a peaceful town located 50minutes from kuala lumpur central station if you choose to take the ktm commuter. thats exactly what i did, i decided to try my hand at malaysia's 'efficient' public transportation system. things didn't get off to what i would call a flying start, or even a walking start. from my place at taman desa, i waited a full half an hour for the bus to kl central. just great. it didn't help that the 'touch and go' scanner on the bus had some issues with my partially melted plastic card, thanks a lot malaysian climate.
oh well, the train ride was rather pleasant with tolerable air-conditioning and bearable smell of burning plastic. god knows where thats coming from. 'just ignore the smell, its probably some prank that ktm was trying to pull on its faithful commuters'. theres a puzzling mystery about ktm that up till today i havent figured out, whenever the train approaches kl central station or is about to leave the station, all power suddenly shuts off for about a minute or so, and then mysteriously turns back on. hmm...i wonder. secret strategy to curb global warming? one can only speculate. i arrived in klang town with a large tag saying " im an outsider, very vulnerable to dishonest cabbies" hanging around my neck. well,sort of. somehow,the cabbies in little india of klang town got the hint, and they wouldn't settle for anything under RM15 for a one way trip to the industrial area which was located around 10km away from town. oh great, i was lost, sweaty and desperate. 'perfect,' thought the cab driver. the place i was going to was called topglove factories.
flashback: according to the map i printed from their web, everything was located right next to each other! how convenient! as i happily strolled down the road for around 20minutes, the amount of sweat soaking my shirt was directly proportional to the desperation i was feeling. hence,the major con by the evil cab driver. it was daylight robbery. oh yea, the distance between each landmark on the map was approx 2 to 3km. refer map
back to the point, topglove is a factory that,well, manufactures gloves! what a shocker.haha, the display behind the receptionists desk was filled with glove samples of all shapes and sizes. yellow gloves, mint-flavored gloves, u name it,they have it. i was there for a scholarship interview, and i expected it to be a grand affair, a panel of well suited men at a huge table inside some glamorous ballroom. haha. i was interviewed in a tiny cubicle in the corner of the ground floor by an interviewer who was flying solo for the day. and as things go, it was a standard interview, 'tell me about yourself' and all.
that lasted 40minutes, and by the time it was over, it was raining as though the clouds had a grudge against outsiders in klang who were stranded at at least 10km away from town. ahh, cab drivers all over little india were now gleefully waiting and rubbing their palms together in their rundown meter-less cabs for a desperate outsider to call them.
unfortunately, the victim today was me. 1st driver to respond, RM35 since he was coming to pick me on an empty load. omg. this was worst than robbery, it was extortion. sigh, alas it was late and god knows when the clouds would drain themselves dry. i surrendered rm35 (enough to feed an african family for a half a year or so) and sulked all the way back to klang. well,i didnt exactly sulk. the cab driver was 6 feet tall, bearded, and looked as though he was very prone to road rage, so i acted as though i got a real bargain at RM35, even smiling at him as he grunted at me. our conversation went like this,
(i enter cab, cabbie glowers at me)
me: hello mister
( one minute later)
cabbie : grunt
me: ktm commuter station
cabbie : grunt (looks annoyed)
me: (i shut up,fearing he would yell at me to shut up)
*silence*
ironically,the rain stopped around 5 minutes into my cab ride.
klang ,oh klang.
