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In today's news.

Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said such undercutting of rates was unhealthy and would badly affect the country’s tourism revenue.
“The ministry wants to put a stop to the price war and will soon discuss with the operators to introduce a minimum fixed rate,” he said.
“I am disappointed to find several five-star hotels slashing their room rates to make quick profits. Their action has resulted in huge differences in room rates.” Tengku Adnan said the ministry did not want five-star hotels to charge below US$80 per night because room rates in the country were already very low.

The Star Online


Wtf?
There was another news that said this.

Help the country first and think of your “pocket” later.

This is the advice from Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor to the private sector involved in promoting the Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) programme.

The Star Online


Ok.. although it's on two separate issues. Doesn't that imply the same thing for both? Or is the minister implying that private sectors should help the country first in the MM2H , BUT think of tourism revenues first when it comes to room rates?

Competition is healthy for the consumers. Prices of services are up to the provider to fix, and if they want to undercut their prices, for long term gains in consumer loyalty, then let it be. One downside of it, is brand value. If for say, Marriott decides to push it's prices down to RM 200 per night, wouldn't that push the value of it's rooms down? Lower brand value pushes it's YED to be more less elastic and XED to a higher value. Certainly I'm very sure that the BODs are aware of this. So why does the government have to intervene in this? Government intervention has often be shown to screw up the market equilibrium by fixing prices and putting ceilings. I'm not referring to the ceiling prices of consumer goods, but in this case, the base price of US$80 per night room rates is really unneccessary.

Is this PR in the works because of the recent comments that VMY2007 isn't drawing in much tourists? Sigh - no comment.

Ok.. hopefully this works.

Ok so it works.
Here's Edinburgh! Notice how it differs from London? Oh just so beautiful.
One striking thing is it's buildings and it's history. Edinburgh has two parts, one lying near the hills, Old Edinburgh, and the one across the bridges, New Edinburgh.
I went there for an Open Day at the University of Edinburgh, along with these people.

Meet the backs of Zafir, Lindsey and Jun.

Unfortunately, both the latter two, had to get together in a relationship, leaving me feeling lightbulb-ish and together with Zafir. Don't get me wrong, Zafir's a niceeee guy who smells good. Anyway, it was still nice. =)

Main turnoff was the price of the tickets -£60 - for a return journey with the Young Person's Railcard. How sucky was that? Furthermore, the railcard gave a 33.33333333% discount on rail travel. Ok back to details, the journey took 6 hours. We left at 2, traveled to Crewe, travelled to some unknown station and then by bus (because of some train derailing a few days earlier) to Carlisle and then jumped on a train to Edinburgh Waverley. We found out a few days earlier that there was planned "industrial action" in Scotland by the RMT Signaller's Union. That means going on strike. Woohooo, the notice says, "Expect severe delays and cancellation of services but we are providing alternatives to transport" (turns out in the end, on our way back, there was just a slight delay and no trains after 6pm)

Ok, more pictures less talk.

McEwan Hall, where all formal events take place and our meeting point.


Part of the campus.

I don't know how to use my camera...



Look! Seaaaaaaaaa..


I was really bored so I took pictures of all the stations and places that we passed.


Newcastle

Darlington

York (if you squint, i bet you can see the signboard.)


Leeds!

Derby

Then after that.. Birmingham. Then Shrewsbury etc. Good trip overall. I love Edinburgh, it's so beautiful..

London Trip pics coming up soon!

Jun!!

Todayyyy is the birthday of this dude.

Jun!!

JUNNNN!!

JUNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Happy Birthday, you know I love you. =P

Sometimes, I feel so..

Bored.

Why?

because..

- of Easter exams next Thursday.
- of A2 exams in around 2 months.
- of £330 spent in 1 month.
- I suck in DotA.
- my comp's getting old.
- I'm starting to miss home.
- studies stand between fun and work.
- politics screw things up.
- the weather's getting warmer.
- I just saw a lunar eclipse last 2 weeks ago.
- I think I'm slacking in class.
- people are getting older and older.
- the printer's not working when I want to print.
- it's so darn hard to upload 1 picture.
- I'm sitting here typing this post.
- I'm procastinating more and more.
- people seem to be more occupied nowadays.
- time passes so fast.
- no one seems to be online when i'm online.
- air travel is so expensive.
- the birds haven't sang today.
- the teletext writer on BBC screwed up her typing and made me read it wrongly.
- a lot of things in my home country is screwed up.
- I want to do something fun.
- I'm just bored.
- I've been typing this for 10 minutes already.
- I still have 2,300 songs to sort and filter through with 1.1k songs in my iPod.
- Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, and Russell Peter's jokes are starting to wear off.
- I need new games.
- Ben's been showing off his future plans for a PS3.
- Jun sucks.
- whoever is reading this..is as bored as I am
- I wished I could wake up earlier.
- I don't have food.
- when people don't have food, they get bored.
- when people get bored, they do boring things.
- when people follow bored people, they are bored.
- you still want to read on.
- I think you want me to write on.
- therefore I am.
- if I am bored today, that implies today I am bored.
- I read a whole lot of funny sh-t about using mathematical physics in big game hunting.
- I've run out of things to write on.
- I need to go to class now.
- you need to get a life and stop reading this.

=P

Argh!

Sorry! I think I have neglected this blog for a long time. Time to get back on track!

In the time that I've been away, lots of things have happened, like the London half term trip, the CNY dinners in Manchester, and possibly the upcoming trip to Edinburgh for the University's open day.

Will upload pics shortly! (in about a day or two)