my fisheye view on life

A few years back when I was in Bangkok for a short holiday, I read in the Bangkok Post (or some other Thai English daily…) that Bangkok was plagued with poor roads and potholes… and that even one of the ministers who were inspecting roads fell into a pothole. Ironic and hilarious.

Poor roads and traffic jams, I guess, that’s one similarity that most people in both cities can agree on. How many times have motorists been stuck in a jam for god knows how long? My guess is, daily. And not only on federal roads. Highways, which are suppose to make traveling faster, hence the toll fares, are jammed. How on earth did that happen? Why are we paying to escape a jam just to get into another massive one?

And what about our periodic bouts of flash floods in the city? Each time there’s a thunderstorm, our dear ol’ KL gets flooded. Remember last year? Remember the year before last? Remember all those times that we saw all the pictures and footages of underground car parks and walkways being submerged in muddy water? And all those outrage and angry statements by various leaders? Has there been any change since the last time that happened? This question can be answered if you flip the pages of Malaysian dailies on June 11, 2007.

Speaking on which, SMART tunnel which was supposed to help avert traffic and flash floods, will start charging RM2 per trip on Friday, June 15. But how effective has this one-month trial been so far? I’ve traveled via the SMART tunnel a few times, mostly to KLIA and Puchong. My trips to KLIA, I think during non-peak times, I might have saved about 10-15 minutes? Not a whole lot. To and from Puchong, I guess, if I didn’t have to show up for work on time, I would have been able to reach my office in town within 25 minutes. But then again, I don’t have that luxury. So I was still stuck in a jam because hey, surprise, there’s a lot of people who has to reach the office by 9 too. However, I believe the trip was lessened by 20 minutes. Which is a whole lot less nap time for me in the car.

But the dumbest thing would have to be that the existence of this new tunnel means that Jln Tun Razak and Jln Bukit Bintang would be more jammed than ever. Correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t part of the reason for this tunnel is too help avert traffic?

For the millions that have been spent on building faraway sport complexes in England and millions paid to send two fellas up to space to play batu seremban and drink teh tarik, why aren’t our tax money being channeled to develop better public transport (which IMHO, would have been able to help avert traffic much better) or even hire some competent city planner or civil engineers to actually help plan the city better? Sometimes I wonder why am I slogging over my tax returns every April. Besides the fact that law requires me too, of course.

Public transport while not that far reaching or efficient, do serve the purpose for those who has access to it. Not too expensive and quite convenient if you want to go to the city, I can’t really complain that much. But if you do live somewhere without access to the LRT or Monorail or even the Komuter, tough luck.

How do you survive the traffic jams, floods or potholes (I still snicker when I think of the minister who fell into the Bangkok pothole…I wonder when our dear Samy is going to fall into one)? My advice, learn to fly or swim. Or remember that sometimes walking short distances are actually more effective than taking a taxi or driving. Traffic fumes aren’t as bad as you thought here in KL, especially in the evening. Sometimes it can be enjoyable.

Take a walk, open your eyes and look at the city you live in. It might be dysfunctional but there are sights that you might not have noticed. Look at the beautiful little white flowers that are being planted around the sidewalks. Look at the Twin Towers which is really quite majestic, especially all lit up in blue at night. Look at the beautiful blue sky (well, not during our hazy months of course). Look at the butterflies and dragonflies and birds and bees and those frangipani trees by the roads. I think I spotted some squirrels flashing by in trees and the odd electrical line (fried squirrels anyone?)…

For all the flaws and imperfections, KL is not that bad at all. In the mean time, learn how to swim…it’ll be handy during rainy seasons.