MY house

One of my 2013 resolution is to buy/ design/ renovate and move into MY house. Of these steps, the first one - buy a house is the toughest. You need to do lots of window-shopping, survey, projection on development 5 years down the road, abit of luck, patience and be bold when opportunity arises. I will include all expenses incurred in the blog today for future reference.

MY house is located opposite Bkt Jalil Recreational Park. Pro and Cons listed below:

Cons:
- Only one car park, not covered. - scarce car park.
- Facing west - sun in the afternoon
- New school opposite.
- 10 years old -
- Exterior look quite old tradition.
- Water patch in the small room.

Pros:
- Future LRT station 600m away.
- Close to major highways (Bkt Jalil Expressway/ Kesas/ MEX/ BERRAYA/ KL Seremban)
- Recreational park within walking distance. (Cooling and refreshing environment)
- Surrounded by high end condo - Treez, KM1
- Opposite is the upcoming mall dubbed Pavillion 2 by Malton-Ho Hup JV.

I fall in love with the unit at the first sight, mainly due to the good condition and newly painted wall, despite sun shining directly in the afternoon. Offer price is RM340K, Knowing how hot the properties were in the area, we merely negotiated to RM330K. After checking with few bank loans, (UOB/OCBC and Public Bank), only PBB offered 40 years and BLR-2.4% and was quickly accepted. Upon signing S&P, the remaining portion of the purchase price (90%) must be paid within 90days, else the seller has the right to charge interest. For my case, S&P signed on 8th April 2013, but the full loan only disbursed in August, luckily the seller is kind enough not to charge me interest.

In this project, i keep track with every cents possible i spent, total spend to date is RM93,644. The breakdown of spending is as pie chart below. The deposit (10% of SPA price) accounted to 35% of total spending, while furniture at 25% (RM93,644 x 25% = RM23,411)  is in the runner up.

Do bear with me for the load of figures and statistic i am going to share, but it will be indeed useful for future reference in buying/renovating your house in future.

1. Furniture :
Main items to watch :
1. The purchase of Electrolux Washing Machine and Dryer from warehouse sales at 40% below market price. Original price of Washing Machine EWF10741 and Dryer EDV605 is at RM2,900. But we manage to get both for only RM1,820. The only downside is only 6 months warranty of the two items. To enjoy such discount, one have to be fully prepared (with model number interested at your finger tips) and go early on the ELECTROLUX warehouse sales day (refrigerator all taken up within the first 45 mins). This is our lifetime experience of making two electrical appliances purchase within such short time frame!

Check out their FB page @ Electrolux Home appliances Malaysia for the dates.

Itemized furniture purchases.

2. Aircon - RM3,200/ Renovation: RM22,670

I decided to install aircon in every room and include living room there are 4 units. With the 2 units inherited from the seller, i installed another 2 new units at living room and master room. (Not sure whether this is the right choice to have so many air con)

Teck is my main contractor, I won't say his skill is superb, but still acceptable with few defects/flaws below:

a. Some tiles in the toilet and kitchen were empty inside when knocked, when asked he rest assured me that they won't fall.
b. Light switch behind sofa is isolated, even though i already told upfront to aggregate it together with all lights.
c. The switch for outside light should be outside.
d. He insisted i had small switch instead of big switch.
e. Kitchen plugs were too high, resulted in the wall unit had to be shifted higher.
f. Master room sink is still unstable even though reminded him multiple times.

I admitted that i was partially responsible for some mistakes above, but due to my indecisiveness, notwithstanding the lack of experience in house deco, hence he had the upper hand of leading me. Next time, i will do better. In short, he is cheap but not the best!

Itemized air-con expenses.

Itemized contractor expenses.

Despite the abovementioned, now MY house is ready. I officially moved in on 1st December 2013, after 9 months of the long awaited purchase (I paid 3% to the agent on 9th March 2013,).

Whenever i reflected of the accomplishment, the largest credit  goes to my dear wife-to-be. It won't be possible without her relentless support, despite arguments at times, and patches up quickly. It might not be the largest/ most luxurious unit town, but it is definitely a warm and comfortable nest for us to dock and relax.

