Whinges of an Alien

Why? Because (in case you are so lucky you haven't stumbled upon any): 1. They take ages to load due to the heavily use of Flash on the website. - Malaysians love using Flash (well most Asians do, Singaporeans too). I have dealt with a number of Malaysian clients before, trying to set up websites for them and all they care about is how flashy and fancy their site may look and not how useful it will be. And most of these Flash animations just make you dizzy. So yes I had to tell them to go somewhere else to get their websites done. 2. They have bad navigation design. - You will have problem trying to look where you're going, what you should click, where you should go, etc. 3. You probably can't find any useful information on it. - I recently had to plan some travelling so I thought I would check out the KTM's intercity trains. Surprise, surprise; after a long wait for the page to load and a good 10 minutes looking for the link to the [might have been] right page, I thoug...

Receipts. One of the most annoying and pointless yet unavoidable things in life. It is necessary as evidence that you did not steal something from a shop, for making claims when you return the goods, as proof that you've been overcharged, etc. But most of the time you'll find that you have more receipts in your wallet than money. As if it is not bad enough, we've just got ourselves what's probably the longest receipt in the world, from a book shop in Kuala Lumpur. We only bought 2 books but the total length of the receipt is 37.4cm. What made it this long is the 2 paragraphs of very meaningless text (some "receipt stories" thingie) printed on the end of the receipt, taking up more than half the length of the paper. Did it serve any purpose? We have no idea. But we're sure that halfway trying to read the 2 paragraphs, we nearly fell asleep. While some of us are trying to reduce wastage and stuff going to landfill, there are those who try every possible way ...

Just when we thought things couldn't get worse after the scary walkway in Bangsar South , they just did. This is leading down to the scary walkway in Bangsar South . From where the red-ish tiles end, almost 10m of this pavement has been left untiled since last year. Yes, all they have done was putting some cement on it because it was really rocky and sandy after they were done with widening the road for the ever-increasing number of cars. And even the cement was put on weeks after the road was done. And as if walking on unfinished pavement isn't bad enough, we have to now deal with this big, deep hole. God knows how and why this happened, but I was glad I managed to notice it just feet before the hole. I saw this last Monday, and it's still here now - a week later. I'm guessing it is here to stay, since these people around here seem to be pretty happy about it. Maybe, unlike me, they all drive instead of walking down hill to get the public transport. Of course, it'...

The whole purpose of having a walkway is so that pedestrians have a path to walk on instead of venturing on to the side of the roads where motor vehicles zoom by. This sheltered walkway leads to some expensive highrise condominiums up Kerinchi Hill in Bangsar South (anything named or part-named Bangsar in Kuala Lumpur represents "prestigious living"). By all accounts, it should be a breezy walk on this walkway but it's really not the case. Not only it gets flooded on a stormy day, the locals have been abusing it to an unbelievable state. Rubbish everywhere If you are not one of those privilege enough to have a car, but have to walk up the hill every day, you'll know what I mean. You'll find rubbish, broken stools, mud left from the flood, etc, along the walkway as well as inside the wrecked open drain holes. It is disgusting yet hazardous, because you can easily trip and fall into the deep holes especially in the dark (no I have never seen the lights working). I ...

If you're ever coming in to Malaysia via Singapore, one of the most drastic differences you'd spot between the two vastly similar countries is the queueing system, especially when waiting for public transport. You may think that I'm joking, but hey, most Malaysians just can't queue! Just look at the picture below. Perhaps, it's because these bus stations do not have a very good platform system, so these people have no idea where to start standing (duh!). What's not helping is that, these buses also do not have a fixed timetable and you'll never know which bus would go first (no the first bus in the line is not always the first to go). But, even if you and your friends were to deliberately start a queue by standing neatly in a line (I have tried this experiment before), those who come after you would just hang around on your left, right, or loosely behind you, if not in front of you. And when the driver is spotted walking towards the bus, these people will al...

When it rains, I prefer to walk home from the train station as there is no poisonous hot sun and heat to kill me. So when it was stormy and raining dogs and cats this afternoon, I thought I'd take the train then have a cool walk up the hill. The moment I arrived at the walkway leading up the hill, all I could see was a muddy river (or more like a waterfall) rushing down towards me. There are drain holes along the walkway and some of the grill covers are missing or half broken, and there is no way one can walk up there safely in this condition. So I had to walk outside the walkway i.e. on the main road. When I finally walked up to one spot where the steps were not covered in angry muddy water, I went back on the walkway and found where the river started: What looks like a boiling evil spring (pictured above) is actually one of the drain holes. this must have been caused by a bad clog underneath that has forced the rain water out from the drain hole. On a stormy day like this in Mala...

Every year those who live in Malaysia and Singapore would somehow have to live through a 4- to 6-month period of haze. An age-old issue that has never seemed to be solved, is believed to be caused by the forest fires in Indonesia. Woke up this morning, I looked out the window to see hardly anything but a grey shade hovering my daily scenery. Telekom building is now a blurry silhouette and Mid Valley has disappeared! It looks really cool and misty on photograph, but the strong smell of smoke lingering in the back of your throat will bring you back to the cruel reality. There is nothing we can do if these farmers don't stop thoughtless burning. Just drink more water, perhaps wear a mask even when at home, AND do a rain dance!