Why? Because I've seen for myself how KL is like during this festival period. You see, for a change, I decided to take my family down to Kuala Lumpur for Chinese New Year. First time I'm doing this.
Okay, first things first: we drove down to KL on the first day of CNY. The drive was a breeze. We were moving against the traffic flow and many people were still on the road, leaving KL for their hometowns.
Entering KL itself was also easy. Right until we reached Jalan Tun Perak. The whole place was a sea of people. Not locals but the foreign workers...Bangladeshis, Vietnamese, Nepalese, etc. Don't know where they were heading to but they caused a damn nuisance on the road. Blocked the traffic on this road and outside Puduraya.
But we reached our hotel eventually. The Royale Bintang Hotel in Jalan Bukit Bintang. My children weren't very impressed with the hotel's exterior but they loved the rooms. Big and spacious enough for them.
Day One. After checking in, we went to see my dear old aunt. My mum's elder sister. Very frail-looking and every one of her 72 years showed. I think she was more anxious than us to see one another. When we hadn't arrived by 6.30pm, she was on the verge of pestering her daughter to call us to see what time we would arrive. Hugs all around when we arrived.
Oh yes, the reason we were late was because I made a detour to Section 14 in Petaling Jaya to visit my ex-colleague, See Ming, and her husband, Sim. He has a h-u-g-e extended family. Everyone seemed to be visiting his dad during this period. Too bad I missed meeting him during my short visit. He was sleeping.
Here's another reason why I say KL is not exactly a dead town during CNY. Is this picture of Jalan Bukit Bintang at night a sign of a dead town? Not by any chance. Bintang Walk was full of people - tourists mainly - and shops were open.
Day Two. No more relatives or friends to visit. Not that I do not have any more but (1) they were either too busy or away or (2) I forgot to bring their contact numbers! Woe is me; how can I ever do that??
Anyway, spent the whole of the daylight hours at 1-Utama. But of course, I had my misadventure. I intended to take the Damansara way to the shopping complex but somehow, after Jalan Semantan, I accidentally turned into the Kerinchi Link which took me to the Federal Highway. So it was a long detour through old PJ before I arrived at 1-Utama.
Day Three. This was the day we went home. But first, a stop at Ikea. This time, I was determined to find the right route. Finally, we left KL at about 4.30pm. On the way back to Penang, the opposite site of the expressway was jam-packed with vehicles. People were returning back to KL from Penang, Ipoh and elsewhere in droves. I wouldn't be surprised if a four-hour journey took eight hours to complete.
My drive home was rather uneventful except for one incident at 6.10pm. I was about to overtake a tour bus (AFQ 5898). But I suppose the bus driver must have dozed off at the wheel. The bus started cutting into my lane in front of me. Luckily, I had the presence of mind to brake and gave the blardy driver a long toot. He swerved back into his lane. Later, when I managed to overtake him, he gave me an apologetic wave with his hand.
The rest of the journey was uneventful but after Taiping, traffic was building up along the stretch to Penang. I suppose many people were also returning to Penang after the holidays. Chinese New Year. A period of mass migration in this country.
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