Tired.... But some accomplishment...

I am damn tired after that 10 days out of town... Had to fly again for work and doing a 5 day 24-hr shift work is no joke, what more immediately the next day fly to another location and drive 2 hours to the next location. The worst part of it all? I am flying again on Mon early morning, first flight out again!!!

However, I am proud to say I was able to drive from Penang International Airport, out to North-South highway and up to Alor Star without map & GPS! Sadly, it did take about 40 mins driving round the town area to find the hotel as there; in the midst of finding the hotel, I also found the customer site as well, so it was easier for me, the following day to get to the site. So I was driving in Alor Star for about 5 days. It was back to the airport on Thursday to drop off my colleagues who had the earlier flight, then drove to my cousin place for a very, very short visit and having food like Assam Laksa and Cendol. Was feeling good that I managed to get to her place without any map/GPS system, and get back to the airport too! So, kind of feeling good with my accomplishment this week.

I think it was also these driving trips that leads me to start looking for the right GPS car system which I could use. While driving there and back without much detour was good for the system, we had some issues in finding places to eat, that were good and cheap, well, at least it has to be good, price-wise, it should not be issue, since company is paying for it. However, since no of us have really stayed or been to that part of Malaysia, it was kind of difficult. Wonder if the malsing maps would have recommendations for food in Alor Star and Sg Petani.... Meantime, it's a tousle between Holux and Garmin. I have been told to get Garmin as it has more maps than Holux. However, Holux is able to show/simulate a route without GPS, which Garmin does not do. The other plus for Holux is that it shows the list of roads which you would have to take to get to the destination, so, it's easier to ensure you are turning to the correct lane.... Garmin, for the higher models, is able to show the road that you should be traveling, only when you are about to reach it. Another plus for Holux is that Mapking has SLA approved maps which allows to search by postal code, which Garmin is not able to. However, Garmin uses malsing maps which is updated very regularly by GPS system enthusiasts and this ensure the maps they have are very up-to-date. Still weighing the pros and cons, and deciding on which system to get. If course, price wise, Garmin higher models are more expensive, while Holux is currently $499. Wonder if there would be a drop in price during the upcoming PC Show in June. There are 2 other models that I found - Packard Bell (which is using asiagis, and not certain how updated the maps will be and any other compatible maps available) and also Shinco (saw it at the airport. Uses mapking as well, but like Packard Bell, not certain how updated it will be). So, I am still mulling over this. Kind of hard to find good sites which reviews these GPS systems. Most of them have Garmin, but not the rest. Kind of hard to make decisions based on not much information at all...

Sigh... Have to fly again on Monday... ARGH!!!