On public transport

I spent my higher secondary taking public transport in the form of badly maintained buses. From school to tuition, and from tuition to home. Due to the inconvenient nature of the bus routes, I had to take bus from tuition to a certain bus stop near dad's office, so that he could pick me up and take me home.

Those days there was nothing much to complain about on the public transport, except the routes, lack of punctuality, cleaniness-lack of it, rude drivers.. ok.. almost everything.. ok.. so we didnt complain cos we ultimately had no choice. No certain (un)fortunate rainy days, I was allowed to take cab, who in the end also charged quite a lot but then again, not under my control, neither my fault.

Fast forward to present day... I have been used to travelling in my own vehicle, or at least dad's, ever since form 6 days... ever since then taking public transport has been pain in the @$$, literally, cos the roads are bumpy, and the buses are in tip-top(not!) condition, which I only experienced when I was in UPM, travelling campus to pudu and back.. was never ever a nice thing to do.

Ok.. back to present day, being in Singapore, I am now forced to being used to the public transport scene here, and my I gotta say, apart from the crowd, rush, and no-so-cheap fares, the experience has been pretty pleasant. And it was most prominent when recently, due to certain turn of events, I had to catch a bus from my neightbourhood to town, gosh i was in for a surprise, and only then I started appreciating my travelling in Singapore. Firstly, the bus condition, was dirty.. I mean not just dusty or trash lying around, but it has dirty greasy marks all over, even on the ceiling (I suppose the mechanic working on the bus did not bother keeping his hands clean). Secondly, super friendly bus-driver.. well she was like talking to the passengers, well more like shouting, commenting on the traffic conditions and what-not... and next, she even started smoking as if this is her own house or something, let me remind you, this is a air-con bus. The bus was stopping in the middle of every single road, there were not even a single bus stop... ok i guess this experience was just a culture shock after being used to the systematic singapore environment...

It was not such a rude shock, just a plain shock, seeing how different things can be in these 2 places... you know as they say, phir bhi dil hai malaysian (after all my heart is malaysian)