Next R&R 86 km

When you are about to skip Tapah R&R (short form for rest and revive or simply a rest area) along the North South Expressway (PLUS Highway), wouldn’t you like to know how far is the next R&R so you can decide whether you need to take a break at Tapah or you can still drive to the next R&R?

No! Not according to the people who decide where to put up the sign that says “if you skip this R&R, you will have to drive 86 km to get to the next one”. They decided that the best place to put up such signboards is about half a kilometer after the R&R, not before.

Next time you drive along the highway, notice the signboard after each R&R rest areas. All of them (Tapah, Ayer Keroh, Sungai Perak, Rawang, Gunung Semanggol, etc.) have the next R&R distance signage put up at about 500 meter after the R&R exit.

They prefer to mock the highway users with “Haw haw!  (read like Jimbo Muntz in the Simpsons) serves you right! You should have stopped, bro! Now you’re gonna have to drive another 86 km to get your lunch and/or petrol”.

For a frequent commuter between KL and Tronoh like me, I know that after Tapah on a southbound journey, the next Ulu Bernam R&R is about 64 km. For any other Mat and Din or Chin and Yap, they could potentially be left stranded along the highway for not stopping to refuel at Tapah.

What a bummer would that be! Could that have been avoided? You betcha!

You would think that such a big highway operator like Projek Lebuhraya Utara Selatan Berhad (PLUS) whose annual profit exceeds RM 1 billion, would have smart enough advisers to advise them on simple things like this. Apparently not.

Their advisers just advise on when to revise the toll rate (read: when to hike the toll rate). And how much to revise. If the government decides not to revise, they advise on how much the government needs to pay them as compensation.

Any other “strange” signboards you have seen lately?

“Not my problem!”

This morning I was very upset to see a young mother throwing trash (some small pieces of papers) our of her car window while her husband was driving.

What makes it even more shocking is that such a nice lady would do such a shameful act. Even more shocking is that it happened merely 2 seconds after the car left their rented house.

It made me curious about what kind of person would do such a shocking thing. After catching up with the car, I recognized the driver as one of the post graduate students from Pakistan currently studying at the university where I work.

I don’t really know how the people in Pakistan behaves, but I would think that they’d think twice about doing a similar thing if they were in Singapore or in the US or Europe.

Let us not worry about whether they are foreigners or Malaysians.

I have seen many instances where Malaysians just simply jettisoned their trash out of a moving vehicle. Men and women are the same in this aspect.

This one instance a couple of months ago, I saw a very nice family traveling along the North South Expressway in their luxury multi-purpose vehicle.

As the father was driving, the mother slowly rolls down the automatic window and mindlessly discarded some plastic wrappers out of the vehicle. The plastic wrapper haphazardly flew into the air and fell on the road shoulder.

This incident was apparently observed by the young children in the MPV’s back seat. What kind of lesson are they teaching their children? What are WE teaching our children?

I’ve lived in many different countries during my student years including in the USA, in Japan and in Australia. I would not even think about discarding my trash in public spaces except in designated trash cans.

My experience taught me that kind of responsibility or self-control. I would feel ashamed of myself if I were to do that. I teach my wife the same. I hope my young child, currently about 1 year and 8 months, would learn from my example to be mindful of his acts.

The way I see it, people’s behavior is directly associated with their upbringing. People in the third world countries tend to think only of themselves and their own private properties.

That is why the people of the third-world mentality do not care about the things outside of their fences. In fact, they would not hesitate to pick up a piece of garbage from their yard (or from inside of their vehicle)  and throw outside of the fence (outside of the vehicle).

Malaysian’s mentality is obviously that of the third world. And we dare think we can be a developed country in 2020?

People in the first world think more of the world around them. I don’t see Americans throw rubbish out of their moving vehicles. Not Australians either. Most of their homes are not fenced, so obviously they cannot throw rubbish out of their yard. There is no such thing.

The Japanese homes are fenced, but still the areas outside of the fence are very well-cared for. Not even a piece of garbage can be found.

I have seen many times at the Japanese university where I studied, the employees collected trash as they walked in the morning to their office in the university compound.

