Cuti-cuti Malaysia Part I

It’s four. Not three as initially planned. That’s the number of states I’ve been to since Thursday until Monday. One day, one state.

On Thursday evening, after Zohor, I made my way to Seremban from KL Sentral boarding a commuter train (RM6 per journey) which took approximately 75-80 minutes. It was a nostalgic journey as it reminded me of the same route I took for weekend getaway to KL when I was a student in Kuala Pilah back in the 2000. Nothing much could be said about the view throughout the ride. Except for a makcik, whose house was beside the railway, hanging her laundry on the clothesline, wearing a kemban, bra strap showing, both shoulders and on the back. Talk about pencemaran budaya, in all it’s glory.

The chugging of the train was hypnotizing. Managed to get a few shut eyes before being woken up by a man talked LOUDLY on the phone, as though he was talking to ANOTHER person on the OTHER side of the train. Phone etiquette 101 – even though you’re talking to the person who is on the other side of the world, across 7 seas, 7 continents, 7 wonders of the world, for goodness sake, you’re talking on the phone, within your earshot. Maybe the other man on the other side is hard on his hearing. Geez, don’t have to enlighten us with the content of your conversation though. Oh yeah, irritating ring tones don’t help much either.

Journey by commuter 101 – ALWAYS, and I do mean ALWAYS secure a seat facing the same directions as where the train is heading when boarding the train. Or you’ll risk alighting white faced (or green faced) with the content of your stomach halfway up your throat. As it was in my case.

Seremban is not much different than my last visit, around 1 and half years ago. My mom’s hotel stood majestically on top of the hill, fronting by the green lush of the Lake Garden. In between the hotel and the train station, there’s a shopping mall, a fast food restaurant and the garden. I was tempted to walk all the way there. You know, a bit of retail therapy in Seremban Parade, cross the street to quench the thirst with an A&W Rootbeer float, then burn off the calories by brisk walking in the garden, huffing and puffing my way up. It would take around 30mins of walking (and panting) including pit stops. But I was green faced remember. So I took a cab and pointed (yes, pointed) my destination.

RM5 poorer (it seems, that’s the flat rate or minimum rate for a taxi ride, just like in JB), I arrived at the hotel lobby, greeted by the cold rush of the air cons. While waited for Mak, went to the spacious surau and after that headed to the café (not before counting the RMs in my wallet, making sure there’s a decent amount left for me to pay for the meal). Carefully (I mean really carefully, since I only have rm15 left) I made my selection of bagel with tuna and mayo stuffing, with cheese, served with salads and fries which I swear tasted so similar to Mcd’s. All that for rm6.50 after tax. Which is cheap for a hotel standard, plus the serving size is wayyy huge. Only ate half of the bagel, and dog-bagged the rest for the journey to JB later in the evening.

Took a seat as secluded as possible (I hate eating alone in public), but somehow ended up beside a group of tubby and ciggie smoking YBs / pakciks, with thundering laugh, guzzling teh tarik one after another. I tried to look equally important too, so I took out my scribbling pad, reading, occasionally paused, looked up the ceiling as if in a very deep thoughts, jot down a line or two in an attempt to not looking displaced. Heheh. The meal came, and I tackled it with such gusto that I didn’t realize Mak’s waving at my direction. Paid and packed. Together with Mak and her friend, we made my way to JB, departed from the hotel at 6.30pm.

Arrived JB at 8.30pm. Mak did a 120-130kmh all the way on the highway. Salute!

To be continued.