KTMB Train Services - An Observation

Few months ago, I was asked by somebody just to ride on KTMB trains and just observe to get the first-hand experience.

'Errr ... ok. Why would I do that?'

I enquired without much enthusiasm.

'Well, you have told me that you like to reminisced the wonderful rides on the train in foreign countries, maybe you need to look at what we have here and what can be improved, maybe to add on to your previous report on KTMB business challenges.'

'Yeah, why not.'

So, the other day, in one of the weekend, I did just that.

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Subang Jaya to KL Sentral:

• Took the KTM Komuter. The train station was new and integrated with LRT, looks very clean.
• The time table for the train to depart to KL Sentral was shown on the screen to be at 9.36 am.
• The designated train arrived at 9.34 am and departed at 9.36 am, so far so good.
• Inside the train, there were no advertisement at all, no posters, no panels, even at the hand-grips, or even hanging advertisements, unlike the trains in Japan or Hong Kong. There are LCD panels showing some information and opportunity to advertise. Lots of opportunity in advertising.
• There are some broken window panes (maybe hit by stones thrown by somebody) and outside body of the train a bit dirty.
• Some unused railway lines at Kontena Nasional depot near Seri Setia station.
• There are a lot of 'pencerobohan' and squatters at KTMB land between the Jalan Templer-Petaling-Pantai Dalam stations.

KL Sentral Station Platform 3 & 4:

• Many sections within the platforms were badly lit and very dark, signage can be improved, advertisement not enough, all in all, neither comfortable nor conducive environment.
• Komuter train to Batu Caves was late by 8 minutes, originally scheduled at 10.36 am, but only departed at 10.44 am.

Kuala Lumpur Station:

• It is an iconic station build in the King Edward VII era. In dire need for refurbishment and make it a top tourist attraction in the city maybe like St. Pancras / King’s Cross Stations in London. In fact the opposite KTMB building will require a refurbishment as well.

The iconic Kuala Lumpur Railway Station
in dire need of refurbishment and rebranding

The KTMB Office is also an iconic building

• The music / jingle before KTMB announcement is very catchy, similar to SNCF's at Gare du Nord in Paris, and could be commercialised.
• Toilets at the station can be improved a lot.
• Within the station may require improved ventilation, maybe via some big-ass fans.
• Notice that the access to the platforms were a bit loose.
• There was a Heritage Hotel before but was closed down in 2010. Need to find a business partner to revive back and improve the hotel, maybe like some railway hotels in the UK.

Need to revive back the railway hotel

• The food stall at the station entrance is an eye sore.

This is an eye sore

• When talking to the staff, they neither aware of any changes after the arrival of the new CEO nor understand if there are any new directions of the company.
• The staff attitude seems very normal, may require to put on some smiling faces and friendlier, just to emulate the Japanese train staff.

Friendly looking Japanese railway staff

Kuala Lumpur to Kepong Sentral:

• Took the ETS service to Kepong Sentral.
• The KTMB ETS Class 93 EMU was clean and quiet, on time arrival and departure.
• There were some stick-on advertisement at the seats.

Kepong Sentral Station:

• Practically, there's nothing there. The namesake 'Sentral' can be misleading.

Panoramic view of Kepong Sentral Station

• There are migrant communities residing and occupying the business outlets nearby the station.
• How can we transform this kind of KTMB train station and many more from non-income generating premises to vibrant community hubs? Example, train stations in Japan and Hong Kong.
• How can we make more people to use train as their main mode of transportation so that they could be on their way for a greater upward social mobility.
• This station, for example, has two big parking lots, lots of areas for shops and businesses within the station, nearby apartments and shop houses, and just 20 minutes away from KL Sentral.

KL Sentral Platform 1:

• To exit and coming up from the escalator from Platform 1 ETS can be very dangerous as a lot of people just coming up and the exit outlets are not adequate to handle the traffic flow.

Penang Sentral:

• Penang Sentral is an intermodal transit-oriented development in Butterworth, modelled after KL Sentral. There's a big growth potential as the hub for transportation in the North.

Pasta, Favourite Pastimes

Many years ago, when I was just being a guy with less than 2 weeks into marriage, I tried to impress my newly wedded young wife on my know-how in pasta cooking. I even boasted that I have spend like 4 years in the Highlands of Scotland perfecting my kind of pasta secret recipe.

So I prepared for her a spaghetti dish using canned bolognese tomato sauce with tuna flakes as the base.

'So what do you think, my dear?'

'Ok, it tasted ok,' said my wife with a wry smile.

Maybe, the spaghetti needs an extra sauce, I thought. 

