classroom network points, using several different PCs. I could not detect any WLAN anywhere.

View from walkway on the way to dining hall

Dining Hall – all meals are served here. Located on the top of the hill, on the same level as Asrama Anggerik. From my block (level 1) I need to climb 160 steps of stairs to go there. That’s equivalent to 8 floors! So I’m having walking exercise at least 3 times daily. All meals are free, no need to show any ID or token. There’s a lack of choice – most of the food is spicy – but can’t complain too much due to the perfect price: Breakfast 7.15-8.15am; lunch (I’ll know tomorrow – they say lunch could also be held downstairs) (12.30 to 1.30pm Mon-Thu and 12-1pm Fri, dunno about weekends); dinner (7-8.30pm). Main sliding glass door to dining hall was not working – the bottom railing has come off I think – and there’s no warning/breakdown notice/detour notice whatsoever. One had to either force one’s way through or do a little bit of investigation, discover a side door on the left, and go through that. On entering the dining hall building and walking up the stairs which leads to the actual hall, I felt very warm – the aircon has obviously been turned off. Update: by 29th of March, the door and aircon problem at the dining hall has been fixed.

Dining hall

I have the impression that most attention is given to Asrama Anggerik – most foreigners are staying there – airconditioned lounge, lifts – feels more like a hotel reception environment.

Others

Generally, one needs to be in “presentable” clothes at all times – in the dining hall, library included. Not even slippers, sports attire and most certainly funny shirts are allowed in these places.

I will be spending most of my time in these locations:

• Registration at Dewan Seri Baiduri, Bangunan PPE, 8.30-10.30am 28/3
• Pusat Kuantitatif (near Dewan Seri Perdana) – to get a photostat copy of “buku jadual statistik”; I never did go here, cos I ended up, as did most of the other students, buying an original copy of the statistics table at RM15.20.
• Perpustakaan INTAN (near Dewan Seri Perdana, 1^st flr) – to borrow books on statistical analysis & research methodologies; as of 30th March, aircon still not working. It’s a sauna in there.
• Bilik Mutiara 2 & 3 (in Admin Block, 2nd flr) – thank goodness there’s a lift there.

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