Public Transports

Is it just me or are the things that I used to appreciate in Singapore are getting bad? Let's take the public transports for example. The authorities announced some months back that the MRTs (Trains) frequencies were increased. Indeed, at peak time I used to have a train every two minutes. But for the past week the frequency is back to 4 minutes or more which creates a chaos as at peak time the trains become so crowded you sometimes have to wait for several to pass through. And what about the feeder buses which are a disaster. Off peak, and if not rushed I continue to enjoy the buses though even if it takes much longer to reach my destination but these are only handy on weekends for me. And what about the cabs? 90% of the drivers do not actually know how to drive, they are not necessarilly pleasant and they always find false excuses to refuse your credit card as they prefer cash. And I am not talking about the masses who prefer to hide in a corner or refuse to stop when hailed at peak time as they much prefer to take an "On Call" course which will add a few $$ to their fare (on top of the peak time surcharge, the ERP surcharge, the CBD surcharge, etc...). Not a pleasant situation.

Ojek

Second day on the Island. I have just taken the ferry back. When I arrived at the ferry terminal there were people disembarking from Dumai on the Sumatra mainland. As you have seen yesterday that the local transports were not really developped, the most common way of travelling as in the rest of Indonesia are the Ojek (motorcycle taxis). They are not licensed (by the Government) and the specificity on this Island is that the helmet is only compulsory for the driver. You never see any passenger wearing any safety devices. Ladies are usually sitting sideways and it is not uncommon to see families of 4 (in addition to the driver) riding a single bike! Of course, if you are not a local and know the standard prices you have to bargain hard before you accept a ride. I only took some in Sulawesi and have always avoided them in crazy cities like Jakarta!

Islanders public transports

In Indonesia for another two days! And there is no need to fly when time, itself, is flying so fast. Island life is somehow a relief compared to the fast pace of Singapore. Evrything is so slow. No fast cars. No fast lanes for the buses. Talking of which, the picture above will give you an idea of the local transports. There are no public services on the island and the only collective means of transport are those privately and individually owned buses that serve all purposes. No need of A/C as most of them are windowless. The major problem is when it is raining but in that case not only the buses stop, the whole Island life becomes idle. and no, I did not take a picture of the worst one I could find but one of the best!

Back to school

The month of June was quite sweet as it was the mid-year school holidays. As a result the traffic was free flowing and the public transports were not suffocating. Now everything is back to normal. There is no longer any gain of time if I try to catch a taxi from / to work and I am assured to be sandwiched and standing for the whole MRT journey. I am longing to find that job that could be an enjoyable walking distance from where I live...

Monorail

Here's the view down from our bedroom's window. You can see KL's Raja Chulan station as well as a monorail approaching. The system is quite recent as it opened in 2003 and the carriages remind me a lot of the ones used in Sentosa. This one is a bit more extensive though as it serves 11 stations running nearly 9 kilometers through the city. As we were driving around the city we did not have the opportunity to use the monorail this time. We just enjoyed its sight.

No Durians

After yesterday's post the above sign just struck me when I sat in the taxi this evening. Eating durians is a bit like smoking. As briefly mentioned in the previous post, it is not allowed to even carry a durian in places like hotels, trains and taxis. That said, the other day I took a cab and there is no doubt what the driver was carrying in his own booth.

Monorail

The theme of the week was supposed to be transports but I suppose it will have to stretch over the month as I sometimes have more interesting topics to post ;-) The picture above is for a mode of transport that is actually quite limited. It's only 2 kilometers long, it competes with the aging telecabins system but the monorail is one pleasant way to travel from Harbour Front to Beach Station. Surprisingly it is not an automated system though.

MRT

This week I will ty to take a few pictures of Singapore public transports. The underground / metro is called the MRT and is clean and efficient. The lines are not very extensive even though the government is now building a new Circle Line that should be completed by 2010. Tickets are quite cheap starting at around 60 Euro cents. The major problem is that the service is not as frequent as in other major cities and the trains tend to be overcrowded (especially at peak time). Singaporeans who succeed in securing a seat are famous for pretending to sleep or 'look away' in order not to give their seats to the persons who might need.

Value Life!

If people jumping under the train are an occurence in Paris it does not seem to be the case in Singapore. I just wondered while seeing the above sign in the MRT this morning if it had something to do with the message displayed in the four official languages here. Nevertheless as Singapore, to make things easier, usually also like to use ideograms I was also trying to figure out how this message could be transcribed as one...