一个人也可以幸福

"No Man Is An Island" 这句著名的英文成语说明了人类对孤独寂寞的恐惧。

人人都想有朋友，家人，伴侣，同事的陪伴，但事与愿违，往往我们会有单独一人的时候。

有人自艾自怜，有人怨天怪地。

今天原本约了房友吃饭，可是她没回来吃，打电话又没接，饭煮好了，怎么办？

我是个绝情种子，既然电话联络不上，当然没有痴痴等屋友回来，自己一个人先吃了。

原因-
如果屋友关心我，会希望我懂得自己照顾自己，先吃饭。
如果对方不关心我，那我更加应该先吃饭，不为她挨饿。

可是电视剧情往往会让那煮好饭的女主角痴痴的在家里等，为了等男主角回来一起吃饭的幸福感觉，等到睡着，食物冷了，肚子也是空的。显出爱情凌驾于万物之上。

男主角回来看了必定内疚万分，便会怪罪让他迟回来的原因，甚至憎恨自己。

结果是双方都输了：
女- 肚子饿，或者愿与之共患难而憔悴模样，或者生气和责怪对方不守时。
男- 肚子饿，内疚，愧疚。或者不满自己的工作，或者下次匆匆忙忙赶回家。

最终男主角因飙车回家意外身亡，女主角不想独活而自尽，显现爱情的伟大！
不是意外，应该导演才是凶手吧！

换个想法，如果女主角不痴痴的等而选择单独吃饭，吃饱了，把食物盖好待会男主角回来时再弄热陪他吃。男主角回来了，有可能会内疚吗？会责怪女主角吗？不！他只会对她的谅解感到欣慰。

结果是双方赢了:
女 - 肚子饱，安心。用烹饪绑住男人的胃，用贤淑绑住了男人的心，做个幸福的女人。
男 - 肚子饿，窝心。有回到避风港的感觉，无后顾之忧，充满电可继续冲刺。

谁说一个人不能幸福呢？

Exploring outside your routine social circle

"No man is an island" the good old saying goes.

Every man has their own social circle, divided into Inner, Intermediate and Casual.

Inner - 
your core family members ie parents, siblings, spouse and children, usually less than 20.

Intermediate - 
your close friends ie the "bros" and buddy, usually less than 50

Casual - 
friends that share the same background or interest to "hi bye" friend. Unlimited numbers.

Maintain a healthy social circle is as important as to maintain a healthy diet. An unhealthy social circle, overly skewing either to Inner/Intermediate/Casual circle will cause anxiety to parties involved.

To illustrate, a buddy of mine recently celebrates his 28th birthday with his bros (Intermediate), forgetting his family members (Inner) dinner appointment; as a result his family members refused to talk to him in the next day, causing anxiety for him and his family. This is a common within the extroverts, mainly guys.

Similarly, somebody whose social circle over-skewed to Inner circle, often require more accompaniment from the partner (core family members). In this case the party that requires more attention will constantly feel insecure when their partner is not around or out socializing, grumbles; while the other party will find his/her partner being unreasonable and over-possessive. The disparity will inevitably leads to argument; resulting in higher anxiety level on both parties. This is common in a relationship, not limited to only ladies, but also to a certain extend, the over-protective guys.

The two illustrations above resembles an analogy of vitamin overdose. All of us know Vitamin C is very important for our body immune system and antioxidant, but in an overdose scenario, it damages our kidney and cause gastrointestinal problems. Hence it is critical to maintain a healthy social circle. But how?

Our routine social circle, especially Intermediate and Casual, are fragile and tend to be shrinking gradually amidst a hectic work schedule environment. We will be too exhausted to socialize after a hard day work. Hence it is good to have annual escapades (team-building, travelling or social event)  to breakout from your routine social circle and dive into the "blue ocean", building new relationship with people, literally strangers.

In such scenario, you could be either be with friends or none at all, reaching out to make new friends. Similarly, the potential new friends in the blue ocean may be alone or already in a group. This is when we sharpen our already rusty socializing instinct, approach and being approached, and most likely will end up with friends with similar character and interest. Do not fear to approach people as you will end up receiving more. You could be switching from one group to another, just like you switching TV channels, to find a programme that truly enticed you.

