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Malaysia 2015: Formula1 Tickets Onsale Now

After scoring the deal of the century on flights and the Formula1 dates being announced I’ve been waiting for Sepang Circuit to put them on-sale.

So how are those Formula1 plans?

When Sepang Circuit slipped the tickets on-sale last Monday I quickly secured some Topaz (Upper level, back straight) Grandstand tickets at an exceptionally good value 50% discount. For me this was an essential part of the trip plan as my travel insurance includes event cancellation and changes in its cover. Now if the Formula1 race is cancelled, postponed or moved I have some insurance to deal with it.

This has also meant that I’ve started feeling more comfortable about locking in the side-trips to LegoLand (yes I know I’ve been before) and for something different a couple of nights in Penang.

LegoLand Side Trip

LegoLand is located down in Southern Peninsular Malaysia and a short distance from Singapore. So after a few days in Kuala Lumpur I’ll board my flight to Johor Bahru and spend 4-nights checking things out in a bit more detail. Flights were cheap, I initially tried searching using a few different engines like Zuji, Bravofly, Expedia and the trusty Skyscanner only to realise that sometimes making an effort to check directly with airlines pays off. Onto the Malaysia Airlines website I went!

So for 120RM I had return flights from KUL to JHB, including checked and carry on luggage. Even the normally competitive AirAsia couldn’t match that!

I’ve yet to book the accommodation for this side-trip. Naturally I’ll be resorting to my favoured standby of Hotels.com but this time will also add LastMinute, Expedia and a few others into the mix. Heck it may be time to forget my aversion to bad spelling at check out Otel.com!

Penang Side Trip

The planning for my trip to Penang was a little different. With only a couple of nights “spare” in the itinerary and a desire to go somewhere different I hit up the usual suspects (Zuji, Bravofly, Expedia, Skyscanner) and once again settled on going direct with a twist.

Yes readers, I booked a flight on a smart phone via an airlines app! It was with Malaysia Airline again, and amazingly for the same 120RM Return that I was already paying to fly KUL to JHB. The MHMobile App worked very well right down to scanning my Credit Card!

A small “glitch” was having to populate all of my details into the App, I would have thought these would be imported from the profile I have with Malaysia Airlines Enrich Frequent Flyer Program. Still it’s not too hard to set put details in and make bookings.

To push the boat out in experience even further I used the Hotels.com App to book corresponding accommodation in Penang!

All done while enjoying a coffee with a work colleague!

Where or rather what next?

The world of travel has come a long way in just a few short years and as I’ve now locked in some 6 nights outside of Kuala Lumpur it’s time to hit TripAdvisor and start to get some more ideas on what to do with the remaining 4 nights in KL.

Renault Megane GT220 Front Suspension – Parts Diagrams 1

Perfohub upgrades have been done the Megane III’s in various forms. The easiest method is to simply dismantle a donor Megane III with Cup (Perfohub) suspension and bolt all the required parts onto the recipient.

In this post I talk about the background of the conversion and some of the reasoning behind doing it.

In this post I break out the Dialogys diagrams and the part numbers associated. I’ve not included the descriptions as anyone doing this conversion should be able to tell a spring from a bolt 🙂

Megane III non-Perfohub Suspension Part Numbers (Part 1)

1495-m-31-0110 — Dialogys 1495-M-31-0110

Index	Part Number	Diagram
1	544010579R	1495/M/31/0110
2	7703602185	1495/M/31/0110
3	7703602185	1495/M/31/0110
4	7703602335	1495/M/31/0110
5	7703602335	1495/M/31/0110
6	544F00003R	1495/M/31/0110
7	7703602295	1495/M/31/0110
8	544C50004R	1495/M/31/0110
9	544C40006R	1495/M/31/0110
10	7703602193	1495/M/31/0110
11	7703602193	1495/M/31/0110
12	544640003R	1495/M/31/0110
13	7703602235	1495/M/31/0110
14	7703602235	1495/M/31/0110
15	547271392R	1495/M/31/0110
16	547273347R	1495/M/31/0110
17	8200976877	1495/M/31/0110
18	7703053968	1495/M/31/0110
19	7703053968	1495/M/31/0110

