Stay left

We rented a car one day in Langkawi, so I got to experience something new: driving on the left side of the road. I thought I did pretty well other than nearly driving off the road every few minutes and turning on the windshield wipers every time I wanted to use the turn signal (we had the cleanest windshield in Malaysia by the end of the day). It was a wild day, and not just because of my driving. The infrastructure was great as far as roads, etc., but in most other ways it was unlike any place I had ever driven before. First of all, there was the challenge of dodging the ubiquitous motorbikes (many of which were driven by Malay women in full Muslim garb and motorcycle helmets). One interesting trend is that lots of parents were taking their kids to school on the back of their motorbikes, and it seemed like none of the kids--but every adult--wore helmets. Then there was the challenge of figuring out the road signs, all of which were in Malay. I mean, I pretty much figured out a red octagonal sign meant "Stop" even if it said "Berhenti", but beyond that it was a bit of a crapshoot. Finally, we never knew what animals we might see. Of course there were monkeys, but we would also be driving along and all of a sudden there would be a big water buffalo grazing on the side of the road. At one point a herd of cows--but no people--just randomly crossed in front of us, backing up traffic in both directions. It wasn't nearly as chaotic as footage I've seen of places like India or China (or Vanuatu, for that matter), but it certainly wasn't Basel, that's for sure!