Being a Repair Guy is Obviously Cooler.

I've recently spent a few days with my friends at a nicer resort at the Genting highlands. We've been chilling out and taking it easy. But once in a "nicer" place it's become so obvious. I've been noticing quite a lot and now that I think about it it's really so prevalent in many aspects of south east Asian life. Maintenance, details, and thinking things through. These are qualities that the general populous lack in a large degree here. What struck me was the big, little things or the many little things. One thing is the lack of wifi at a resort suite. Seriously what resorts/hotel only has that in the lobby. I also found the following.

• Ants
• Gecko poo
• Leaking toilet
• Broken mosquito net at the balcony doors (I have to admit there are no mossies here)

Otherwise the room is nice and even has a Jacuzzi. But going around the resort one sees degradation, piles of rubble and toilets that have obviously been raped by an dirty elephant. It's like whoever is planning the maintenance routine wants to make damn sure there is always repair work to be done. Since it's obviously better to repair broken things than maintenance things for an extended lifespan, visual look and feel.

It's not only here though. It's just that at the other places I've stayed one might expect these things. Well that's not quite true either. I did stay at the berjaya times square for a while. A luxury place in most standards but with broken lights, small cracks in the wall plaster, a water heating system one has to turn on 10 minutes before hot water, unusable wall plugs and interior that might fall apart upon touch.

This symptom is also true for many a bungalow I've stayed at at island resorts and hostels. Somehow it feels more acceptable for a island bungalow to be falling a part a bit. I guess it's the island maintenance problem. An logical defect in thinking although not as much as this.

This issue is also prevalent in Indonesia and other countries in the area. Not only in buildings but also in all aspects of life. Many a time I've seen some nice handy craft or thing I've thought was interesting on first glance only to have my impression spoiled by some small defect they but there afterwords for some reason. One example is some wooden sculptures in which they drill a crude hole and puts a plastic string through.

There are so many cases where actions seem to be determined by decisions of "for the sake of having it". Why would someone have a pool you can't use, or plenty of faulty things and none of good quality? Or having people doing paperwork five times over instead of making a digital copy saving energy and money. Or using a wind power plant that's already there to get power instead of shipping gasoline out to an island to power generators.

I guess they might be doing it to create jobs. Maybe one should tell them that creating jobs that have no better solutions than manual labour could be better. Fuck! Hire a bunch of carpenters and maintenance people to fix all the half broken things with a fifth of the lifespan of a taken care for one. Maybe even do some road maintenance. But hay it's way cooler to be  repair guy than a maintenance dude. Maybe that's what it's all  about?

I guess it's really a culture that likes to do things for the sake of it. I think I'd fail here. I wonder what all my local friends here do about it.