During my recent company team-building event, there were thirty participants selected across various department /division with most of us are new to each other. At first the group starts to form among the own race, thereafter across the race after the ice-breaking.

One observation I had was certain group of people, especially Chinese (sorry to say), have higher tendency to shoot more complaints. The non-satisfactions range from bed too soft, water not hot enough, food too cold, despite being a fully sponsored event. You could hardly see these complaints coming from the Malays and other race (both guys and ladies), who i perceived are more tolerating with the environment. To be fair, during my backpacking experience, the Caucasian does not complaint as much as the Chinese tourist. The organizing committee has good foresight of these coming, hence arrange most of the Chinese in the double room while the rest in dormitory, yet there are still lots of complaints. Some points to ponder.

In the end, I "switched channel" from those with much complaint in their conversation, to stay away from their negativity especially when I am close to the undisturbed mother nature with pristine and clean air. Notwithstanding that, I have a gut feeling that some new acquaintances from the event could be upgraded from Casual to Intermediate of my social circle.

There is no hurry to cherry-pick the right one.

台湾9天8夜樱花初开游 （第六天）

今天的行程只有一个景点 - 台北故宫博物院。

由于昨天从台中到台北舟车劳顿（其实乘搭高铁只须少过一个小时），因此决定今天睡到自然醒。

早上十点才出发，早上除了楼下的麦当劳，似乎没有别的早餐吃。因此乘搭捷运到士林站吃台湾本土的快餐。吃的津津有味。

出了士林站，立刻有告示牌解说公车路线去故宫博物院。

告示牌

我们十二点抵达，买了入门票后，我们就开始参观了。博物院里不能拍照，因此没有照片供分享。

最让我印象深刻的是这里的讲解服务，每天有好几场讲解（免费的），每场一个小时，须预先报名，先到先得。我们订了两点半的讲解。

台北的故宫博物院,与英国大英博物馆,法国罗浮宫、美国大都会博物馆并称为世界四大博物馆。它之所以能被列为世界四大博物馆，因为里头有许多无价之宝的文物。在中国共产党内战的时候，国民党把近七十万件珍品运到台湾。经历二十余年的修复和建档，五千年中华文物的珍宝就此呈现在海内外人们眼前。镇馆之宝包括清朝的翠玉白菜和西周的毛公鼎。 

如果不是运到台湾，这些历史文物恐怕逃不过中国文革浩劫
比起中国AAAAA 景区门票人民币80-160元 （RM40-80)，故宫博物院的门票很便宜，普通票160元（马币RM16)，学生80元。反观我国马六甲动物园普通票是RM15，这样的价钱可以看到世界四大博物馆实在物超所值。

原因是它属于台湾纳税人税金所设立的，自然必须服务大众，票价高门槛太高就本末倒置了。

鲁肉饭（左）和空肉饭（右）

由于没吃午餐，大约四点肚子饿了。我们到了故宫博物院隔壁的晶华餐厅吃晚餐，才继续沉醉在浩瀚的历史文物当中。我们点了鲁肉饭和空肉饭。

宛汉家家乐。

有得吃是福！

参观完博物院后，我们便去西门町逛街。埔里(Puli Guest House) 的度部先生介绍著名吃生鱼片 (Sashimi) 的餐厅- 三味食堂，位于西门町附近，便步行过去。

果然名不虚传，这里的排队的人龙很长，写了名字还要等一个小时。

所以我们到附近商店街道逛逛，见到了一间很特别，以蔬菜为主的餐厅，便进去试，味道很新鲜好吃！

等了一个小时后回去三味食堂，终于迟到了生鱼片。

吃完由于时间接近10pm, 因此我们简略的逛了几条街道就回去睡觉了。

台湾9天8夜樱花初开游 （第五天）

今天我们结束了4天3夜的台中之旅，前往台北再玩3天。
我们订了台中-台北10.39am 的高铁票（提前网上订购可享有8折，700/票折扣至560/票，统称早鸟票，https://www.thsrc.com.tw/tc/ticket/tic_kind07.asp）。

