Thursday, July 06, 2006

Public Transport - Day and Night

Last night I took a taxi from Jalan Ipoh back to Segambut. Told the taxi dude not to take Jalan Segambut - everyday there's a jam from 7pm - 10.30pm, I have no idea why. It's just is. It would make a lot of sense to widen Jalan Segambut, considering the number of people using it. But don't think anyone intends to do it - you'll know why when you go there.

So the alternative route I chose is Jalan Ipoh batu 3 - Jalan Duta round-about - Jalan Kuching - Taman SPPK - Taman Sri Sinar. Anyone familiar with this route? This particular taxi driver wasn't. Can't blame him lah. We were suppose to stick left to be able to turn into SPPK from Jalan Kuching, but we missed the turn. He stopped on the emergency lane, slowly go backwards, and managed to take the left turn.

I was too busy looking at the back to make sure we don't collide with any oncoming vehicle, I didn't pay attention to the fare metre to know how long and how much we wasted for his mistake. I was wondering if he would admit his mistake and give me a 50 cents discount. Wouldn't that be nice? I wasn't very hopeful though. Most probably we would not be mentioning that particular mistake of his and I'll just pay whatever is on the fare metre. Guess what happened?

I was half right. I arrived home and the fare was RM8.80. And then the shock of my life... Not only did he not give me a discount, he looked me in the eye and....

Taxi Driver: Bang, kasi RM10 boleh? Sebab tadi ada jam...
Me: (shocked, mouth wide open) masa jam pun ada charge 'kat metre kan?
Taxi Driver: (pissed and unhappy) ok lah... 9 ringgit lah.

I was too shocked, I tell you. Looking back at that incident, maybe I should have shouted "Nei mm hou gi gi kat kat ar!!"

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This morning I walked out of the house at 8.50am. Once I arrived at the bus stop, 219 bus (Rapid KL) came along and took me to the Segambut KTM station. Again the train immediately came and I reached the office at 9.30am.
40 minutes journey + RM2 = excellent transport system / lucky day??
I really don't mind the bus not coming around as frequent as every 20 minutes. 1 hour a bus is fine with me (non-rush hour)- as long as they come on time. At least we can manage our time better that way, don't ya think? I believe it will save Rapid KL a hell lot of operational cost too. Selah (meaning reflect, meditate, consider, ponder)....
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Ok this segment has nothing to do with public transport.
Our company gives fruits to us every Friday. Our admin staff came by just now as i was blogging to pass me 2 oranges. She said that these are "mandarin oranges - from Africa". Chinese people are everywhere it seems.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

haha..i understand your public transport bickering...

LOL,mandarin oranges from Africa!