VIDEO DESCRIPTION:
Another classic Kuala Lumpur vignettes video. The day revolved around meeting friends at the Keng Nam Hai food court for brunch, and on the way to the food court, I tell the crazy story of my latest struggle with credit card fraud. I also took another run at getting a cup of coffee out of a machine at the MRT station. I haven’t had much luck with the CoffeeBot machines of late.
One of my friends I was meeting for lunch also had some mail for me, and this mail could be a temporary savior to help me get over the loss of my credit card. I was excited about that, and the video ends with that small adventure.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Good morning. Welcome back to Planet Doug. It’s a little bit after 8:00 on a Sunday morning, and I have an appointment with Daryl and the boys for brunch. It didn’t start out as a brunch appointment. It was actually more of an errand because Daryl has something that he needs to give to me. I had something delivered to his house that I need to have. It’s quite important. So, I’m arranging to meet up with Daryl so he can give me this item. And it turned into a brunch with Daryl and the boys. Jamie will definitely be there, expat Pete, and perhaps Bill. Expat, the international big shot. Bill may or may not make it because he’s interested in the marathon that’s going on in Kuala Lumpur right now. I was as well. I was thinking about going to see either the start of the marathon or the end of the marathon if that were possible. But then I have a lot of other things to do. So I just didn’t have the time. But I think Bill is out there taking in part of the marathon. So he might have enough time to join us later.
But I’m leaving early. Quite a bit early. I don’t know why, to be honest. But my idea is to just have sort of a walk and talk story time video opportunity and get a cup of coffee from a coffee bot at the MRT station. I’m meeting Jamie and Expat Pete at Jalan Ipoh MRT station at 9:30. So, I don’t actually need to leave as early as I’m leaving, but I thought I could have a cup of coffee in my room, which is what I would normally do, and then leave on time to meet them. And I thought, ah, this time I’ll just leave early, be out in the world, wake up. As you can tell, I’m not really that awake yet, and then have a coffee at the MRT station. So, that is what I’m doing right now, hopping in the monorail.
Traffic website social media channels. Thank you.
The power of Touch’n Go for your safety please instruction.
Oh, I think my train just arrived on the platform. It’s always that way, right? When you leave really, really, really, really super early, you make all your connections perfectly. There’s the announcements, by the way. Oh my god, they’re so loud.
It’s a popular stop.
So, as always, we’re right here, Chow Kit, and only going one stop to Titiwangsa and then transferring there. Already here, Titiwangsa, so fast. I was just thinking I’ve mentioned this before that if you leave really early and you have lots and lots of free time, then all of your connections are perfect and you get there really, really fast when you don’t need to, but when you’re running late, then you miss your connection and you always have to wait the maximum amount of time. It’s kind of weird how that always works out that way. Yeah, my throat, my voice hasn’t kicked in yet. I don’t know what’s going on. I’ve been so tired lately. Every morning I wake up and I’m exhausted. I don’t know why. So, yeah, maybe my coffee bot coffee will wake me up.
Well, I do know one of the reasons I’m tired today. And that, to be honest, is the main reason I’m doing this little walk and talk is just to tell a story. I wrote the story on an update that I posted to Patreon. And then I posted just sort of a summary of it on the YouTube post page. And I do that, by the way, because YouTube posts have a word limit. So when I write a long story on Patreon, I can’t copy it to YouTube because the word count is much, much shorter. So I just write a little summary with a link to Patreon. It’s open to everybody. It’s free access, so anybody can just click on the link, go read it over on Patreon if they’re in a mood for doing some reading.
But yeah, the story I wanted to tell was all about another episode of credit card fraud. And this hasn’t happened to me a lot, but it’s happened often enough that it feels like it’s part of my lifestyle. It’s sort of a pattern. And yeah, it just seems to happen a lot even though it not really. And I think I get off pretty easily. I met a guy, a foreign backpacker, just recently. I only met him one time. I don’t know him at all. We were just chatting in the lobby of the hotel Raja Bot. And he was telling me that over the last 2 or 3 years, his credit card has been compromised. I think he said five times, and it was over $1,000 every single time. He said he lost, he couldn’t get it back. He actually lost thousands of dollars since he started traveling and his credit card was, yeah, breached, whatever the word is. I’ve never had it that bad. But for me, being overseas, having fraud on your credit card is a big problem because they have to cancel your card instantly and then send you a new one. And if you’re just living at home in your home country, it’s not a big deal. Yeah, they do it very, very fast. I mean, these credit card companies, they’re in it to make money. So, they lose money if you don’t have your credit card. They want to get you, they want to get a credit card in your hand as fast as possible so that you start spending and paying interest and that’s how they make their money. So, it’s in their interest to send you a replacement card as fast as possible.
And in fact, from articles I’ve read in the past and things I’ve heard, one of the reasons there is so much credit card fraud is that the credit card companies don’t put in place extreme security measures. They could. There’s all kinds of ways to make your credit card 100% secure, but if they do that, it makes it harder for people to use their credit card and they would end up losing billions of dollars because people won’t use their cards as much, right? The more security steps you put in place, the less likely people are to use it. So they’ve done the math and that if they leave the credit card kind of loose, they don’t tighten up the security as much as they could. They lose a lot of money because they’re because of fraud. But if they tighten security, they lose far more money because people stop using credit cards. So they allow a certain amount of fraud to take place. And then if someone uses your card fraudulently, they reimburse you and that money is less than the amount they would have lost adding more security. You see what I mean? So anyway, the credit card companies could make credit cards much more secure, but it’s in their best interests not to do that. That’s how I understand the situation. Here I am down on the platform, my favorite thing in Kuala Lumpur. And I’m just going from here to here and then it is coffee time.
