Kajang, Jon & Ros
I must have mentioned it somewhere, that KTM is the oldest railways system in our country. And perhaps, slowest. But I'm not complaining, since i'm not using the service on daily basis and when i do board one, i'm already in good mood (travel), enjoying the slow journey...
After all, this is the only railway system that operates within the city, out of Selangor state, carries you far north to Thailand or deep south to Singapore. But hey, I'm in the left train, of course. Can't take one with whole bunch of cement on board!
The price to pay: RM 3.80, from Kepong to Kajang. Mind you, it's 7.00p.m. now and at any given friday, you can't cover such distance in half hour, if you are driving, on a bus, running, whatever. I can read or take photos, that's the best part!
Kajang is famous for, as far as food is concern, Satay! Satay is actually barbeque sticks, served with delicious spicy peanuts gravy together with onions and cucumber. While those sticks can come in all sizes, chicken, beef or mutton, but it's the gravy that makes all the difference.
As for Jon and Ros, this particular restaurant that we dine in tonight is one of the few places in town they considered up-to-standard. It's right opposite Kajang local council, and ironically, named after our country, "Malaysia"!
Again, we are in one of the many small towns in Malaysia, where plenty of pre-war building are still well in service. Long ago, we had a lot of empty land, people can't be bodered about building multi-storey houses, or double, triple lane highway.
What we see now is more private highway and flyover are being constructed in and out of the city, extends all the way to vicinity town like Kajang. Problems solved and created in the same time. Some roads are widen with demolition of old pre-war shop-houses, others are renovated, like you can't recognize your own wife after heavy make-up. Hehe!
Back in Jon's house, which is 5 minutes drive away from Kajang's KTM station, i found myself surrounded by ferns, and once in the guest room, books! Books shelves must be at tall as his 6 feet aroid plant in the frontyard!
Kajang, small town 20km south-east of Kuala Lumpur.
I've been here few time, tasted the famous Satay, had enough with the local council's officer, heavy traffic on my way out, getting similar things much like any other people. But tonight I've experience different and wonderful side of Kajang through the lovely couple, much like gravy's effect to Satay.
It's a good start my journey up north, to Penang, tomorrow. Thank you for your hospitality again, Jon & Ros! I'll be back! Hehe!!!
13 Comments:
Satay, yum. In my meat eating days, I had a friend from Indonesia who had a little lunch shop on Maui and cooked satay.
As energy resources dry up, so will all those new highways. Hopefully before all the old building and and small local businesses do. We will need them.
I wish Japan train fares were so reasonable.
The whole world is modernizing. Everything is becoming quicker, easier, safer, more convenient, easier to take for granted...and far less human. It's a shame that "progress" so often tends to be a synonym for "losing all character".
That railway looks to be larger and of wider guage than the ones here in Japan. You've been in Japan, Low. How does the railway system compare (just out of curiosity)?
Pandabonium...
So you are a vegetarian now, my friend? Good for you :)
Old business in old building. As more and more old business give way to hypermarket like Tesco, Giant, etc. old building are well on the next "extinction" list.
Need them or not - - I can almost found the answer, seeing loads of cars choking the hypermarkets every weekends...
Moody...
Talking about railway system, we can't compare 5 line to like, 20 over line in Japan? We don't have that kind of coverage, for one. We don't have special deck for ladies, either. I remember running into one in Tokyo and thought it was my lucky day...oopss, hehe!!!
Timing, vending machine and direction are better back in Japan, and you get to choose train with 3 different speed, or four, if you include Shinkansen. What can i say, the railway system blend well into Japanese's daily live, from city to rural place. We still have much to improve, i guess :p
Less human, sounds scary. Maybe Superman will save us someday :)))
Hmmm.
Put that on my to do list on my next trip to KL. Thks!
Thanks for dropping by, my friend! Maybe you should thank me only after you tried one, hehe! Cheers!
Train schedules can be tricky. I remember on a trip back from Singapore, the train I was in stalled for an hour as a result of it running down a buffalo. It was at night and we did not know where we were. The good part is that fortunately the train did not derail.
Moody, I agree what you said about progress being synonymous with losing character. I'm glad the important sites in the world are being presevered as world heritage sites.
Low, enjoy yr trip. I'm sure you will, as always. Looking forward to yr story.
that satay looks mmmm...!!!
happysurfer...
So the slower speed of our train saved everyone? :) Now that we have buffalos on the north-south highway as well, i hope the sky and the sea will be clear for traffic!
Taking about world heritage sites, Malaysia's Kinabalu Park and Gunung Mulu National Park are in the UNESCO's list, both norminated in year 2000. I'm pretty happy with what i saw in Kinabalu Park, lets hope for the same or better in Mulu!
s...
I can only tell you that it taste mmmmm...also! :p
Speaking of foreign hypermarkets presence in Malaysia, the phenomenom has really affected small businesses, especially with its large scale bulk buying/selling, cheap prices, and low cost. It is sad to see that sometimes, small family businesses have to close down due to pressure and competition from big companies. Although with the saying survival of fittest, or the saying of economies of scale, but sometimes i prefer more for the traditional feel of close business ties between owners and customers.
Kajang satay is yummy! but i don't like the fat too much, hehe..
by the way, panda is vegetarian now? oh! i haven't known that... when did u start again? i remembered you said you were once vegetarian in my old post... what makes u continue again? must be the nice feeling of eating fresh veges! do share a post on that!
No change, YD. I have had a mostly vegetarian diet for most of my adult life, but I do sometimes eat sea food and K has gotten me to eat the occassional egg.
Fifteen years ago I would not turn down my friend's satay when offered. But these days I am much more strict about not eating land animals or birds.
My verification word was pprvt: a pervert who stutters.
yd...
Welcome back! :)
Like it or not, i think they are slowly gone. It always start with city, outskirts, and hopefully it will take some time to reach small town like our hometown. Owner-customer ties is one thing, another unique thing is the 555 debt book! More like a first generation credit card!
pandabonium...
No to land animals or birds? That's really healthy life style! I wish to cut down on the meats also, sometime it's just too much :p
Maybe the best food is home cooked, where we take full control of it's ingredient!
Oh, yes...the hypermarket cancer.
When I was in Australia, I encountered something very disturbing. A village long famous for its artisans and craft shops suddenly had someone buy a plot of land to build a giant Woolworth's.
The people living in the area quite rightly feared that the new megastore would pretty much trash the local culture. They organized a peaceful demonstration (a right guaranteed by the Australian constitution), but the government intervened and arrested the leaders, some two dozen people in all, citing "interference in needed economic development." The protest is still continuing, but mainly in the form of signs posted everywhere saying, "I won't shop there."
Then, wouldn't you know it, someone found a platypus nest on the site! Since the platypus is protected, construction is on hold until all the proper environmental impact reports are done. At least it's supposed to be...
Actually, when I was there, construction was in progress, but they were carefully avoiding the platypus nest site, which was marked off. It looked rather like one of those large stones in the rock garden at Ryoanji Temple.
Is this progress or de-evolution?
Thank you so much for sharing, Moody. You experience proof that human nowadays face pretty much the same problems, that it will be wonderful if we can learn from each other, helping each other.
No wonder the platypus are protected, such a wonderful mammal. I'm not a biologist, but i really doubt that how careful you can be, when you have construction work near the mammal's site?
Even if we don't dig the particular nest area, how about sound pollution? Dusts? Diesel leakage? Sh*ts happend, right? And some mammals like tiger needs some 25km square or more as their territory, you can't be just careful. You are not welcome at all!
It's true that the power always goes back to the people. Few naturalist, biologist, politician, engineers can't change everything. Peoples can.
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