Things that Malaysian keep doing even though...

1. Credit Card

Like most of everyone else, I longed to own my very own credit card once I'm working. Even though my parents have been telling me not to use the credit card, I'm still having it, even though I'm actually not really a big spender, but with all the status-conscious friends back in Telekom RND, having a credit card is a signage of your higher status.

Stupid me, the approval of my Bank Islam Credit Card had opened the door for all other banks to sign me up for their credit cards. I still remembered that Citibank had actually offered to all the just graduated student to apply for their graduate credit card. I didn't apply for that, but I applied it later on, and it's approved.

Worst, the sweet talks had easily gets me going with that HSBC agent to apply for their credit cards. 3 cards, Mastercard, Visa and Amanah Mastercard. Even worst, I manage to apply for the Diner's Club charge card as well.

Diner's club has made me to leave all my friend far behind. Most of them can't even get their Citibank or HSBC card to be approved.

Well, it's not as good as you may think of for a lot of reasons!

1. Your credit card information will be shared with companies like insurance companies and holiday companies. They'll bug you over time to persuade you to buy their insurance or holiday package.
2. If you have no transactions, they'll call you and ask you to either make a cash withdrawals or balance transfer.
3. They'll call you even if your credit is just RM3.57
4. If you pay up late, you'll be charged 'a lil bit' extra.
5. Interest will be charged on your credit balance.
6. These cards will make you feel like you're capable to buy just anything! You're poor but you can afford a lot of expensive unnecessary things.

I decided to quit all this. I managed to cancel my Bank Islam Credit Card years ago. I just cancelled my HSBC credit cards last week. I'm gonna cancel my Diner's club membership anytime soon but i'm thinking of maintaining my Citibank's.

Oh I'm so relieved!

I would say having credit cards is one of the stupidest thing i've ever done! One is just enough!

2. Driving on highways on the holidays

Pity Malaysians!

Or should I say STUPID MALAYSIANS?

Don't get me wrong. This is not intended to insult or being harsh to anyone. You know I'm always joking in this way hehe.

Well, as a regular user of the highway, as I've always been up and down JB-KL. It's very common to face traffic jams from these spots:

Going south, from Nilai to Senawang

Going north, from Pedas Linggi to Seremban

Going south, from Kulai to JB

I'm not sure about going north (KL-Perlis) but I was told that, the traffic jams even worse!

It's very sad that PLUS (the highway concession owner) keep telling us that they were working on it, they mean the traffic jam but it would still happened.

It's even more sad that they didn't give us the way out of the mess, and let the drivers, who intended to go holiday to have some rest but turns out that they get home in stress of the traffic jam. All they know were just to open a lane in the opposite direction so that the bigger jam would be lesser as they can create another jam at the other oppositing direction.

What a stupid solution. Messy man!

THR radio could help but so far, it's not really helping without the cooperation with PLUS. The radio channel which is supposed to be helping people out during their highway journey turns to be an independent channel who report the traffic jams based on people calls. It turns out wrongly yesterday as they mentioned about the mass traffic jam from Machap to JB but the real thing is the traffic jams were only from Senai to JB.

Why THR and PLUS cannot work together?

As for me, as I always have this kind of grudging towards people, PLUS is the culprit.

Why?

I think they should have worked together with THR to help to highway users. But they don't.

They can put electronic sign boards to inform to users about the traffic jams ahead but they didn't.

Why again? It's because they do not want to lose the toll money if people opted to use the alternative route. So bad isn't it? The highway is meant to speed up the journey but it turns the other way around.

There was once, an accident occured, going south after the Pedas/Linggi toll. The lorry body was lying across the whole road that will cause the traffic to be totally stucked! The PLUS people did not even ask the people to take alternative route, but they were like 'imprison' them on the highway from 11PM to 5AM. A long wait of 6 hours!

That's so pathetic. More pathetic are we Malaysians. We already know that during the holidays, the highway will be jammed, but we still use it as there's no other route you can choose to use. True! It's quite true also. You know why?

Most of those drivers were only driving after the highways had been completely built.

No wonder.

Even though I'm also started to drive after the completion of the highway, I'm adventurous enough to explore the other routes for your guys! Here are some tips as well!

1. Listen to THR for updates!
2. (going north) If jam in the area between Pedas/Linggi to Seremban, exit at the Simpang Ampat/Masjid Tanah toll, and take the previous route of Tampin to Seremban.
3. Alternatively, you can take the route to Lubok China, to Port Dickson, To Sepang and KL.
4. (going south) If jam occured somewhere before Nilai toll, trust me, the jam is all the way up to Seremban/Senawang toll. Solution, take the Nilai exit, and take to old route to Seremban. Don's worry. There're signboards around.
5. (going south) if jam occured from Senai to JB, take the senai exit and all the way to JB on the other sleepy highway. No hassles.

It's a bit far, but at least it's not as boring as freezing in your car for hours. Not moving!