I only learned 20 years later that my first attempt to prepare a pasta dish wasn't that successful to impress her. The 'ok' thing she confided, was really in a way to appreciate the effort, but not really on the taste.

Not now, by the way.

Now, whenever I prepare a pasta dish with my very own secret recipe, I'll get at least a 9 out of 10 marks from my daughters. Even the wife would like it so much.

The secret in making a delicious pasta (spaghetti, linguine, fettuccine, macaroni etc.) is in using a whole bulb of garlic duly crushed, using garlic crusher (but, off course).

Garlic crusher from Ikea

The reason being, crushed garlic (aglio) will have a lighter, more delicate flavour with a much better distribution of a real garlic flavour. Crushed garlic will not taste like a minced garlic at all.

The other important ingredients beside pasta:

Fresh prawns (deveined)

Lemon juice

Tomatoes

Virgin olive oil (olio)

Chilli (peperoncino) flakes

Parmesan cheese

Rock salt (just a sprinkle)

Fresh herbs (basil, parsley, bay leaves)

Pasta sauce (if required)

Button mushroom 

In my opinion, pasta is the ultimate contentment food. When I travelled to Italy years ago, I noticed that pasta is generally eaten there at least once a day, and for many Italians a meal would feel incomplete without it. That's why you will see in their restaurants, they will be serving pasta in almost all of their dishes.

Maybe one fine day, you will get to taste my pasta.

Pasta ala Como di Lago (Lake Como, Lombardi)

The Campanile at Piazza San Marco
Venezia Santa Lucia (Venice)

Those Wonderful Little Things

A Slice of Pizza

The other day, after I have picked up my wife from her Saturday workshop in one of the school in Shah Alam, I stopped by at Domino Pizza to order two large pizza for my ever-hungry kids. 

Upon arriving at my house in Bandar Sunway, I saw a young girl (maybe 8-9 years old) had her bicycle laid down in the middle of the driveway in front of the house, while she was happily playing with the many cats that always hang around outside our house (not the two resident cats Jibu and Lola). 

Upon enquiring, she told us that her house is just across the road. 

To be honest, at first, I was a bit worried to see her freely riding the bicycle alone as I personally wouldn't let my kids do that when they were small. Having said that, that little girl reminds me of my sweet childhood days back in my kampung.

Since I don't have tasty cookies to give to that young girl, I asked my wife to take a slice of that fresh-from-the-oven pizza and gave it to her, not before asking her to wash her hands first.

A slice of pizza in the afternoon

Cat Food

Sometimes, I stopped by at the R&R just before the Sunway Toll Plaza, either to fill up my sports hybrid or to top up the T&G card. Or just simply to relief myself or to say prayer at the R&R surau, especially if the traffic conditions at the toll plaza looks a wee bit heavy.

The other day (a different day from the above), on my way back from my office in Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi, I received the usual WhatsApp message from my daughter Ayra Umayrah.

"Ayah, pls buy cat food, cat litter, nutella and something"

"Ok baby"

That 'something' means something like McD nugget, KFC chicken, PizzaHut pizza, donuts, Cadbury chocolate etc. Whereas, I always use the response 'Ok baby' to all my kids and to the wife as well, in most, if not at all occasions.

Anyway, as the time was already past Maghrib, I stopped by the R&R to say the prayer. 

After I parked and got out from my car, I was greeted by a group of cats meowing noisily at me as if asking me for food. By the way, cats only acknowledge nice people! 

Then I remembered that I have a sack of cat food inside the boot of my car. Carefully, I opened up the sack and took  two handfuls of cat food and served those hungry cats. I even managed to 'topok' one or two of them.

Hungry cat

My Great Railway Journeys

For whatever reason, recently my feelings grew fonder on railway journeys.

Previously I had few memorable journeys on rail:

• Bagan Serai - Kuala Kangsar Keretapi Mel (circa 1973)

KTMB Class 22 22115
Bagan Serai to Kuala Kangsar
Distance: 75 km (1 hr 30 min)

• Glasgow Central - Euston Station Intercity (1990)

British Rail InterCity 125
Glasgow to London
Distance: 555 km (overnight)

• Karachi - Lahore - via Amritsar - Delhi - Madras - Tirunelveli (1991)

Pakistan Railways Class PHA20 8318
Karachi Express: Karachi to Lahore
Distance: 1,214 km (days)

Pakistan Railways Alco DL-543
Samjhauta Express: Lahore to Amritsar to Delhi
Distance: 52 + 450 km (20 hr)

Indian Railways WDM 2
Tamil Nadu Express: Hazrat Nizamuddin to Madras
Distance: 2,184 km (many days)

Epic journey on a steam train.