So the way the story started, the friends of mine who were here for the car tour, they were leaving and I met up with them kind of in the evening. We had a chendol in my neighborhood in Chow Kit. Well, their neighborhood too, who they were also staying in Chow Kit. But we met up on the evening before their flight out. Went out for a chendol and then I noticed how busy and interesting Chow Kit was looking when I was out walking around and I decided to shoot a new video segment. I’m trying to create a new internet challenge. So about 10:30 at night, I got out my GoPro and I went back out into Chow Kit and I went for a walk around my neighborhood shooting this video. And then so I got back to my room maybe 11:30, something like that, and I got an email and it was like the worst email I could ever get. Like what happened to me? This situation to me is like the absolute worst thing that can happen because it causes such a problem in my life and it causes so much stress, so much exhaustion. It just wears me out. It takes a year off my life every time it happens. But I got an email from my bank and the email was from the fraud detection unit. I hadn’t noticed any fraudulent activity on my card. I didn’t see a problem, but they had and they picked up on something and then their computer system flagged my account for fraud and they sent me the email and they basically said, “Give us a call.” And of course, the email was real. I’m not a dummy. I don’t fall for scam emails, at least not yet. And one of the things that it’s a real email. I mean, I know where it came from, everything looked legit, but they don’t say in the email, “Call this number.” Like, they don’t give you the number to call. They say, “Call the number on the back of your card.” Because it’s a scam email, right? They’ll give you an email address. They’ll give you a website. They’ll give you a link, but your bank generally won’t ever do that. They just say, “Contact us.” And then, in this case, on the back of your credit card, there’s a phone number. Like if your card is stolen or lost or there’s a problem, call this number from within Canada. This number from overseas. So they direct you to where for you to find the appropriate number. My train is here. There it is.
And there we are, Titiwangsa station. And from here, we’re only going two stops. Now, I love this station. All these lines meet. They meet up here. I love this map. I point it out all the time. And we’re only going to here, Jalan Ipoh. That’s where I’m going to get my coffee. I’ve arrived at Jalan Ipoh and according to the station clock it is almost 20 to 9, and that means I have almost 1 hour, I have 50 minutes to chat with you good people. You’re stuck with me for 50 minutes. That’s 5 Z.
Here come the announcements.
I have a choice of two different coffee machines here. Well, probably more than that. There’s one here that I tried to use before and I wasn’t able to do it. It was like everything was written in Japanese and I couldn’t figure out how to order a coffee. I may try that one again because there was a table and a chair in there which is pretty amazing. But there’s another one, a more modern coffee bot up at the top of the stairs. And I may go to the coffee bot first, get a coffee there, and then maybe I’ll have a second one from the Japanese machine. All right. Right here. Yeah, right there. You see that mini mart? It’s actually just a bunch of vending machines and yeah, I fought with the coffee machine in there for a long time and I couldn’t get it to work. Power of touch and go.
Is there still a table? Yeah, look at that little table and a chair. So, I’ll definitely come back here. I think depending on the announcements how loud they are, but there’s a coffee bot I think up here. I’m going to try this one first. I think they make better coffee. Ah, it’s not a coffee bot. It is a coffee. Oh, it is coffee bot cafe. Just has a slightly different name than I was expecting.
So, looks pretty cool. Enjoy in three steps. Order, pay, enjoy. I mean, that that’s pretty simple.
And then we’ll see how things go. I’m going to try to pay with an e-wallet. We’ll see how that works. But you order first, then you pay. Oh, and then they have more details here. Choose your drink and tap order. That’s the important part probably. You got to tap on the order button, proceed with payment, collect your drink. Basically, it says the same thing. And they got a little platform here to put your coffee there. I think that’s a really good idea. And it looks like here is, you can get mixing straws, mixing sticks. Let’s see if I can figure this out. Coffee, cold and hot, and I just want a hot latte. Eight ringgit. So that is my choice. I can create my perfect drink. I’ll just leave it at whatever they just the normal coffee and then they say, ah, already a mistake. Always amazes me how these machines don’t make any sense because it tells you clearly wherever it was tap order. You have to click on the order button, but there is no order button. It’s not here. There’s no order. There is a pay button. That’s what you’re supposed to click on, not order. So, it’s like right out of the gate, their whole instructions are all completely wrong. I can’t figure that out. Pay. Please proceed to payment on terminal. And then it doesn’t tell you what to do. There are no instructions. You just have to guess. And there’s something about flash QR code here. So I’m assuming I have to get my e-wallet code and then do I touch the screen? Okay, you have to touch screen.
Oh, says something about the operating system is reloading. Says app info start. Okay. I mean, these things are supposed to be so advanced and so easy to use. Says, please proceed payment on terminal. But then it doesn’t tell you what to do on the terminal. You just have to know. But tap your card here for 5 seconds. I don’t know what that means. Flash QR code here. But the whole machine is, it’s frozen. Completely frozen.
Nothing going on. Says it’s in starting mode, but it’s basically locked.
If I go back and start over again, will it reboot?
Latte hot. Hey, starting ProlinOS succeeded. Maybank. Now we’re back at app info starting mode and we’re frozen again. So, hey, complete and utter failure.
Yeah, the instructions don’t make sense. The system doesn’t work. So, coffee bot people, you got to get on this. These things never work. They just don’t work. The technology just hasn’t been perfected yet. I guess I did it the right way, but nothing. I’m going to try it downstairs. I’m downstairs in and amongst all the announcements, but I’m going to try this machine again. Maybe I can get it to work this time. So, but everything here is in Japanese. So, these are the instructions, I guess. But everything is in Japanese, so we’ll just have to guess. Cafe latte. Okay. But it has two buttons. Okay. Coffee latte hot. But I don’t know which button to push. There’s no labels.
