KL KL

KL KL

Snippets of my KL trip from 15 to 17 Mar 07

Bus journey

Always choose the bus company with a key performance indicator. In this case, choose a company that promises you the duration of the journey. We took a slow coach (pun not intended) and it took us a long time to get to our destination.

Of course, savvy travellers will know the importance of start and end points. Starting or ending at some less-than-central locations often bring additional grief.

Costs

Remember the economic principles governing quality, speed and price. It usually works. Of course, there are instances where the three are mutually exclusive. Don't be surprised if you have something quick and exorbitantly priced but yet is still not good.

Hotel room

If you don't smoke, insist on the non-smoking floor. Or suffer the indignity of smelling cheapo eau de toilettes used in liberal amounts to mask the malodourous cigarette smoke. Makes the entire floor smell like a cheap night joint or worse, some sicko hospital using fragrances to sterilise the place. And while you are at it, wash your clothes (worn or unworn) when you return home. Your clothes, especially if you launder them well, are perfect smell absorbers.

Taxis

Always insist on those whose drivers charge by meters. Jalan Ampang to Bukit Bintang is RM4.10 by meter but drivers would insist that because of the jam, they want RM15. Pudu bus terminal to Jalan Ampang is RM6 - 7 depending on traffic but they will ask for between 15 - 30. Bukit Bintang to Jalan Ampang is also RM4.10 by meter but taxis don't even want your business because they say there is a jam. So they would much rather get stuck in a jam with an empty vehicle than to drive you.

KL taxi drivers should rob a bank. They probably will get rich faster.

LRT

The equivalent of the tube/metro/MRT/BTS/people mover whatever. Each time you move from line to line, you have to exit the station and buy a new ticket to continue the next leg. Just be careful how the prices stack up. Bukit Bintang to KLCC (near the hotel) for two people costs RM5. The cab is RM4.10. Sense and sensibility is a book by Jane Austen.

Prices

Exorbitant does not even begin to describe their prices. I mean, if we go by us and them earning the equivalent salaries, albeit in different currencies, then how can they afford prices twice of ours? Does it not mean that their purchasing power is halved? Although their housing is half or less of ours, but why would one want a cheap house, buy a car to drive and be perpetually caught in a jam and pay all the savings on food?

Commuter etiquette

There is no difference between us and them. They also crowd the door because they fear that the rest of the two-carriage LRT train not close to the door will not stop at KLCC. Funny how the world thinks alike, right?

Touting

They win. Seated at Jalan Alor and ordered some food. Jalan Alor is a food street (pathetic description, if you ask me - we would have many many Jalan Alor equivalents) and thus, there was this element of adventure and food tasting was about to begin when this dour bitch came over and asked for drink and food orders. The cups in the menu were twice the cups they used to serve. I know as much, so I did not order anything. I asked my friend if he wanted Penang char kway teow and he was hesitant. So we did not order. When the bitch repeated the order of one starfruit juice, she added Penang ckt. We said we didn't order that. You could see her face turn shades darker. It almost blended into the night sky. Of course, I won't be surprised if the juice came with sputum. But that's me taking the worst case scenario.

Buffet Breakfast

I went to the egg station and asked for scrambled egg. What I got was chopped egg with excessive metal taste because the chef scraped the flat pan too hard, I think... And breakfast was a all you can eat, eat all you can, you can eat all, you can all eat, you all can eat, you eat all can... but guess what? On the second morning, I found mouldy bread. 4-star hotel serving mouldy bread.

Mdm Kwan's vs Mr Tan

I guess if you drown everything with enough fermented prawn paste, things will taste good. That's a hindsight. But when I was eating there, the food was not too bad. But I was hungry since lunch (remember the slow coach) and it was nearly 4 pm that I was having lunch.

Mr Tan was different. Located along Jalan Alor in some nondescript row of food hawkers (he was beside some super unfriendly China man food stall who asked me to F-O from his seats because I did not order his pathetic excuse of food), his lo-shee-fun turned out great. While it was a bit greasy, I believe it would have beaten Kwan's version hands down if Mr Tan gave us two additional limes and lots of fermented prawn paste. At a mere RM4 vs RM16, my uncle would have helped you clog your arteries in quadruple quick time! Value for money!

Mandarin Oriental Tim Sum Place

See, that's the problem when you try so hard to be exclusive. People don't remember your name. I only remember that it is something Po Heen, and that's partly because the parts I remembered resembled parts of my boss' name. Pathetic right? And so was the food. RM200 later, the only thing that left me a deep impression was the regal toilet outside the restaurant. Mandarin Oriental Hotel has a toilet bigger than my house and it is so well decorated that it makes me hang my head in shame.

Maybe I should re-title this part... to Mandarin Oriental Tim Sum Toilet?

Hotel pool

Small but I'm not complaining. At least it has water in it. And the kids seem to love it. If kids love it, it should be ok.

Wannabes

If you want to reminisce my 1980s, go to KL now. There is a general blind following of fashion and trends. It is beginning to lose its roots and direction. Is this inevitable in the pursuit of globalisation?

Mindsets

Again, I am seeing the 1980s repeated. In the 80s boom years, our people wouldn't think twice of spending three to four times the normal price to eat something in some posh place just to show that we have "arrived". Nearing the 2010s, I see food at the same price as in the 80s. And yet, if the quality is not good enough, people pooh-poohed the food. The outlet will close down because of poor food quality. We have moved from money for no value to value for money. In fact, it is more like excellent value for money. People have grown discerning and are now more penny-wise and pound-brilliant.

Final words

Great to re-visit a city that I last visited some many years ago. A lot of things have changed. I will probably go again, just to check out where competition is. The trip was not enjoyable but the company was. That makes up for everything.