INDEPENDENT

IBU KOTA

KUALA LUMPUR.
I would just normally go there to work and immediately be back to my beloved island Penang. My heaven. This time around I took a chance to spend three days there, to be a tourist in the capital city of Malaysia. My first day was in KLCC area. A luxurious hotel, sponsored by Affin bank, I emceed their function last night, fantastic area, full of international people, young people hanging around with their peer groups and some ladies busy shopping, I suspected these are middle class from all around Malaysia, just by looking at their good looking shopping bags. Using bungee just to go to KLCC shopping area and the buffet spread at the hotel too was a luxury, time to break my diet rules.

sekali sekala manusia dari kampung seperti aku akan diberi peluang untuk nikmat nikmat sebegini. Tinggal di kamar mewah dan makan makanan yang hebat. Setakat manalah manusia itu boleh makan? Tidak apa itu satu kenikmatan. Melihat gaya dan cara orang Kuala Lumpur berbelanja, aku menjadi kagum. Jadi tidak heranlah kalau ada hati hati yang nagoi yang tergoda...sangat mengkagumkan gaya mereka..mewah!!!

The next day I check in Bintang Warisan at Bukit Bintang. That place has really changed. It's more international now, all kinds of people and nationalities can be seen. You name it, Arabs, Africans, Indonesian? They have it all. Business is really fast and booming. selling fast commodities from china and of course massage services...young girls on the street competing with each other trying to sell their delicate services, I wonder if this is pat pong? No, it's not. The girls in Pat Pong are more attractive. 

Bukit Bintang dulu adalah tempat aku membeli belah. Sejak dulu inilah satu satunya kawasan yang sangat kosmopolitan... membeli pakaian dalam tong, menjamu mata melihat kreasi Benard Chandran di KL Plaza dan mencari harga terbaik di Sungai Wang Plaza...kalau ada duit lebih kita makan dunkin donats atau KFC...indahnya sewaktu remaja di Bukit Bintang....

Right from Bintang Warisan up to Pavilion, throngs of people walk to and fro, I wonder if this is the case of "Let's pretend" we are heading to somewhere like the rest...while the actual fact is, I look at you, you look at me? Bukit Bintang no longer look like the one I remember. Saw a transsexual prostitute at 7.30am from the balcony of the coffe house, while I was having breakfast. Pity her, having to stand till that hour. Business must be bad.

Aku sering terbayang..dari mana ke mana manusia manusia ini? masing masing seolah olah dalam keadaan yang sangat ribut. Si gadis seksi jelita bergaya...teruna tampan entah dari mana..santai sekali. Pandai mereka bergaya...

Off to Puduraya....to check in at Citin Hotel. Nearer to the bus terminal. Today I will go down some more memory lanes, when I was a teenager studying here in KL. I walk toward central market...having to pass by Kota Raya that looks so shabby by now. I remember this place well, we hang out here normally those days...Petaling Street the famous one, with quotations of PS butik when anyone ask about your Christian Dior watches, by now is cleaner, but those vendors are amazingly Nepalis and Bangladeshis left me wondering what is happening top our own Malaysian youth?

Kota Raya...owh di zaman aku berpusu pusu di sana. Menanti Bas MIni Wilayah..melompat dengan syiling 50 sen di tangan. Tidak sama seperti sekarang..perjalanan menjadi lebih mudah..dari lrt naik monorel...dari monorel naik komuter...sangat mudah dan bersistematik...masing masing tidak peduli pada sesiapa...semua sibuk dengan talipon di tangan...sibuk mereka masing masing...kalau di waktu pagi...wajah monyok siapapun tidak kisah...melihat mereka aku terbayang, apa mereka ini semua anak jati kuala lumpur? atau baru sampai dari kuantan? Nakal juga mata ini...melihat si tampan dari Morrocco...si tegap dari Afrika...dan jejaka bergaya anak tempatan...Hilang sudah anak anak rock yang menggilai wings dan search...(sorry takda siapa bergaya rock lagi ya...)

Central market is busy...it's no longer a classy place with good food to be found, free entertainments put up by groups or young artistes. The art corner is still there....still alive and vibrant. Too many vendors are selling Thailand made items, some are handicrafts from china and Vietnam... owh! so lazy of them. Anyway all in all it's back to quick rotations of goods and business. Embarrassing I said in silent. 

Pasar seni? aku tekenangkan Liz Tajuddin...aku terbayangkan bagaimana aku menelam air liur melihat artis artis menconteng warna...Lukisan Anwar Rashid tentang percaturan air api dan angin masih cantik sebagai mural di dalamnya..riverside yang menampilkan Francisca Peters...and bagaimana aku suka melihat rekaan rekaan anak tempatan di sana. Ramai, terlalu ramai..kina apa yang ada?? Butik Layang layang....rekaan baju tee Rabecca Owens... owh indah sungguh pasar seni ketika itu...

Walking back to Citin hotel, I have to cross a few roads towards puduraya. It looks like mini Indonesia and Nepal... it's different, not that I am looking down at these nationalities but I wonder where has all the klites gone? Getting lazier? Classier? Or they are lazy to beat the traffic jam? Again that's a little scary to think.

Metrojaya? Mc Donald dibelakang kota raya? ya bangunannya masih ujud...tapi sangat berbeza. Menakutkan juga ada rasanya....di sinilah IFTC fashion school...di sinilah penggambaran ali setan2, di sinilah aku mencari inspirasi melihat manusia...

Enough is enough I said to myself. The next morning, I had my hot nescafe at that newly refurbished puduraya. It's cleaner and wider now, but the atmosphere is still the same. Touts are still around not that pushy anymore but still pushing trying their luck. Taxi drivers eager to get passengers and not wanting to use metres. While wondering I sip my terrible nescafe and lazily prepared nasi lemak run by an Indonesian group. I am sure the stall belongs to a certain Malaysian who wants an easy life.

Paling aku benci...PUDURAYA walaupun sudah dinaik taraf...masih ada lagi manusia manusia kasar di situ...kasar sungguh hidup mereka... demi mendapat komisyen jualan tiket...KL sudah sebati dengan mereka agaknya...itu mungkin adalah tatacara biasa buat mereka..baik aku pulang sahaja ke negeri yang serba sederhana di utara tanahair....

Regina Ibrahim
Penang.