JYSim for jobless-yokel Sim

Sunday, 20th August - KTM from Butterworth to Sentral Kuala Lumpur, overnight train. We stupidly booked the upper cubicles (bunk bed coaches), which are cheaper, but with relatively less head space. I purposely exhaust myself out so that I can lie flat and sleep all the way to KL. However, a Jap baby was making noise non-stop beside my cubicle, and later an Indian family came in and they talked about their daughter’s convocation at USM late into the night. Bed was clean but uncomfortable, so i literally tossed 4 to 5 hours (till 1am) before falling asleep. Train ride not fun at all.
Monday, 21st August - Arrival at KL Sentral delayed 30 minutes, KL Sentral absolutely beautiful, of course it’s all OUR money, and not 100% used up (i mean rasuah). My always-helpful aunt took us to breakfast, and reassured us we’ll get to Putrajaya on time. The ministry opens at 8.30 sharp and it’s no use getting there earlier as the whole place is completely deserted like Sahara. Later my aunt drove ‘very quickly’ to Putrajaya, and ‘we might be lost’ for several times before successfully locating an odd-building on top of a hill. My number was 1011, and to process 11 customers, they took 1.5 hours.
10.30pm - desperate decisions were made and we agreed to take the LRT to Bukit Bintang so as to avoid the morning traffic. LRT functional, and this led me into believing someday our capital’s transit system will be as good as Taipei’s, or perhaps London’s Underground. Traffic static in front of Pudu and Bukit Bintang. Taxi actually got stuck stationarily for 20 minutes, and when we were finally ‘in front of Eden Restaurant’, we discovered that the building is actually 2 stories only (in contrary to Taipei Economic and Cultural Office’s address: 7th Floor, Menara Yayasan Tun Razak).
11.55pm - I called up the office again and scolded the reception. she passed me to her supervisor, who immediately told me to walk down a few more blocks to find an RHB Bank. Office closes at 12 noon, and by then I was running like all typical scenes in The Amazing Race. Sadly I wore sandles, and my foot was blistering already. By 11.57 I banged into the office, but I went to the wrong department.
***commercial break***
12.05 noon - My passport had been accepted for my visa application, my wallet is RM384 lighter. My certs were being screened yet and later another RM84 went off. My only consolation was that all of these will be processed by today and I can collect them at 3.30 later and left Selfish, Smoggy, Arrogant KL.
12.20pm - Dad and I bought bus tickets KUL-PEN. I was sweating like an elephant and the cancerous air inside Puduraya didn’t help at all. After that we took the LRT again back to Sri Petaling (my aunt’s house) for a short break and lunch. LRT still functional.
2.56pm - My aunt fetched us back to the station and we hopped in. Seeing so many people assembled there I assumed the train was coming really soon.
3.30pm - No trains yet, and a pregnant woman is really getting mad. She mumbles at nobody and stands way out of the yellow line. The PA informed passengers about the delay, but no further explanation was given. I roughly estimated my schedule and knew I’ll need three miracles - train comes immediately, no traffic jams downtown, office do not close by 4.30.
***commercial break***
3.34pm - a half-packed train arrives and needless to say, after adding all waiting passengers, it’s like a can of mobile sardines. 20 minutes more to Pudu, and we immediately got a taxi (who so coincidentally passed the way because he’s bypassing a huge jam outside).
4.03pm - stuck in massive, static traffic jam in god-knows-where, taxi meter ticking as usual, but most importantly time is ticking away fast and we’re doomed if we do not make another desperate decision, even if it means getting ourselves baked under the sun and maybe getting crashed by ruthless RapidKL buses or motorists.
4.16pm - If you saw two figures running with backpacks around Times Square around that time, it’s not Amazing Race contestants but me and my Dad. We ran down Times Square, passed a whatever Hotel and made our way to a relatively traffic free street. No taxi avaliable.
4.25pm - An Indian taxi driver approached and we told him we gotta get to this stupid office by 4.30. He drove so slowly we argued and finally struck a deal - RM10 and he’ll guarentee we’ll get there on time. Indians.
4.29pm - I banged into the office again, and collected my documents within minutes. My whole body was aching and I can feel carbohydrates hydrolising beneath the skin.
4.35pm - We took another taxi to Puduraya for our bus back to Penang. Taxi driver was friendly, he bypassed some jammy streets and got us to the as-if-it-had-been-a-warzone building after filling up petrol and telling us who got knocked down at which street and why you shouldn’t come and stay in KL.
4.49pm - Successfully boarded our bus. Back in Penang in 4.5 hours time.

Hail CLHS - for preparing my leaving certs, graduation certs, and results sheet in 3 languages, so that the officer in Taipei Office won’t have any reasons to reject my application
Praise my Dad and Aunt - for running about like contestants of The Amazing Race with me
Many thanks to my friends in Penang - who put up with my uncertain schedule
and thank God for getting us through successfully today (except the LRT thing and traffic jam issue).
The Amazing Race hereby declared complete. Jun Yi will, in his remaining life, not do anything of these sort again except in extreme circumstances i.e. Malaysia being attacked, migration, marrying a foreign wife etc.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 21st, 2006 at 8:44 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.