Ash Report

The centre of today’s digital living has to be the Internet. Coupled with the ubiquitous networking technology, the two powers todays digital living. Never before has information been so easy to get - so much so that school kids do their homework by Googling for answers.

This to a large extent has affected the way businesses operate. Especially in the countries like USA & Europe and even to a certain extent Malaysia.

To a certain extent I must say… because some people still don’t get it.

This morning I passed by Triways Travel Agent in TTDI and saw pretty attractive flight rates advertised on the glass. “Looking good” I thought and pushed the door open and walked in. It was still early in the morning and the crew seemed to be getting ready.

One of the girls asked “Can I help you?” and I proceeded to say that I am thinking of going for a holiday at the year end and looking for suitable flights. Before I can open my mouth further, the girl cut me short and said, with a smile (this is Visit Malaysia Year anyway) “RM20 charge for rate enquiries”.

I was gobsmacked. You mean they are charging RM20 just to enquire about the products and services that the’re selling. Now… this is capitalism at its worst. Without a word, I quickly turned around and walked away.

Don’t they get it? The life of travel agent as we know it is coming to an end. You want to book hotels, go online and search to your heart desire. The choice is much better than those any Travel Agent can offer and best still, most of the time you can book and get immediate confirmation. Cheaper price some more. Air Asia of course offers online booking which turn many of my friend to be holiday scavengers. RM19.90 to Surabaya - great lets’ pack and go.

I have not come across any other agency or even other businesses charging ludicrous fee for just enquiring. But in case in the future we hear about this particular agency complaining of lack of business - now we know why…..

I must admit that I’m one of those pet lovers. Cats, fishes, birds… they’re so adorable. My family used to have six cats in the house at one time, including one Kucing Hutan that only managed to stay with us for a week before wandering off and never seen again.

Cats are mysterious creature, they have such an intelligent look in their eyes. If you are a cat owner, you know that you never own a cat… they go where they want, whenever they want, eat when they want… Unless you locked them in your apartment, usually they will wander off and came back swishing their tail later, looking smug and contented. You die to have a conversation with him… where have you been to, why you look smug ~ meet anybody interesting, catch any hapless creature…

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