Torturous cab ride
Was away at the Sarawak World Music Festival last weekend. It was a great event and I will share the pictures and video clips in the subsequent postings. My friend in JB helped me book the Air-Asia airticket to Kuching way back in February at the incredible price of RM60 CENTS return trip. With the taxes thrown in, it totalled up to all of RM$130.20! I had to fly from Senai and the flight was 6:55am. So I went into JB on the evening before my flight, that is last Wednesday.
Someone told me to try and make it to the Causeway before 7pm to avoid the jam. I got to Rochor taxi terminal to catch the S'pore-JB cab. There was no queue but within 5 minutes, more people came and enough to make a group of four to car-pool. I was the only one with a luggage. I dumped it into the boot, got into the Johor cab and FROZE. Being the last to get in, I was in the seat right behind the driver and he had distinct body odor. The sort of dried sweat that linger in the air. The blood vessels to my brain instantly constricted as with my lungs. Should I jump out? How am I going to explain myself? It is not like I can ran out since I need the driver to open his boot. How can the other passengers stand it? How can the guy sitting right next to the driver stand it?!! My mind was in a struggle and all sorts of scenarios of how I could have extricated myself from such a situation then or in the future. Too late, no way to get out. Taxi already on the move. I tried not to breathe too much and could feel myself weakened into a semi-meditative state as a result of low oxygen. I tried to distract myself from the smell by focusing on the large mole perched on the right side of the face of the front passenger. It had several hairs that seemed as long as 10 cm sprouting out from the mole. A young couple sat on my left, chatting away ceaselessly. Maybe like me, they are also trying to cope with the situation. After all when they talk, they can breathe through their mouth without being obvious. It would be rude if they panted. I prayed and prayed. Thank gawd, there was no traffic jam and we all got out of it one hour later.
Someone told me to try and make it to the Causeway before 7pm to avoid the jam. I got to Rochor taxi terminal to catch the S'pore-JB cab. There was no queue but within 5 minutes, more people came and enough to make a group of four to car-pool. I was the only one with a luggage. I dumped it into the boot, got into the Johor cab and FROZE. Being the last to get in, I was in the seat right behind the driver and he had distinct body odor. The sort of dried sweat that linger in the air. The blood vessels to my brain instantly constricted as with my lungs. Should I jump out? How am I going to explain myself? It is not like I can ran out since I need the driver to open his boot. How can the other passengers stand it? How can the guy sitting right next to the driver stand it?!! My mind was in a struggle and all sorts of scenarios of how I could have extricated myself from such a situation then or in the future. Too late, no way to get out. Taxi already on the move. I tried not to breathe too much and could feel myself weakened into a semi-meditative state as a result of low oxygen. I tried to distract myself from the smell by focusing on the large mole perched on the right side of the face of the front passenger. It had several hairs that seemed as long as 10 cm sprouting out from the mole. A young couple sat on my left, chatting away ceaselessly. Maybe like me, they are also trying to cope with the situation. After all when they talk, they can breathe through their mouth without being obvious. It would be rude if they panted. I prayed and prayed. Thank gawd, there was no traffic jam and we all got out of it one hour later.
Labels: RWMF
posted by Fiery at Sunday, July 22, 2007
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