Confessions of an Idllyic Mind: Memoirs of KL ..

Memoirs of KL ..

Posted by *Mandiekins*

I am usually not a patriotic person. You are reading from a girl that has not been singing the Negaraku since she was 10 yrs old. A teacher advised us not to sing at all if we didnt feel like it. I guess i just took that advice to heart. However, at the very mention of the glorious and wonderous name of Kuala Lumpur, I get over-excited, exhilarated, like the Tom cruise jumping on Oprah's couch kinda excited.. Buckets of verbal vomit on the pros of living in KL would just flow out from me. I love this city so much!

I was born in the Chinese Maternity Hospital on the 27th of Oct, 1984. This hospital is situated in Pudu, KL, opposite the KL bus port (the most polluted area in the whole of Malaysia), 10 minutes from Petaling Street, 20 minutes from Sungei wang and the whole of the Bintang Walk area. I guess this was the beginning of the growth of my love for KL. I didnt care if cabbies often harras ppl to get into their cabs, i didnt care of bangladeshis are taking over my beloved petaling street (chinatown), I didnt care if indonesian laborers stare at you when u pass by, I didnt care if chinese ah bengs wearing shiny bell bottoms goes around selling illegal porn vcds to passerbys, I JUST DIDNT CARE ! These are not deterrants to me loving my birth place. What would be a deterrant is if i were raped by a gang of indonesian laborers in front of a gawking crowd.

I have this strange hobby. Call it weird but it's what i do when i wanna be happy. I would get up real early, wear baggy clothes (to avoid unwanted attention), and just hop into my car and drive off to visit my most favorite place on earth, Petaling St.

"Eww but it's dirty, Eww it stinks" .. I get a lot of these statements when i do tell ppl bout my hobby. Stop being such a ninipoo. Not every place that you visit is going to smell like jasmines.

Anyways, i usually get there by 8am. Just in time to look at stores being opened. YAY! Food vendors would be busily preparing their cooking ingredients, salesgirls are sharing gossips while sweeping the store front, Street vendors busily pushing their carts around. The whole place just begins to light up. I believe that true happiness comes from the very simple pleasures in life. The aroma of a fresh bowl of wan tan mee from a back alley food vendor brings a certain warmness to my heart. The sight of half drunken old men in an old liquor shops brings a smile to my face. They can be drunk at 11am in the morn ok. It's just indescribable. Everything is a feast for the senses to me.

So as i stroll along the dirty and stinky streets, I'm constantly reminded of my childhood. My mom would take me mini-KL excursions since i was just 2 yrs old. We would catch a bus there. If i was a good girl that day she would reward me with a whole cup of kopi-peng to myself (i'm just 4 yrs old then) and one or two disney video tapes to watch at home. She would teach me how to be street wise, always look out for bargains and where to get the best tasting food. These lessons never stop even till now. We had a new mom n daughter assignment b4 i left for perth. She helps in arranging flowers in church on saturdays. So to get the freshest and most gorgeous flowers we would have to get to the petaling st florists EARLY in the morn. Since she was a frequent customer, we were allowed into the cooler where they store all the imported flowers. The room was SO fragrant. The garden of eden must have looked like that.

Oh ya, one tip from my mom. Avoid getting fancily wrapped roses from the florist which costs over rm 100 for a bunch. Roses are actually dirt cheap. The materials tat they use in wrapping the roses are also dirt cheap as they buy in bulk. They over charge for the labor and materials.

Now how can i not love KL when my bestest friend in the whole wide world, my mom, shares and encourages this passion for this city with me. So i dedicate this post to those people that makes KL what it is - unique, one of a kind. The colors, the smells and the sounds ...