It’s flashing red, but I don’t know what that means. Says, “Please select product.”
I did. No. This is hopeless. There’s no way I’ll figure this one out. There’s nothing I can do. I mean, I did this last time. I did Google translate on all the buttons. Oh, that’s no ice button. That’s the sugar. How much sugar, how much cream, how strong to make the coffee. So, if I just want normal everything, cafe latte, push the button, and it still says please select product, but I can’t tell whether it means coffee product or payment product. Maybe if I just wave a QR code underneath this machine, it will work.
No, can’t do it. And this is what I ended up doing last time as well. I couldn’t get the machine to work, so I got a cold coffee. Let’s try this one. So, get my Touch’n Go prepared. I’m just going to get a Wanda original and then, oh, tap the screen and then here. Here. Tap card.
Yeah, this one’s all screwy as well. I have no idea what you’re supposed to do here. Tap card or scan card. One more I can try.
Wanda original, scan QR. It says scan QR code. So like there’s nothing.
I mean, if I have money, I don’t even know if I have cash to be honest. It’s kind of funny. Okay.
Yeah, I don’t know if you get change from these machines or not.
I have a 10 ringgit note. I don’t have small ones. I just figured out the secret. I’m such a dummy. I still can’t get the Japanese machine to work, but now I’m pretty sure I know what to do. It says scan the QR code, but it means I have to scan their code. Like it doesn’t have a scanner. I knew that in the back of my lizard brain. I knew that. And yet I forgot. So one more time. Now I scan this code.
Oh, for Pete’s sake. And now I pay, I paid three ringgit, and it dispenses my coffee. Ah, such, I don’t do this often enough to commit these things to memory. But like when it says scan QR code, how do you know? I just assume they’re saying, “Okay, now it’s time to scan your QR code, right? Because that’s what I do everywhere else, but here you scan their code.” The language doesn’t really distinguish between them.
Oh, check this out. What does that word say down there? Push. Right.
Pushing does nothing. You have to lift. Not push. Lift.
I mean, it cost them a lot of money to put that word down there. You’d think they’d get the right word.
I was so busy with these machines, I almost missed a deadline. I’m running out of mobile data. My data expires at 9:10, and right now it’s exactly 9:00. Yeah. Oh, I have 11 minutes left and I need Wi-Fi connection in order to buy Wi-Fi data. So, I have to make sure I do it right now. Hopefully, I have a connection down here.
Okay, all done.
Almost forgot. Oh, it’s really hot here. So, my whole plan to come here early to relax, enjoy a cup of coffee. It didn’t really work out.
Oh, so hot now.
It was probably the same with the coffee bot up at the top. I probably had to scan their QR code and I knew that, but somehow I forgot. Anyway, this is a Wanda coffee. It’s good coffee.
Yeah, it’s nice. Okay. So, I left off my story by saying that I got an email from my bank’s fraud detection unit and it told me I needed to call them. And when this happens, I absolutely hate it because every time I’ve tried to do it, I’m usually in a very awkward position. Very poor Wi-Fi connection. Just making a phone call to Canada where you could be on hold for 2 or 3 hours is really, really stressful. Partially because I can’t hear what people say on the phone. I’m like, “What? Oh, excuse me.” I can’t hear you. We talk over each other. The phone call will drop like you get disconnected. So, you’ll be on hold for an hour, hour and a half, and then the phone call gets disconnected and you got to start all over again. The other times that this happened, it took an entire day to fix it, like on the phone for an entire day, just trying again and again and again and again. So, even thinking about it stresses me out.
So, the first what I wanted to do was just go to bed. As soon as I saw that email, I thought, “Oh, I’m so tired.” That’s loud. That was a car outside. I just wanted to go to bed. I was so tired. I thought I’ll deal with this in the morning. But I mean, that was a child speaking. That’s what a child would do, like just to delay the problem because if I just wait until the morning, I’m not going to be able to sleep at night. I’m going to be worried about it. I’m not going to be able to get any rest. So, I thought, okay, just, what would Harrison Ford do? That’s my mantra. Every time I’m about to act like a child, I think to myself, what would an adult do? What would Harrison Ford do in this situation? And Harrison Ford would just bite the bullet and do it. You’ve got to do it. Just get it done.
So, I thought, okay, let’s do that. So, I turned on my laptop. I made sure my phone was fully charged. I had enough data. I got all the information I needed because I knew they would have to ask me a lot of questions about me. Phone numbers, addresses, security codes, all these things. So, I made sure I had all this information ready to go. And then I took a deep breath and I dialed the number. And I was panic-stricken while I was doing it. My heart was thumping, racing. I was trying to calm myself down to get my heart rate to slow down a little bit. And then I got through pretty quickly. I was amazed. I was on hold for a little while, but then I managed to, someone answered the phone much more quickly than I realized. And I explained what I was doing. I got an email, fraud detection. They told me to call you. So, here I am calling you. So, what’s going on? And the guy looked on his computer, but the first thing he had to do was verify my identity because all he knows is that the phone rang, an unfamiliar phone number. He answered the phone and I say, “This is me. My credit card has a problem.” But how does he know that I am me? Right? He has to verify my identity.
