The Reader

Breathless in LRT

It was the longest journey I ever took a ride on LRT from PWTC to Pandan Jaya.It has nothing to do with the time taken even though I had to wait 15 minutes for the Ampang train to come.The last time,I took the wrong train but this time I was more careful to read the signage.

The train was sardine-packed.The guard told me only eight trains are operating during weekends.It was all standing room only.For peak hours like this (7.45pm), I feel RapidKL should provide more trains.

Initially,I was breathless due to the body smells of those near me.My nostrils were bombarded by all kinds of smells that made my breathing difficult.I inhaled slowly to avoid bad smells from entering my lungs.I keep looking outside to check the next destination as I was anxious to arrive as soon as possible to get fresh air or when the train stops at the next station.At the same time I wish to arrive early to get out from the smelly crowd!

Next,entered two young couples who can't wait to show their affection to one another.They had to do it in front of me.I don't wish to elaborate in details what they did; but it was more than enough to get old man like me sexually aroused!This made my breathing getting worse.Luckily, in less than five minutes,my train arrived at the destination.As soon as the door opened,I quickly rushed out to get more fresh air.

I was blinded...

On the reaching the t-junction joining the main road to Bulatan Kg Pandan,I stopped to let all the vehicles from my right to pass through and waited for the traffic light located about 50metres my right to  turn red.Then I can safely join the main road with ease.When I saw all the cars stopped,I released my brake to move forward.Suddenly, a motor-cycle just flew right in front of me! I could not see at all that he was coming..

I applied my brake immediately,looked again on my right and moved forward. This is my second lesson that no matter what is the colour of the traffic light, some Malaysian motor-cyclists donot bother to stop.I did not see the d#*&% motor-cycle coming because the sun was too bright and it created some blind spots on my right.

Lessons learnt:

1. Beware of motor-cyclists all the time.

2. Bright light produces glare that blinds us or creates some blind spots that we cannot see.Bright light can take many modes of existence like our greed,ignorance,desire,hatred etc that could seduce or induce us to make the wrong decisions;hence the wrong actions that we may regret later.

Malaysian Black Beauty

I was sleepless waiting for her for almost a week-just can't forget the eyes! You know,one kind of look. In fact, I wanted to take her home on the very day I saw her...The way she glanced at me made my aging knees grew weaker..;-)

Oleh kerana mata...lagu R Azmi.<Jika tak silap>

Just look at the beautiful and seductive eyes of my new horse.It arrived at my house on 22nd Nov,2007 and I have a few rides around the neighbourhood.I hope it will serve me well in the next few years..

If you wish to see more of her,please click here. More photos here.

PS: The book is here.

Faster Eurostar

The last time I took Eurostar to Paris was in September,2003 with Awang Goneng  for  a few days holiday in Paris.Reading the news today,I am very happy to note that the travel time has been reduced from 3 hours to 2 hours and 15 minutes. That is quite a good saving in time with a speed of 186miles/hour! The maximum speed I had encountered using ERL from KL Sentral to KLIA is about half of that.

From my previous blog postings,I have always mentioned that I love travelling by train.I look forward to have another ride on Eurostar again.The last time I took the train from Waterloo station.May I ask my friends in London/UK, why do I read that now we have to board the train from St Pancras Station.

St Pancras station brings back a lot of memory to me about my student days in the 70's in UK.The most recent one was when I received a few stares while I was standing at what should be the Station No 9 3/4 and the photographer was Awang Goneng!(Station No 9 3/4 is a fictional station from Harry Potter books).

Now, I better start saving some money for the next train ride.Target date- spring 2008,insyaAllah.

Bus Terminal

Last Sunday I was at Larkin Bus terminal sending off my office mate to KL.When we arrived about 2pm looking for a ticket,all tickets to KL were "sold out" from all the counters. My JB friend told me not to worry;he would get one for my office mate. Yes, he did but we had to pay RM40! There were a few 'ulats'  selling  the JB/KL tickets right in the open.

It appeared to me this bus terminal is just like "pasar malam". I observed that there was no enforcement and order at all at the terminal.Our buildings may be world class but our way of running the operation needs a lot of improvement.

2nd encounter of the 3rd kind!

I stood by the road side waiting for the pedestrian traffic light to turn green.When light turned green,I looked on my right to ensure all the cars stopped before I walked across the road to the other side. As I walked half way,I got a shock of my life when a motorcycle whizzed in front of me and it made an emergency break into the yellow box.It missed me by about one metre!

The evil in me just wanted to give this motorcyclist a flying kick!

This is the second time.The first time was when I drove my car making a right turn in front of all other vehicles which had stopped on the other side of the road.Half way through, a motorcyclist came suddenly and just hit my two -month old car.Luckily, he did not suffer serious injuries.

My scary encounters mentioned above are nothing new on our Malaysian roads.IMHO, nothing will change the attitude/behaviours of this group of our motor-cyclists.One of the ways is to remove this  type of people from  using our roads.

What say you?

Train travels..

LRT is my preferred mode of transport to KL city centre to avoid traffic jam especially during peak hours. I have no major complaints so far, but most of the time the coaches are jam-pack with passengers during peak hours. I hope RapidKL will add more coaches soon.

Please give your feedbacks based on your experiences. Btw,one of my readers is a senior manager in RapidKL. If you have captured some photos relating to trains in Malaysia,please link them to Flickr: Trains in Malaysia group.

Bus ride

Most of us who own and drive cars,seldom take a bus ride.In my case,it must  be more than 25 years ago.Today,insyaAllah I am going for a bus ride around KL with my friend who is doing some kind of study.May be,I blog about the ride later...

Below is our email-conversation last night:

From: "Mohd Adib Noh" <berisman@gmail.com>

> Can I join you for a joy ride of RapidKL tomorrow?
> I will call you in the morning.

Certainly abedib.  ;-)  Though, I hope you don't mind that it's 
sort of a working tour for me. Hehe. I'll be making notes, taking 
photos, checking my PDA, cross-checking against my GPS, browsing 
bus tracking site and maybe calling up the guys/gals.

I most likely will be at KLSentral by about 8.30am. Driving to 
Taman Jaya and then taking the Putra / KelanaJaya Line to
KLSentral.

wassalam, sabre23t =^.^=


The above graphic is cut&paste from sabre's website.

Motor-cycles

I really envied my uncle when he rode this vespa in  early 70's.I was still studying at the time and I can't afford to buy but once a while my uncle let me took a ride on this cool machine.

When I started working,my parents didnot allowed me to buy a motor-cycle,so I have to borrow my mother's old car-Datsun 1200.
Talking about older brands like Norton and Triumph,there were really great!I used to sit and watch my teachers riding their motor-cycles and dreamt one day that I may be able to ride on one.Until todate,I never got the chance to own a motor-cycle, but I used to borrow my late cousin Virago and tried to ride.Somehow, I got scared...

By the way,the photo above is taken from a show of Melaka house at KLIA about a week ago.