Have you ever find a place so special, that you just want to keep it a secret and not tell anyone about it? Pantai Esen (or rather Pantai Permatang Damar Laut) is one of the places in Penang which I wanted to keep as a secret. However, later I found out that this piece of land has been reclaimed government for the train project. In a few years' time, this hidden gem would be a transit station, hence, I do not mind sharing it now.
It’s been months since I neglected this blog. I’ve not traveled anywhere lately, and I hardly go out of the house too. Hence I don’t have much content to share here. But I figure out, I should write something related to my work. Prior to this, I tried very hard to keep my profession as private as I can, at the same time, I want to share some interesting stories of people I met along the way. Here’s one…
A few years ago, I went to Myanmar to interview about 100 pax of blue-collar workers (due to government policies, the employers required to hire all contract workers directly, hence I had to interview the candidates myself). The candidates are from remote villages in Myanmar. The agent was kind enough to arrange bus transportation and provide one-night accommodation for them to be in the city for the interview. It saved me some time too because the journey could take up to 2 days.
When I was at the 10th or 11th candidate, I got bored with the interview because they were repeating the same answer, I figure out that the agent gave them some tips and script to memorize, so most of them ended up telling the same story. And at 10th or probably 11th candidate, I did not go with my usual interview questions, instead, I scrutinized each candidate from head to toe and post to them random questions.