Friday, May 22, 2009

What's in a name

This is one has been sitting on the boiler for some time but I thought this is a good time as any to talk about it.

I'm not sure what it is about Sabah and building naming, but there seems to be a tremendous dearth of creativity among the developers here. Originality is something I find sorely lacking here.

Take for example this building called the KK Times Square. You'll find a building with a similar name in Kuala Lumpur, the Berjaya Times Square. We will also have a Megamall here (though it's still in progress), just like the more illustrious one in KL as well. And Putrajaya? Well, we have a Putera Jaya here. We even have a Bandar Utama (of course, that's in Sandakan...but still)!

But, the lack of creativity doesn't just stop at names of places. It extends to road names as well. Take for example this hilarious excuse for a road name - Muntahan ('vomit' in English). Well, a road with a name like that is rather sad, but imagine having a few of them (Muntahan 1, Muntahan 2, Muntahan 3, etc.). Sounds like a really bad series of sequels to an equally terrible horror flick.

And the un-originality (is there even such a word?) of the road naming doesn't end there. There's a district in Sabah called Penampang, and one of it's major towns is called Donggongon. And guess what the name of the road that runs through this town is called? The 'Road in front of Donggongon Town'. Exact words, no kidding! And we also have the 'Access Road to Family Planning Centre', which leads you to (yep, you guessed it!) the Family Planning Centre.

With all these howlers for road names, I hope someone high up in the Public Works Department will elect somebody with at least a minute spark of creativity to helm the road naming committee, so that we'd get at least more 'normal' names.

10 comments:

Miss Mathew said...

OMG! "Road in front of Donggongon Town"??? LOL! seriously, i nvr noticed tht road name printed anywhr..but lol! thtz funny!

Nick Phillips (15/03/1967 - 04/11/2022) said...

Road in front of Donggongon Town! Now that one got ROTFL! Somebody really needs to start bucking up soon!

aaronymously said...

here, streets are named after some dead italians or other italian cities..be sure to state clearly the town of city addressed coz u mail wud end up touring all over the country..
eg.. no 1,Via Roma, Venice, Italy...
eg.. no 2,Via Italia, Aquila, Italy..

Perry R. Lim said...

miss matthew: i saw it with my very wide-eyed eyes! but with all the development that's going on there, i don't know if it's still there.

Perry R. Lim said...

Nick: Yes, they had better before some really embarrassing turns up next!

Perry R. Lim said...

aaronymously: i've heard about the "wonders" that is post italia! ;)

aaronymously said...

ive link your blog in mine.. im very choosy in those..im no fan of peoples heart breaking stories,and more heart breaking stories, about their guilty feelings.. seriously. how can they even share it with 'who knows whos reading or even care..' bah.. will drop by your page more often..youve just got a fan.. ciao!

RoslynCT said...

Ha ha ha... I know where Lorong Muntahan is...one of my friends has a house there.

Once her friend from Europe asked for her address. She paused a long while before typing out...

House No. X
Vomit Street
Mushroom Park....

Perry R. Lim said...

aaronymously: hey, thanks. i'll be freaking famous soon!

Perry R. Lim said...

roslyn: haha...the kind of names these people think of sometimes...

 
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