....and the good, the bad, and the ugly side of KL

Kuala Lumpur is a lovely place.

My first trip there was a reward from mum and dad, for doing well in my 1971 MCE (today's SPM, the high school examinations). The 12 hour over-night train from Butterworth reached KL in the wee hours of the morning with Cheekiat and younger sis Siewpoh tagging along. We stayed at Cheecheng's place at Jalan Alor, right in the midst of the city!

It was lovely. BB Park (an amusement park, like Penang's New World Park with cabaret joints, strip-tease acts, joget & rongeng clubs and open-air theatres) was just across the road. Perfect! ...and Cheekiat quickly gave me a nudge.

Taxis were everywhere!...amazing, and they are very efficient; picking you up from anywhere you want to step in! Fares were very reasonable, every cabbie used the meter to charge. I had an enjoyable time with my siblings.

But KL has changed, and I have always thought that KL is now a lovelier place, for since that trip I have been there countless times on business trips in my career spanning 37 years. Each time, however, there were kind customers who will pick-me up and drive me around to various destinations.

The traffic situation now is quite another issue - so I usually have my meetings and visits arranged at places where I do not have to lose time, going through all those unproductive hassles with the traffic jams. 

The average man-in-the-street either gets his friends or relatives to help him move around when in KL, or if he is "brave" enough - drive into the city for some "adventure of being lost on the roads of KL". There are already many, many woeful experiences related - just too many from visitors of other states. So, since generally many are not ready for that, they choose to get into KL by air or coach. Then what happens?

This is what happened on my recent trip to KL when I had to move around by myself. The good, the bad and the ugly happenings.

I was at the mercy of the taxi-drivers...........

Not all, but a big majority of the taxi drivers. The taxi drivers who will fleece and squeeze as much as possible from their customers, with their "metered taxi" including a new catch, a merry go round in the city. What a disgraceful way to earn a living - a way that tarnishes not the name of Malaysia, but the image of the city of Kuala Lumpur and the taxi drivers of KL in particular.

....and if you decide to move around using the rail (not a "real" alternative, really), you have to sweat, I mean really sweat it out at ticket dispensers with a lot of frustrations and in the heat of a number of badly insulated and non-airconditioned ticketing stations.

Now you are at the ticket dispensers mercy! Nobody is going to help you except those other waiting in line, behind you, for their tickets.

The staff at the station consider this a normal process. If the machines are slow, you may as well queue in the long line at the manual ticketing booth. How wrong was I to understand that machines will replace manpower in dispensing jobs. This concept obviously doesn't work here!

Since most of the machines are not seen to be working, and even those opened for business cannot efficiently dispense your ticket on first touch (they are touch-screen technology, mind you) after you have put in the ringgits and sens for the ticket, many passengers buying tickets have to "touch", then "press", then "press harder" umpteen times only to curse and hit the machine. And yes, I mean hit as in "HIT!" Maybe then will a few others in line behind you come to help you "get your ticket out" .....even when they know they will encounter the same difficulty. Strange people huh, or was I a stranger in a strange land?

Sometimes you may get to observe a few ticket buyers helping a frustrated ticket buyer in front of them. Why? Simply because if you don't help, he is not budging from the machine and you cannot get your ticket. ....and after all, only two ticketing machines are working out of the dozen or more available! This is good stuff for you-tube!

....so when you finally decide to walk around when you reach your destination in the city, you have to swerve (not "surf") through grossly uneven pavements populated with rubbish, broken pavement tiles and holes, yes, holes!

If one is elderly, this is one of the better areas to fall and injure himself at least. I reiterate, at least. Fall at the wrong place, hitting the right place of the body may land any elderly maimed or worse!

Enough said about the rail and the pavements. I just hope that with all the mega projects going on in KL, there won't be a mega hole on the roads to take in a taxi like this...........

Taxi drivers tried to fleece me, taking me near to my destination only to steer away saying there is a serious accident ahead. Their modus operandi is to bring you back close to your original point of embarkation, and start the journey all over again saying the road ahead to your destination is now clear.

Twice this happened. Twice I had to forcibly disembark myself in the middle of the road after merry-go-rounds of 30 minutes. Twice I make them take a consolation five ringgit for wasting my time. Twice I could have been dead, but I took a calculated the risk because I know con-men do not kill, they only want to cheat you of your money, and laugh at you behind your back. I will never be the easy meat, or the free lunch they think they have. By now, KL's image is badly formed in my mind.

Kuala Lumpur is not a lovely place anymore.

But once I met this man, this kind and helpful man in Mohamad Safee Bin Adin, I changed my mind. Kuala Lumpur is a lovely place after all. Not only did he gave me the directions courteously after I was forcibly "disembarked" from a taxi, he happened to notice me after 20 minutes later still walking in the wrong direction, and waiting to cross the road to "re-calculate" as a Garmin would do. He pulled over to my side and invited me into his car.

Mohamad Safee was on baby-sitting chores. With his two little lovely children in the backseat, he was driving them around the city "makan angin". His wife is away attending a course out-station, and he has to be on a few days annual leave to take care of their children. He checked the destination again with me, and promptly drove me to my destination, in barely less than 8 minutes!

Mohamad Safee, a sous chef with Shangri-la KL, is the kind of person who make your day. All the negativity about the transport system in Kuala Lumpur formed by actual experiences were quickly set aside by this wonderful and absolutely delightful experience with a man who will not even accept a simple gift from me in return for his kindness. His employer must be absolutely delighted to have an employee who go beyond his call of duty in the hospitality business they excel in.

I am proud of him as an honest and helpful fellow country man. The whole country should be too, and I look forward to meeting him again. Hopefully, not in the middle of the road. This time, it will be on me to be hospitable.

Mohamad Safee, and may you continue your good deeds and be blessed with an abundance of good luck, good health and great prosperity!

You are the good side of KL that makes it a great city. Everybody just wanna meet more of your type in Malaysia! Syabas!