Whinges of an Alien

I've not been whingeing for so many years now, I must've grown to be more tolerating and forgiving. Just when the slightest of that thought hits me, I saw this AGAIN today: a pile of unused remaining cement and bits & pieces of construction materials being left unattended by the KL Gateway Station. I believe these are construction debris from the building of KL Gateway mall and the connecting link bridge to the station, and these are left right under the bridge. So what happens after the latest shopping mall in town is completed and launched? Perhaps conveniently forgetting to clear out all rubbish, is an option. This pile is not only creating dirt and pollution, is also an obstruction and a hazard to pedestrians and users of the station. Oh yes I forgot - Malaysia is never known for its considerateness for non-car users 🙄 It's bizarre how this could've been overlooked; isn't it easier (and common sense!!) to just clean them up? Oh no no no, tha...

Just when you think I'm gone forever, I'm back in whinging mode again. This time it's our beloved public transport in Klang Valley, namely Rapid KL. Not to be horrible, but everything in Malaysia just seems to be a beat slower than other countries (except for our reckless drivers on the road), even getting on a bus! Apart from most people just love being so "laid back" and moving ever so slowly, this prepaid ticket device called Touch 'n Go also gets in the way. Touch 'n Go Device There is only 1 device installed each at the entrance and the exit of the bus (some hidden in a narrow corner), so passengers will have to crowd to one corner to tap their cards on the device. Whilst doing that, they get in the way of those paying with cash, and vicé versa. What's worse is that, despite the card being called Touch 'n Go and the device clearly says "touch", the last thing you can do is touch! Because the device will then tell you off in a v...

This afternoon, I went to Giant Supermarket in Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. The security guard at the entrance stopped me and demanded me to leave my handbag in an open cupboard (note: not a safe locker). Well for those who are not familiar with this, you may want to know that there is a funny rule here in Malaysia where certain supermarkets require customers to leave their shopping bags in the cupboard prepared by the supermarket. If you insist on having them they will lock the bags with cable ties so that you can't steal anything with those bags. They will usually let the ladies bring have their handbags in but God forbids, they somehow think that I may steal the whole shop with my "gigantic" handbag. So I refused and told them that it is in fact my handbag and I will not leave my handbag with them. He then demanded to know the content of my bag which I refused again because he simply did not have the rights to invade my privacy. Then he decided that he will lo...

Whilst the hole on the pavement in Bangsar South is still wide open, they've just topped themselves by doing this just less than 50m up from the very hole: The hole is just by the 4wd which you can see parked further down. This pile of building waste has been here since January and I'm guessing like the hole, it is here to stay. Oh by the way, these cars are parked illegally by the pavement. The car owners/drivers have either gone to the shops on the right or to the road side restaurant on the left in the picture. And right after that 4wd that is where the traffic lights are, so yes they are parked right at the traffic light. This, can only happen in Malaysia. What's wrong with these people?!

"Malaysia Truly Asia". Have no freaking idea what it means, but THAT is the tagline for the Malaysia Tourism Board advertising campaign all over the world, particularly targeted at countries where the sun doesn't scorch your skin, and where there isn't an average daily temperature of 34C all year round. In it you'll see pretty snapshots of white sand beaches, blue skies, blue sea, clean places and good food. Obviously, they will never show you this -- Signboards (put up as directional boards to weddings, loan shark advertisements, etc) and rubbish on the road side, pavement, and in between plants on one of the major motorways in Kuala Lumpur: A pay phone booth (without the phone) filled with litter: OR, their infamous public toilets (although there has been some "improvement" in certain shopping centres only recently), or those people who burn their rubbish openly and frequently. And they're so proud...

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 ...