And this is like a really weird thing. I find we live in a world of identity systems, fingerprints, DNA, retinal scans, like passwords that are 32 or 100 characters long. We have security codes. Now we have pass keys. We have all these methods for establishing identity. But when there’s a problem with your credit card, you have to make a phone call. And a phone call is the least secure method of communication. Out of all of them, phone calls are the least because all they see is a random phone number and they hear a voice. They have no proof that you are you, which is like absolutely crazy. It’s, anyway, so what he has to do is ask me questions. Okay, he has to give me a test, an identity test, and I have to pass the test. So, I’m like a student taking an exam, and I’m really, really nervous because I want to get all the answers right. And so, he starts off easy. What is your full name? What is your home phone number? What is your full home address? And you, this can be tricky because I don’t generally use that address. So, it’s not on the tip of my tongue, right? And you have to give the street address, of course, the city and province, but also the postal code. And the postal code in Canada is pretty complicated. It goes letter number letter letter number letter letter letter letter letter letter letter letter letter letter letter letter letter number and if you live in the same address your whole life you just know your postal code. You just rattle it off. But as you move around and you’re in different places, your postal code changes and you have to memorize this postal code. So you could get that wrong. But I had it written down and I practiced it before the phone call. So I just rattled it off. And every time I gave the right answer, the guy on the phone, he would say, “Perfect, perfect, perfect.” And I really loved it when he said that. I felt like I was getting his approval, right? I really wanted his approval. It was like getting the answers right on a test and your teacher was really proud of you. That’s what it felt like.
But then we ran into problems because he finished all the biographical information, but then he says, “Okay, are you at your phone? Can I send you a security code?” And now we’re in trouble because I was trying to hide the fact that I wasn’t even in Canada. I didn’t want to tell him that because that can cause a lot of problems. And I said I had to confess and I said, “No, I’m not at my home phone. I’m actually overseas right now and I’m calling you from another country.” And then he went, “Oh, okay. Now he said, because you’re in another country, we can’t establish your identity this way. I can’t do it here. I have to transfer you to another department.” So, I was like, “Oh, no.” Right. So, I’m back on hold. Staying on hold could take like an hour, but it didn’t. It was actually very, very fast. And then a guy came on, very nice guy, very friendly, very good English, seemed like a Canadian to me. The level of his English was very natural, very easygoing. I could understand him. We had a good phone connection. So, all that was good. And then he said, “Okay, we’re starting over from the beginning. I have to establish your identity.” And we went through all the questions again.
And then he said, “I have more questions. Can you tell me the balance of your checking account?” And then I’m thinking, no, I can’t because my banking app, it’s on my phone and I’m talking to you on my phone. So, if I go to my app, we’re going to get cut off. How can I talk to you? And then how am I going to do that? And then he said, “Well, you have to do it. If I can’t get answers to these questions, we can’t move forward. I have to establish your identity.” And then I remembered I have a second phone. So I told the guy, “Oh, I have another phone. I don’t know where it is right now and it isn’t on, but if we can stay on the line, I can get my other phone booted up, install and log into my banking app and then I can get you this information.” And to his credit, the guy at the bank says, “Oh, that’s no problem. I can stay on for as long as you need. So, you just do what you need to do.” So, now I’m running around my room. This is at like 1:00 in the morning now. I’m exhausted. I’ve got this phone on my ear. I moved it to this ear, my right hand. And now I’m trying to find my second phone. And of course, I’ve got to turn it on, wait for it to boot up, doing it with one hand. And then I had to put in my passcode to get into my phone, all that kind of stuff. And then I launched the banking app, but then on the banking app, it said there was a new version of the app available and I had to update to the newest version. Like, oh no. I’m telling the guy, ah, it’s going to take longer because it’s telling me I have to update the app. And I have to like, I can’t bypass it in order to get into my banking app. I must update the app itself. So now I’m like updating it through the Google Play Store. Feels like it’s taking forever. Finally, I have to install the new version of the app. And then I can finally tell him all the answers. What’s the balance of my checking account? What’s the balance of my savings account? Balance of my credit card, last purchase on my credit card, where was I, what did I purchase, what was the exact amount, and then he went back in time for months and months and months asking me about all these transactions on this date. What did you do? What did you buy? How much was it? On and on and on. And he went so far back in time that I couldn’t even see it on the app anymore because it was like 6 months ago when he was asking me questions back when I was in Indonesia and I couldn’t see it anymore on the app. So now I’m trying to remember like just going by memory. It’s like, “Oh, okay. It sounds like that would have been a hotel reservation, but I paid for it through PayPal, but PayPal used this payment portal called Zoom and it connected me to, I’m trying to recall all of these details and apparently I answered all the questions correctly.”
And he says, “Okay, we’ve established your identity. I believe that you are you.” And then he says, “Well, there has been a risk of fraud on your credit card account. I don’t know what happened. That’s a different department, so I don’t know exactly what happened, but unfortunately, we have to cancel your card. You’re done. You’re finished. Three strikes, you’re out.” After going through all of that work, my prize for getting all the answers right was for him to cancel my credit card. You’re done. You have no credit card. I was like, “Ah, I knew that was coming, but it was still like a sucker punch to the gut because I need that credit card so badly.” And then he said, “Well, we’ll mail one out to you like the new card. We’ll put it in the mail right away.” And in fact, I just got a notification this morning that it was in the mail, but I don’t know how long it’s going to take because he also told me that in Canada, the postal workers are on strike. So, they’re not delivering mail right now. So, I have no idea how long it’s going to take to get the new credit card. But even if I do, it’s being delivered to my address in Canada, far away from here. So then I’m faced with the situation of like I have a new credit card but I can’t actually get it because it’s back in Canada now.
Anyway, we worked through all the details. I asked him all kinds of questions. And another crazy thing that only happens on Planet Doug is that my original credit card was expiring in a few months anyway. So, I was already planning ahead that I was going to have to go through this whole process of getting a new credit card anyway. But now that my credit card had been hit with fraud, they issued a new credit card. So, I have to go through all this process to get a replacement card and as soon as I get it, it will expire and I got to do it all over again. So, in fact, I had to get two new cards in rapid succession. So, and again, if you’re living at home in your home country, this isn’t a problem. But when you’re overseas, these things are very, very complicated.
