Let me PLEASE blog about my totally horrible experience with Malaysia's public transport system. And my day. And my alter ego is also out on a mission to put smartass remarks for some of my posts.

Well let me give you some history. Went for a medical checkup for Standard Charted and it took like freaking 200 minutes. But somehow I did not get very bored as I was talking to two moms about kids going to Melbourne to study. (Yes, I pretended I was very knowledgable). Other than the usual blood test and urine test...I had other tests such as heart, lungs....BUT I DID NOT KNOW THAT I WOULD NEED TO BE NAKED AT CERTAIN TIMES......Ug..(As it was, I was very glad that I had on very nice underwear...I need to make a note to myself that I need to have on nice underwear on any important occasion...since I had my lucky red ones on when I was having that Standard Chartered interview :) ) A little bit traumatised, I left as soon as I could. I sorta hated the doctor as well.

Found a STAR LRT system to go to KL Central. Switched to KTM to go to Midvalley. (Let me explain that the Malaysian stupid transport system is very stupid. In the city, we have 3 modes of trains or train like things. There is the KTM which I need to bring me home. There is the STAR LRT which goes around the city. And lastly there is the Monorail which also to my knowledge, goes around the city. And of course they are not connected at all stations but only at special stations like Central. Very very stupid. Why 3 systems ??)

Anyway at MidValley, I met JeanBear, CKBear and EugBear. Also there were KevBear, ElaineBear, KenixBear and CharleBear. Anyway, the four of us went bowling where I am glad to say I managed to keep up my average of 133 with a high game of 151. After a drink I had to get going to Wisma Genting for an interview with ECM Libra, an investment bank, and I planned to go by KTM then Monorail. Luckily JeanBear managed to drop me there. Phew. Fastforward to the interview and it was quite crap. Basically they told me if I joined there would be lots of work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Not much rest. The guy was 27 and he lost almost all his hair. Hell no I was not going to work there. Fine.

Downstairs was raining !! Ok fine. I was not driving so not much hope of being stuck in the jam. Was I wrong. The next 2 hours would be the worst of my life.

I climbed upstairs to the Raja Chulan station of the Monorail. Whoa. I thought "Look at the crowd of people". No matter. Then the monorail came into view. It was quite packed. Hmmmm. Tried to be a bit more thick faced and walked to the front of the line. Lucky thing that I did it turned out. People pushed on both sides of me. I managed to squeeze in and this Caucasian tourist just made it too. What he did not expect was like a wall of people pushing him from behind into the tiny little two car monorail cab. Poor thing. I was so sorry that he had to experience that bit. I was wondering if the DBKL increased the frequency of the monorail during peak hours because there were so many people around the stations especially at BB and Times Square. It was totally nuts. At this point I had started sweating because it was really hot with walls of people all around you. It was then that I thought I would remove my tie and sms my friends of my situation...they might find it funny and it gave me something to do for those 5 stations to KL Central.

What do you think happened ? The rain was still pouring down like cats and dogs... (more like elephants and whales..) Since the stupid KTM left from a different building across the street from the Monorail KL Central I would have to cross a road in the pouring rain. OK . I was not that afraid of the rain falling from the sky..... However I did worry about the water on the road. It came up to my ankles in some places and I was really glad that my shoes were not expensive cause they would have been totally ruined. At this point I was praying that Moses would be around so that he could part the ocean of water so that I could walk without getting too wet.) Fat chance. Although I tried to be as careful as I could it was a waste of effort. Kids from school jumped around in the puddles and wet me up to my chest. How disgusting was that. It was getting pretty dark too. Finally I saw the KTM station in front. Hmph. The roof was leaking !! WTF !~!!!

Anyway safely into the KTM terminal the train was due to arrive in 5 minutes. At this point I a bit wet in places but overall still in an alrite mood. Then the train seemed to be late. Wait wait wait. When there were only 200 people on the platform now there were like 500 !!! It was crazy. It seems that the Malaysian plan is to have less frequent transport during peak hours. So the train was late by 20 minutes which is a lifetime if you are wet and stinky and wanting to get home and have been trying to do so for 40 minutes.

And it was time to play sardines again. The wall of people moved in on the train like 1000 cats just saw a goldfish jump out of the bowl. The best part was the people inside could not even get out. It was so cramped ?!!! Before all of them came out, people were already squeezing in and at one point it seemed that they would be stuck there because they could not overcome the wave going in. I was pushed in. I also did my bit squeezing in once I found out that people behind me were hell bent on getting on the train. This was partly due to the fact that I did not want to wait for the next train which could arrive 5 hours later !@!

At this point I decided that if I worked in the city I would drive or kill myself. But of couse as IzyBear put it, "The karaokes, photograph shops and teddy bear shops would go broke". Or something like that. Hmph. IV.

It was really cramped in the train. There was no place to move at all !! It reminded me of stories of the Japanese trains. At least, I think there was a lot of tolerance going on since we were all different races. The only problem was that since it was so packed it seemed that you were either being molested or inadvertently molesting someone. Urgh. I swear you cannot tell. And the hands ! They came from all directions to hold on to a pole. I swear it seemed that there were a lot of wild octopuses which you can only see their hands, as hands came out from the crowd in all directions to hold on to the poles.

As we passed a few stations, the people trying to get out had a very hard time as it was raining very hard and noone wanted to go out into the rain. So crap. The weird thing was once it was less packed, people swore more and pushed around more. It just shows how selfish we are. The whole atmosphere inside the train was as bad as a slum disco. It was dirty, stinky, sweaty, wet and really hot and humid. You could almost vomit except that it would make it smell worse. Also some people brought food onto the train and this smelt up the whole train especially some oily food which became cold. Ug. Double Ug. Triple Ug.

I could understand how people became zombies on the daily commute to and from work. I almost became one. I had to drive to work. So what if I had to leave much earlier and left work much later ? I had to drive. Even if you were very rich, you would not have gotten much more respect on the train. It was a survival mentality out there. Anyway, by and by I reached the Subang Station. It was still pouring. Having no choice, I braved the rain for 2 minutes to run to Carrefour. By this time I was totally soaked. As I got into the car, I wanted to just die.

Well sorry if this post is so long..but it is just a bit of my feeling for the public transport system of Malaysia.
Yuks. And do not take it if you can help it. And if you like it, you have a mental problem.

Ps...I think I have pretty much decided to go for the Standard Chartered job.

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