Our CSR with Sime Darby Rhizo Project

Recently we join the Sime Darby Rhizo Project at PDP on Sunday, 12 June 2011 at Pantai Cahaya Negeri, Port Dickson. We love to do this kind of activities and we must support these noble initiatives for the sake of our environment.

This is a mangrove replanting project at Pulau Burung organized by the Energy & Utilities Division in conjunction with World Environment Day 2011 (on 5th June every year) together with MPPD and Jabatan Hutan Negeri Sembilan. This is also a part of Sime Darby Employee Volunteerism Program (EVP). The purpose and benefits of replanting the mangrove include erosion control, habitat for fish breeding and nurturing, off-setting carbon emissions as well as shelter and stopover for local and migrating birds.

John and Shu were the key organizers for Sime Darby and they had done a wonderful and excellent job. The discussion and planning only started when we attended the Sg Tua Waterfall clean-up project in Hulu Yam in April 2011 (during World Earth Day – 22nd April every year).

Sime Darby chose PD because it has an operation i.e PD Power (a 440 MW peaking plant) at Tanjung Gemok, just north of PD town. We were supposed to pick up the umrah group on Sunday at 11am but we couldn’t miss this program either. So we decided to do both and we put up a night at Glory Beach Resort on Saturday, 11 June.

Before we went to PD, we had to send Pak Su, Adik, Naif, Atif & Pak Lang to Bukit Jalil stadium at 3pm for the FA Cup final between Kelantan & Terengganu (although the game only starts at 8:30pm). So only me, Ibu and kakak went to PD. Instead of following the normal highway route, we took a detour towards Sepang and Sungai Pelek since Ibu wanted to see the Golden Palm Resort. So we did go round the Bagan lalang beach and visited the resort (look and see only). We reached PD around Maghrib and had an excellent dinner at the newly opened MPPD Medan Ikan Bakar…should try them especially stall no.2. That night we watched the FA Cup Final live telecast on TV and of course we were very disappointed with the results, and it was worse for the diehard fans who flooded the national stadium….that is football, there is always a winner and a loser…this time Red Warriors was on the wrong end!

Early the next morning (12 June 2011), we had early breakfast and then we proceeded to PDP for a gathering and another round of breakfast. Ibu and kakak were introduced to the function and operation of a gas fired power plant. Nasrul also brought along his wife and sons. It was a nice set up of tents by the lakes within the power plant site and we could enjoy the sight of the birds feeling safe within their natural environment. PDP maintains a lake which protects the biodiversity of the birds and the fishes. While we had breakfast, Dato’ Bakke Salleh, SD Group CEO, arrived in his chauffer driven BMW…a simple man who doesn’t really like VIP treatment, he prefers to be with the people…something that I really admire.








We were expecting to have around 300 people attending this program with their families from USJ office, GHQ and SDE Pasir Gudang, a total of 7 buses….not a bad number of participation from the employees, well done! It was already 9:30am and we had to make a move if we wanted to be on time at the KLIA. So, although the Group has not made the move (since the buses haven’t arrived), we decided to proceed to Pantai Cahaya Negeri for the mangrove replanting.

We met John and Shu at the beach waiting for the entourage to arrive and we told them that we had to plant first as we had to go to KLIA. While we were walking across the bridge to Pulau Burung, we saw Dato’ Bakke has also arrived and was walking towards us….. but John came to stop him, as he needed to address the Group first…probably he saw us walking and he wanted to be early too.

So we planted 10 rhizophora mucronata saplings on Pulau Burung, earlier than the Group and we had to do it at covered areas so that people don’t really see us…..otherwise spoilt the function la ! It was a beautiful sunny and hot day and once we were done with the planting of 12 trees, we walked back to our car and drove off to KLIA, after a short stop for teh O ais. We arrived KLIA at about 11.30am, right on time as the flight touched down at 10:55am and the Group only came out from the arrival hall at 12 noon.

We were happy to have participated and have done our part and I hope Sime Darby will do more of this kind of activities shared and empowered by the employees and their families.

Journey to the Land's End, Tanjung Pengelih - Part 6

Initially we were having doubts whether we wanted to check out today or stay on for another day because I was afraid that we might get caught in a jam on the way back since this is school holidays…but everyone else wanted to stay on….so we did stay on but had to think of what else can we do. We though of travelling to JB for dinner but it was too far away…about 85km so I thought that was a bit too far and furthermore we were unlucky that the new Kongkong bridge only opened a few days after we have returned to KL…otherwise travelling to JB through the Senai Desaru highway should be much faster and more convenient….and dinner in JB could have been possible.

