The worst thing I hate about Malaysia at this point in time is its transportation system.

Now with oil prices sky-high, most people rely on the public transportation system (PTS from now on ok) to get around, but personally, after a few months of commuting using our lovable, community-centered KTM system every morning, I conclude that it not only wastes precious time, but also results in various side effects to your health such as high blood pressure and headaches, oh and add a few extra strands of white hair to that list too. Because really, to depend on our absolutely efficient PTS (the KTM in particular) would suck every ounce of energy and patriotism out of you. Not that you had much of the latter to start off with anyway, but still.

Case in point: most mornings I get up at ungodly hours, ie 6.30am and rush out of the house by 6.45am to catch the 7.11am train. Yes, it takes about half-a-freakin-hour to get to the babited train station from my house ever since school reopened. Oh the halcyon days of last week when the roads were clear all the way to college. For those of you who aren't me, it would be easy for you to tell me to get up earlier to beat the jam. But you try being me for one day and see if my body works before 6.30?

Today I reached the station right on the dot, and of course I had to go to the counter to buy the ticket since touch n go...oh that's another story altogether. Read along now. So they changed the person who mans the ticket counter, and now it's this sour faced man who never smiles or speaks and worst of all, moves like a sloth. Even when he sees the train arriving and knows that unlike him, people might actually be in a hurry. Really, it takes every muscle in my body to restrain myself from punching his annoying i-could-care-less-if-you-miss-the-train-because-of-me face. Thank god there wasn't a queue this morning. So as the train arrived, I grabbed the ticket from the idiot with my heart pounding, pecuted all the way up the bridge to the other side and rushed into the train just as the doors were closing. There was this guy behind me who could have entered at the last minute (well I definitely would have) but I think he got a little chickened out by the closing doors and decided to step back and look dejected instead. For a few minutes after that I hyperventilated while my legs felt like jelly. You know if I keep this up everyday for the rest of the semester, I'm pretty sure I don't need to be as old as my dad to get high blood pressure.

The stupid KTM comes once every 20 minutes, assuming optimistically there is no delay or breakdown of some sort. I took the liberty to google the train schedules of some other countries. Just Asia la ok, noneed compare with the canggih European countries all. In Japan, trains come once every 2-5 mins during rush hour, and every 4-8 mins during daytime. In Singapore, every 2-5 mins. In Thailand, every 3-6 mins. In Taiwan, every 4-7 mins and in Korea, 2-3 mins during rush hours. Which means that for everytime I pull a stunt like the one this morning but miss the train anyway by a few seconds and then wait another 20 minutes to catch the next train, 10 trains would have gone by in Korea. Ok worst case scenario, 6 trains would have gone by. If Malaysia had that kind of scheduling, even with the occasional delay or whatever, my life would still be bliss.

Of course I don't need to apprise you of the various other shitty issues you have to deal with when taking the KTM. The squashed-up-like-sardines issue is one, but honestly inconsequential compared to the stress I deal with just to get on the train.

Oh and I told you I was gonna complain about touch n go too. Basically, using it to board the KTM is a bad idea, because i discovered that the machine deducts RM10 erratically for no apparent reason sometimes. To date I have lost about RM30. Calls to the careline center only returned unconvincing reassurances that they will "monitor" the refund process, as well as the routine "please write an email to appeal" nonsense. An email later, all I got was a subtle get-out-of-our-hair reply that they will check with the KTM to see what can be done *roll eyes*

I'm on a campaign to get everyone to stop using touch n go at the KTM. So please, pass the word around for the sake of your and your friends' wallets.

Is it any wonder that everybody is on an exodus out of Malaysia? I would join them too the second I get the chance to.

Most mornings I'd have a discussion with Edeline on the way to coll about how teruk this country is. But really when I think about it, I LOVE this country. I love the islands, the rainforests, the quaint little kampung houses, the historical sites, the culture, the food. If I were living in Europe or something, Malaysia would be on my list of countries to vacation at every year. But the thing is, I LIVE here. When you live here and have to deal with the host of blockheads who govern this country, Malaysia becomes a real shitty place.

OK, I've finished complaining.

It's quite fun to meet people at the station sometimes though. I met Poh Leong once and he made me feel lots better after I spent 45 minutes waiting for the train in Subang. Yes 45 minutes. And it would make anyone seeth if you were to go through what I went through that day. I missed one train by 5 seconds (pecuting wasn't enough) and then other two trains which were supposed to come in the next 40 minutes were delayed. Sial or not you tell me.

Yesterday i met Jo-Lyn at the station after I missed the train by 30 seconds. Talking to her made me feel heaps better. We were having this conversation about her red eye, and we were trying to remember the word contagious, but you know how some words languish around in the deep recesses of your brain and take a whole lot of mental acrobatics just to make it resurface? So we think la, think think think, think thank thunk...

And then she exclaimed: CONTAGIOUS!

And we broke the moody silence among all the commuters irritated by the KTM with our earth-shattering laughter. That was so fun.

I'm glad I don't have to take the train for the rest of the week wahoooooooooo!

Omg I'm so excited for tomorrow!!!

***

I've been having this question for quite some time but forgot about it.

You know how we say if Adam and Eve hadn't sinned, we would all live forever because sin wouldn't have entered the world?

But really when you think about it, if they hadn't sinned, don't you think their children, or children's children, or at some point in the family tree, someone would have eaten the fruit anyway? And then sin would have entered the world anyway right?

I was gonna say that it's the question I would ask God in heaven, but I suddenly remember Aslan in Narnia saying something along the lines of "you will never know what did not happen".

What was the quote again? Someone do some mental acrobatics and remind me please.