driving in malaysia (2)


they say when you are in rome, do as the romans do. when we drive upcountry, we change our driving style somewhat so as to blend with the locals. those days driving on the trunk road was very much a waiting game. you wait in line, wait for gaps to appear and you wait for clear way ahead.

you wait in line until gaps appear for you to squeeze in and clear way for you to overtake and move ahead. and you do not overtake one vehicle at a time, sometimes you may have to overtake a chain of four or five cars. we have ever overtaken ten vehicles at one go.

there is some kind of unwritten code among the drivers. if it is not possible or hazardous to overtake, the leading vehicle will take the responsibility of having his right signal light blinking. when it is safe to overtake, the driver will switch to his left signal light.

when you are about to overtake, you move up to the tail of the vehicle infront (tailgate) and shift to a lower gear, overtake fast and move into line as soon as possible. sometimes, when two cars overtake at the same time, you have to move fast enough to leave a gap for the car following you to cut in.

when you on the trunk road, double white line does not mean anything unless a policeman is on duty. one thing which the malaysian did and still do which we are not bent on following is overtaking off the road, on the left; it's like overtaking on the shoulder on our expressway. we are quite averse to doing that.

it's most agonising when you are stuck behind a long line of trucks transporting timber. they tend to travel in a convoy and they cannot speed. it's also dangerous for them to brake suddenly. we have to minimise our own risks by making very sure that there is sufficient space to cut in before we start overtaking these monsters.