Cannot la...

Found this video on YouTube, and it happened to be posted by my friend Roy Lim! I wonder if he has got anything to do with this video...






I don't really understand the 3rd video... Why must he buy a campaign, radio, TVCs (whatever that is...) and TV ads to get a discount? Can someone explain...?

KL Monorail

I read in The Star Online that MTrans, the company that brought us the monorail in Kuala Lumpur (remember the freak incident where one of the tyres of the train broke loose and hit a pedestrian some time ago?) is proposing a line extension that would reach high populated areas like Subang Jaya, OUG and Puchong. There are 4 proposed lines namely the Subang Jaya (SJ)line, Petaling Jaya (PJ) line, Sungai Buloh line and the Cheras line. While I highly applaud the decision to improve public transportation that KL desperately needs, I beg to differ that this proposal will bring much benefit to my beloved city. Here are a few reasons why:

1. TIME. The monorail that is used right now is slow as a snail! A monorail is only beneficial for short distance transport as it has the capability to maneuver small roads and reach narrow or dense areas. Imagine, it took me about 10 minutes to get from KL Sentral to Hang Tuah station. That I think is a pretty short distance, waiting time included. Imagine taking the monorail all the way from Subang Jaya to the city! I would need to wake up at around 6.30am to reach work in the city which starts at 9am. That's about the normal time I get up to get to school which starts earlier!
2. CAPACITY & SIZE. Having only 2 puny coaches to cater for thousands of commuters in each of these highly populated townships is crazy! They claim that the monorails can extend its capacity to 4 coaches per train and fit 400 people. Are they counting 400 babies?!?!?! "Dude, have you ever sat on your own monorail? The last time I sat on it was during rush hour, the train wardon was standing there not to protect us from falling onto the lines, but to push us into the coaches and squeeze as many people in there as possible! The oversized western tourists in there were bowing their heads as the ceiling was too short. I'm 5'10" and my head is already almost brushing the ceiling!"... says my inner monoloque to the developers of the monorail.
   
3. PRACTICALITY & IMAGE. The proposed lines actually go into the most established townships that drive the majority of the blue collar workforce of KL. Sitting on a monorail to work just sounds lame. Do you want to boast your city being run by monorails or by an advanced mass transit system like AT LEAST the Light-Rail-Transit? In fact, it does not go directly to the city; referencing from USJ, it loops through Subang Jaya (pick up 300 people), Petaling Jaya (pick another 300 people), Sugai Buloh (another 100 people) THEN arrive KL and drop off passengers slowly. How can a monorail take that much. Next thing we know the coach drops its wheels, fall onto more pedestrians, and the whole coach just falls to the ground having said that it is MADE IN MALAYSIA! Enough said...
4. INTEGRATION. Okay, maybe I could have interchanged at one of the LRT stations where it has more capacity. But I want a seemless ride. I don't want to change too much right? So I take the Subang Jaya line. Oh wait, I have to pass through Puchong (pick up 500 people), Sri Sentosa (pick 200), OUG (another 200), Taman Desa (100 more). What more, this line runs closely parallel to the all the other current rail systems (KTM, Star, Putra).

This just won't work! To be able to commute comfortably, a more systematic system needs to be set up. Here's my 5 cents opinion on how the monorail should be set up.

1. Let the monorail be complements to the existing LRT system by being feeder lines to the LRT stations. For example, they can setup a link that connects passengers from the Sri Petaling LRT Station to the surrounding areas like Sri Petaling itself, OUG and Kuchai Lama. Or even connect commuters from the Abdullah Hukum Station its surrounding areas in PJ.
2. Have the monorail make more stops within the feeder route if you want to fill the coaches to have profitability. This will also encourage people to leave their cars at home effectively as people wouldn't want to walk too far. Currently, many people still have to drive to the LRT stations, find a parking space and take the ride to the city. Imagine having commuters literally leave their cars at home and walk to the Monorail station that arrives frequently (I say this because monorails have the capability to be more efficient in schedule than feeder busses).
   

The monorail should be feeders to the current LRT system, period. It hasn't got the capability to be main trunk rail lines to service the growing city. If the monorails were to complement the LRT, the LRTs should increase frequency (Star LRT) and increase capacity (adding more coaches for the Putra LRT). I say this because I notice that the Star LRT train lenght has entended the full lenght of the station platform and the Putra LRT with only 2 coaches hasn't reached the length of the platform. Most important of all, INTEGRATION! I can actually see all the way from the US the development of the city's transport system clearly as I go back periodically and notice the differences, that KL is doing alot to improve the transport system. I'm only worried that the government will non-chalantly approve proposals without studying them properly for the long run. Look what happened to Star, Putra, KTM, CityBus, and Intrakota some time ago. No integration at all. With RapidKL taking over all these systems, and attempting to integrate them all, I would like to comment that their form of integration have not tackled the core problem. Sure, you can offer a standard ticket, Touch-N-Go, and have the same logo, but I would like to someday start my day walking to the free trolley/bus stop 1 block away which arrives at 7am, take the monorail which just arrives as I arrives at the station platform, interchange to the LRT which is waiting for me to enter across the same platform the monorail arrives, and walk to the office 2 blocks away or take a city trolley/bus to wherever I want to go. My point is, SCHEDULING! Time is money, and if the system can effectively and reliably manage the coordination of all systems, we have a world class transport system even US can envy.

