Inter-state travel allowed in Malaysia once again

After nearly 9 months since inter-state travel was banned in Malaysia, effective 13 Jan 2021, the restrictions have finally been lifted - with conditions, of course.

From 11 Oct 2021 onwards, Malaysians are once again able to cross state borders (not counting the Langkawi tourism bubble which was open earlier since 16 Sept 2021) and go everywhere as usual, except for areas under EMCO. This applies to fully vaccinated individuals above 18, which specifically means 14 days after the 2nd dose of Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca or Sinovac, or 28 days after the single-dose Cansino or Johnson-Johnson. SOP still mandates wearing masks out in the open and all public places, though now there's some allowance for sports, recreation and dine-in. Based on experience, SOP's can be quite vague and also can (have) changed without prior notice, so always check often for the latest updates so not be caught non-complying. The announcement can be found here on the Malaysian Ministry of Health Covid-19 website, though it's in Bahasa Malaysia.

For many, this is a welcomed release, to finally be able to re-unite with their families and loved-ones, or simply to travel for leisure and food once again. Traditionally popular destinations like Penang and Melaka are expected to be swamped with domestic tourists, even without Singaporeans, might be over-crowded and jammed this weekend. Good news to the food and beverage, accommodation and tourism players, as business will start to thrive once again.

On the down side, besides the annoying the local residents with the influx of traffic, I for one am mostly concerned with the risks of exposure and spread of infection. It's bad enough that many people do not wear their face mask properly (if at all) in the past - can only expect this will become more rampant in the coming weeks. Some people have too much faith in vaccines - not forgetting that even fully vaccinated people may spread the virus to others, so I think it's very rude and inconsiderate for these people to behave the way they do.

Apart from the risk of spreading the virus, I'm also concerned on road safety, for two reasons. Firstly, there will be way too many cars on the road now. And secondly, some of these people have not been driving for a long time, or have been driving inconsiderately in the past months where there were very few cars on the road. I see many traffic offenders (not only motorcycles) overtaking on double lines, speeding, going against traffic, beating red lights, etc.. The authorities really need to step up on enforcement, and not pass the buck to the public to send photos, videos to them.

Lastly, hate to break the news to the local tourists, but many food sellers and restaurants have gone under during these difficult times. Your favourite Satay Celup or Char Kuey Teow may no longer be in business, so don't get your hopes too high when you go all the way in search of food.

What are my plans?

Well, for starters, my priorities will be on transitioning back to work-in-office. We're starting off with a 2 shift weekly rotation first, and let's see how's the long-term plan (hybrid working model or full back to normal?). The kids will be resuming their classes too, also in a 2 shift weekly rotation - the challenge will be that these shifts are not going to be synchronized, so will require some effort and co-ordination.

I don't plan to travel yet - would rather let the initial crazy spike taper off and stabilize first. Also, to check if having more than 90% of the adult population fully vaccinated really helps to prevent another wave. And not forgetting to allow for more time to generate more statistics on vaccine efficacy - not all vaccines are equal in this respect, though all the approved vaccines in Malaysia are effective at preventing severe symptoms or hospitalization. Just hope that vaccines other than Sinovac will finally be accessible to the public ASAP....

Eventually, will be able to slowly transition back to normality and restart some old interests and hobbies that have been put into stasis for the past ~2 years.

Well, to all of you, whether in Malaysia or not, stay safe and be well!

Does RON97 make a difference in a 1997 Toyota Prado J90 Landcruiser?

 

My 1997 Toyota Prado Landcruiser 2.7 - it still runs...!

Old cars, especially those made by Toyota, seem to have an extremely long life. While performance is nothing to shout about (excluding the real performance models like the Supra, MR2 and AE86 that never made the mainstream here in Malaysia), Toyota's are known and proven for high reliability.

My Prado as above still runs (of course, having taken over the upkeep and taking good care of it does help), of course with some squeaks here and there, but then don't forget that this is, after all, a 20+ year old car with 400,000+ km on the odometer. Not gone for hardcore off-roading like my buddies in the Puma 4x4 club, but I do use it for getting out for light field-work and also to transport larger-than-normal stuff that would not fit into a regular car.

Now, the 3RZ-FE 2.7 liter engine at its heart was designed for a min RON 91 fuel, which is way below the RON 95 minimum fuel sold at the pumps in Malaysia today. Those of you from "my time" and before will know, once upon a time, we did have RON 92, which was the cheapest fuel on the market, but was discontinued (possibly as Proton's with their Mitsubishi engines, needed at least RON 95, while my Honda Civic FD2A could live with RON92, see my post from 2008 HERE and also HERE). So, as is general knowledge, there is no advantage to using fuel of RON higher than the engine was designed for. Or is it...?

Since as long as I can remember, driving the old Prado I always had to be a bit careful when shifting or when accelerating at low RPM's. There is a tendency to jerk just as the clutch was let out completely when changing gears and stepping on the gas. Same goes when the car is in gear, then you let off the gas completely and then stomp on the accelerator pedal. I always thought this had something to do with the age of the car, so anyway, even consciously adjusting my driving style, it was nigh impossible to avoid the jerks, which seem to be coming more from the engine or exhaust rather than the transmission.

