Driving in KL

Saturday brought new excitement by way of a rental car.  Yes, we bit the bullet and had one delivered to us.  We requested a Malaysian made, small Perodua Myvi.  We've seen these around and they are very small and functional.  We knew it would suit our needs (and our budget) very well.  So I sent the email requesting the car and all of the necessary add-ons - GPS, theft waiver and Personal Accident Insurance (PAI).  I also requested delivery in time to use the car for the weekend.  The email was sent on Thursday.  This should be plenty of time, right?  It is back home.  I'm having a really hard time remembering that things here are not done with the same efficiency that they were back home...

Time went by with no reply to the email.  Those that know me know that this worried me so I wound up calling...a few times.  When I finally spoke to my contact it was late on Friday and I found out two things:  1. they didn't have anyone to deliver the car until 10:00 Saturday morning, 2. they didn't have any Myvis in stock so they were going to upgrade to a Nissan Sentra (bigger car) for the same price.  Well, at this point this is all still sounding ok.  We will still have the car to do what we need to do on Saturday and we get a bigger car for the smaller car price.  Good, right?

The car was delivered on time Saturday morning.  After Patric signed his life away for this rental car we registered it with the front desk then went back down to our apartment to gather the things we would need for the day.  I'm not going to go into the specifics of the day because that is another post, I'm just going to share the drive with you.  I made a short video to help with that.  I'll share that with you now...



Some of the things that weren't shown in this video were the most hilarious.  I mentioned having the death grip on the money but I don't think I did it justice.  My thumbs were cramping to the point where I was actually scared that we would come up to a toll and I would have to release the money and wouldn't be able to.

Patric was having his own struggles.  Adjusting to driving on the right side of the car is not without its own issues.  The blinker is also on the right side which means the windshield washer controls are on the left side.  I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this.  We had to have the cleanest windshield on the road Saturday!  And something that would seem like second nature - the seat belt.  You would think it natural to reach to the door to grab it, right?  Patric kept reaching to his left shoulder, basically towards me, to reach for his seatbelt.  My poor husband was all turned around in his little cockpit!

Along with the inside of the car came some issues with the outside of the car.  He didn't hit anything but to this day I'm still wondering how he got away with it.  I can tell you three things that don't work from the front passenger seat:  1. the brake pedal, 2. leaning waaaaay right to help steer the car, and 3 yelling at the driver when you are really close to an object on the left.  These are my personal experiences...they may work for you.

GPS was fun!  Listening to it try to say the street names here was hilarious!  It can barely say the names in Texas...need I say more?  Several wrong turns were taken throughout the day but it recalculated the route every time and got us where we needed to be every time so I have no complaints.  We learned to pay attention to distance and right and left - not street name. 

I'm not sure when I'll embrace driving in KL.  For now I'm really ok with keeping the taxi drivers in business.  We think less is spent by me on taxis anyway...yay me!  But, you never know...after I've had time to soak it all up and figure out the system I just may jump in with both feet.  Then look out...here I come!!!  =)

See you next post!