Travelling

Because of the nature of my job, i do travel quite a fair bit, especially within the region of South East Asia (or in short, ASEAN).

I must admit that it is quite tiring to cover so many grounds within short periods of time, but comparing myself with other profession like ... pilot, i consider myself quite lucky.

Interestingly, most of the countries in ASEAN region are, well, cowboy-state, if you may. It is quite an experience to see mega shopping malls in Jakarta co-exist perfectly with the more traditional wet market (or wholesale market, which is commonly refer to as "pasar" in Bahasa Indonesia). With the big fat gap between the rich and the poor, two separate types of trade exist to maintain the balance in the society.

When you talk about Jakarta, undeniably, the first word that pop up in most people's mind is "Traffic Jam". There are just so many vehicles on the road and so many people live in the city itself. There is over 20 million people living in Greater Jakarta region. That, my friend, is just about 6-7 million shy of Malaysia's total population.

20 million people, that's approximately 10% of the country's total population, living in the capital city of the "thousand islands country". Interestingly, somehow, the 10% rule holds for most countries. For instance, there are about 2 million people lives in KL (about 8 million for Greater KL), that's about 10% of Malaysia's total population of 25-27 million people.

With a total population of over 60 million people, Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, provide homes to approximately 6 million people (12 million if you refer to the Greater Bangkok region).

Enough of biased and skewed statistics. Well, to end this chapter of one of my many lousy blog entries, I would like touch on one of the most interesting destination which my job has brought me to. Myanmar.

It might be surprising to some, but most people mistakenly think that the capital city of Myanmar is Yangon. However, it is not, well, at least since 2006 it's not. Naypyidaw is now the capital city of Myanmar. Why, how, what, where, when? (well i just said, 2006) Well in short, the government has decided that it is in the people's best interests to move its capital to a new vast land far far away, so that the new city with all government offices can be more organized, more well-structured and... better looking maybe. Sounds very much like Putrajaya to me actually.

The infrastructure in Yangon is in the state which will make a person appreciates and feels contented with what we have here in Malaysia. Well, it is a beautiful country with vast resources, and land, but, not very well-managed. It's kinda pity though...