Once packed like a sardine tin, this minibus is now full of flavour
BUTTERWORTH: Remember the minibuses of Kuala Lumpur? The ones we crammed into and paid 40 to 60 sen for a ride? One of them is reborn as a burger stall here.
Parked on fixed jacks in Seberang Jaya, the minibus now serves burgers while stirring memories of the rush hour chaos of Kuala Lumpur from the 70s to 90s.
“An elderly makcik came with a friend just to see the minibus.
“She said her late husband was a minibus driver and suggested I paint it pink like the old Bas Mini Wilayah,” said burger seller Nazari Hashim, 60.
Nazari wanted a simple trade after retirement and when the chance came to convert a minibus into a burger stall, he could not resist.
“When I was 18, I went to the Klang Valley for an English course before furthering my studies in the United States. I rode the minibuses a lot then,” said the retired civil engineer.
The drivers drove like they were racing, he recalled.
“One time, the driver stopped to have teh tarik by the roadside! Everyone complained and he casually said he needed to let the engine cool down,” Nazari said.
He also said that many buses had loudspeakers blasting music while passengers smoked freely (it was not an offence yet).
The smell of cigarettes mixed with sweat as passengers packed together like sardines.
Nazari found the bus with its seats removed and a basic kitchen already installed.
He paid RM45,000 for it and spent another RM10,000 modifying the interior so he and his workers could operate comfortably.
Although the engine is still in good condition, he decided to keep it as a permanent stall.
“Maybe younger customers think it’s cute. But older customers who rode minibuses in Kuala Lumpur always stop and walk around it.
“I can see how they pause and remember the old days,” said Nazari, who is assisted by his daughter and three workers, while his wife Suryani Yaacob, 69, helps buy the ingredients.
The Bas Mini Wilayah served commuters in Kuala Lumpur and parts of Selangor from 1975 to 1998.
By the 1990s, nearly a thousand were on the roads.
Fares were 40 sen, rising to 50 sen in 1991 and 60 sen in 1993.
There were no fixed schedules and drivers and conductors were paid by commission, which pushed them to race through routes and pack in as many passengers as possible.
The buses first appeared in colours such as blue-white, yellow-white, red-white, purple-white and dark green-white before the government standardised them to pink and white in 1990.