Index	Part Number	Diagram
1	545016101R	1495/M/31/0217
2	545006560R	1495/M/31/0217
3	7703102026	1495/M/31/0217
4	7703102026	1495/M/31/0217
5	7705098191	1495/M/31/0217
6	7705098191	1495/M/31/0217
7	7703101623	1495/M/31/0217
8	7703101623	1495/M/31/0217
9	7703033209	1495/M/31/0217
10	7703033209	1495/M/31/0217
11	7703034281	1495/M/31/0217
12	7703034281	1495/M/31/0217
13	540100134R	1495/M/31/0217
14	540100134R	1495/M/31/0217
15	401330006R	1495/M/31/0217
16	401330006R	1495/M/31/0217
17	544180003R	1495/M/31/0217
18	544180003R	1495/M/31/0217

Index	Part Number	Diagram
1	401609060R	1495/M/31/3010
2	8200624491	1495/M/31/3010
3	7703034247	1495/M/31/3010

Index	Part Number	Diagram
1	543020942R	1495/M/32/0110
2	543020942R	1495/M/32/0110
3	545880001R	1495/M/32/0110
4	7703034212	1495/M/32/0110
5	545880001R	1495/M/32/0110
6	7703034212	1495/M/32/0110

The Parts Lists

On the following linked pages I’ll cover off the parts that make up the Mk3 Megane GT220 and RS265 front suspension packages along with the diagrams from Renault Dialogys.

About the Perfohub transplant
Mk3 Megane GT220 Front Suspension Parts – Parts Diagrams 1 (this page)
Mk3 Megane GT220 Front Suspension Parts – Parts Diagrams 2
Mk3 Megane RS265 Front Suspension Parts – Parts Diagrams 1
Mk3 Megane RS265 Front Suspension Parts – Parts Diagrams 2
Parts Common between the GT220 and RS265

ausmicro.com – It may return!

I know that over here I said that I wouldn’t be going through the cycle of trying to bring back the ausmicro.com Forums, well there’s some good news.

While I haven’t done much yet, I have started the research to bring ausmicro.com back.

Well the forum content, maybe even to the point of being able to open them up for use! It’s going to be a big job, but the least I can do is try and get some of the best RC info back online to honour those who contributed.

Gunning Fireworks Festival 2014 – Videos

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about our trip to the Gunning Fireworks Festival. At the time I promised to promptly post up some videos from the night,

It’s time for Fireworks!

This video is shot handheld and is a slightly cut-down version of the Finale display. There’s the odd shake and movement but they help show the scale (and closeness) of the display.

The second video is filmed on a tripod, so a little steadier but still very much lacking the field of view to get the finale in all it’s glory.

Still to come!

There’s about 3 hours more footage to cut together of the demonstration which I’ll make into a couple of short videos. Kind of a “Best of”.

Next year the GoPro will have to come out

Gunning Fireworks Festival – 13th September 2014

The Gunning Fireworks Festival is not a new thing, having been held for some 10 years as a trade display before becoming a Community festival in 2010.

The 2014 Festival was our 2nd, we were captivated in 2013 and after looking at our hand-held footage from the Lumx FT3 and iPhone knew we could do better in 2014.

Last Years Fireworks Show:

All about this year:

So last Saturday (13th September 2014) we rugged up and headed out to Gunning. It’s a 45 minute drive on typical rural Australian roads. single lane in each direction, potholes and roadkill to remind you of the dangers of the road at night.

We found the Gunning Showground bustling with people enjoying the sideshow amusements. A stop at “Ze German Hut” for a Bratwurst in a roll was mandatory before finding a ringside location.

Gunning Fireworks Festival - 13/09/2014 — Gunning Fireworks Festival – 13/09/2014

When I saw ringside I mean about 75-100m from ground zero of the displays. You don’t so much as watch the Fireworks as sit inside the display. As with 2013 we started out behind the VIP area. The crowd filled in around us and we waited for 18:30 when the action was to begin. The photos don’t do the sheer volume of fireworks on the Showground justice.

As darkness falls the anticipation builds and then it’s on. One by one single shots are fired, each announced by name; “Shot 5, 4 inch giant red ring” this continues for well over one hundred shots, some made up of hundreds or thousands of individual fireworks.

After the trade display is done there’s a pause while the setup for the finale is completed.

Then it starts. The finale display is amazing, it’s almost too close, the crowd is coated with falling ash and debris, an occasional still light piece falls still lit and fizzes about the feet and stamped out. The “pooh” and “ahhhh” continues, a monsoon of fire. Yes we’re so close that the human field of vision can’t take it all in, we’re so close that with each massive mortar explosion we can feel our organs compress.

And then, in a crescendo of explosions it’s over and we start to shuffle out.

