BUSting Through...

Battle of the Buses

So Malaysia isn't exactly known for their strict traffic laws....or for strictly enforcing their traffic laws at least. I can't wait to hit the roads every day and see what kind of wild stunts these crazy drivers (myself included) are trying to pull behind the wheel of their locally made and manufactured Proton (the pride of Malaysia), their scooter, or most shockingly, their city bus. The buses here are absolutely out of control! I can't tell you the number of times we've seen one of them taking a left hand turn from the far right lane, cutting off 4 lanes of traffic along the way or the number of times they'll just pull over randomly without a bus stop anywhere in sight to either drop off a passenger or pick one up. My all time favorite bus story so far though, came from a friend of mine who said she just recently witnessed a city bus speeding down the highway and then all of a sudden came to a screeching halt, threw the bus in reverse, backed up at full speed (still on the highway, mind you), and then cut across the road to take the exit he apparently had flown passed just moments earlier. A city bus did this! Ooh, and just a couple of weeks ago, I was driving Will home from work, minding my own business in my own "lane" (and I use that term very loosely because lanes don't really mean anything to anyone around here), when all of a sudden we found ourselves literally in the middle of a bus vs. bus showdown right in front of us. One of the buses had just pulled out from a bus stop on the left-hand side of the street, the other bus was trying to make his way from the right-hand lane across traffic to make a left-hand turn, and neither one of them wanted to let the other one in front (and neither one of them cared anything at all about the fact that they were about to sandwich us in between them both)! We didn't know what to do so I just sat there laughing nervously and then managed to at least get my phone out and try to capture a photo of us trying to bust through the buses and not let either one of them in!! I'm not sure if the picture actually does it justice or not, but we were seriously wedged right in between these two big buses as they came head to head with each other! Well, as the old saying goes, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," so I put the phone/camera away, started pounding on my horn, and honked my way right through the intersection, intent on letting them know that I/we (after all, Will was in this with me whether he liked it or not) could not be intimidated! In fact, after first seeing how people drive around here, Will and I challenged each other very early on to a friendly little competition of which one of us could pull off the most ridiculous, yet successful, driving maneuver while we're here. We'll let you know who wins!

Scooter pulling a lawn mower down the road

The Classic Malaysian Motorbike-and-Gas-Tank Side Car