Instead we decided to explore further south until the end of the road on Peninsula Malaysia East Coast ie Tanjung Pengelih, about 50 km away from Desaru, with Sg Rengit, a small town located in between. After Asar, we started our exploration southwards following the beach road… again we came across nice beautiful beaches but there are more people here that it was in the north.

Pantai Tanjung Balau is unique and has colorful waters….light blue, green, dark blue etc….due to the formation of rocks and corals along the beach.The beach is clean and not so deep and it offers great opportunity to swim, but some people say that this place has lots of obor-obor!! The beach is a very popular spot among locals and the beach also has a Fisherman’s Museum built nearby.

We came up to Teluk Ramunia, where SDE fabrication yard is located and a few really nice beaches and small resorts including Pantai Tanjung Balau (probably the best beach throughout our journey) and beaches along Teluk Ramunia. These areas offer nice sceneries with blue sky, blue water, fisherman managing their boats and huge containers/oil tankers dotted the horizon, approaching and leaving the Singapore port.





We continued further until we really came to the end of the road which is the Jeti Tanjung Pengelih and we couldn’t go any further. Before that, we did stop at an ostrich farm in Teluk Ramunia and it was indeed and interesting learning experience for the kids. The admission fee is only RM12 and they do sell "kaya" and "bahulu" made from Ostrich Eggs!!! Do you know that an ostrich egg will only break with a load of 130kg or more? Interesting...

It was almost sun set when we thought of having dinner and we’ve read about this famous seafood shop in Sungai Rengit and we decided to check out. We found the shop at Sungai Rengit and it was full with patrons. It’s a Chinese shop but doesn’t sell pork and doesn’t allow any other food to be brought in. We saw photos of many people had come to the shop before including the Johor MB etc…so it gave us confidence that the food is halal and can be consumed (after all it only sells seafood). The shop is famous for selling lobster!!! It has tanks full of lobsters (local lobsters) sourced and supplied by the local people. The shop and the food were rated highly on Singapore Food Channel and that’s why you can see many Singaporeans go there for good lobster meal. We ourselves ordered some lobsters and crabs and we really enjoyed the food, they were tasty and good…..the price was not bad and affordable. Pak Su and Adik took the opportunity to hold live lobsters for a photo.










After dinner, we slowly drove back to Desaru, 25km away and reaches the hotel at around Isya’ so we did our solat before everyone started to show effects of another hectic day. However, Pak Su wanted to go and play the ‘bebaling berlampu’ at the café’s lawn but no one was willing to entertain him because of tiredness but he insisted that he wanted to go and play…and was prepared to go alone if no one could follow. So I had no choice but reluctantly followed him to the lawn… I was a bit mad because he didn’t want to listen to me.

The lawn is a walking distance of about 200m from the room. Initially, I just followed him from behind without him knowing and I could see that he knew his way and he could find his own way….after a while I approached and scolded him and he was not happy but that did not change his intention… he continued walking and I let him walked alone and I would walk through a different direction.

When we reached the lawn, as usual there were many people having fun and enjoying the ‘flying lights’ and he immediately took out his gadget and started playing….you could see that he liked to do that. Again, I sat in a distance watching him….as in the day, there were people who are scared of him and there are people who were kind to him….one of them was the lady, the Managing Director of the resort, truly professional. After a while I asked Adik to help him as his gadget was having problem.

As I continued sitting and watching him, I felt guilty and unfair for scolding him and for not agreeing to his idea of wanting to do this earlier….seeing him enjoying himself with a simple play made my heart sunk and my eyes went teary again…. I was thinking that he never asked for anything that is impossible and he never retaliates whenever we scolded him or got angry with him. So why do we get easily angered by this people or their simple request? The answer is that the anger is actually by yourself on yourself and for yourself…..he didn’t do anything wrong at all. So next time you come across this situation, do think about this….treat DS people as you treat any other normal people, scold them if required only in private and not in public and entertain them as much as you can as it is not likely that they will ask for something that is really impossible to give or entertain.

Once satisfied, he signaled that we could back to hotel…so we walked but he stopped again at the video arcade for a few rounds of games. Adik also joint in, I just waited and didn’t complaint. At 11pm, we finally got into our room and into our beds.

As I lay my head on the pillow, I thought today has been a wonderful learning experience for me about my DS brother…special people from Allah for us to care for, look at, deal with and learn from. Look at them, listen to them and treat them well....they could be your saviors on Judgement Day, that is my hope....insyaAllah.