The Perils of the Petite on the MRT

Pek chek!

I live in boonlay & travel to paya lebar for work everyday. You can imagine the substantial amount of time i spend on the MRT everyday. Everyday i have to confront a MRT cabin full of people packed butt to butt (hardly sexy). Given my small stature, i often end up smelling armpits on the crowded train! Brrrrr!

Totally concur with the view that Singapore is way too crowded. It wasn't so crowded a few yrs back.

Besides poor ventilation these are the problems i face when taking the MRT train:

Given my height, I usually try to hold on to the holding poles rather than the handrails. It is very tiring to extend your arm all the way from boon lay to paya lebar. When the train is crowded, inconsiderate people (tall, burly men included!) hold on to the hand rails, leaving me with nothing to grab (don't think dirty). I wish I can reach the handbars overhead!

The holding poles are problematic too. This is especially so because of my height. Let me explain, I instinctively hold on to the pole at a position which also happens to be the average height where men's butt are. Somehow, some people often like to lean their big fat & flat lazy butts on the poles. Maciam your butt very comfy against my hand lah? Nice cushion lah? Super disgusting, I feel like slapping them. Can't even scream molest since it is my hand on their butts. Have to aim somewhere higher around their necks where there's a tiny gap for me to grab on to the pole.

The next big hazard... Foreign workers. Maciam treat this like their own country liddat. Just because I'm small doesn't mean they can shove me around. I ever had this bangladesh shove me on the train at City Hall. Any by shove, i didn't mean just push, he wrapped his whole bloody hand around my waist and pulled me out of the way. I felt so violated!I just hit his hand away and pointed at him... "Stop, don't push."

They don't just push to get on trains. They also push to get on Escalators (esp. around jurong point). It is so dangerous! So I've learnt to walk with my elbows at 90 degrees. and I make sure that my intention to elbow them if they push me is plain to see. Sometimes i don't know if they are rushing for time; they are used to doing so; or they are trying to molest me.

Once, this bangla placed his hand on my hand while on the escalator. I had my hand happily on the escalator handrails, he was one step behind me and he had to reach all the way infront to place his hand on my hand?! I just lost it after being molested for the 3rd time in Jurong Point that day. I slapped his hand away. turned and in full view of everyone said "No touching. You understand? Don't touch me. Don't ever touch me." I was so hot, my sister had to stop me and she gave that bangla a cold hard stare. After that we quickly walked home, mobile in hand, in case that guy stalked us.

Totally understand how the folks in Serangoon are reacting to the hostel thingy. U want to be nice and say be nice to foreign workers, be tolerant... but sometimes, you really can't tell if they are just like that because of their cultural background or they are trying to take advantage of you. Most likely, a mixture of both. And if somebody is trying to take advantage of you, how can you react nicely to him?

I understand that their streets are daily moshpits, but please don't bring your cultural practices to my country. I can share my air, suffer lower pay (in the name of better economic allocation as the gahmen would have me believe), put up with the mess they leave around boonlay station, SAVE, living with their constant infringment on my personal space! DON'T PUSH ME! Grrr.

They aren't the only pissy people i encounter daily on the train...

On monday... i encountered three giggly foreign language students (2 PRCs & 1 burmese/viet). Sweet young things they are. First, they cut my queue while i was waiting for the train. They rushed in (literally) and scrambled for seats. They could only chope a joint two seater... so happily all three of them crammed into the two seats, spilling out here and there into other people's spaces. Then they proceeded to giggle and practice their English lesson for the whole cabin to hear. Those who could be bothered glared at them the entire way.

Where do these people come from?! Mars?

K... I digressed.... back to my point:

The public transport isn't friendly anymore... just going home feels like a stressful event.
And I worry constantly of getting molested. If I elbow people who 'bump against me' or glare at people who mosh me on escalators, i worry about being labelled a racist bitch.

Why can't they give us more train spaces? More frequent trains? Lower handrails? I know this won't solve the problem. Habits are hard to break but at least with more train spaces there's air to breathe (untainted by smelly breaths & B.O. & horrible armpits). There's space to escape...

And don't ask me to drive... I don't want to get started on THAT.