Malaysian Traffic, Part II

Even the roads we went through had their faults. The roads running through the many kampungs in Malaysia don't have a middle partition between the opposite lanes. As a result, you have cars running towards you on a road only two lanes wide. Very hair-raising stuff.

Also, the lanes wind round, like on a roller coaster, and go up and down hills--what most people call a "winding road into the hills". If a slow truck or bus is in front of you, you have to overtake it, but this means going into the opposite lane. Risky, but it can be done. Unless there's a hill or upward climb.

By the way, the sentences earlier about subject gaps being very far--don't be surprised if one sentence leaps into another, with totally different meanings.

The Malaysian roads at night are a sight to behold. Some stretches of road, there are no lights, and we wish you luck if you are driving on them.The two lane roads without a partition I mentioned earlier had no street lamps along them, I notice. Lucky thing we did not drive on them at night. The only indication that there is a vehicle approaching in the opposite direction is their headlights shining right into your eyes. Nothing to worry about on the partitioned roads, but on the non-partitioned ones you better watch out. Be careful when overtaking a slower vehicle.

The good thing about having no streetlights is that you can look at the night sky, and have a breathtaking view on a clear night. The moon and a few stars amid some clouds can be seen.

Malaysian Traffic, Part I

(This subject was written on 18 March 2003. The Black Book, if you remember me saying so, began because of Malaysian traffic. I felt a need to document all the idiosyncrasies of it. Impossible, Malaysian traffic is!)

Sometimes the gap between one subject, or writing, is very large between another writing. I can be writing one paragraph in my house. Next paragraph may be written in Kuala Lumpur, in a posh hotel.

Well, the earlier paragraph about volleyball was written in the swimming pool in our Le Paris hotel. However, this sentence is written at a table in a Pizza Hut restaurant - in Malacca, at Mahkota Parade, which is a shopping centre.

Yet this next sentence is written in the car, during a stop sign. 40 seconds left. Goodness, in Malaysia'a major city, Malacca, there are timers for the red lights!

Ah, finally we talk about Malaysian traffic. As I was saying, the timers for the red traffic lights were showing 40 seconds. When the light goes green, there are also timers, only now the timer display is in green. For the red light it is red. The lights also, I notice are the new LEDs. Like in Singapore, LED traffic lights are significantly better and faster at lighting up. Even though the difference between incandescent traffic lights are very small ones. But the LEDs are nicer-looking. Only in Malacca, so far, have I seen such modernities. In Johore, the traffic lights are still the old type. The only similarity is that the red lights are still equally as long to wait for.

One annoying feature of Malaysian traffic is that the road signs are all over the place. We want to go to Johor Bahru, and look around for the sign. After driving around and looking around for the sign, we find it at the intersection itself! In very great doubt, we take the correct turn. They should put signs *before* the intersection, so that we can get ready for such an intersection. If we are driving, and suddenly find a sign showing our destination at the place where we are supposed to turn, naturally we'd be very surprised and not be sure (is that *really* the correct turn or not?) Sometimes the sign for the correct place is known with different names. We want to go to JB, and find a sign with "JB and KL to the left", "Seremban and Melaka to the right" and so on, in different places, when actually they all lead to the main highway, where we can choose our direction of movement. And because of this, we wasted half an hour winding through roads of oil palm plantations.