Jalan Sultan and The Morning Flea Market

So, I’ve just returned from Petaling Street or rather Jalan Sultan in KL this morning. I first heard about the existence of some ‘rare’ market there when I was still studying at University of Malaya a zillion years ago.

My housemates would wake up in the wee hour of the morning just so that they could catch as many things as possible by going there the earliest they could. “Things can get snapped away pretty fast”, they’d tell me.

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I wasn’t as adventurous and curious back then as I probably am now so I never joined them – but I’d join the rest of the housemates marveling at all the things that they’d bring back and spread out in front us when they returned home.

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Years passed by and I had actually forgotten about the market like entirely until my friend  Mr KJH mentioned about it recently. Everything of the market and all the things that my housemates brought back home and their eagerness in telling us their experiences at the market just kinda flicked back on in my head.

Succumbing to the urge of going there, I sacrificed my supposedly weekend’s oversleeping hours by waking up early in the morning and catch an early train to Pasar Seni LRT Station from where we’d disembark and walk over to Jalan Sultan where the market is located.

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It was everything that I had imagined it would be. What I didn’t expect was the volume of people that  had so much courage to wake up early on a Saturday just to see and probably buy whatever (that) interested them at the market.

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The variety of things that they put up (or rather put down) for grab was just so unbelievable. Some of them might just be pieces of craps to our eyes but you wouldn’t believe how people still buy them and that makes this market so incredibly unique and interesting to visit.

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They won’t bother to arrange all the things into whatever categories they are probably in. It’s like they’d just spread out everything right there and put the trust in your eagle eyes to spot down whatever things that you are interested in buying.

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What makes this market even more interesting to visit is the probability of finding things that you might have not seen for a zillion years and some you might have totally forgotten the existence of. I couldn’t help but chuckling a little at the sight of cassettes.

Jeez, when was the last time you had a hold of a cassette? Even CDs are fast becoming a thing of the past now, thanks to likes of MP3 Player, thumb drive, FM Modulator and all.

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My favorite thing of the market has to be the demo that some of the vendors would do to sell their things better.  It reminded me a lot of all the hours I spent when I was still a kid when I’d go to an open market in my hometown and listen to all the craps that the street vendors would spill into the attentive pool of audience.

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I actually bought something from that Uncle. He was selling some kind of wiping liquid that has the ability of wiping off just about any stain on your car almost in a magical way – HE SAID – even the peeled off paint that you’d see whenever your car bump into another car or something- HE SAID. Little did he know that what I had in mind was the toilet bowl back at my house. LOL.

If you really care to know, most of the stuffs are sold at incredibly low prices. In fact, they were so low I didn’t even have the gut of bargaining or I’d feel like an arsehole if I didn’t buy it in the end.

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But of course, that was just me, in me. I could see a lot of bargaining going on and that is of course what a flea market is all about.

The market is not difficult to find. I don’t know what time they’d wrap up their sacks but if you happened to be there in the morning, you’d see the market when you walk along Jalan Sultan.

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Oh, and speaking of JALAN SULTAN (Sultan Road), as you might have probably known, it is now in the center of attention and controversies regarding some demolition plan and alteration of landscape to give way to a new transportation system called the MRT.

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The plan would see some of the buildings along Jalan Sultan disappear from the surface of earth like forever. That is how the (self-proclaimed) heritage activists would describe it. Talking about being over-dramatic. LoL.

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Oh well, if you might ask, it is true that it is not easy to let go of something that has already been there for such a long time. But then, there are times when we have to let go of something in order to get something better.

Having stayed in KL for quite awhile now, I can see the SHEER need of a better public transportation system here. I see traffic jams every single day and they are worsening by the year.

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It might sound selfish if I said we need the MRT more than the existence of the so-called centuries old buildings but then it’d be more selfish if I say we don’t need the MRT when there are so many people relying on public transport to mobilize to their work here in KL every single day.

KL might be inhabited by highly mobile people but not everyone can afford to buy a car or even a motorbike. Don’t tell me they can use a bicycle to work.

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I would have been against the demolition plan if it was for something else, say, to give way to for another shopping mall but this is the need of a better public transport system that we’re talking about. It relates a lot to the people mobility, traffic jams and the people’s quality of life.

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So – my support is on the MRT project. Besides, they have given their guarantee that they’d be no historical buildings involved in the demolition plan so why so worry? Get that damn MRT project going! 😀