Rant & Raves

Not long ago I just came back from Melaka, a historic town in Malaysia, on a business trip. I mean, the drive is nothing to shout about, just plenty of highway and stuff.

But I do notice something unusual while I was in Melaka…

When I was done with my appointment, it was around 5:45pm, and normally from where I come from (Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia, if you have to ask), the traffic would be very bad and there will be traffic congestion everywhere, and I do mean EVERYWHERE, except maybe those housing area access road. But that wasn’t the case when I was in Melaka, and in fact, the traffic was fairly smooth. And then I noticed it…

The drivers, both for cars and motorcycles, were more like taking a weekend stroll around the city instead of rushing home. They were just cruising on the street (like a 30KM/H kind of cruise) and being a city-boy*, I couldn’t stand that kind of cruising unless it was a weekend. So I had to step on the gas plenty of time and overtook most of them, and mind you, I wasn’t even close at breaking the speed limit law by doing so.

And when I overtook them, those drivers actually turned their heads and looked at me as if I was some kind of alien. What? Was it wrong to drive just a tad faster than you guys? Don’t forget, I got a few hours drive ahead of me in order to reach home!

I mean, is it a norm to drive so slow in small town? I noticed that when I was in Muar, Kluang and now, Melaka! After much thought, I think I knew the answer why they normally drive slowly cruise around the town.

The reason is because they hardly have any traffic jam so they have plenty of time to reach their destination, so why the rush? For big cities, we have to “beat the traffic”, and sometimes most of the time we have to squeeze into the inches gap just to get ahead of the other cars. 3 lanes only? No problem, in Malaysia we can convert a 3 lanes motorway to a 4 lanes anytime. Every inch is as precious as a gold bar since it might save us that few milliseconds so we could get to our destination quicker, to meet our lovers earlier, to avoid a nagging wife for being late, or better yet, to have sex earlier.

Hell, those small town can be so small that it takes only 5 minutes to reach one end to another, like Kluang. Can you imagine that people in Kluang normally go home to take lunch during lunch break? And they go home for dinner every day! In Kuala Lumpur, sometimes you will be late by the time you reach home, not to mention taking your lunch. Dinner? Nope, sorry, its all eat-out because by the time we reach home and cook our dinner, it will be good for the next day’s breakfast.

Anyway, it would be great if I can stay in those small town for a few weeks and try to leisure life. It would be something.

Wait, scratch that. I have tried it in Kluang. I have decided during that time it wasn’t something for me, period. Maybe during my retirement year, but that’s a big “maybe”.

*NOTE: Technically I am not a city boy. I am considered a half-breed. I grew up in Seremban, not a very big town but not yet a city, and then I spent most of my adult life in cities like Dallas, Kuala Lumpur, just to name a few. Another point to add is that technically, I am no longer a boy. But who cares?