早鸟票广告

 一大清早7am便起身了，8am依依不舍的离开了渡部先生的民宿，离开之前还依依不舍的看了这住了3晚的民宿，拍了几张照片。

出发前有段小插曲：
从我们的民宿到客运站大约须步行十分钟。由于需要归还单车，所以我先用单车把最重的行李载到埔里客运站，打算过后再回来载余下的。为了节省时间，我让她也先拖着行李慢慢走向客运站。这是个错误的决定，因为当我回头时，她已经不见人影。由于一直以来都是我带路，所以担心她迷路，又没有电话联络，我当时是后悔到了极点，不应该为了节省时间而可能花费更多时间。慌慌张张的找了几条街后，心里默念圣号，只好去客运站等。还好，她已经在那里了，总算虚惊一场，学了次乖。

从埔里到台中高铁站每半小时有一趟客运，由于之前买了600元的套票，我们就乘坐南投客运过去。我们乘坐8：30am 的客运，9:30am 就抵达高铁站了。

乘搭高铁，感觉很稳定，如果不看窗口外飞过的景色，根本不察觉到高铁正以315km/hour 的高速飞驰。

买了高铁便当后，我们拖着行李去我们接下来三晚的住宿 - 阿猫乱走。
这民宿的确不好找，在五楼，每天出入都得爬楼梯，入口于店屋旁边一个门。
到了里面，发现这民宿的布置精简，环境温馨舒适，真实麻雀虽小，五脏惧全。

他的铁床虽然没有埔里的木床稳固，不过民宿里非常干净。

健康简单的午餐

我们2pm吃了午餐后，便搭地铁转公车（巴士）前往忠烈祠。

忠烈祠大门入口处

大殿

忠烈祠里每日的卫兵交换哨仪式蔚为特色，值得一看。

卫兵交换哨

4pm 到达忠烈祠后，我们很幸运的得以见证了4pm 和 4:40pm 的忠烈祠门口站岗的卫兵仪队交接换哨仪式，还有5pm 的操枪表演。

这里站岗的仪队卫兵，个个酷似雕像，任你百般捉弄，仍是一脸严肃，可见训练之严谨，真叫人称奇赞赏。我们就算吃了虎豹胆也绝不敢去捉弄这些卫兵，只在附近拍照。。。

温馨提醒：卫兵仪队交换时间每日早上9:00am 开始，之后每个小时交接一次，最后一场交接提早至16：30 举行。每日9am 和 5pm 实施操枪表演。

离开了忠烈祠，我们搭公车前往士林夜市。由于冬天的关系，天黑得特别早。这是大约傍晚5：30pm 的夜市。

蚝仔煎

臭豆腐

冷面

面线

我们吃了许多美食如，蚝仔煎，臭豆腐，面线，各种夜市小吃，非常美味！

吃饱了，亲爱的她当然不会错过在此血拼一番，才不会入宝山而空手归。看她满足的笑脸，为她提“战利品”的双手的疲劳也顿时消失无踪了。

叫大马华人好为难

马来西亚第13届全国大选，选情从开始的万丈雄心，到最后的急转直下。
经历期许、曙光乍现、梦想破灭、愤怒、惋惜。
相信不少选民跟我都经历了相似的心情起伏。

身为大马选民，一向对我国的多元民主制度很骄傲。
这次大选，民联（反对党）获得比上届多7个国席。当中以民主行动党（大马华裔为主的反对党）最为出色，从上届的28席增至38席，其余友党的席位则微降，公正党降1席至30席，回教党降2席至21席。

表面上，行动党取得空前胜利， 华裔大团结，一股作气把行动党推举为最大反对党成员，在国会里传达华裔的心声，成为一股不可忽视的力量，应该可喜可贺！

进一步剖析，华社普遍上不满本身无法享有与土著同等对待，在教育、商业活动、投资、社区发展等领域遭到如同二等公民般的对待，积怨已久。无奈代表华裔在国阵的马华，又恨铁不成钢，往往敢怒不敢言，甚至被喻为国阵的傀儡。对于马华这种当家不当权的局面，华裔开始萌起改朝换代的念头，但深知自己只占有少过大马人口的三分之一，同时迫切需要政府的各项批准和拨款，华裔只好暂时把怒气往肚里吞，尽量左右逢源，既不得罪执政党，也不让反对党失去制衡功能，苟延残生。

