holiday post mortem (part 2)

in msia (especially in KL),  wherever we went ada aja high rise buildings under construction. memang la it shows the country is progressing economically but we could hardly breathe clean air. thats why ramai suffer breathing related illness.  my kiddo said "wait till they suffocate because there're not enough trees and no parks to go to".  pantang ada tanah sikit, dah naik bangunan. i dont know who are going to occupy those high rise office buildings. tak surplus ke nanti?? jangan sampai jadi white elephant cukup lah.

sepanjang 4 minggu di msia, there were only a few days that we saw blue skies. hari2 lain tu mostly foggy, cloudy mainly due to pencemaran alam sekitar.

we visited so many friends and relatives, rumah masing2 besar kemain sampai rasa inferior pulak bila mengenangkan our tiny house here.  those who bought their houses within the last 5-10 years must be really relieved. sekarang ni, new houses in the mature residential area can go up to half a million if not more. kalau built up area besar and nice design tak apa lah jugak. the designs are just too urban/squarish to my liking. and i'm not in favour of  living in high rise/high density condo/apartments. no matter what most people say about the residential areas at bukit antarabangsa (due to the landslide few years ago), we still love our apartment there. we woke up to fresh cool  air and green surrounding.

and what can we say about the traffic, road condition, highways and drivers?? penat nak cakap banyak2. kamar said pahala puasa dia hilang on the road aja sebab asyik menyumpah the selfish drivers.

there were occassions when we stopped at the junctions to let one or two cars go into the main road and we received "unbelievably surprising" look from the drivers. and pesen orang msia drive, once merge into the highway, mesti terus nak masuk right lane, tak kira lah kat depan nanti tu nak exit left balik.  and bila nak sampai tol, punya lah laju on the right lane macam nak masuk "smart tag lane" tapi alih2 kat depan tol plaza cut across to the left lane sebab bayar cash.  and another thing, kalau speed limit 90 or 110km/h, drive je lah accordingly within the limit. ni tidak. masa drive tu laju kemain sampai rapat sangat dgn kereta depan even tho the front car was driving at the correct speed tapi bila sampai dekat dgn tempat police buat speed trap, slow terlebih2 below the limit. tau takut kena saman! but kat msia, saman pun boleh negotiate or dpt discount. kalau kat sini, jangan harap lah..you will have to go to court, pay the fine and kena tolak points lagi. bukan tak boleh bawak laju tapi biar lah berhemah. use the signal lights when turning or changing lanes. tapi jangan lah asalkan kasi signal terus nak masuk lane, tengok lah kereta lain kat tepi.  orang lain pun nak cepat sampai destinasi so kalau kena queue tu,  sabar je lah. cutting queues are NORMAL on the road. there are lots of things msian drivers have to learn about being courteous on the road kalau nak at par with the developed countries.

another thing that really annoyed us - those luxury cars yang tak reti nak parking betul2. dah beli kereta mahal2, takkan dah tak de duit nak bayar parking kut?? suka hati je parking tepi jalan, depan "NO PARKING, CLAMPING AREA" sign pulak tu.  just because they drive kereta mewah or besar bagak or vw golf or x5 and the likes (yg tak lah mahal sgt & mostly driven by org2 kat kampong aja kat sini) dont mean that they can buat sesuka hati. semua org pun bayar road tax tau! bawak kereta mahal2 tapi otak tak dak!

road conditions and the highways tu satu hal lagi.  tak boleh ke resurface jalan betul2? jangan lah tampal sikit2 aja, next day berlobang balik. some roads are just like "waves", berlekuk2.  ni semua kes road contractors nak buat duit cepat. we applaud the construction of new highways especially DUKE which took us straight from Damansara (after penchala tol) to Ulu Klang when we had to commute from sg buloh to bukit antarabangsa. the first time we tried to go on DUKE terlepas exit into the highway, all due to wrong position of the directional signboard. tak tau lah apa pasal signages kena letak lepas junction/exit (not before)  or hidden belakang pokok. highway authorities still have a lot to learn from their peers in the developed countries.

over the 4 weeks being on the road and driving in msia memang lah exhaustive..our kids culture shock sekejap at the beginning sebab org di msia tak pakai rear seat belts and they saw children playing & jumping about in the car. and lil missy at some occassions was allowed to sit on my lap bila ada 4 orang kat belakang. but big missy cakap "everything is possible in msia". MALAYSIA BOLEH!!