When Kuching Is Pitted Against KL…

For the past week, I was in Kuala Lumpur for a wedding. My sisters actually. It was a colorful occasion, and I got a chance to wear a traditional Indian costume. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought, and I enjoyed wearing the costume that I choose to make it my profile photo on Facebook. If you ain’t my friend of mine on Facebook, here’s a shot of me in the costume.

Pretty decent, huh? =P

Anyway, I think and I know I overspent in KL. One of KL’s best traits is it’s cheap and not mentioning wide selection of clothing. I came to KL with an empty bag, and left KL with a bag which could hardly fit the overhead compartment of the plane, plus another bag in hand. Talk about shopping! No more shopping for 2012 I guess.

Another good trait of KL is its reliable public transportation. The train system may not be the best in the world, but it does get you places. The only problem I had was the distance for the transit stations, and with walking remaining the cheapest option, my legs were practically killing me after just two days in KL!

The bad traits of KL was evident during this trip of mine, hence making me further less attracted towards having my life spent in KL. For once, someone tried to cheat me when I was trying to upgrade my data plan. It was in fact free, and could be done simply by dialing the costumer service number of DiGi. This person asked for RM30 as an upfront payment, and an additional RM10 for a so called ‘postpaid to prepaid to postpaid’ charge. She refused to issue me a receipt for this extra RM10, so I said ‘Fine, I’m not upgrading today’ as I felt there was something fishy.

Secondly, relatives of mine, including my parents had a bad share of experience with the taxi driver in KL. While the taxi drivers claim that a full NGV tank only cost them mere RM9 (which could drive the car for a full 110KM), one taxi driver charged my parents an extra RM10 for a short destination ‘overshoot’, while another taxi driver asked my uncle and aunt to walk over 1KM to their destination, which he claimed was just across the road after two traffic lights. Nonetheless, they were some nice taxi drivers which charged by the meter.

Andre, was kind enough to bring me around upon my arrival in his spanking new car, but the traffic jam in KL made me miss Kuching so much. While Andre’s car was in tip top condition, the constant traffic halts and the misery of finding parking was a total turn off for me. In fact, this was one of the many reasons why I decided KL wasn’t for me. Adding to this was the high cost of living and the fact that missing a junction could mean you’d be making a long trip else where just to get to the right turn.

Kuching maybe a little backwards in terms of technology and trends, and some may say it’s boring and lacking events and happenings. Others, I’ve heard say that Kuching doesn’t cater for tourist well enough, and life here is just simply too slow.

To be honest with you, I love Kuching the way it is. I love that it’s slow paced, and that we all would get over excited when some big artist such as Zee Avi decides to hold a concert here. I love the fact that our malls are not too big, and not too small. I love the ease of finding parking during weekends at our major malls, and not having to pay such a hefty fee for parking my car for hours. I also love the jams in Kuching because the worst would only last an hour, and it would be back to normal after that. Maybe I’m biased, but Kuching is paradise in my eyes.

KL, well…. it’s great for a week or two, but.. any longer and it would get tiring (at least for me). It’s a land of opportunity, but it’s just not my cup of tea. As for those saying Kuching should change and evolve to suit tourist needs, I’m sorry but I just simply can’t agree to that. I think Kuching needs to be great for its own people, and tourist need to come here to appreciate Kuching for what it is. I mean, what’s the point of visiting another country or place just to have it feel like other places in the world?

Kuching is unique because it’s Kuching. It’s a city with a soul, and I am proud of that. Kuching people should be too… After all, Kuching is home.