Thursday, December 17, 2009

All that Singapore MRT smell.!!!

Been away for the past week and back to my home town sg. Primarily it was for my friend's / ex-colleague's wedding. However, the fact that it coincided nicely with my brother's birthday was a greater motivation for me to hurl my lazy arse up the plane.

After all these years, I am still involunteerily "scammed" by the unreliable weather forecast. I was told Singapore will have thunderstorm the whole week I am scheduled to be there, but as it turned out, it was nicely bright, hot and sunny. Apart from the last day where it poured buckets just hours before my flight, everyday was perfectly dry and lovely.

Every time I return to Singapore, my impression of it got progressively worse. If I ever were to move back here, I will have to mentally adjust my mindset and expectations. People are getting more impatient, rude and incorrigible bad service are substantially abundant.

Predominatly, one of the worst highlight during the trip was the nitemarish public transport (esp train) during peak hours! I have to resort catching the cab as much as I could....IF i must absolutely leave the house that is.

If smelly armpits, sourish body odour, and oily stinking hair from shorter people isnt horrific enough, throw in a new one. The terrifying bad breath from people who just wont shut up is the new abhorrence .

I had the honor of learning that in Singapore, "standing in line -queuing up" in the orchard train station at 7.30pm is reserved only for fools and idiots. The demise of "social courtesy" in Singapore was vividly palpable at this "witching hour". None of the local commuters apparently abide by the social etiquette of waiting in line for their turn to board the train. Instead, I faced hoards of impatient, animalistic commuters who just keep cutting my line in waves, to a point that I had to miss 2 trains. Their uncouth behaviour simply know no bounds.

By the 3rd train, I gave up being obliging and even without singular effort on my part. I was unceremoniously shoved and squashed into the train from the sheer brute force of other people trying to pack themselves into the obviously jam-pack train. It was a new experience to be involuntarily snowballed literally by the relentless crowd in Singapore. When the door slammed shut, there was barely any inch of room to navigate myself comfortably.

Inside the cabin, it wasnt just elbow to elbow. I could feel the curvy bum of the person infront of me, and the boobs of the lady sticking right up to my back. To my left and right was the unwelcoming view of sweaty armpit. Within the crammed cabin, my petrifying ordeal commenced.

Being mobbed is one thing, having your fragile olfactory nerosensory being brutally raped is another! The guys reeked of unwashed bed linens for months, coupled with a strong whiff of dried overnight drool spot somewhere on them. Don't they bathe? The assault of my senses by these unexpected, unfriendly and unbearable assailants didnt stop there. The short woman before me with her oily dandruffed hair, started to chatter on. Her loud conversation was a revulsion on its own but to throw in her sulphuric breath which is akin to rotten eggs is simply revolting.. Christ! People shouldnt talk in crowded train!! Their bodily stench really bothers and upsets me.

Even just for one stop was a minute too much. I jumped off the train immediately to be released from the human hell-hole so that I would not be drawing "my last breath" in that cabin. There is NO WAY I am boarding any more peak hour train so I found another means of transport home.

Make no bones about it, the current train infrastructure simply isnt coping well with the bulging passenger trafic. The newly reinforced moronic ruling (by the SMRT authority) of inflicting monetary penalty on people caught consuming sweets in the singapore train, is also torturing its commuters with all forms of indirect air pollution in the stiffling train. The air in the cabin was hardly circulating and while the airconditioning was definitely on, it certainly was not running optimally at a comfortable temperature to dull the stench.

Hats off to the people who have to take that hell train every morning and eve during rush hour. U folks have my utmost sympathies....

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Are you a singaporan? Im from Korea . I totally agree what you felt. Their armpit are horrible smelly odour and i dont know the reason Singapore's economy is not broken.
Most singaporean are unkind... a number of people are illiteracy !
They dont even only one advantage to be developed country.
I really feel somthing like your colleague because what i felt is the same things you felt.
Would you mind if u would be my penpal freind.
Im 25 guy but age is useless
I just want to improve my conversation skill of english