Went to Glad Tidings Church in Petaling Jaya Kuala Lumpur. So the normal way to travel is by metro rail, from the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur and within Kuala Lumpur. From our Mantin Base we went to KTM Batang Benar Station by taxi (RM10) to get a train. Theres a train every 30 minutes from that station, so we arrived at 1257 or something, and as we just finished purchasing our tickets the train arrived. We scurried up the steps of the ramp that took us to the side the train was but it was a futile task as we were fully aware that the train spends less than a minute at each stop as passengers disembark and new people board.
So we had to wait for the next train at 1330 in the warm humid shade of the station.
We decided to buy fruit and mineral water (you dont drink tap water in these parts you might get hepatitis). The fruit looked appealing at first sight, fresh guava packed in neat transparent plastic packs, at a stall manned by a young boy with his mother looking on from behind in the comfort of her chair. However, when my other sense kicked in, I realized we had just bought cut fruit which was home made and packed, and the thought of a dirty kitchen full of flies and unwashed hands peeling and cutting the fruit...perhaps! I did not manage to eat the fruit and I gladly passed it on to my friend who did not mind at all lah :)
We chatted about how electric trains in Zambia (where she is from) and Zimbabwe dont work, how the foundation year for undergraduate students seemed a waste of time, and nostalgia of home. I realized it was time for the train to arrive and dug into my pocket crowded by wallet, apartment keys, student ID, passport to take out my ticket but alas it was not there. I looked in the back pocket of my jeans, my shirt pocket...nothing. I had lost my ticket (RM5)... I remembered I could have left it at that fruit stall when I was buying water and fruit and had taken out my wallet to pay, I was holding the ticket in my right hand and would have put it on the table of the stall to open my wallet. I rushed towards the ramp, blushed by my clumsiness and as I reached it I saw the train coming! My friend said just leave it, will miss the train again tozoona mberi (not in Shona)! So I just jumped into the train, knowing trouble lay ahead for my wallet for boarding without ticket (Surcharge RM30).
There is a private university called MAHSA medical university next to the University of Malaya. Thats where we went, in Petaling Jaya. We met her cousin who is doing first year nursing there, a young pleasant girl perhaps 17 or so, in the cafeteria because males cannot go to female apartments and at this particular university the rules are actually enforced :) We chatted, she went bought drinks for us, and later my friend went with her to her room to have her weave undone (there was going to be a stop at the hair salon. OMG women!) Then we went to Glad Tidings church by taxi (RM20)
After service there was pizza for everyone leaving at the door, and free mineral water and mentos in a gift bag for new comers, good for me I was famished! It was after 1900, we walked to a point where we thought we would probably get taxi to The Summit Mall. There was no taxi, they were all passing full, so we walked about 200 metres on, past a car dealership with Bentley, Porsche, and Benz, an Architects Firm, a Wedding Boutique, to the small shopping centre with lots of restaurants just ahead in this neighbourhood which is a mixture of homes, homes converted to offices and business and some big offices and Nissan dealership on one side from where we had come from the very big and modern Glad Tidings church building (like the ones you see on TV for e.g Hillsong Church if you watch gospel channels). The taxi stopped, "How much to The Summit?" "There is congestion at this time fren, and its far fren it will be RM40!". "How about to Sunway City?" the other girl asked, "Same price fren, same price." We glanced at each other, she said there was no other hair salon for African women's hair she knew close by, then we decided to just go. At least I wasnt paying! She was sponsoring the whole trip she just asked me to escort her to KL as she felt safer travelling with a guy.
Got to The Summit, went to salon yevanhu vakunyika iya vakazara kuno. Walked around the mall, it was big, 4 floors and a basement, but it seemed from a little lower down the spectrum for malls I had seen so far, Mid Valley and Times Square. This was no mega mall, it was like Ximex mall only bigger vertically and horizontally. Relaxing hair (RM50...heard a hair cut only is RM60 at Mid Valley mall!) takes time OMG!
