As if to underscore the sentiments I expressed in my previous post, I had the most God-awful morning yesterday.

BAD MALAYSIAN TRAFFIC
It all started when I thought that leaving my mum’s place at 9am for my temporary office in KL was going to be a good idea. I thought that I would be avoiding the morning rush-hour by leaving later and that it would take me about 20 minutes to drive to the office. I was wrong. I was ever so wrong because yesterday was the day that KL had one of its worst traffic snarls that went on for miles and miles and for hours and hours.

I noticed the unusually bad traffic just as I was coming out of the area where my mum lives and decided to take a detour and see if I might not drive into the city via a different route. Sadly, the alternative I had considered was equally bad. So, I thought I would run an errand instead.

BAD MALAYSIAN ATTITUDE
I needed to buy a box from the post office to send a parcel back to Australia. I went to the nearest post office and asked for the largest box they had (this entire conversation was conducted in Malay). The girl behind the counter looked back at me for a good while before asking in a surprised voice, “just one?”, to which I replied in the affirmative. When she passed the box to me, I asked her if there were forms to complete in order to send a parcel to Australia. She then replied in the most condescending tone, “of course!”, implying, I presume that I was such an imbecile not to know this most obvious of facts. I ignored this and completed the transaction.

BAD MALAYSIAN PARKING
As I came out of the post office, I noticed that the traffic situation had not improved. I then thought it wise to go for a late-heavy-breakfast (and thus skip lunch later). I went to the nearest shops and started looking for (A) a place to eat and (B) parking, legal parking. I could have easily parked illegally but I didn’t think that it was the right thing to do. Consequently, I ended up driving in circles for a good thirty to forty minutes as not only was parking scarce but the traffic in that area was routed in such a way as to make you go in circles. The situation was probably compounded by other drivers who also thought it a good idea to escape the traffic situation by having a mid-morning cuppa. I ultimately gave up - remember, I had been driving in circles for a good half hour at least - and went to another part of the city where there was a hypermarket with relatively easier parking.

BAD NON-MALAYSIAN SERVICE
I went to a Malaysian Indian restaurant, called “mamaks” here. These restaurants used to be staffed by Malaysian Indians but these days, they are almost unanimously staffed by Indians from India. As I sat down, Indian #1 came and asked me what I wanted. I asked for a “roti tissue” (something that I only discovered on this trip back to KL). Indian #1 repeated “roti” and I quickly corrected him and said “roti tissue” (which is different from just “roti”). He looked at me slightly quizzically but nevertheless repeated “roti tissue“. I then told him what I wanted to drink. Indian #1 then conferred with Indian #2 who was standing nearby. Indian #2 obviously understood what “roti tissue” was because he then came to me and told me that it would cost MYR4 and made sure that I still wanted it. I said yes and proceeded to ignore both of them and read my newspaper. I was sitting there a good while, in fact, I had finished reading the main section of the newspaper, and yet the food or drink still did not arrive. But by then, Indian #3 came round and asked if I had place an order. I will spare you the details of this exchange but suffice to say that it became apparent to me that my earlier order was not going to turn up and that if I wanted to stay in that restaurant I was going to have to place the order again. I decided to pack up and walk out instead. Abruptly, in mid-conversation with Indian #3 I might add.

I quickly walked over to another restaurant located nearby and ordered a typical Malaysian breakfast dish (”nasi lemak“) and an ice-tea from a waiter of indeterminate race or nationality. After reading another section of my newspaper, the drink arrived. They brought me a hot tea. You can imagine my expression when I turned to the waiter and said that I had ordered ice-tea. He promptly took the hot tea away. My “nasi lemak” eventually arrived, though before the ice-tea, so I had to wait before eating as I was really thirsty by this time but I otherwise had a good meal and thought that things might finally look up. I was wrong. Oh so wrong.

UGLY MALAYSIAN
When I had finished my meal, I went up to the cashier to pay the bill. I was asked for the number of my table but I wasn’t sure of it as I hadn’t paid attention. He called up a bill anyway and asked if it was mine. I said no. Before he could do anything, a Chinese lady yelled from behind me, “that’s ours! that’s ours!”, and proceeded to thrust a MYR50 note at the cashier. She said, “sorry” but I’m quite certain she wasn’t. The cashier said, “sorry” but he’s a spineless idiot to accept her behaviour. By this time, I was seething from the morning’s series of unfortunate incidents that I stood motionless and bit my tongue because I knew that if I let it loose, I would not only have been caustic but I would also have demonstrated that words when wielded by those capable can inflict much more pain than sticks and stones.

INSECURE AND FEARFUL MALAYSIANS
The rest of the transaction with the cashier was completed with nary a word exchanged and I got back on the road. I took a tolled bypass to get into the city but sadly, although it had been two hours since I first left my mum’s place, traffic was as bad as ever. By this time, I caught on that the authorities had blockaded the roads around the Parliament fearing that Malaysian activists would gather and demonstrate in front of the building despite the police having earlierdenied their request for a permit to assemble publicly (yes, Malaysians need permits to assemble publicly. read this.). There has been a series of public demonstrations and assemblies (all unauthorised) in the past few months and the authorities are particularly sensitive at present. The entire exercise on the part of the authorities, if you asked me, is driven by fear and insecurity but that’s a subject for another post altogether.

A VERY UNHAPPY MALAYSIAN
Anyway… so the traffic snarled. And it was precisely the area next to the Parliament that was my destination as it is where my office is located! As I was egging along in the very slow traffic… *bump*… someone had sidled up the back of the vehicle I was driving.

And that ladies and gentlemen, really was the last straw.

I am well and truly over KL.

Posted on December 12th, 2007 by jl
Filed under: Fieldwork