South Indian Railways Class T (Steam Locomotive)
Madras to Tirunelveli
Distance: 624 km (18 hr)

• Johor Bahru - Kuala Lipis via Gemas (1993) 

KTMB Intercity Class 24 224126

Johor Bahru to Kuala Lipis

Distance: 356 km (11 hr 20 min)

• Kuala Lumpur - Butterworth (2006)

KTMB Intercity Class 25 225102

KL Sentral to Butterworth

Distance: 300 km (overnight)

• Schiphol - Amsterdam - Apeldoorn - Zaandijk Zaanse Schans (2007)

Nederlandse Spoorwegen Nieuwe Intercity Dubbeldekker
Amsterdam Centraal to Apeldoorn
Distance: 75 km (1 hr 10 min)

• Sunny Bay - Disneyland Resort (2010)

MTR Disneyland Resort Line M Train
Sunny Bay to Disneyland Resort
Distance: 3.8 km

Ayra Umayrah ready to board the train to Disneyland

• Tokyo - Yokohama (2010)

Tokyu Toyoko Line 505 Series
Tokyo Shibuya to Yokohama
Distance: 35 km (25 min)

• Sirkeci - Kumkapi (2011)

Istanbul Suburban TCDD E8000
Sirkeci to Kumkapi
Distance: 4 km

Istanbul Sirkeci terminal, part of the (used to be) Orient Express
remember Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot?

• Milan - Venice - Lago di Como (2012)

Eurostar Italia Alta Velocità Frecciargento ETR 600
Milano Centrale to Venezia Santa Lucia
Distance: 268 km (2 hr 25 min)

• Gare du Nord - St Pancras (2015)

Eurostar Class 373009
Paris Gare du Nord to London St Pancras
Distance: 344 km (2 hr 17 min)

• Lakemba - Sydney (2016)

Sydney Train Millennium Set
Lakemba to Sydney
Distance: 15 km (20 min)

• Chubu - Nagoya (2017)

Meitetsu "μ-SKY" Express
Chubu Centrair to Nagoya
Distance: 50 km (45 min)

• Kuala Lumpur - Kepong Sentral (2018)

KTMB ETS Class 93
Kuala Lumpur to Kepong Sentral
Distance: 15 km (18 min)

• Sirkeci - Uskudar (2022)

TCDD Marmaray E32000
Sirkeci to Uskudar via Marmaray Tunnel under the Bosphorus
Distance: 13.5 km (10 min)

• Madinah - Makkah (2022)

Haramian High Speed Talgo 350 SRO
Madinah to Makkah via Jeddah
Distance: 453 km (2 hours)

If I Could Write Like This ...

﷽‬ 

In the Name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.

The following are the words of بدرول هشام بن زاينل عابدين the poor servant of the Lord, who acknowledges his sins and his shortcomings, and hopes for a hidden pardon from His tender Grace. 

May Allah forgive his sins, and replace his sins with blessings.

I turn to Allah for help, for He is all I need, and how excellent is The  الْوَلِيُّ (Al-Waliyy), The Protecting Associate, The Protecting Friend, The Supporter.

I praise Him with the praise of one who knows that there is no refuge from Him except towards Him. 

I thank Him with the thanks of one who is firmly convinced that favours and afflictions alike, are entirely at His disposal. 

I invoke blessing and peace upon our Master, our Nabi Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم‎ and upon his family. 

May they enjoy the countless benefits and gracious favours of Allah.

Batting Practice & Side Coaching

Sometimes, during batting practice, fellow colleagues will give some side coaching and what not.

Fair Enough

In the Hereafter, everybody will be dealt fairly by the Almighty. 

In this mortal world however, you are basically in luck or out of it, every time.

Scenic Road Trips

Sometimes, it would be great to be in a car and to drive on a long and scenic road trip. Done it before with university friends and my SO, around the highlands of Scotland and from Sydney to Wollongong, respectively.

Maybe in the future, I could embark on these road trips as well:

1. The Wild Atlantic Way - Ireland 
2. North Coast 500 - Scotland
3. Route 66 & Big Sur - USA
4. South Island - New Zealand

And listening to great music all the way.

Someday

Someday, I'll be over you.

A Good Deed

A good deed will always find ways to repay itself ...

Batting Practice @ Seroja

Sometimes, while waiting for a new batsman to pad-up, one can go into the nets and get a quick batting practice. Usually without gloves, batting pads, helmet and even ball-guard. One can do that if the bowlers are bowling slow.