I was surprised at first. It was more surprising because the guy was wearing a suit. After seeing it many times, I realize that it is in their nature to be caring about the public places.

People do that because they care about their surroundings. Everyone does their bits to make the place cleaner and better as a whole.

In Malaysia (a third world country??), what happens outside of my fence is “not my problem”. Instead of doing our bits to make our surrounding a better place, we expect others (i.e. the city council) to do the job for us.

Labor is still cheap in Malaysia, so we might still afford to allocate so much money to pay for such services. But until when? We need to instill these responsibilities in the young generation so they can teach their children.

What happens in my house is my problem. What happens outside of my house is also my responsibility.

It takes one man to change the world. Let that be you. If all of us do our part, the world we live in would be a better place. My neighborhood would be a better place. Malaysia would be a better country to live in.

Let us do our bits.

90…70…80. Oh no…60 kph!

Have you driven in Kelantan recently? If you have, you will be constantly nodding in agreement with what I write below.

My hometown is in Besut and my in-laws are in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Since I’ve started working as a lecturer in 2001, I’ve been spending more than 90% of my year either in Perak where I work or in Kuala Lumpur where my own family lives. Fyi, I stay in Perak five days a week and the remaining two days I spend mostly in KL. I am a weekend husband and father. The remaining 10% of my year would either be in Kota Bharu or in Besut.

Since I’ve owned a car in 2001, I have received in total three traffic summonses. The first one was while I was traveling from Besut to Kota Bharu in 2001 or 2002, I can’t clearly remember. The second one while I was traveling along the national road from Slim River to Kuala Selangor. I just thought I could save some toll fees by not taking the PLUS highway. I ended up paying RM150 for it. This was in 2003.

The third and last traffic summon issued under my name was in June 2009 along the Tanah Merah – Jeli road when I was returning to Perak from Kota Bharu. All tickets were for speeding offences. The first summon was for driving at about 90 kph (kilometer per hour) at 70 kph zone. The second was exactly 81 kph also at 60 kph zone. I have the letter from police for this one. I don’t have the information for the third summon, but I am pretty sure the situation was the same. Well, that sucks! In all cases, I wasn’t aware that the speed limit was below 90 kph. Thanks to the confusing roadsigns.

I understand the need to designate certain areas under a speed limit…for safety of course. What I don’t get is the way the speed limit signs are put up and the locations where they are put up. If you travel from Jeli to Kota Bharu in Kelantan, regardless of which way you follow (i.e. either through Rantau Panjang, Tanah Merah or Machang), you will always have to keep a constant watch for the speed limit signs. Many times they are not that obvious…even outright missing. While I had been thinking the speed limit was 90 kph, I suddenly saw the white round sign with a black slash that indicates that the speed limit zone just ended. That meant I was driving at 95 kph in the less-than-90-kph zone while thinking it was a 90-kph zone.

Sometimes the speed limit changes from 60 to 90 and back to 70 before you can even blink twice. I might as well just drive at 60 kph all the way in order to avoid committing speeding violations. The problem with that strategy is that other vehicles would be tailgating so close that I almost cannot breathe. I always wonder how the JPJ (road transport department of Malaysia) approves such traffic signs. There are so many places where these happen. Do they even conduct surveys to ensure that there is no confusion in the road signs? What do you think?

To make things worse, the traffic police always put speed traps at these places. I really hate the idea punishing people who unknowingly committing traffic offenses.

My Grievance

Before I lay down my first blog article, allow me to explain why I decided to create this blog.The phrase “tak masuk akal” literally translates into “does not penetrate into the brain”. For most people, it would mean “does not make sense”.

True to its meaning, this blog is primarily dedicated to things that humans do that do not make much sense. Since I am currently living in Malaysia, I will focus on the things that Malaysians do that do not make sense. Especially things that make you scratch your head or things that make you really go mad.

It’s been a while now that I’ve been thinking about writing my mind. Almost every single day I see traffic laws, road organization, people’s behavior, and even government regulations that could have been done in a much better way.

Here goes nothing…