So, the other part of this equation, good news, is that out of nowhere, I discovered that since I have a Touch’n Go e-wallet in Malaysia, I can get a Touch’n Go Visa card. I assumed I wouldn’t be able to do it because I’m on a tourist visa. Normally, you have to be a permanent resident. You have to be a citizen in order to get credit cards and open bank accounts and things like that. But it turns out this Touch’n Go card is like a debit card, like a bank card. It’s not a true credit card. And I applied for one and I got it and I had it delivered to Daryl’s house. And that’s why I’m meeting Daryl to pick up my Touch’n Go bank card. And maybe with my new Touch’n Go Visa card, I can use it online to book hotel rooms. So maybe it doesn’t matter that I don’t have a credit card anymore. So I lose one credit card and the same day practically I get a new one from touch and go. So we’ll see what happens.
So, that’s the end of my credit card story for now. And yeah, time to go meet these guys and go have brunch. Brunch time. I’m not going to make a big deal out of this whole brunch experience in terms of taking video of it. I’ve been here a couple of times with Daryl and the boys. Expat Pete, he wasn’t able to make it. He was going to join us, but he eventually cancelled. And Daryl and Jamie are here. The international big shot, Bill. He might make it, but as I said, he’s checking out the marathon today. Good morning. So, if there was a, if there’s enough time after the marathon, he might come and join us. But this is the place, Keng Nam Hai restaurant, kind of a big food court, hawker center I guess you would call it. And yeah, I’m not going to go crazy with exotic meals. The last time I was here, I got this kind of a western style chicken sandwich breakfast. I think I’m going to get that again. I just need something simple.
Yeah, it’s a great place. All kinds of food here.
There’s Daryl. He’s explaining to Jamie how it works here.
This is always the issue. Seating down here looks pretty crowded. We’re here pretty early, too. Look at that. Every table is taken, I think. But hopefully there’s a table up here. At least it’s air conditioned up here. Totally full. Wow. Yeah, it’s a very popular place.
Oh, there might be one table.
Oh, that’s amazing. There’s a couple tables.
Feels roomier here. Drinks have started to arrive. I always expect this to be really heavy, but it’s actually a plastic mug. So, you end up, I don’t know if it’s cold enough yet or not.
That’s really, I think of that as a village cham. It’s much more bitter like coffee bitter flavor. Other places that make it was a smoother one. This is, this is more of your classic, I think. Classic cham, but I was telling that whole story this morning. Credit card is gone. I have no credit card at the moment. But I’m hoping that this Touch’n Go card is going to save my life here. And Daryl was kind enough to let me use his address to have it mailed because you need a mailing address. And he just gave it to me. So, this is, this is so exciting. I feel like a grown-up. Everybody in the world has like 10 different ways to pay for things. I have one. Well, I have cash and one credit card and that’s pretty much it. But who knows, this card could end up being a huge part of my life for years for all I know.
And I don’t want to accidentally turn it around and show all my information. So you get to see the blank side. I get to see the exciting side. Touch’n Go e-wallet. Expanding your e-wallet universe front. I think it’s on the back. Yeah. Yeah. But it’s got your address and fold it back. Yeah, I can fold it back. But no, I don’t, I’ve had this in the past where on a YouTube video I showed a document and YouTube deleted the whole video. Just gone because they thought I was showing personal information from someone else. So I’m so paranoid now. I don’t want to show anything official.
It was designed by Damian Wong, a member of United Voice, diagnosed with autism. The talented artist found his voice through art at a young age. So that’s what it looks like. Yeah, I’ve seen it. You’ve seen it. That’s the same as Bill as Peter’s. That’s what he has. How to activate? Tap on the Visa icon in your e-wallet. Tap on activate physical card to scan the QR code on this letter or enter the activation code. Once activated, set up your six-digit card pin and you’re good to go. Ah, so exciting. Wow. Oh, I’ll be testing. I’ll be testing. Don’t you worry about that. There you go. Have you seen anything so beautiful in your life? Yeah, that’s amazing.
Feel like Steve Martin in the journey. The phone books are here. The phone book. I am somebody now. Yeah. If they made a movie about me, they would, it could be called the jerk. For me, it would be the dummy. The dummy, because I do so many dumb things. All right, that’s it. Touch’n Go e-wallet. Touch’n Go e-wallet Visa card has entered my life. This is like an earthquake for me. This is so significant. Can’t believe it. Thank you, Darl.
So, there’s the boys. What did you order? Spicy mixed pork noodle. Spicy mixed pork. Pork noodle. Okay. All right, I’m off to, I’m off to forage and I’m doing Inception here. I’ve got my GoPro recording and I have the Action 5 recording.
So, yeah, two cameras recording at the same time.
And I am going to get the same meal that I got last time.
I’m just in the mood for something simple. A little chicken sandwich kind of western breakfast.
Hello. Hi. How are you? Good. Could I get your grilled chicken chop breakfast? Okay. One. Just one. Okay. Yeah. Oh, what do you want? Paper mushroom. And I forgotten the table number. Never mind. You bring, you bring the cup. Yeah. We’re upstairs in the corner.
So the first I make it plate for you. It’s okay. Yep. It’s okay. This is the place. There’s a kind of sandwich that they make and they give you a cup with a number on it and you bring this cup to your table. The last time I was here I thought I could fill this with tea or something. So they gave me the cup and I was thinking, “Oh, where, where do I fill this up?” But no, it’s the order number. Let me bring it to your table.