继第12届，第13届大选在安华效应下反风狂吹，民联讲座处处爆满 ，募捐款项屡创新高 。
华裔有两个选择，
（一）见时机成熟，表示大力支持。
（二）继续保持沉默，表现政治冷感。

（一）见时机成熟，表示大力支持。
华裔见时机成熟了，艺人和企业家纷纷为民联站台，破釜沉舟，希望这一次与友族同胞一起起义死战。占大多数的巫裔被命为先锋，华裔为其左右，顺水推舟，一起攻克布城（大马中央政权）。
票箱一开，城市的巫裔是反了，不过占大多数的乡下巫裔选票却回流国阵，而华裔则是毫无保留的倾巢而出。结果华裔变成了先锋，而巫裔只伴其左右，这先锋攻城如蚂蚁撼大象，华裔战士再英勇，但人数悬殊还是太大了，因此结局可想而知。。。

我不禁联想到三国赤壁大战，孙权刘备联军对抗曹操八十万大军，由于孙权军力远远超越刘备，因此孙权军为前锋，刘备军攻敌之左右。假设于所定日期孙权突然不发兵或只发部分兵马，让刘备独自迎战曹操，纵使旗下的关羽张飞赵云再勇猛，孔明再神机妙算，结局应该也是横尸遍野，血流成河。

回到正题，那吉胜选致词时，宣布国阵成绩滑跌是一场华人海啸(Chinese Tsunami) ,认定华裔是罪魁祸首。预料接着会陆续有巫统成员把华裔标榜为企图推翻国阵政府的始作俑者。

那吉政府可以说是历代首相里对华裔友善的一位。
他接任首相后立刻废除上市公司须30%土著的固打被视为开明政策，被视为废除保护土著的新经政策的试金石。接二连三的参与华社活动如出席和参与新春团拜和接见董总，饱受巫统内部极端分子的压力，催生了如PERKASA 等土著保守组织。

现在华裔对那吉政府投以不信任票，而那吉也承认华裔投反对票导致巫统成绩下滑，在这以种族治国的政党里，蠢蠢欲动已久的巫裔保守分子将逮住把柄，大肆炒作，将之视为华裔不懂感恩的表现。若那吉想继续他的友善路线，那他将冒着陪上政治前途的风险，与保守分子对抗。最终其副手可能趁虚而入，而这位副手的排华个性是众所周知的，再配合党员期许下，政策不会对华裔有利。

自古以来，起义推翻朝政；
起义成功，则改朝换代，万象皆新；
起义失败，沦为乱党，祸联九族。

民主制度下固然不会如此暴戾，但也不会相差太远。

不成人，则成任。

善于精打细算的华裔，这回会不会人算不如天算，成为最大输家，让我们拭目以待。

（二）继续保持沉默，表现政治冷感。
难道后悔了吗？不是。如果大马华裔选择继续保持沉默，没有全力以赴，机会可能稍纵即逝。更何况忍得了一时，忍不了一世，也不可行。

政治这一块，叫大马华人好为难～

“本文纯属个人意见，若有冒犯之处，谨请见谅。”

我的白日梦（事业篇）

要写这个主题，我挣扎了很久。
写了太神，做不到一定给人笑话。
写得太简单，又搔不到痒处，不如不写。

人生规划是激励讲师和作者爱用的词汇。
说白了就是一场白日梦；
加上一个行动计划包装就行了。
不过这白日梦要有点"聪明" (SMART = Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time Bound)

白日梦也像是买万字。
友人曾说：“万字难中，不是说不会中，但不买一定不会中！”
不知道友人中了万字没有，其实也不重要，最重要他买了个希望。
白日梦也一样，虽然难重，不是说不会中，但不发一定不会中！


我的白日梦/人生规划，以三年为限。

年龄 - 
[领域]，[position]
[目的/目标/重心]

