View From Above

Last night, due to the awful KL traffic and sporadic rain, I ditched my car in the office and decided to brave our public transport.

I Putra-ed and Monorail-ed it to my destination in town for dinner. And I've decided that our public transport lacks one thing - loud New York black chicks.

Riding the New York subway used to be one of my most memorable things to do in the US. Inevitable there would always be a pair of women, usually large, usually Black, with giant faux gold ear rings (I'm talking the kind that should be pendants) who board the train. And they would proceed to converse in high decibels about very private details of their lives.

"Ya know, I told hiym, you shud'nt disrespekt me. I mean, bein' his baby mama n' all, the least he shud do is gimme some money to feed his baby."
"Mm-hmmph, I hear ya.."
"I mean, he came home last night all busted up n' all... And he saw Candy!"
"Nuh-uhhhh he di'nt.."
"Uuuh-huuuhhh he sho' did. Ho. She needs to stay away from ma man."
"Whadjuh say?"
"I told him, if I so much as ketch him sniffin' round her ass, I'd make sure he nevr saw Sheniquah again..."
"You go gurrl.... I wu'nt let my baby father do that shit round me neither, ya know..."
"Ya know...."

I never knew which was funnier. Them, or the people around them who all pretended to be listening to their Walkmans/reading the New York Times, sleeping, or concentrating on looking like they didn't speak English.

The other thing we lack is romance. I remember one time, riding the subway to Brooklyn, when I saw a man. He was a beautiful man, kept to himself, carried a big rucksack. He looked too funky to be from out of town, but a little lost. He and I both got off at the wrong station, and then he approached me to ask for directions which I couldn't give.

He ended up getting off at my station and walking behind me half the way until he turned off another street. My friend, whose brown stone I was staying in said I'd had "an episode." Apparently, lucky few have those in New York. Somehow, I can't see it happening here.

Instead, we have...
Executive types who look like some alien dropped them into a Putra carriage by mistake..
Migrant workers who are even shorter than ME!
Little frail Chinese girls who stick their fingers in their ears every time the station announcement comes on, or the doors beep loudly
A great many people who suffer from BO
Mat Salleh travellers who have never travelled extensively, and hence leave their purses on the ground while they adjust their backpacks
and
Weirdos like me who ride the train, eyes gawking at the totally different view of KL she gets from the elevated position of monorail carriages.

I never realised how interesting KL really is. If you follow the LRT routes into town you'll inevitably spot some anomalies. Unlike a more organised city, KL really is a pieceof patchwork. In a blink, you'll pass from a monstrous new mall to a derelict post-World War II building, to a sleepy petrol station on a very busy road, to a small pocket of shanties.

I guess that's what they mean by getting a bird's eye perspective of things. It certainly gives you a different slant.