Shenanigans

For those who don't know this, I work for a team that handles business for the SEA region; more precisely for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Phillipines. Before embarking for Singapore, we had decided that we would see as much of these five countries as we could. But after landing here in Singapore, we felt that that was a little too ambitious for five weeks as there was so much to see. So we zeroed in on Malaysia and Thailand, largely due to the accessibility of these countries.

First on our list was Malaysia, truly asia. So, on the night of 8th July, we took a train to KL from Singapore. Unlike the return journey, the onward journey was quite uneventful. I was sleeping all the time and woke up just 5 mins. before our train hurried into "Kuala Lumpur Sentral Stesen". The Stesen looked more like a shopping mall than a place where people came to board trains. Skyscrapers and Shopping-malls apart, KL is just like any other big Indian city. Following are the similarities that I found:

• The incorrigible taxi-drivers. They never knew that there was something called 'meter' in their machinery. Like Indian autowallahs, they would ask for an insane amount in their typical way, "20 Ringets-lah". After our initial experience with one of them, we devised a strategy of telling them half of the amount they quoted. That evened out a bit I suppose.
• The disorderly streets. Here people were moving around in Brownian motion on the streets and were crossing the road at their own will. This was a visible and a welcome change from Singapore, where people even walked in an orderly fashion and crossed roads from only the selected points.
• Uncaring Junta. Like in India, here people were not used to using the dustbin. We were shocked to see people throwing all the trash on the sidewalk after munching. Again, nobody would have dared to do this in SG as everywhere the boards read "No Littering, Minimum Fine $1000". $1000 !!! Wow .... that kind of amount would make even the blindest and lamest of a person to search for a bin.
• Chewing Gum is allowed. This might seem a bit ridiculous but nobody in SG chews gum. Why? Its illegal here. I have heard that if you are caught in customs with chewing gum in your baggage, you will be questioned by the anti-chewing-gum-squad. So you will never find anyone masticating in SG. Can you believe it? So KL was different and chewing gums were being chewed freely here.
• Nothing works on time here. This is based on my experience but it might not be true for everything (as it is in India). We were supposed to board a bus from KL to SG at 10PM. As good tourists in a foreign land, avoiding any mis-happenings, we reached the bus station at 9:45 PM sharp. On reaching the platform, from where our bus was supposed to leave, we started to wait. We waited and waited and buses came and went but there was no sign of our bus. At 11 PM, I thought that the travel agent had fooled us. So I went to this guy who looked like a bus-conductor and asked him if a bus to SG was expected. He answered in a laid-back eshtyle that is typical of Indian bus-conductors,"Wait-lah, it'll com-lah, shtuck in traffic jam-lah". I was glad that I understood what he said .... to wait more ...... in that tired state of mine. I spent another 45 hard minutes seeing the people around me before magically the bus arrived on another platform !!! .... and we had to walk in a jiffy to catch it.

P.S.: "-lah" is what people in these parts attach at the end of every sentence they speak. I think its a sign of coolness here. Some Ys (see one of my earlier postings for details) have also perfected this art !!!