There’s just one stop to make.

Kransky Roll - German Hut -13/09/2014 — Kransky Roll – German Hut -13/09/2014

The last Kransky of the night, sustenance for the drive home.

Once I edit up the video I’ll link it here!

Vodafone AU & iPhone6 Mobile Payment Plans

In the last few years Vodafone has been trying to claw back customers after the PR nightmare than was the collapse of their over-stretched network. The new – dare I say – revitalised carrier has been offering good deals and backing it up with solid network improvements.

I rolled my day-to-day mobile service back at the start of 2014 and have been generally satisfied. My iPhone4s doesn’t get to take advantage of the 4G spectrum and given the models lacklustre reception (even on Telstra NextG network) I could generally say that Vodafone more than met my needs.

I’ve held onto the iPhone 4S for 3 years now, waiting patiently for the iPhone6 release as it was about time to “upgrade” to resolve the issue of my 4s needing a replacement battery and struggling to cope with a days use.

Vodafone Upgrade Offer — Vodafone AU Upgrade Offer

I’ll let my complaint to Vodafone explain what happened:

Hi,
Like the rest of Australia I’m wanting to upgrade to an iPhone6. I missed out on the pre-orders on the 12th of September because like every other Telco (and Apple) your website was basically non-functional while a lucky few customers managed to place pre-orders.

Over the subsequent days I confirmed that through the Online Store (now reporting wait times in the weeks) that it was possible to add an iPhone6 to my account as a Phone Only MPP. That is not bind the phone to a new contract. Sure it would cost “more” but honestly I’m happy to pay the price difference for the flexibility. I was once a 3/Vodafone customer with 5 services that got severely affected by those service quality issues a few years back and I’m not being locking into a plan again with any telco!

On Thursday the 18th I checked in the Tuggeranong Vodafone Store about stock levels and opening times, I was told that while “the company” didn’t like customers using MPP to buy new high-demand Handsets it was possible and they’d do it.

On Friday 19th at 7:30am I found myself at number 2 in the queue, and was informed that there was stock of my chosen model/capacity & colour. “Great”

Then it went wrong, The lady at “1” in the queue left looking agitated and without a phone, and I was asked what I was after, repeated my request to the staff member who used the computer system to open up my account details. He then told me that he “couldn’t” do MPP and I’d have to go on a plan. It was apparently a company policy and the system wouldn’t allow him to do it.

I politely declined and left the store. Your staff in Vodafone stores have always been helpful and polite, your service has improved dramatically in the past couple of years, so much so that I returned as a customer.

But why is it that you can “sell” one product through your on-line channel, and deny it via the face-to-face channel?

“It’s just a phone”, true, and I can easily wait until your “rule” changes or there’s no longer 2-3 weeks stock delays in the online store, but why wouldn’t I just walk to any of the other carriers within a few hundred metres of your Store and sign up for a contract?

No your policy meant that I’m a Post-Paid month-to-Month customer with no locked in commitment to your service, be that a Phone Plan or a MPP. Given the “cost” of regaining customers and the difficulty in restoring “faith” in your service the least I would have expected is a uniform policy on the use of MPP for iPhone6 sales for Existing customers.

Vodafone iPhone6 Mobile Payment Plan — Vodafone AU Mobile Payment Plan for iPhone6

All this doesn’t seem so hard does it? Sure if you would prefer customers signed for new contracts encourage them, a new contract is better value for the customer. If the customer knows about the Mobilie Payment Plan (MPP) option then let them exercise it. At least you’ve kept the customer locked into to something!

I shall see what I get back from Vodafone customer service in response!

Malaysia 2015: Dates for Formula1 Set

Since taking the time to book my ticket through travel.com.au I’ve been watching for further deals and trying to get ideas together for what to do when I’m not at the Formula1. It’s been a while so I figure it’s time for an update on where my plans are at.

Caterham Formula1 2014 Malaysia — Formula1 2014 – Malaysia Caterham

Formula1 Race Dates Announced:

The sticking point to further plans was the lack of a set date for the Malaysian Formula1 race. Yesterday this was finally listed on Formula1.com as being the 27th to 29th of March 2015!

Other News:

What else has happened? Well One of my flights has been changed by the airline, resulting in re-issuing of my ticket. A process that’s gone smoothly enough, and I’m reasonably certain it won’t be the last change.