Hair done at 2215, good we could make it to KTM rail before it closes! Then lethargically the hair dresser removed the ..erm rollers. "This hair is still wet", she said "But I waited for 10 minutes before you came to check after the dryer went off, it would have been dry by now!". "No, this hair is wet, you wanna go with it like that? It has to go to the dryer." 40 minutes later it was done, it was 2315. KTM rail was closed! Maybe we can get a bus to Mantin?
Taxi take us to MAHSA college (RM40). "Mr Taxi Man, KTM has closed, where can we get a bus to Mantin", "No bus Mantin, stop at 11". OMG, we would have to take a taxi to Mantin and it cost someone she knows RM140. I felt sorry she would have to pay that, so said maybe she could sleep in her friend's apartment (she is a cousin in fact), and I could crash somewhere if she knew a guy I could crash with since its a weekend and some people (locals) will have gone home. She called, she SMSd her good friends, "I am good friends with this guy" she said, ....they all had excuses. Thank God! The idea of crashing at someones apartment seemed daunting, I was being polite :), a gentleman. We would have to taxi to Mantin.
Stopped first taxi, he said "No no cannot go Mantin". Second, an old man who just knew the direction to Seremban, along which you find Mantin, who drove an old not so metered taxi (non GPSed am sure). He said its after 12PM, there is a tax for after 12PM so rate is whatever amount plus RM10-15. Again we glanced at each other. "How much is it total", "Dont know, dont know". "Will it be RM80" the friend asked, "Dont know" We glanced at each other. I explained to him where it was, that it was before Seremban and before Nilai, he asked "You know how to", "How to?", "How to....direction, direction :)". I said yes, when we get to Mantin I know way to campus so how much money, he lightly threw his arms into the air to say I dont know. I said RM100, knowing someone had paid RM140 from Times Square before. He said "Dont know" We glanced at each other, and then he said "Ok ok RM100".
We travelled past Mid Valley Mega Mall, past beautiful beautiful brightly lit office towers, tens of 50+ storey apartment blocks, more and more big beautiful buildings, on a motor way that never sleeps, over flyovers looking down at the beautiful city below from an angle I had never seen before. I was mistaken, no city in Africa is yet at this stage, good bye Joburg, good bye,bye!
We got home around 0200. The campus was busy as normal, people going to buy take away, some people waking up to go buy beer after struggling to get sleep, others who had never lay down at all going to the sports bar to watch live English Premier games (+8 hours here), some girls walking to their boyfriends' apartment. Campus life.
So we had to wait for the next train at 1330 in the warm humid shade of the station.
We decided to buy fruit and mineral water (you dont drink tap water in these parts you might get hepatitis). The fruit looked appealing at first sight, fresh guava packed in neat transparent plastic packs, at a stall manned by a young boy with his mother looking on from behind in the comfort of her chair. However, when my other sense kicked in, I realized we had just bought cut fruit which was home made and packed, and the thought of a dirty kitchen full of flies and unwashed hands peeling and cutting the fruit...perhaps! I did not manage to eat the fruit and I gladly passed it on to my friend who did not mind at all lah :)
We chatted about how electric trains in Zambia (where she is from) and Zimbabwe dont work, how the foundation year for undergraduate students seemed a waste of time, and nostalgia of home. I realized it was time for the train to arrive and dug into my pocket crowded by wallet, apartment keys, student ID, passport to take out my ticket but alas it was not there. I looked in the back pocket of my jeans, my shirt pocket...nothing. I had lost my ticket (RM5)... I remembered I could have left it at that fruit stall when I was buying water and fruit and had taken out my wallet to pay, I was holding the ticket in my right hand and would have put it on the table of the stall to open my wallet. I rushed towards the ramp, blushed by my clumsiness and as I reached it I saw the train coming! My friend said just leave it, will miss the train again tozoona mberi (not in Shona)! So I just jumped into the train, knowing trouble lay ahead for my wallet for boarding without ticket (Surcharge RM30).
