Driving in Q@tar

I have been seriously occupied nearly the whole day, every day, this week. I am driving my kids to school. I hope next week things would be much better. But looking at Haziq's schedule, I can see things might even get worst. Oh my online chatter friends, I miss you all.

If you think Malaysian drivers are bad, you should really come over here. It is easily ten times worst. You see queue cutters there? Over here nearly half of the road population cut queues, dangerously at that. Some would get on the kerb and happily drive on it. Some even get on the road dividers whenever possible. They overtake dangerously. Some overtake and even beam at you for being in their way. Hmmpphhh.

Most cars here are of big engines with hundreds horse power. Imagine these people with fast cars and big mean machine on the road. Scary youuu..If you are driving on a fast lane and you see those mean machines coming behind you, and you drive at only 120km/h, I suggest you give way.

D0ha is a city of roundabouts. This node must be the most dangerous place of all. Some goes speeding without even stopping at roundabouts. People here also seem to fail to understand the basic lane rules to approach roundabout. They take lanes whichever is convenient to them. Make sure you use all mirrors at the roundabouts and have eyes all around your head. They lurk just about anywhere. You want to go to the left (remember it is right hand drive here), then someone on the left wants to go on your right. And these are all at a fast speed. And because traffic is horrendous, do expect to perform stunt now and then. Otherwise you'd be stuck there at the risk of being stuck for ages, honked at and glared at.

And talk about honks, everyone honks here. Sometimes I just can't tell who the honker and the honkee, if there is such a word. Ha ha ha. So too bad if I don't even realise that it is me who was honked.

And now I am driving the kids, I see the worst of drivers attitude right here. The road to the school is practically jam packed. People start getting on the kerbs. They start taking over the opposite lanes. Parents fighting among each other. Honkings. Beamings. Absurd parking. Road hogging.

I think it is the heat. Its killing you and you can lose your senses under the fuming heat. Even in air conditioned car, the glare is unbearable.

Sounds like road bully on the road eh? People honk. People beam. They shout at you in the car. They use hand gestures like Karam Singh Walia to show that they are angry at you. But I have never heard people stopping you, blocking your car. No baseball bat. No guns. It's like hi and bye here. No grudges. That's what ar@bs are like. Impatient and argumentative lots, but it stops there. fight and kiss and make up. At least that's what I see lah. No kissing though.

Having said all that, do you know that people here would stop for pedestrians? Particularly the locals. I find this really surprising. I have seen them on the road. And this stopping for pedestrians amazes me. However they probably don't stop for males but they are very likely to stop for woman and even so if you have children tagging along. Anything with children, they would stop. Unfortunately I still find Asians not stopping.

You know in Mid Valley, people even speed up when they see you trying to cross in the car park. Over here a man halted his car with a screech when he sees me and the kids waiting to cross the road to my car.

There are things we can learn everywhere eh?