You follow the cup back to my table.
And you the number one, too. Yep. Number one, too. You go. Here’s a tip for hanging out with Daryl. If you’re not really hungry, never let him leave the table because if he leaves the table, he’s coming back with extra food. So, we’ve got, yeah, oh, wow. That’s like, it’s like a martabbak, right? No, but you call it aam. But this is the peanut, the Chinese dish. So, it’s a lot of peanut butter. Right. Right. We got, we got this. That’s one of my favorite things. Okay. But I usually eat this versus, oh, yeah. I thought they were the same thing. Get salty very fast. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, how did you know? Grab one of these. It’s my favorite go to whenever I come here. Be rude and reach across you. I thought it was all for me.
Okay, by all means. So this time I led Daryl out of my sight. He came back with two snacks, not just the one. So we got another one here.
Yeah, the two snack challenge. What is this one? Yuka. Yuka. Okay. Yukia. Usually you eat it with a, oh, okay. Okay, that makes sense.
Would you call this a churro back in the US? Is that like a churro? I’m never quite clear what a churro is. No, I can see this being good with a hot cup of coffee. Nice, nice little snack.
Without realizing it, I ended up with a different meal, a different dish, because they actually have a chicken sandwich. But this time, for whatever reason, I just said they have a chicken, chicken chop breakfast. So, I guess this is the breakfast with French fries. No, like it’s not a sandwich, so it’s very different from what I expected, but just to report back. Chicken is really good, very tender, really nicely cooked. And it comes with a really strong sauce. This is like onion and black pepper, like really strong. But when I ordered it, the guy said something about like, “Do you really want that black pepper?” And I didn’t know what he meant, but I said, “Sure.” So, this is what you get. This basil, black pepper, onions, and I guess you’re supposed to pour it over the whole thing, but I tend to keep things separate. I’m not a big sauce pourer kind of guy, but you can keep it. Yes, I’m just dipping it. And yeah, I think all of us are pretty pleased with our meals. They make good food here at this food court.
One more snack, thanks to Daryl. So, we have a free snack challenge going on. They’re basically dumplings. Yeah. Are they a special kind of dumpling? No, it’s just a chives and pork dumpling. Chives and pork. And then you’ve got a couple of different sauces here. You get the vinegar. Vinegar. The whole piece. The whole piece. And then you dip it onto the chili. Put the whole thing into the vinegar and then into the chili and then you’re good to go.
That’s nice.
That’s very filling. That’s a lot. It is. That’s why it has to be shared. No.
Now, this is looking like a bit of a struggle to finish all of this, but I’ll power my way through. That is good. That’s very, very nice. We left the air conditioned comfort of the second floor of Keng Nam Hai. Great place. Absolutely great place and it’s nearby an MRT station so you could actually take the MRT and then walk a short distance to get here which is very cool. And I guess we’re heading to another famous place, Ancient City Coffee.
Huh. That just looks like a normal restaurant. It doesn’t look like a coffee shop.
I wonder if there’s a coffee shop district or section.
This would be worth the stay up here as well. So, I guess that’s not where we’re going.
I think Daryl has his eye on somewhere else. Somewhere that he knows about. Hot out here, man. After leaving that air conditioning, it’s brutal. So, we were not going to Ancient City Coffee or whatever that place was called. This is the B5 Cuisine Cafe. Fancy place. Very modern. I don’t know. Art deco or something. I don’t know what you call it. Hot day today. Wow. The sun is just beating down. Beautiful though. Beautiful blue skies. All right, let’s go check out the interior.
So, we’ve got fusion cuisine. Endless cravings. Fusion Chinese, Japanese, Western.
Welcome to our fusion cafe B5, gentlemen. It’s quite new. Got a relatively small place. Very cozy. Water dispenser. I definitely need some water right now.
After a huge breakfast like that, there’s very little interest in food at this table. But we’re going to look at the menu. Anyway, they got a big food menu. I’m amazed. Look at that breakfast, brunch, sandwiches. Some of their sets like the big breakfast, 32 ringgit, croissant burgers and salads.
Western pasta, rice dishes. Amazing. They can make all of this at this tiny place.
More drinks here. And a super valued lunch set for 9.9 ringgit. Okay. Yeah, I’m kind of coughed out this morning, so I saw avocado shake on the menu. 15 ringgit and a tiny straw. Looks nice and thick. Nice and green. Let’s give this a try.
Very natural. Like it’s not sweetened. And maybe there’s a tiny bit. I don’t know. Want to try? No. It looks so heavy.
Yeah. Yeah, it’s like a very natural sort of avocado that you usually get by the roadside mushroom. How much was that? Oh, boy. What did I pay? Oh, they were so good, too. Some of them put like chocolate as a side, right? So, yeah, the avocado for whatever reason. Indonesia. Yeah, I’m glad you reminded me of that. In Indonesia, you get avocado. They always have chocolate sauce. I’m sure you could ask for it without, but it’s a normal way to have it. No, this is really good. I like that a lot, very natural avocado flavor. Not, it’s not heavily sweetened.
Because we had a coconut shake at the market that wasn’t very good for my tastes. It was too liquidy. It was like a drink, not a thick shake. So, yeah. Yeah. Recommend it. They did a nice job here at B5. Yeah. B5 Cuisine. I just noticed on the menu it said fusion. Fusion. Fusion. Okay. The buzz word, right? Nobody knows what it means, but I think they opened about probably 7, 8 months ago. I always had bookmarked it to come here and try. But because of the parking issue and all that, I have most of the time if I don’t have coffee, I go to the one at, jumped ahead a little bit in time. I’m back at the Crossroads Hotel enjoying my first cup of instant coffee in my room of the day.