There is a private university called MAHSA medical university next to the University of Malaya. Thats where we went, in Petaling Jaya. We met her cousin who is doing first year nursing there, a young pleasant girl perhaps 17 or so, in the cafeteria because males cannot go to female apartments and at this particular university the rules are actually enforced :) We chatted, she went bought drinks for us, and later my friend went with her to her room to have her weave undone (there was going to be a stop at the hair salon. OMG women!) Then we went to Glad Tidings church by taxi (RM20)
After service there was pizza for everyone leaving at the door, and free mineral water and mentos in a gift bag for new comers, good for me I was famished! It was after 1900, we walked to a point where we thought we would probably get taxi to The Summit Mall. There was no taxi, they were all passing full, so we walked about 200 metres on, past a car dealership with Bentley, Porsche, and Benz, an Architects Firm, a Wedding Boutique, to the small shopping centre with lots of restaurants just ahead in this neighbourhood which is a mixture of homes, homes converted to offices and business and some big offices and Nissan dealership on one side from where we had come from the very big and modern Glad Tidings church building (like the ones you see on TV for e.g Hillsong Church if you watch gospel channels). The taxi stopped, "How much to The Summit?" "There is congestion at this time fren, and its far fren it will be RM40!". "How about to Sunway City?" the other girl asked, "Same price fren, same price." We glanced at each other, she said there was no other hair salon for African women's hair she knew close by, then we decided to just go. At least I wasnt paying! She was sponsoring the whole trip she just asked me to escort her to KL as she felt safer travelling with a guy.
Got to The Summit, went to salon yevanhu vakunyika iya vakazara kuno. Walked around the mall, it was big, 4 floors and a basement, but it seemed from a little lower down the spectrum for malls I had seen so far, Mid Valley and Times Square. This was no mega mall, it was like Ximex mall only bigger vertically and horizontally. Relaxing hair (RM50...heard a hair cut only is RM60 at Mid Valley mall!) takes time OMG!
Hair done at 2215, good we could make it to KTM rail before it closes! Then lethargically the hair dresser removed the ..erm rollers. "This hair is still wet", she said "But I waited for 10 minutes before you came to check after the dryer went off, it would have been dry by now!". "No, this hair is wet, you wanna go with it like that? It has to go to the dryer." 40 minutes later it was done, it was 2315. KTM rail was closed! Maybe we can get a bus to Mantin?
Taxi take us to MAHSA college (RM40). "Mr Taxi Man, KTM has closed, where can we get a bus to Mantin", "No bus Mantin, stop at 11". OMG, we would have to take a taxi to Mantin and it cost someone she knows RM140. I felt sorry she would have to pay that, so said maybe she could sleep in her friend's apartment (she is a cousin in fact), and I could crash somewhere if she knew a guy I could crash with since its a weekend and some people (locals) will have gone home. She called, she SMSd her good friends, "I am good friends with this guy" she said, ....they all had excuses. Thank God! The idea of crashing at someones apartment seemed daunting, I was being polite :), a gentleman. We would have to taxi to Mantin.
Stopped first taxi, he said "No no cannot go Mantin". Second, an old man who just knew the direction to Seremban, along which you find Mantin, who drove an old not so metered taxi (non GPSed am sure). He said its after 12PM, there is a tax for after 12PM so rate is whatever amount plus RM10-15. Again we glanced at each other. "How much is it total", "Dont know, dont know". "Will it be RM80" the friend asked, "Dont know" We glanced at each other. I explained to him where it was, that it was before Seremban and before Nilai, he asked "You know how to", "How to?", "How to....direction, direction :)". I said yes, when we get to Mantin I know way to campus so how much money, he lightly threw his arms into the air to say I dont know. I said RM100, knowing someone had paid RM140 from Times Square before. He said "Dont know" We glanced at each other, and then he said "Ok ok RM100".
We travelled past Mid Valley Mega Mall, past beautiful beautiful brightly lit office towers, tens of 50+ storey apartment blocks, more and more big beautiful buildings, on a motor way that never sleeps, over flyovers looking down at the beautiful city below from an angle I had never seen before. I was mistaken, no city in Africa is yet at this stage, good bye Joburg, good bye,bye!
We got home around 0200. The campus was busy as normal, people going to buy take away, some people waking up to go buy beer after struggling to get sleep, others who had never lay down at all going to the sports bar to watch live English Premier games (+8 hours here), some girls walking to their boyfriends' apartment. Campus life.
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