Next Steps:

I’ve yet to book accommodation, the next step is really for Tickets to go on sale! I’ll book my tickets with Sepang Circuit directly when they’re released. For the 2014 Formula1 Race this occurred in late October and an excellent early-bird discount was offered.

In 2014 I missed out on the super early bird and instead bought at a 25% discount in January. I only bought an single ticket, but for 2015 I’ll use the higher discount and get two tickets giving me more flexibility to move around during the race. (although I may have managed to occupy some other zones during the 2014 race I don’t want to “risk” it again).

Making some other plans!

Legoland Malaysia has opened the Star Wars exhibit and the Kampung Mini-Land so I’m going to have to head back to Johor Bahru for these, but that still leaves me with the need to find other things to do. Please leave me some suggestions!

Review: Legoland Malaysia; A day trip from Kuala Lumpur

As part of my trip to the Malaysian round of the Formula1 this year (2014) I took a side-trip from Kuala Lumpur to Legoland Malaysia.

See interestingly enough while the Malaysian capital city is where you’d expect to find an international theme park Legoland Malaysia is actually located in the south of peninsular Malaysia in Johor Bahru – a mere skip across from Singapore. That’s where things start to make sense as here the park can leverage the attractions of Singapore and it’s Asia “Hub” status while enjoying the benefits of being in Malaysia.

Getting There:

I started my journey early, very early as I was booked on the first flight from the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and getting to the airport involved either throwing myself at the mercy of the local taxis for the whole journey or making use of the RM12.50 KLIA Ekspress/Bus combination to get from KL Sentral station to LCCT. As KLIA2 is now open this journey has increased in cost (to RM35) but is now a direct sub-30 minute ride.

As I said it was early, so I ended up catching a taxi from near my hotel using the MyTeksi App to estimate the fare before haggling with the driver over the “actual” fare to be charged. We settled on a price and within 15 minutes I was at KL Sentral buying my ticket through to LCCT.

Once I’d negotiated the mayhem that was LCCT I was on my AirAsia flight to Johor Bahru, Senai International Airport.

Welcome to Legoland!

I arrived after a reasonably long Taxi ride with a driver who was more than happy to talk MH370 conspiracy theories, social and political development news and provide some good tour-guide style information about the Iskander state. Back home in Australia Taxi conversation is always something I never go much for however I find Malaysian Taxi drivers to be very interesting and the issues after a lot more real than the “first world problems” that plague Australia.

After having my pre-purchased ticket scanned at the gate the park was mine – at least it felt that way, the first Tuesday in April 2014 wasn’t a big day for the guest count and I think at any one time I ended up seeing maybe 20 people.

The Attractions

Legoland Malaysia has a combination of child-friendly rides, Lego themed curiosities and of course the Mini-Lands which highlight the creativity and skills of the builders and the versatility of the blocks.

My first stop was the LegoLand Boating School ride. To be fair this is not a ride targeted at thrill seekers, yet unlike some many rides of this type it actually has a very real level of “control”. Yes you really do drive the boat and you can actually set your own course!

It’s a relaxing sort of ride and set the tone for the day where I’d just escape from adult reality and immerse myself in Lego.

After the nautical interlude I moved onto the Mini-Lands – here the Lego builders have created scenes from throughout Asia with some amazing detail.

From walking loops through the Mini-Lands I relaxed on-board the Legoland Express to get a “train tour” of the park. The Express is not a full loop of the park, it mostly circles the Mini-land zone and while it was nice to sit down for around 10 minutes it wouldn’t be worth queuing up for the loop on a busy day. Watch the video to see what I mean:

I did do a few more of the rides, in fact every ride where I didn’t need to borrow a small child OR where my 185cm put my outside the rides acceptable height parameters. As the park was quiet it was actually possible to re-ride some of the coasters etc multiple times without leaving my seat! Although, on one I had to get out, join the end of the queue and get back into a different car – no big deal and both the ride attendants seemed to see the funny side of it.

So was it really worth it?

Legoland Malaysia isn’t the largest theme park, nor is it the best for adult entertainment, however it is 100% successful at bringing the whimsy and fun to all comers. As an adult I was able to enjoy the rides, take in the breathtaking skill of the parks builders and appreciate the cleanliness and professionalism of the parks attendants. The park my have been virtually empty but everyone was doing there best to ensure the patrons had a great experience.

I didn’t see any unhappy children around the park, instead they were caught in that magic world of creativity and wonder. The babbling of voices and excited squeals told the story at the rides and games throughout the park.

