The grass is always greener…
Was in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend. The last time I was there was in early ‘95, and I gotta say, I was hugely impressed by what it’s become. All that modern architecture and infrastructure. I felt like cringing once I landed at Soekarno-Hatta, after taking from KLIA just a few hours earlier. KL reminded me of Singapore, though the crappy traffic and constant rain brought back thought of home. Then again, maybe Singapore has crappy traffic and constant rain too. And I’m sure KL has its fair share of problems, though I guess my being in one problem-ridden city too long just makes any shortcomings other places have seem insignificant.
Though if there’s one thing that’s better in Jakarta than in KL, it’s that small, underground gigs go relatively unmolested. I wasn’t there, but on New Year’s Eve in KL, at a gig at this cafe called Paul’s Place, police raided the place under the pretense that it was a "black metal" concert, which they’ve been cracking down on in recent times. Which would be all well and good, but the catch was, this wasn’t even a black metal gig! It was hardcore, not that they really cared - and so 380 kids ended up being arrested and tested for drugs. Very lousy. As far as I know that hasn’t happened here, so here’s hoping it never does. And if it does, I hope the police at least get the genre right.
Regardless, I had a blast in KL, and met some cool people too, who said I should’ve stayed longer. Hopefully I’ll be able to do just that, and on my own dime and time if necessary.
January 8th, 2006 at 5:13 am
hey, if kamu kembali lagi ke kl, i hope u can bring along a copy of rolling stone mag. yr writing is very impressinve, dude!
January 19th, 2006 at 8:18 am
Come again?? So where were u on the new year’s eve?…And u didn’t share that interesting story wit us, eh?. Darn! I thought we were your friend hehehe :p
Nice 2 know u thou’…c u in another country perhaps?!
January 21st, 2006 at 12:51 am
Aiesha: Yeah, I’ll try to remember that, though the mag’s all in Indonesian, and my Indonesian writing’s actually crap, which is why I blog in English. But if people like what I write. then it seems I’ve managed to get away with it so far…
FeBLuB: I was going to head to your hotel, but then something came up and midnight arrived while I was still at my hotel room. Being on the 29th floor made it vibrate even more from the massive fireworks, giving a cool yet rather freaky war zone effect. And I didn’t really know all the details about the “interesting story” until after getting back, so you’ll just have to look it up like I did. See you somewhere soon.