Makes me think back to my coffee bot experience where the original coffee bot that I tried to use. That wasn’t my mistake. I understood how to use that coffee bot machine, but it was the little payment, the payment window was broken or I don’t know if it was broken, and it went into an installation loop and it would not show me the point where I could scan my QR code. That’s how that one works. But then the machine was just frozen and the operating system wouldn’t load. But then when I went down below and I couldn’t get the machines to work, that was my mistake because what I was supposed to do was scan their QR code, but I understood the instructions to mean scan. It just says scan QR code and it showed a QR code, but I thought it was showing that QR code as just an example of what a QR code was. So, of course, on touch and go, I called it my QR code and then I was trying to get the machine to scan it. So, the language needs to be a little bit more developed. At least throw in a possessive like scan QR code, scan your QR code. Like if they specify one versus the other, it’s like, “Oh, scan your QR code or scan my QR code.” They have to make a distinction, but the language doesn’t. But of course, English may not be the main priority of the systems here. Like the machine where I finally got my cold coffee where even on the contain, on the where you retrieve your drink, it falls into a tray and you have to retrieve it. In huge letters, it says push as if you push in with your hand and get it. But it doesn’t work that way. That machine you actually have to lift it up. So it should say lift, not push. So, English is obviously not always their first priority.
Anyway, having my instant coffee reminded me of my coffee bot adventures. And I’m back in my room here and I have my brand new tripod sitting on the bed. And that’s one of the things I wanted to do with this tripod because I often record video sitting on a bed in a hotel room. And I always, I take the chair from the hotel. If the chair, if the room has a chair, I have to put the chair on the bed to mount the camera. And then what I have to do is clean the chair first. I have to turn it upside down, get a wet rag, and I’ve got to clean the bottom of the feet so that it doesn’t stain the sheets or the mattress. And then I put down my own bed sheet on the bed. And then even though I’ve cleaned the chair, it’s usually still kind of dirty. I don’t want to put it on the white sheets of the bed. So then I put the chair down on my sheet and then the chair can be different shapes, different sizes. It’s awkward. So anyway, it’s a whole production. And if there’s no chair, then I take the bedside table and I put it onto the bed. And that’s even harder to do. You got to clean the whole bottom of the bedside table. And they may have been down there for years without being cleaned. So it’s a huge mess. So anyway, now that I have the tripod, beautiful. Why did I not get a tripod like this earlier? Seriously.
Anyway, so now I’m recording with the tripod and I’m here with my Touch’n Go card and I’m going to activate it. So, how to activate it? You have to go into touch and go, tap on the Visa icon, and then tap on activate and then you scan this QR code that’s in the letter. So, let’s do that. Boy, I hope this works without any issues. That would be nice. So, here is cards. And now again, I have to hit Visa card. So, again, those directions aren’t exactly accurate. It just says tap on the Visa icon. So far, there is no Visa icon. I had to tap on the cards icon. Then I tap on another thing that says Visa card, but it’s a menu. It’s not an icon. And now I’m finally at the Visa card page. And way down at the bottom it says activate physical card. And then I assume that is going to give me a QR code scanner. Scan the QR code on your letter. Scan now.
Introducing Visa card pin for more security. Visa card pin for in-store payment and ATM withdrawal. E-wallet PIN all in-app activities and it has to be six digits. You have to confirm it. Visa card is activated. You can start using your physical card and pay overseas with 0% fees. Set your card security. You can adjust the security settings here. So, it has update your card PIN, card security, card replacement. Okay. You can view the exchange rates. One ringgit, how much USD? And then now activate now to spend globally with your physical card. Activate now. And then please enter PIN linked to your e-wallet. And it’s just giving me some information, telling me things that I can do. Request card replacement. All done.
So, I have a brand new Visa card connected to my e-wallet that is activated and I have a six-digit PIN. And I think that’s the only security code. There’s no expiration date, no card, no code on the card, but let me review this, check things over, make sure I did everything right. So, I think I did everything correctly. I’m all set. The one interesting thing is on the physical card, again, I don’t want to show the card on camera because I’m worried that YouTube won’t like it. On the front of the card, there’s no information. There’s no details at all. There’s no codes. My name isn’t on it. There’s no card number. There’s nothing on the front of the card, but it looks like a credit card. So, you don’t want to show that in a video on YouTube. You’re going to get in trouble, I think. So, I don’t even want to show the card. But on the back of the card, there’s also no information other than my name. It has my name on it, but there’s no card number, nothing at all. No expiration date. There’s like zero information on the card. So, in order to get your card number, you have to go to your e-wallet on your phone, go into the app, click on show card details, and then you get the card number shows up and it shows, oh, it does show an expiration date. Oh, and it shows a security code. Oh, so there is an expiration date. It’s in 2030. So, it lasts for 5 years. And it has a three number pin security code in addition to the security code that I put onto it. I don’t know what the difference is between them, but you only see that on your app. It gives you a digital representation of your card. So, there is an expiration date. You can see the card number. It’s the same length as a normal credit card number. And it has, it shows a security code. Okay.