I’m not sure I’d want to whirlwind trip from KL like I did with a child or two, but it is entirely doable and by midnight I was back in my hotel in KL with photos and a silly grin on my face!

LegoLand_Character

Living the Blogger Dream on 7c a day!

Back in January I wrote about how I was so happy to be making 2.4c a day between this blog and Youtube content.

Well a solid 6 months has passed and it’s time to review the situation. I’ve not pumped this site full of content nor have I piled on the Youtube content so I guess in part it’s been a failure. As it turns out making interesting content is hard work!

As it turns out making interesting content is hard work!

What I can say is that typically my income is now much higher than 2.4c per day and peaked (after my March-April trip to Malaysia) at a massive 12.8c per day – a 500% increase in income!

So what have I “earned”?

Jul 1, 2014 – Jul 31, 2014	$2.43
Jun 1, 2014 – Jun 30, 2014	$1.73
May 1, 2014 – May 31, 2014	$3.93
Apr 1, 2014 – Apr 30, 2014	$2.75
Mar 1, 2014 – Mar 31, 2014	$1.12
Feb 1, 2014 – Feb 28, 2014	$2.97
Jan 1, 2014 – Jan 31, 2014	$0.88
Total:	$15.81
Daily (211 Days)	$0.07

I think that says it all, AUD0.07 per day on average for the 211 days through until the end of July 2014.

As you can see the income is sporadic and based heavily on how much effort I put into content and also into promotion. The Renault information certainly boosts the Google rankings and generates traffic but it’s also complex research to generate. Travel writing doesn’t generate much traffic, but I haven’t written much yet, and honestly really would need to start pushing it harder.

income is sporadic and based heavily on how much effort I put into content and also into promotion

What I do know and understand is that to build revenue I need to start pushing better content related advertisements. Perhaps Google Adsense isn’t the cash vehicle it’s cracked up to be? I presume using better targeted programs would work, or having a greater level of hits would drive up traffic? Maybe infusing some Airline ticket search engines would work, they can generate a decent return, assuming someone uses it to buy themselves tickets!

No matter what the outcomes are for me what I can definitely say is that unless a person has a lot of time on their hands and a fairly sizeable chunk of cash to spend on promoting their travel blog they’re not going to be living high on the proceeds of their words!

I’m also very happy to say that the experiment continues with my 7 cents per day almost 300% more than when I started!

Thanks for the Clicks on the ads and thanks for the page views.

Malaysia 2015: Commitment Made!

After having a great time in Malaysia for the Formula1 in 2014 I was immediately keen to consider doing the same in 2015. It’s no secret I like the country and find it pretty easy to get about.

So when cheap flights started appearing on Skyscanner I was starting to get a twitchy desire to book early and hope to the heck that the Formula1 calendar would stick to the “normal” late March date for the Malaysia F1 race and Sepang International Circuit.

In 2014 I spent about AUD720 on flights from my home-base in Australia to Kuala Lumpur using a combination of AirAsiaX and Virgin Australia. The price crept up thanks to the me adding the Plaza Premium Lounge at the LCCT Terminal on departure from KL. I also had to add in the shuttle between Sydney International and Domestic terminals. I also up-specced my AirAsiaX ticket into the “Quiet Zone”.

So when flights started coming available via SkyScanners network of suppliers for around AUD630 including luggage, meals and all connections in Australia lets just say “Woohoo”.

Flying Malaysia Airline System (MAS)?

You bet, after air disasters there’s traditionally a massive cut in the cost of ticket prices as the airline affected struggles to attract customers back. We’ve flown with Malaysia Airline before in 2012 on one of the their older Boeing 747s and survived. I’m confident in 2015 the Boeing 777-200 will be an equally safe option.

Aren’t you taking a risk with the F1 dates?

Life without risk isn’t living. Well not quite but when just about every Formula1 race held in Malaysia has been on either of the last two weekends in March, two weeks after the Australian F1 race it’s hard to not see a pattern. I’ll be there for both those weekends but am confident the race will be on the 29th of March 2015.

Some reassurance comes when many of the ticket and event tour companies agree with my “guess”.

So there we have it, now to wait for the F1 calendar to be confirmed (probably December), then snap up some tickets for the Race via Sepang Circuit while they’re fresh (and discounted).

Last step organise the accommodation and a side trip or two. I’d love to spend more time down in Johor and as my only trip towards northern Malaysia was to Bota Kanan Terrapin Center I would like to go up to Ipoh and spend a few days exploring.

We shall see how things go!