Last weekend, went to my usual favorite Caltex gas station for a partial fill up. Normally I would always fill the tank up to full, but since the current COVID-19 pandemic had significantly reduced travelling, I only put in enough gas to go ~1 month between refueling. This was to avoid "stale gas" (will write another post on my experience on that topic soon). Back to the gas station. So happened that the pump that I was at could only dispense RON97, as the RON95 pump was under repair. Rather than drive over to the next pump or go to another gas station, I just decided to go with the RON97, which was priced at RM2.60 per liter. RON95 is currently capped at RM2.05. Partially filling RM41 worth of fuel (slightly overshot original target of RM40, hence round up to the next Ringgit), that get's me ~15.7 liters of fuel, as opposed to 20 liters if I had used RON95.

Starting up and driving away, I noticed that that the ride was now smoother and without the jerk at each gear shift. Also from complete foot off the accelerator to moderately depressing halfway to the floor, is smooth as well. After that, did some short driving around a few kilometers to confirm. Definitely not a placebo effect, and in the first place I was not expecting any difference.

Once home, tried to do some research online, but majority of what turned up is the usual "no need for premium fuel unless you have a <insert high performance car of your choice>". Only one Youtube video which a helpful chap described a plausible explanation. For old engines, the carbon build up in the cylinders could have artificially increased the compression ratio, which may cause detonation / knocking under heavy load / high temperatures. Since this is Malaysia, where temperatures are anyway always high, the heavy load situation could be as encountered during the initial stepping on the gas pedal.

Normally, I don't believe things without evidence. Here I have an observation, and am trying to find an explanation. So, where to go from here? Will continue to try out if this is consistent, until the next refueling run. Then, I could try to go back to RON 95 and see if the problem recurs (and then if RON 97 can eliminate the problem), therefore successfully being able to turn-on / turn-off the problem. If that is the case, then moving forwards there are only 3 choices - 1) Switch permanently to RON 97, 2) Revert to RON 95 and hope this does not impact the life of the engine, 3) Send in for cylinder decarbonizing and then start testing RON 95 again.

At least for now, decarbonizing will need to wait, as due to travel restrictions I'm not able to drive down to Desmond's place @ KL Auto to get it done. If indeed this is the actual root cause. Will post further updates on the situation.

Does any of this make sense? Anyone out there have any similar experience or opinions to share?

Covid-19 in Malaysia - the story so far (as of Jan 2021)

First post of 2021. As 2020 is now history, unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic is still very much a current issue and is even CREATING history as new records in daily new detection seem to be made almost every week. Looking at some available data, this has led me to several observations.

Firstly, forgive the poor rendering above. At the top is basically what I keyed into MS Project, based on the start / end dates. And below it is a screenshot of the graph from FreeMalaysiaToday. I roughly scaled the two and lined up mid Mar'20 (when the MCO started) and end Dec'20, to see how the trend in new cases overlays with the xMCO phases. I've updated the RMCO extension up to 31 Mar 2021, as well as the CMCO extensions for Selangor, KL and Sabah up to 14 Jan 2021, as this is the latest information available as of today.

Secondly, a disclaimer, this is just my own opinion. I'm not an expert on the subject matter nor am I a politician, just an engineer looking at some data, and voicing my thoughts out aloud.

Now, the first vertical red arrow is where the number of confirmed new cases has dropped to nearly zero, somewhere in mid Jun'20. This is roughly the end of the 1st Conditional MCO extension. At that point in time, things were looking good, so declaring a phase of Recovery MCO (RMCO) for the next 3 months seemed like a logical move.

The second vertical red arrow where we start to see a rise in new cases, which shoot up somewhere in Oct'20. Remember the Sabah election, which took place end of Sept'20? This might be linked partially to the rising rate of new cases, but there must be some other factors at work too.

Now, some observations. Up until the end of the original RMCO (end Aug'20), there was no spike yet, so the RMCO could have been called off based on data. However, it was extended to the end of Dec'20 - perhaps to be on the safe side.

Also, the CMCO/EMCO/TEMCO started again in Mid Oct'20, in various states and locations. However, this time, the growth rate did not stabilize and continued to climb steadily. What could be the reason for this?

- People were tired of movement restriction and hence more lapses in SOP (evidently more people were caught during this time) by individuals and even organizations

- Sabah elections (though it is not clear through contact tracing how much of an impact this made to today's situation)

- Travelling allowed again + year-end festive season + school holidays

- More tests (even if the detection rate is the same, a larger sample size will result in a higher number of detected cases, for example, 10% of 1000 is more than 10% of 100)

So, clearly, whatever was done (or not done) towards the end of the 1st half of 2020 was clearly no longer effective. Perhaps this time, the government is actually not as strict as before, due to pressure to maintain the economy as well as the people's sentiments (eg, religious / social activities) or perhaps there are more positives as there are more tests now (especially for foreign workers). Whatever the reason, there does not seem to be any deep analysis as to what is the actual root cause based on available data. Without this, it is unlikely that the root cause of increasing daily new cases will be discovered and thus, effective corrective and preventive actions cannot be drawn up and implemented.

We should not just doing the same as before and hoping for the best - as the saying goes "doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different outcome is INSANITY". Extending the RMCO/CMCO/xMCO further with "generic" controls would likely be futile.

While we are waiting with hope for a deux ex machina (that is, the vaccine) - for one thing, implementing a successful vaccination program would be a challenge in itself and take some time till everyone is inoculated. And secondly, by the time this happens, we would have endured much more suffering and loss of life.

Well, hope everyone out there stays safe and healthy. Thanks to all the frontliners who are putting their best effort and lives on the line - let's all do our part and get through this challenge!