Good Times at SEMESTI

After spending 5 formative years of my life in a great residential school in Ipoh i.e. Sekolah Tuanku Abdul Rahman (STAR), I was fortunate enough to be given a Public Services Department (JPA) scholarship to the UK for an Aerospace Engineering course. However, contrary to the previous practice, instead of doing the UK universities entry requirements i.e. the A-Level examination in the UK, the Government decided to conduct the A-Level courses locally.

Hence, my peers and I were placed in few premises and centres for the A-Levels depending on the courses (engineering, social sciences, law etc.) such as MCKK, SDAR, SEMESTI etc. About 100 of us were sent to SEMESTI (Sekolah Menengah Sains Teluk Intan) for 2 years since September 1985 in order to prepare for the A-Level exam in summer of 1987.

Actually, there's a lot of things going on while in SEMESTI. I really enjoyed my time there. 

Anyway, last weekend I was playing in ASTI (Alumni SEMESTI) cricket team for the MCOBA Royals 100 Championship held at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. I played 3 matches, and became the opening bowler for team ASTI. I managed to get one wicket for each of the match i.e. Ungku (MCOBA), Salman (SERATAS) and Comat (SESDU), all considered good opening batsman.

In addition to that, the sixth edition ASSAK Cricket Challenge ACC 2018, instead of the usual STAROBA Tigers, I'll be playing for ASTI Beetles (there're some inaccuracies in the video below, I did my A-Level in 1987, and was never a captain in SEMESTI).

Here goes some of the good times photo stories of recent and the yesteryears of SEMESTI:

I even bowled a maiden over at STC Oval
in the ASTI Beetle vs SMACK game during the
ASSAK Cricket Championship (ACC) 2018

Playing for SEMESTI (Alumni Team)
in the MCOBA Royals 100 Championship

My colleagues and I were the pioneers of SEMESTI Cricket,
way back in 1986. We even won many matches
against other residential schools like RMC, KIK, SMAWIP, SMS etc.

Not sure why I posed like that at the front ...
but the adidas sneakers looked cool enough.
I remembered two RMC batsmen injured due to my bowling.
one with 5 stitches (his fault for wearing lopek batting gloves),
the other with a broken glasses (no helmet).
those were the days my friends ....

I was the Headboy, with lots and lots of cute girls adik angkat.

The longest time ever being the Headboy.

Believe it or not, I was also the Tokoh Pelajar.
Received the Trophy and Cash Award.

How I'd looked in those sweet days at SEMESTI.

Some of my good friends and how do we look
after 30 years, still looking good right?

Batting @ Seroja

When you edit out the missed balls and the wickets and what not, batting at the nets can be cool.

Unpressurised Joy

Subang Sky Park

My boss (my former classmate at Glasgow University), had just had his new General Aviation hangar inaugurated yesterday. After the long prayer and sumptuous kambing bakar and what not, he asked me whether I would like to ride on his Cessna 172 aircraft for a quick KL city tour.

"You don't have to worry bro, if anything happens, your wife will be compensated at least RM200k."

Wow, that's very reassuring indeed, especially when knowing that the wife will be a new 'janda kaya' and will get the posthumous two hundred thousand compensation plus another one million from my EPF, while my duly-departed self could be making the next day headline in the news, and somebody will obviously post viral photo/video via WhatsApp or IG.

Anyway, back to the Cessna 172, it is one of the most successful aircraft in history with more than 44,000 units built since 1956  and remains in production until today.

It has a crew of one (the pilot) and can carry three passengers. Its length is about 8.28m and its wingspan is 11.00 m. The Cessna 172 cruising speed is 226 km/h with a range of about 1,289 km. Unlike normal civil aviation aircraft that we normally took, the cabin is not pressurised. Similar to the scary helicopters during my offshore going days and the British Aerospace Jetstream 41 during my aerospace engineering undergraduate study.

The pilot of the day for the Cessna 172 was Captain Azrin, a young and talented flying officer at my company. We took off from Subang Sky Park runway and flew from Subang up to KL City Centre passing the TRX and KLCC and came back to Subang.

During the landing approach, we have to wait for quite sometime loitering in the air while waiting for the runway to clear because of heavy traffics.

Captain Azrin safely landed the aircraft, and thanks to the Almighty, my wife's not yet a rich widow.

