"Salam ....H can return asap".

First, I want to thank that classmate of mine who picked me from KLIA. He was the first familiar face that greeted me when I arrived. Yusof lives in Melaka. He and his dear wife delayed their journey back home just so that they could be at KLIA to welcome me home ...and for that gesture, I am grateful. With friends like Yusof and his wife, I know that the Malaysia of old...the Malaysia that I left behind over thirteen years ago...was alive and well.

Every day there was kindness and grace from amazing people who took care of me in every possible manner. Breakfast, brunch, lunch, tea, dinner, and, when all else fails because time did not allow it, there was always coffee to be had slotted in at any hour and at any location...from Alexis to the Mamak restaurant in Bangsar. There was also a dinner in Melaka in celebration of past Wakil Rakyats ....of which I am not one...but I was invited, and I went.

I met Malaysians from all walks of life. Grab drivers, and restaurant workers with whom I became "almost friends" right through to the others of whom I have heard about, but never thought I would ever meet in my lifetime. Lim Kit Siang, KCT, Lim Teck Ghee, Nor Farida of G25, General Dato Arshad, Tamrin, Tian Chua, Sivarasa, Tommy Thomas, Tun Mahathir, Syed Saddiq, Hannah Yeoh, Kamsiah Haider, Hajeeder, Zaid Ibrahim...and so many Dato's and Datins and interesting individuals....so many of them that I sometimes think, that maybe I had died and gone to blogger heaven! Any blogger...would have given up his right writing hand to be with any one of those guys and be able to write about it. Me? No... all I will say is that I have met and talked with them about anything I wanted to talk to them about...but I will not write about it. Meeting them was enough.

Nobody was rude to me. Nobody challenged me on what I write. No one questioned my views on this and that. Nobody was rude. There were those who agreed to disagree with my views on politicians and other persons of interest....but in agreeing to disagree with me, they were civil.

A few memorable quotes from those that I met:

The Chinese will take over this country in ten years' time

With Anwar Ibrahim.....who needs PAS?

He is all we have got. We must support him.

He should NOT have accepted the Tan Sri. He betrayed us!

The next time I am in KL I will try again to "interview" the same interesting people with a caveat before they speak. I will write about what they speak with me.

I met the outgoing President of the Lake Club. The same outgoing President, of whom I have written about uncharitably. To his credit, on realizing that I was the blogger who have written uncharitably about him...he extended his hand in friendship, and we civilly exchanged pleasantries....a gentleman to the very. I salute you, sir.

I met classmates from MCKK and SABS. At lunch one day at the Lake Club, I had a Judge sit beside me and always, there were interesting people to converse with. I more than had my fill of the Briyani Ayam Madu and Fried Mee (kurang pedas & sikit basah) of Mahbub in Bangsar. I spent more time than I should at BSC...only because it was the "go-to place" of the people I wanted to meet and it was close to where I was staying. Gradually, I realized that Grab's pricing changes according to real-time conditions such as demand and supply, and the savings I made on Grab Fare when I eventually got the loan of a car for my use, were massive because there were days when I was spending over Rm100 a day on Grab.

Slowly but surely I got to know KL again. I got to know that all the elevated highways, all the toll roads, all the underpass, and all the overpass had only made the traffic jams worse because all they did was funnel traffic into roads that were never adequate to take the overload of cars being channeled into them resulting in traffic jams at all hours of the day.

You marveled at how KL's town planners ...if there were any at all in the employment of DBKL... did NOT consider the interaction between people, and the places they live in. A sustainable and liveable Kuala Lumpur was never a consideration in their planning! And you also wonder how these town planners did NOT work to positively influence environmental sustainability, economic resilience, and social equity in KL. Maybe....just maybe, politicians may have something to do with the mess that KL is now in!

To be continued.