Spring Break 2006 Report

WooooooHoooooo~~~!!! Ogga-ogga woot~ woot~! Brrrlp~brrrlp!

Sean gets crazy in Miami as claimed by observers! Yep, it’s been a long time since I dropped the bag and set free. I like to stay optimistic, so I'm gonna say that this year's Spring Break (probably my last in my academic life) was a blast! And I just love it that my birthday always fall on Spring Break! It's get down and mov'it for me~

The Drive Down
After frantically trying to finish my work before leaving for our 24 hour drive down to Miami, it didn't take me long to get my stuff and rush to Su & Chia's place where we departed from there. Was quite pleased with the van for 7 people compared to the one I took last year on my road trip to New York. This Dodge Grand Caravan was more spacious and had many places to store things. Nevertheless, it is a 24 hour drive so it was not the most pleasant ride of your life.

We arrived in Florida, stopping at Daytona Beach first to have lunch.

It was worrying to see Daytona Beach so crappy as we all knew Daytona Beach as one of the better beaches in the East Coast. So we continued on our journey down to West Palm Beach to visit MG's brother. MG was always our spirit lifter and it was always fun to have him around (because we get to see him go crazy in public), but his brother, as claimed was far more advanced! He worked at Sushi Rok, a Zagat rated restaurant in which the boss treated us to some awesome Japanese food. Had a double shot of what I recall is called a Sake Bomb. It was probably the smoothes shot I've ever had.

Our first night, which also was my 22nd birthday inauguration, was celebrated getting lost trying to get to South Beach where all the happening things are. When we reached there thanks to GPS (which was EXTREMELY USEFUL for the entire road trip), we walked around to the eye opening scene of beautiful people and atmosphere. It was truly a "Bintang-Walk" but much longer, bigger, and especially more high-class (the people). I just love it!

Day 2
The next day we headed to the Everglades to see crocs and the ride of a lifetime (ok, maybe that sounded exaggerated, but the hover boat was really exhilarating)!

Drove around Little Havana and bought myself a cigar from a famous cigar store which I remember was featured in the Amazing Race. Across the road we had Cuban coffee shots (mental note: I better take notes of the names of things I tried when I’m holidaying) which was warned by the lady behind the counter that it was VERY strong. So we shared one shot (about ½ cup) between 6 of us just to try it out. Verdict: delicious!... but not strong as claimed… So how? Another shot of course! The lady was shocked to see us down it so easily; as expected from college students especially from Purdue where sleep is considered a luxury activity in our dreaded lives.

Headed to the apartment with much fanfare after that. As we checked in, we did what most would do, check out the beach! It was gorgeous! Blue, clean, waves rippling by the shore. It was pretty cold, so we decided to go into the pool instead after basking by the seashore while enjoying the cool breeze. Of course, it was my birthday so it is only tradition that I get tortured. But to some, torture is pleasurable I guess… Mine was fun!

Had dinner at the Waldorf Towers @ Ocean Drive to a very expensive dinner. But it was sooo good! I had lobster ravioli.

As we headed home, we wanted to get a little bit more wasted as it was Spring Break after all… however, everyone was too tired and went to bed right away.

Day 3
Headed back to Ocean Drive and checked out the beach there. You see, the beach at out apartment is more private as it was more residential. Ocean Drive @ South Beach is public and where people want to go “people gazing” head to.

Sitting by New Times café chilling.

At night, had dinner at a Japanese restaurant while we waited for MG to join us for clubbing. We wanted to go to Mansion and it was a great coincidence that I noticed it next to the restaurant we were in! Its funny that most of the popular venues in Miami don’t display large fancy signs. I only noticed Mansion because of the huge ‘M’ logo on the carpet to the entrance (that’s me, always looking down instead of up…).

Mansion was probably the nicest club I’ve ever been to. Large, has a grandiose entrance, a few club floors, multi tiered, fantastic sound and lighting and most important of all, the people was just nice! Enough said, I had an awesome time there. Some even claim that I was crazy over there…

Day 4
Not much activity as we woke up at 2pm after a very early morning return from Mansion. Headed to Ocean Drive to sunbath. I now realize why people sunbath as it is really relaxing especially if you come from depressing Indiana. It’s a chance to put back color in your body, literally.

Dinner was at Ocean Ten restaurant. It was an interesting dinner as we got to see Flamenco dancers. The atmosphere was hyper in a sense that it was chilling; hyper-chilling if there’s a word for that. The Latin music, Flamenco dancers, open air dining, and my mouth watering grilled salmon added to the perfect dining experience I’ve lacked for a long time.

We headed back after that to play “I’ve never…” with free flowing booze I brought from Purdue (finally, the booze I bought from Changi is now opened!)

Day 5

The highlight of Spring Break; Global Gathering Music Fest, Miami 2005! I won’t say much here because words (my lousy vocabulary…) just don’t give justice to the high intensity party and head banging raving of this event, without drugs!

Call it crazy or anything you want, but I had a fantastic time I so longed and needed. It wasn’t a perfect trip nevertheless (especially when you have to calculate your pennies whenever you wanna do anything), but I guess it is tolerance and making the best out of everything you do that makes you happy is what matters most.

WooHoo!