So now I’m going to try to add this into a success. Incredible. I am the master of the universe. Crazy. These things are usually so difficult for me. Things don’t work. Things don’t connect. They always, I always get to the end of the process and they say, “Oh, you’re not allowed to do this. Oh, you have to do this. You have to submit the, there’s always something, some block that means I can never do the things that everybody else can do.” But this Touch’n Go Visa card connected to my Touch’n Go e-wallet. Apparently, it functions exactly like a normal credit card in terms of inputting the details. The only difference is that it is technically what they call a prepaid card. So you don’t run up a bill on the Visa card and then pay the bill at the end of the month. You use it as a credit card and then the money is deducted automatically from your Touch’n Go e-wallet. So, you have to have a sufficient balance in your e-wallet to cover the purchase that you’re making with this prepaid Visa card. I know somebody online left a comment saying that I have to top up the card and I didn’t know that. So, I wrote back to the person saying, “Oh, thanks for the tip. I didn’t realize you had to top it up.” But it turns out no, you don’t have to top it up. Technically, you have to top up your e-wallet. Like your Visa card won’t work if there isn’t any money in your e-wallet. So, technically, you do have to top up the balance in your e-wallet, but you don’t top up the card specifically. You put money, you have to have money in your e-wallet, and then you can use it to book hotel rooms, pay for hotel rooms, buy things online, things like that.
And the other thing I just figured out which I remembered from before but it took me a while to figure it out that when you want to put your credit card into your Agoda account you can’t do it directly. I keep getting screwed up like that. I go into my Agoda account and I look for my saved cards and I go to my saved cards and I want to add a card. So I’m looking for the add button. It’s like there’s no way, there’s no way to do it. And I had my old credit card listed there, the one that has been cancelled. So I thought, “Oh, I must have to delete that one first and then I can add a new one.” So I deleted my old one. But then I still, there was no way to add my new credit card. So I’m thinking, “Oh, here we go. I have a new credit card technically, but there’s no way for me to add it to my Agoda account. They took away that ability or something.” But then I remembered that’s not how Agoda works. The way Agoda works is you book a hotel room or a flight or whatever it is you book through, then you go through the reservation process and then when you get to the payment window then you enter your credit card details and you tick the box that says save this card and then when you pay the first time the details of that credit card get saved in the my cards section of the app. It’s like, ah. So, you don’t add the card to the app. You pay for something with the card and then you choose to automatically add it or automatically save the details. So, that’s the, that’s the only way to do it. There’s always these little tricks with everything.
So, and I noticed as I was going through Agoda to booking, I think I could have paid for the hotel room directly from Touch’n Go e-wallet, like there was an option to use a credit card, but then below it was digital payments and Touch’n Go e-wallet was listed there. I don’t know if I’ve ever come across that before. I must have. So maybe I didn’t even need this credit card to pay with touch and go. I could just have selected Touch’n Go as the payment and then I just have to log into my Touch’n Go account and the money gets transferred automatically. I guess which way you do it probably depends on whether there are fees applied and the levels of security that are being used. I don’t really know.
But anyway, again, I can’t show you the card, but I can show you the piece of the back of the piece of paper. What’s on the front of this piece of paper is very, very exciting to me, but I won’t show it to you. But anyway, my card has been activated and I’ve already used it to book this hotel room in Kuala Lumpur. I extended it by a couple more nights because and I was supposed to be going to Port Dickson today. No, tomorrow. But I’m just not ready to go yet. I’m still not ready to leave KL partially because this whole credit card fiasco kind of sucked the wind out of my sails and I’m so tired. I just wasn’t able to sleep Friday night and even last night. And that’s how things go.
But anyway, there you go. Another day in the life of a Planet Doug. Going to meet Jamie. Getting a cold coffee at Jalan Ipoh Station. I told the story about my credit card fiasco. Good brunch with Daryl and Jamie. And then I had an avocado smoothie at that B5 cafe, B5 Cuisine or whatever it was called. Yeah, I can highly recommend that avocado smoothie if you like your smoothies. Oh, natural like it wasn’t a sweetened McDonald’s milkshake, nothing like that. It felt very, very natural. They might have added a little sweetener. I’m not sure. But I didn’t taste sweetener. I just tasted natural fruit flavor. So maybe whatever was like natural sweetening of the fruit itself of the avocado. I’m not sure. Yeah, it was a pretty nice place. They did a really nice job with that smoothie. So maybe their food could be equally good. I don’t know.
But and then now success activating my new card and using it to pay for a hotel reservation. So now, oh, I haven’t done anything today Planet Doug related, but I’m exhausted. So, I’m ready to shut down already. But yeah, I’ll spend the rest of the afternoon and the evening editing videos. I have a few to catch up on, and then I’ll then I’ll finally be ready to leave Kuala Lumpur. So, as always, yeah, go check out the Planet Doug Patreon for updates, photos, stories, things like that. And then if possible, I take my updates that I put on Patreon, copy and paste them into the YouTube post page, go to Planet Doug, look for posts in the menu, not videos, but posts, and then you can see some updates there. And I’m also copying them these days to Substack to my website.
And by the way, based on the suggestion of a Planet Doug subscriber, I activated my buy me a coffee link in case anybody wants to help out through buy me a coffee. So, there’s a buy me a coffee link on the video description now as well. And I didn’t know this, but I was setting up the buy me a coffee account or not setting it up. I already had a buy me a coffee account. I just never used it before. But it turns out you can actually have posts there. So, buy me a coffee can work the same way as Patreon where I, as the creator of the account, I can post photos and written stories and I think even audio files. I don’t think you can upload video files to buy me a coffee, but you can upload text and photos and things like that. So, whenever I post a big long story or an update, I will be posting it across all of those platforms. It’ll show up on Patreon, it’ll show up on Substack, it’ll show up on Buy Me a Coffee. Also on YouTube, a shorter version on YouTube, and then so the updates and the information will be across all those platforms. But then you can support me if you wish on through Patreon or now through buy me a coffee and of course through touch and go. That number is there in the video description. All and through PayPal as well. There’s a link to Planet Doug PayPal there as well. So there you go. I’m becoming so sophisticated I can barely stand myself. As I said, master of the universe. That’s what I feel like today. All right, that’s it. Shutting down and I’ll see you in the next video.