A Bus Trip South

Shaffik and family have returned to Bintulu. Mini has to start work after a long confinement leave. Ram and Siti followed to assist as Shaffik and Mini has a new helper now. This helper was the previous helper working for them when Hifzhan was a baby, so she is familiar to the family. Indeed Hifzhan became immediately attached to her, ‘familiarity recall’ I guess. Ram and Siti will probably stay for a week or so since the helper can cope with the kids.

The day after all of them left for Bintulu, I took a bus to JB to visit my mother. Nor, my younger sister (next to me and we have eight other younger siblings) had requested to meet up with me quite urgently on a family matter. She did not tell me what then but I suspect it was about mother. So, off to JB I went.

I went to the bus station in Kuala Lumpur at about noon and managed to get a seat on the 2.00 pm bus. The bus was not full and I had an empty seat next to me, so it was a comfortable ride. Two young girls were sitting in front of me but they do not appear to be traveling together. Along the way I noticed one of them fidgeting a lot and looking here and there. Then she started talking to the girl next to her and later went to talk to the driver. When she came back to her seat she had tears in her eyes. I asked what the matter was and she said she is in the wrong bus!!! Oh my. Where was she supposed to go to? Kuala Lipis she said, which is geographically way off from JB. The bus driver had suggested that she catch a bus to Kuala Lipis once we reach JB later. There are buses traveling at night through that part of the country. This girl is barely twenty, more like eighteen or nineteen. I thought it would not be a good idea for her to travel at night all by herself. I asked and she said she has nobody that she knows of in JB. She has never been to JB before and she has not traveled out of Kuala Lipis previously I suspect. She is a student in a college in KL and this is the first time she is going home by herself!! Oh my what a dilemma she is in. She then asked me if there is a train station in JB as she would be more comfortable traveling on a train at night then in a bus. I said yes but I cannot remember the train schedule. So I got Tessa and my brother Kifli to help check the schedule. Both came back saying that there is a train at about 10 pm that night. That would be convenient for her, since we expect to arrive in JB at dusk and she has ample time to get to the train station Although it is quite a distance away from the bus station but I could guide her to it later. However, when the bus stopped at a rest area along the way, another bus from the same company going to KL had also stopped at the same area. The drivers discussed and offered to take the girl back to KL. She agreed, as she has friends and people she can trust in KL. Solution found and another lesson learnt. But how could she have made the mistake of boarding the wrong bus. I guess it was a series of errors at the time she boarded the bus in KL. The bus had just arrived from JB and the driver did not change the destination board on the bus. It was still showing Kuala Lumpur but the word Lumpur was covered up by something and partly visible while the word Kuala was fully visible. I remember we were all seated and waiting when this girl came on board in a hurry just as the bus was about to leave. She must have looked at the direction sign and saw Kuala L…. and just assumed that the bus was going to Kuala Lipis. The driver looked at her ticket but did not confirm the direction on the ticket. The seat that was allocated to her as per her ticket happened to be vacant on this bus. The mistake should not have happened. The responsibility definitely lies with the bus driver to ensure that he has the right passengers on board.

I met my sister Nor. Yes, she wanted to discuss with me about mother. My mother is 85 years old. She is still capable of carrying out her routine unaided. She still keep herself busy, very busy in fact, for an 85 years old woman. She is still the treasurer of a Women’ Institute Cooperative group, still involved in politics in the Women’s wing also as a treasurer I think, active in community work and so on. So she handles quite a bit of money. She goes to the bank, post office and other offices as need be and as a routine. However Nor is concerned lest anything should happen to her and being responsible she thought she should consult me as both of us are the elder siblings. I quite agree with her. We discussed at length on the steps to be taken and agreed with mother on what should be done. She gave her blessings and hopefully nothing untoward happens. She wants to continue with her routine all the same, but from now on she will have us to back her up and be aware of her transactions.

I spent the rest of my time in JB with brother Kifli, visiting his office, his business ventures and discussed with him possible involvement in expanding the venture. He promised to provide me details and projections of the expansion programme and have further discussion on it later.

I left JB the following afternoon catching the 2.00pm bus to KL. The bus left on time. There were only two other passengers with me on board. I slept most part of the journey. The driver must have been driving pretty fast as we were in KL before 6.00 pm. Lord knows what other traffic violations the driver committed to reach KL in that time span. I normally take much longer than that to drive my car the same distance.

Back home there were a myriad of household chores to perform. The usual routines of washing, sweeping, mopping, cleaning, and watering the garden and so on kept me busy. At least these chores kept me up and about a lot. In between I will take breaks to check my emails, or do quick surf in the net for various news and so on. I had flu on arriving home. Not because of the chores. Maybe it’s the dust in the air, especially in the vicinity of the KL bus station as I already felt uncomfortable in the throat when on my way to JB. Most travelers using public transport agree that the current KL bus station is hazardous, pollution-wise. There has been talk of relocation, improving the ventilation system, and many other suggestions. An ongoing thing for many years now but where is the solution ………. I wonder.

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya