Thursday, November 4, 2010

Back from China

As the plane touched down on LCCT I thought, tomorrow will be back to normal. And I realized how much I've missed the familiarity (just the familiarity, not Malaysia itself) - the broken English, the slow pace as opposed to the fast speed in Shanghai, the hot and humid weather, the comparatively peaceful traffic, nasi lemak, and the thought of having a good meal at home made me smile.

I started to salute my brother, who had gotten very used to the life in Shanghai. It wasn't as easy as I had thought, to get used to a city where people walk faster than you, and some of them spit on the floor. And the food tasted so... weird. And I found it difficult to understand what the people say when they talk real fast. Well, money and self-satisfaction are some important driving forces I guess.

The plane delayed 1.5 hours so we reached Malaysia at about 9pm. We took the free shuttle bus from LCCT to Salak Tinggi station and from there depart to KL Central by the KLIA Transit.

 First time on a KLIA Transit. Totally empty.

If only the public transportation in Malaysia is as efficient, as frequent, as cheap, as reliable, as punctual, as in China, that would surely save us a lot of trouble. I mean, people in China could actually walk to the nearest subway. But in Malaysia, we have to drive to the nearest LRT station, because if we walk it'd probably take us 3 hours or more. In some places, public transportation was not accessible at all. This is just so stupid.

Reaching home at 11pm with an empty stomach was not a good feeling. After dinner and TV I went straight to bed and fell soundly asleep without a single dream...

P.S. My next few posts will be about my trip to Shanghai and Hangzhou. Looking forward to it. ;)

5 comments:

David Batista said...

Your description of Shanghai is very much what it's like to live here in New York City. I walk very, very fast and get annoyed at all the slow-poke tourists around! :) And, yes, it only takes me 5 minutes to walk from my home to the train station. And only 1 minute from the station to my office. Very convenient.

I've never been to Shanghai before, but Beijing is even worse than what you describe. Crazy crowded traffic, especially on the public buses. And it seems like EVERYBODY spits on the ground there.

I can't wait to read your trip report on Hangzhou/Shanghai!

thE gEOgrAphicAlly blind said...

I'm one of the slow-poke tourists haha... no matter how hard I try I can't keep up with the locals. As for the traffic, I seriously salute the taxi and bus drivers' skills. They can miss other vehicles by centimeters. Whenever there were slow-poke drivers they blare their honk like nobody's business. Lolz.

MODERN ROBINSON CRUSOE said...

Must be Nice experience - So lucky - It's good to witness first-hand spitting on wide-scale basis though LOL - jz joking :)

shinyin said...

looking forward for more posts...
see you had an eventful trip..

thE gEOgrAphicAlly blind said...

sure =) i just updated... hopefully can be a reference for those who plan to go shanghai/hangzhou =)