Drive right...err, I mean left.

Malaysia was a British colony at one point. This means they use funny words like "lorry" (truck), "lift" (elevator), and "boot" (trunk). It also means they drive on the wrong side of the road (and the wrong side of the car). Here's a picture of how weird it looks - this was taken from the driver's seat!

All due respect to my one British reader, but if Henry Ford wanted us to drive on the left side of the road, he wouldn't have put the steering wheel on the left side of the car!


Surprisingly, adopting to this bizarre driving pattern is not as difficult as it sounds. When you come to an intersection filled with other cars going in the same direction, you go with the flow. Unless you attempt to drive into another car, Malaysians are pretty forgiving of driving mistakes and there's virtually no road rage, despite considerable traffic congestion.

When renting a car, China, India, and the Philippines all require you to have a driver so that you don't get in a major traffic accident or so lost that you end up returning the car in the wrong country. Malaysia is one of the only Asian countries which doesn't provide a driver when you rent a car. Presumably, this is because Malaysian infrastructure is mature enough that an alert driver can find their way around without too much trouble. The roads are well maintained, there are signs telling you're going, and most people obey the traffic laws. Then again, if everything was great, this blog would be too boring for me to even proofread. Submitted for your enjoyment - 10 quirky observations about driving in Malaysia.

1. Being on the wrong side of the car feels very awkward. The leg that usually rests against the door has nothing to lean against, and the foot you use for the gas pedal feels very crowded. The gear selector is on your left side - when driving this is not a big deal, but when backing into a parking space, you find yourself grabbing the door handle instead of the shifter. Also, for some unknown reason, they switched the sides for the wipers & turn signal. No one knows where I'm turning, but my windshield sure is spotless!
2. Crossing the road on foot is dangerous. First, pedestrian right-of-way is generally optional. Second, most of us learned to look left for oncoming traffic, start to cross, look right to see if you can go all the way across, then glance left again to make sure you didn't overlook a truck the first time. If you do that here, when you start crossing, you're liable to get run over. You must look to your right first. Sounds simple, but most people don't think before crossing the road. A coworker was almost hit by a truck moving 25 MPH when he looked left and then started to cross. Fortunately someone grabbed him just as he was stepping into the street.
3. Motorbikes and scooters are everywhere and if you hit them, you're at fault. The riders don't follow many traffic laws, so this makes for a problematic relationship - don't bump into them, even while they sneak up in your blindspot, run red lights, and drive between traffic lanes. Many bikes in Penang have 2 riders (surely more than those little engines can handle), but I'm told in rural areas you can see bikes with as many as 5 people on them at once. I took a few pictures of them, but this hardly does justice to the sheer quantity of bikes on the road here.
   
4. Much like right turns in the US, left turns are easy to make here, even at busy intersections. Right turns here, however, can be very difficult without a stoplight. Not only is traffic coming at you in both directions, but there are motorbikes driving between the cars at unpredictable intervals. Combined with never really knowing which direction you're supposed to be looking before driving into traffic - this is probably the most dangerous part of driving here.
5. Traffic circles are common (there are at least 5 that I encounter regularly). I'm ok with circles (there's one close to our house in Portland), but these are much more chaotic than I'm used to. There are usually at least 2 lanes of traffic through a circle (as many as 4 during busy times and 6+ if you count the motorbikes). Also, you're supposed to yield to the people on your right (another British influence?) - which means if the dude on the inside lane decides he wants to take the next turn off, he can cut through 3-6 lanes of traffic and you're supposed to let him. My aggressive nature doesn't allow me to follow this rule yet, so for now if the guy is on my right he usually misses his turn. Here's a picture of the entrance to a circle on a very slow Saturday morning. Take my word for it, there's not enough room for the 6 lanes of traffic that fill this circle at rush hour.
6. Most speeders are not pulled over. If you are speeding, traffic cameras will photograph you and your license plate and mail you the ticket a few months later. Speed limits are relatively low here (on a 4 lane roadway I travel frequently, the high speed is 80kmph - about 50MPH). I'm told the tickets are not very expensive by US standards. I'm also told that if you are pulled over for speeding, you can sometimes give the officer a 50 Ringgit bill (about $14USD) and he'll let you go. Supposedly that even works if you drive over one of the guys on a moped, but I haven't tried this yet to find out.
7. Gas is cheap. Malaysia exports high grade oil and imports most of their gasoline. Still, the octane at the pump is 95 and 97 - neither of which is available the US as far as I know. I filled up my rental car with 97 yesterday (supposedly they were out of 95, but I'm skeptical) - I got about 225 miles on about $18 of gas (a full tank). Where can you fill up a tank for $18 in the US, especially high-grade?
8. Many people lift their windshield wipers off their windows during the day while their car is parked in the sunshine. The weather here quickly switches between downpour and 90+ degrees which could cause wiper blades to stick to the windshield and deteriorate quickly. This is a practical way to save the wipers, but it looks very odd. I don't have any pictures of this, but I'll try to take some in the next few days.
9. Many outdoor parking spaces are monitored by men in fluorescent vests. Parking is about $0.30/hour in these monitored areas. If you are in a hurry and the parking guy is busy, you can go run your errands and pay when you get back (not sure how they check this - I suppose you could just drive away). Yesterday the guy even gave me a receipt for 30 cents! Sure am glad I got that receipt...
10. Finally, here's something I really like. Many stoplights have timers here that count down until the light changes. This is not everywhere, but it's very cool and I think every intersection worldwide should have it. It makes it a lot easier to know if you can run the light and when to start revving your engine to cut off the guy in the next lane once it turns green.
    
    

Bit of a long entry tonight, but I've been saving this one up for almost 2 weeks!

No new pictures this week other than what's posted here - I'll try to have more next week.