Cessna 172 with Registration No. 9M-JOY

Captain Azrin the pilot of the day

Passed by the almost completed TRX

Yours truly giving a thumbs up

Graduation 2018

Congratulation to my dear 22 year old son Ameerul Ahwaz on his July graduation from Heriot Watt University getting a B.Eng. in Petroleum Engineering. The story behind why he chose that course was because he's truly inspired by the success of my former classmate/boss Nik Hamdan of Barakah Offshore Petroleum, especially with his flashy Lamborghini Aventador, Ferrari 488 and Porsche sports cars as well as his swimming-pool equipped bungalow in Glenmarie Residence.

Anyway, I really appreciate his achievement under the circumstances. He tried his best in getting over the difficult and challenging engineering subjects especially in the tradition of excellence well known within the Scottish Universities forte (all the Kelvins, Adam Smiths, James Watts, etc. were from Scotland).

In my undergrad days in the ancient Glasgow University back in the late 80s and early 90s, I had to endure the bitterly cold environment and those lonely days (the aftermath of a break up) in addition to the strenuous aerospace engineering subjects and being faraway from my family. Even with all these obstacles, I managed to graduate on time in July 1991 (Summer Graduation) as opposed to many of my friends who had to resit for their exams and finally graduated in December (Winter Graduation).

Ahwaz and his Petroleum Engineering degree
from Heriot Watt University, July 2018

The Honours Board
Congratulating the Graduates

Ahwaz's cool dad with his
Aerospace Engineering degree from 
Glasgow University, July 1991

Hopefully, he will successfully embark in a conducive working environment. Unlike me, as right after graduation I set myself up for an epic sabbatical carefree journey of four months in the Indian subcontinent (well that's another story) from July until November and practically did nothing and just 'lepak kingkong' at my home in Sitiawan until the next February.

What People Think

What do actually people think about you?

Sometimes, I asked myself this question. What actually people think of me?

To be honest, I don’t even care to bother. When I do things to anyone, the last reason for me to do it was because of what they think about me.

I do it for the sake of seeking the pleasures of Almighty. I did it because I like doing it.

Having said that, I hope that people do genuinely like me and hopefully for the right reasons.

I am the kind of person who will take some time to open myself up, if ever. Maybe to someone else who are both sincere and respectful. Liking me for who I really am, without holding up a mask or being false.

Having said that, I hope my SO still like me, even though my networth has shrunk to oblivion, similar to some other 30,000 oil & gas professionals in Malaysia.

I hope that my children will still love me, even though I haven’t took them for shopping spree or going for overseas trips for the last two years.

I sincerely hope that my boss at work still appreciate my little contributions to the company.

I'm also hoping that my fellow batsmen still have that uneasiness of negotiating my skiddy and sometimes in-swing bowling during a cricket match, just like before.

The least of thing that I think people musing over about me is about my outwardly appearance. 

To me there is so much going on in this mind of mine. I could be engaged in practically all the intense and intelligent discussions and discourses on any given topics. I love science, engineering, history, politics, economy, sports, architecture, religion, philosophy ad infinitum. But certainly not on the topic of my looks.

The other day, at one of the PETRONAS Service Station, after I have finished filling up my sports hybrid, I noticed a familiar looking lady sitting in a car in front of me.

"Bad, Bad, oh my God, you looked so handsome !!" That particular day, I was in my full Baju Melayu complete with its buttons, unlike P Ramlee.

"Haha, haha ... hello Nor, apa khabar?"

She happens to be my former office colleague. It's been a while since I met her.

"Sebab you dah kahwin je, kalau tidak mesti I dah tackle you !!"

"Haha, haha ..." I felt like choking myself.

There were other occasions, when after a meeting was over, I received similar tone of messages. And all I have to say was, "Haha ..."

exempli gratia

Counting My Blessings

It's very easy to express dissatisfaction, and it's damn too easy to always complaint.

This and that not right, those and what not weren't good enough.

The last couple of weekends while we were still in the month of Syawal, my SO and I organised (not-so) open-house events for friends and families, well mostly friends. My SO will prepare her sumptuous biryani rice and special lamb curry plus other delicacies for the guests.

While my tasks would be making the drinks and maybe preparing the associated salad dishes.

Most of our friends have expressed how delicious those biryani was and how tender and succulent the lamb was (and my SO will then say that she's using the pressure cooker, instead of the normal cooking method).

Some went on to the extent saying that what they had was the best tasted biryani rice ever (I'm sure they haven't gone to biryani restaurants nearby the Lahore Gaddafi Cricket Stadium yet).

Anyway, me and my family are counting all the blessings given by the Almighty for each of the tasty biryani morsel that we partake, and each of the drink that we inadvertently gulped.

Count Your Blessings, Not Your Problems.

The very delicious lamb shank and biryani rice
at the Dera Restaurant, Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore

Exotic art deco brickworks on the restaurant facade