(This is an ongoing online novel started as a fictionalised events of my life. Its based on true events not all experienced by me but there were some total fictions too)
Seremban was never the busy town like it is today until people started to realise that there are still places accessible from Kuala Lumpur but with a much lower cost of living. Thanks to our then Prime Minister, Seremban was connected to KL with a commuter service. Seremban could be said to be the last stop to a Japanese living for Malaysian where people commute every day to work. When I graduated from my university, Seremban was still the small town that I know. I went to school in the middle of the town and using that as a benchmark, I could see that the small town was just like how I left it 6 years ago. The mamak stall just at the foot of the hill of the State Mosque was still there. The bus station had changed from a 10-feet zink roofed open spaced type of shelter to a building with the name Terminal-1. There was even a movie theatre at the mall adjacent to it. A mall in Seremban! How times have changed the small town...
Seremban was never the busy town like it is today until people started to realise that there are still places accessible from Kuala Lumpur but with a much lower cost of living. Thanks to our then Prime Minister, Seremban was connected to KL with a commuter service. Seremban could be said to be the last stop to a Japanese living for Malaysian where people commute every day to work. When I graduated from my university, Seremban was still the small town that I know. I went to school in the middle of the town and using that as a benchmark, I could see that the small town was just like how I left it 6 years ago. The mamak stall just at the foot of the hill of the State Mosque was still there. The bus station had changed from a 10-feet zink roofed open spaced type of shelter to a building with the name Terminal-1. There was even a movie theatre at the mall adjacent to it. A mall in Seremban! How times have changed the small town...
I returned to Seremban after my graduation to start thinking about my future. There were a few options. Some of my friends were applying straight away to legal firms to start their chambering. Some entered the service under the AG's Chamber to become magistrates and Deputy Public Prosecutors. Some waited for calls for interviews so that they can enter to the coveted Pegawai Tadbir dan Diplomatik (Diplomatics and Administradion Officers) corps. Some just hung around their parents house lounging and had a holiday after 6 years of studies.
I choose to take that holiday although those 6 years of studies were nearly a 6 years of holiday for me (except when we were taking exams). I decided to take a tour around Malaysia. One of my friends who is a Sabahan decided to follow my lead. We hung around my mom place for 2 weeks first before we made our move.
It started with a trip by bus to the jetty of Kuala Kedah for us to get to Pulau Langkawi. We took the ferry and arrived there without booking a place to stay. We then called one of our senior who was practising there as a lawyer and crashed at his house. He was a Langkawi's native but lived in his own single storey houes. We were given the sofa as our bed and we took turn sleeping on it or the floor. As I know a girl there, who was my junior and as I always hung out with her when university was in session, we always spent time with her while we were there. As her father had a few cars, we were given the usage of a Honda Civic two-doors which was called 'Honda Mayat' which was one of my dream car, then. We used the car generously to get the layout of the island.
From Langkawi, we travelled to Penang using the Star Cruise which transitted in Langkawi from Phuket, then. That route is now defunct but even then there were not many people going on the boat from Langkawi. As Titanic was just shown the year before, we were still trying to recreate the scene between Rose and Jack. Pity that my travelling partner was a guy...
In Penang, we were greeted by one of my batch who was spending the time in his parent's house doing nothing. He already applied for a chambering place but still awaiting answers. What I remember most about this part of the trip was the old Mitsubishi Lancer owned by a friend of my friend which was driven by its owner like it was a race car. The car had no aircondition, had one light and was driven at 150kmph with the driver talking and smoking a cigarette at the same time. He was tailgating this lorry and had to do an emergency brake when the lorry swerved to let him past. Our car managed to stopped when the driver slammed the brake AND put his gear into 1st gear. Then he had the gall to explain the dynamic of how to stop a fast car without batting an eyelid. Even explained what would happened if he didn't manage to stop.
Penang was Penang and I would never get tired of it and after spending 2 days there we went back to Seremban before planning to go somewhere else. I think suddenly we lost momentum and just lounged around my parent's house. After 2 weeks, my friend decided to go back to Sabah and reality starts to sink in. We realised that we now have to work for a living and the first thing I did was to go to see my potential master (mistress?)
1 comment:
what a life then,as fresh as it is in your memory, the same goes to me...
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