18 - 23 - 
大学, undergraduate
深造学位 -  进修工程知识，磨练分析数理能力，人格塑造，探索目标。

23 - 26 - 
传销/销售, sales executive
销售行业，提升沟通，销售，管理，演说技巧。

26 - 27 - 
大学, postgraduate
工商管理 - 进修人士管理，金融与经济，企业管理的理论。

28 - 30 - 
银行, Executive
金融知识 - 掌握基本经济理论，金融产品，融资管道，财务规划。

30 - 33 - 
银行, Executive
开拓新视野 - 认识区域经济走向和经商环境，熟悉各区域的金融环境。

33 - 36 - 
银行, Dept head
行政管理 - 负责银行单位或组织的营运

36 - 39 - 
国行, Executive
宏观经济 - 理解各国行的金管政策和利率走向等宏观。

39 - 42 - 
上市公司, CFO
领导企业 - 营造企业价值，核心文化，设定远景。

42 - 45 -
上市公司, CFO
达到目标 - 领导组织达到所设定的目标。

45 - 48 - 
大学/学院/培训中心，Lecturer/Trainer
进修教育- 进修以便投身教育/培训于金融管理领域

48 - 55 - 
大学/学院/培训中心，Lecturer/Trainer
教育使命 - 投身教育

55后 - 
大学/学院/培训中心，Lecturer/Trainer
半退休，继续教育工作。

解说：
从以上得以见得，大部分的时间都与大学有关，并非对大学特别留恋，而是我对读书/学问/知识有兴趣，也梦想成为教育者。可以让一个人从不懂到懂，开创新思维，启发理想，那种满足感是无法言喻的。这或许是遗传吧。

其次，可以见到我对银行和金融的兴趣，这里是钱生钱，钱变钱的魔术场。这是我自大学一直羡慕但认为自己不可能踏进的领域。投资理财，经济道理，金融产品是我想学和用的东西。

再者，CFO 有钱又有权，谁不想？

这就是我的白日梦，当中取决于家庭/健康/能力/毅力等因素是否允许。

现在让我们一起来做梦，追梦吧！

Kind Samaritan around us

Another day by LRT and shuttle bus.
Shuttle bus will leave our office at 6:30pm. By 6:25pm, i was already waiting in the bus station.
After 10 minutes there is still no sign of the shuttle bus.

"Not again !!! Another late experience taking the bus" I began to complaint.

Just then, a travel bus parked right in front of our office, taking the place of where the shuttle bus will stop and pick passenger.

So happened I saw my friend from Bangi coming out from the bus, as my usual self, i walked over and begin chit-chatting with her.

Meanwhile, i was looking up and down waiting for the shuttle bus.

6:45pm, the small crowd of about 5 people who were waiting for the shuttle bus, suddenly disappear.

"See, this how our people was trained. To them, whenever the bus does not arrived after 15 minutes, they assume its not coming and "automatically" look for alternative. That's our level of distrust to bus services. They must have taken a taxi..." I thought to myself.

Then a public bus to Maluri LRT station enter the station. Instead of waiting for a taxi to stop, knowing that taxi is rare during the peak hours, i boarded the bus. I can't remember the last time i took a public bus, not in the past 3 years. The passengers were 60% foreign workers, 30% Malay/Indian and 10% Chinese. Felt like a tourist in Nepal/ Bangladesh.

I disembarked at a bus stop close to Chan Sow Lin LRT station, and began walking for about 10 minutes before reaching the destination.

It was a hot and humid day, i was sweating. The infrastructure was not user-friendly for those who want to walk.

I was scolding and cursing the driver in my mind, thinking of how to confront the driver who didn't turned up on time.
Suddenly i saw the shuttle bus approaches, i waved and it stopped.

When the door opened, i began to question the driver. His answer shocked me.

He said:" I reached our office about 6:40pm, but there was a tourist bus there, so i have to park parallel to the bus. A few of them got into the bus. I waited for about 3 mins and you didn't get into the bus." He explained patiently and i can tell he is sincere and is guilty for leaving without me. Before he left, he even gave me his personal contact number in order for me to contact him if i am not sure whether his bus have left in future.

