I am afraid of public transportation. There. I said it. Not the people or the drivers or even the reliability. I am afraid of my inability to navigate a new system. Some of this unwarranted fear has been alleviated after my recent trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
After a
travel guardian helped me get a skybus ticket on the plane, I reviewed my notes ten more times before we touched down. I actually felt pretty confident, even though I couldn't picture how anything was going to look or how it would happen. After a long line of foreign passport holders, I crossed to the other side - the side of busy travelers eating, duty free-ing and finding their ways home. After some wandering and a few questions, I found the skybuses and boarded one bound for the city. A little after an hour later, I was in KL Sentral - the main station. From there I needed to get on the LRT (light rail transit) to the stop nearest the guesthouse. To my surprise, the LRT map looked very similar to my hometown transit in Chicago (the "L"). I was taking the red line and instead of a ticket, I was given a token. A quick swipe of the token over a sensor got me through the gates and I'm glad I held onto it because I wouldn't have been let through the doors of my stop without sliding the token down a slot which corresponded with how much I paid. Check!
I hate being the one at a corner staring at a map at night, so I hid myself behind a bush studying my surroundings. After a few street crossings, I stood in front of the guesthouse shaking my head and smiling at how seamlessly all of that transportation went. I felt like I leveled up in traveledom. Such a contrast from my
ridiculous first night in Vietnam.
