Kuala Lumpur

I am presently in KL, after two days in Penang, will be back again to Penang tomorrow.
Staying in Penang-BM seems to be boring for me, frankly speaking BM is actually very small place, and a boring one. But glad that I spent some time there, for dad, and now, as I told Ginny, BM holds different meaning for me, at this stage of time. It is still my hometown, the place that holds at lot of good memories for me, esp. my childhood, of growing up in a big fruits orchard and coconut plantation, and living in a big house and good childhood with my late grandma, and lots lots more. But now, at this stage of time, and with dad passing away, I do not see anything that offers me there, accept my relatives there, uncles, aunties, cousins..... and the properties left by my dad and of course those big collection of ceramic that I have, etc. Too long to say it here. I will write more when I go back to Beijing, to tell what I feel after one year of dad's passing away.

I guess that will happen to most people who have left the country or their hometown, like Joyce, Cheesoon, like Devil, and many more.

Kuala Lumpur is nice in the sense of big city, and etc, but this trip, it is becoming more clear to me, KL is lacking something, it is like a boy after reaching puberty, that has not really grown into a full man. It is, to me, getting a bit messy or disorganised, compared to 20 years ago when I first came to KL for my study. And nothing much has changed, except a few more tall buildings, and may be the LRT and monorail. The road from Jalan Kuching to KL city is not well maintained, and the city is always jammed. ONE thing I found out, after 2.5 years away is that inflation is getting higher. I compared relatively to the regular stuffs I usually buy in Carrefour Seberang Jaya. Boh Cameronian, the 50 packs, has increased I think more than 30% since I first consumed it, some fruits juices I usually buy, from 3.99 per pack to 5.49 per pack now, and tell me, what else is not increasing except Salary. My niece, is getting exactly the salary I got or slightly lower, compared to 18 years ago, when I first started my work. Can you imagine this, so, how can the new generation survive. My sister has to help out in supporting from one end to another, and I hope niece will be able to get more experience and move out, to work in some other places which needs her expertise later on. Property prices, please check how much it has increased. If we do not revamp our economy, and bring more right investors and right industries into Malaysia, it will be just another formerly developing country soon. We really need a proper attention on this.

Penang to me, as I talked to my ex-colleague and friend, SG, has become relatively better, in overall performance. I can see that is is cleaner, and overall feeling was good, but I do not think there are much improvements in terms of economy activites. Hope it would be better. My Aunt that operates a stall in a cafe told me that her business is getting worse as less people eating out nowadays. And she still sell a plate of fried Keow teow at 2.50-3.00.
Sight, what will happen then?

Ok for now, enough has been written. This is what my feeling at this moment, and my concern too. I only hope it will get better.

Choong, Kuala Lumpur