My mind gone blank after he left. One minute ago i was furious, wrongly accusing the driver for not coming.
and now for his kind gesture, i felt ashamed of myself, and glad that i didn't sounded rude at him when i questioned him.

Despite the backdrop of high crime rate nowadays, there is still good Samaritan around us. He/she may not be someone prominent, in this context a bus driver, and he deserved our respect.

Why do I take LRT to work?

The trip to Taiwan, make me feel jealous of how efficient their rail transport is,
"See how good people's MRT? Our Malaysia LRT really sucks!" I thought to myself.

WAIT A MINUTE!!!,

" When is your last time taking LRT? Do you take LRT every morning? How is the people traffic during peak hours? Who are those taking LRT? If you don't know, why are you throwing such blanket criticism when you don't... "
As usual my thought process started another series of battle, conclusion is I am going to take LRT every morning, to experience Malaysia public transport!

Of course that is not the only reason I took LRT, another one is because the traffic congestion on major highway is quite bad during peak hours.
How bad? An usual 20 minutes drive will become 60 minutes.

"Blah!!! Only 60 mins and you start complaining? stop being a bitch... We in Bangkok/ Jakarta will be trapped in traffic for 150 minutes for a 20 minutes drive etc.." I know many will respond like that.

True enough, our traffic congestion is not the worse in the world. Far behind Bangkok that is for sure,

This is the real picture i took at Bangkok in 2008. I got off the taxi at one of the BTS station (their LRT) as the taxi totally cannot move, the only thing moving is the metre... Fyi Bangkok was "crowned" the king of traffic jam in the world. That's why their Motor-Tuk business is better than Taxis.

For the sake of privacy, blasting your car audio at desired level, sitting behind the wheel and enjoy the breeze of aircon, it is sheer privilege in Malaysia that every normal people like you and me can drive to work.
" There is no privilege when everyone enjoys the privilege!"

In spite of the bad traffic, many think it is still bearable/ worth the trade off to drive than to be squeezed against sweaty bodies or engulfed in stinking body odour, provided you have reasonably high tolerance to traffic congestion. I don't.

Another reason to take public transport is to save money. How much?

On average i could save RM10.20/day by taking public transport. Saving a month is merely RM10.20 x 22days =RM224.40. For the sake of saving this amount, i have to sacrifice the convenience of having my car at my disposal ie go site visit or flexibility to leave anytime, not able to drive out for lunch etc.

Personally i think it is not the best way of saving money, penny wise pound foolish, you may end up missing the shuttle bus and have to take taxi, which those sucker will suck you dry!

In a nutshell, the experience of taking public transportation outweigh the above reasons. Feel what thousand experienced everyday, when in Rome, live like the roman. We need to understand how important the role of public transport in a modern city.

A bad experience in the first week. I was queuing at the second place, when the LRT arrived, out of sudden many passengers just rush ahead of me into the cramped train. When i realized it, it was too late to squeeze in. In the end i missed my shuttle bus and have to take cab to office.

I am not lamenting on my plight, i am in fact happy with the learning experience. When in Spain, eat like the locals. Still i believe there are areas our LRT could improve:

1. Draw clear queue line on the platform for people to queue up. People need clear regulation to follow.

2. Update the LRT location on real time, uploaded to server, which can be viewed online/ on smart phone, error up to  5 secs.

3. For the train heading to Sri Petaling or Ampang, instead of having the destination shown in front and at the back of carriage, propose to put one on the side of every carriage (only three). This is because all passengers wait at the side of the train before boarding, nobody wait in front/back!

4. Volunteers needed. They can assist those handicap/senior citizen/bringing big luggage and ensure the people queue up in order.

5. Install the LED on the LRT map in the train. The LED light will show green in the station it is going in. Helpful to those absent minded/doze off in the train. (something like below, LRT in Beijing)

After taking public transport for few weeks, i began to find that it is very environmental friendly. Imagine the amount of CO2 emission for a single trip to office, and how much you contribute to the pollution.


I have a dream,
"Hope to see Malaysian like you and me start taking public transport, although we can afford the driving expenses.
It is a virtue to  let those who are in need or urgent/emergency to drive and on the other hand save mother earth.
We can make our country a cleaner, less congested and better place to live."