Between being more environmentally friendly and the rising petrol prices, I am trying to make an effort to make more use of the public transport. With that in mind, I took the RapidKL for my trip to Brickfields last saturday, I estimated a lead time of 1 hour, inclusive of the wait and travel time, the bus came after about 20 minutes wait, the bus was not full and I managed to get a seat.
There were 2 TV screens overhead and they worked ! One of the advert caught my fancy, it started in black and white, with a little boy in baju melayu on a swing and telling the audience that , when he is grown up, he wants to have a big car, with a chauffer, big screen TV, bodyguards, lots of girlfriends. Fast forward to present day, on the screen was a big posh car, and beside it, our hero who is now an adult, but then the car was driven away. A RapidKL bus came along, and our hero boarded the bus, so he did fulfill his dream- big car, a driver, big screen TV, bodyguards ( other passengers), girlfriends ( other ladies on the bus).
At the bus stand, waiting for the bus for the return trip, one have to bear with : the secondhand smoke- from cigarettes and vehicles, plenty of squinting- to make out the bus numbers, tired feet- I was on my feet for almost an hour, and be prepared with lots of patience and an umbrella.
The bus finally came, it was too crowded to go up at the front, I managed to squeeze my way to get on the bus, It was more packed than a can of sardine but smelt as fishy. I didn’t even have anything to hold on to, not even the straps /rings above to hang on to, I was lucky that my hand could reach the steel bars above, I held on to it for dear life. 2 primary school boys were standing beside me, with the tinier boy complaining to his taller companion that his hand is tired and sweaty holding on to the straps, his right hand was holding a big brown case, when asked what’s in his case, he said that it’s a musical instrument, when asked further he said it’s a trumpet
It was hard work trying to retain my centre of gravity throughout the journey and like the little boy, my hands are tired , I wished I could just hold on to the Indonesian man in front of me instead. Almost 4 stops away from my stop, an Indian man sitting close to where we were standing disembarked, I wasn’t considering to sit down and frankly was expecting the seat to be filled in a flash, but I was surprised when no one fought for the seat and everyone that was standing and crowding around that region, including the little Chinese boys, looked at me expectedly. The Indian man beside me almost barked the instruction ‘ duduk la ah moi, tak mau duduk ka ?’ and some Indonesians pointed at the seat in case I didn’t see it. It was a pleasant surprise, there is hope in humanity ! After claiming the throne I helped the little boy to carry his case to repay the good deed.
I got off my stop with an aching hand a warm fuzzy feeling..
Bual Bual Kosong 