Driving a car in Malaysia

Last time I(Jakob) was in South East Asia and driving with a taxi I sometimes thought I should die. So it wasn't without a bit of concerns that we came here and rented a car. 
First of all there was the left lane driving,  this is pretty easily learned. My rule of thumb is that the driver always needs to be closest to the middle lane .  So that went fine.
But how about the way the Malaysians are driving? Well they are driving pretty good,  but they don't give away any space at all and if you are on the road and see a car coming out from a side road,  then you might as well brake,  because he will just turn out in front of you.  It's like a massive chicken run in the queues,  whoever pulls away last gets the space. It's quite funny to look,  but you really need to be careful. 
It seems like the speed signs are only a guidance as everybody is speeding,  in Cyberjaya the speed limit is 50, however if I kept to the speed limit I would be more a hazard than a good driver as everybody is going about 80 or 100.
Then there is the scooters...  Well they go the same speed as the cars,  they don't respect red lights and they show up in your side mirror quicker that you know it, and driving in close traffic they shoot past you close to normal speed.  I must admit either these motorcyclists are very courageous or just plain stupid.  I haven't seen any statistics over the number of traffic accidents,  but I would imagine it to be quite high,  even though it seems like it is working.

A joke among Malaysians is that if you go to Penang,  then you shouldn't use your indicators when you shift lanes,  this will only make the car behind you in the other lane speed up.

Setting down the pace

So we have in Malaysia for about three weeks now and what have we learned?

Well we had to set down the pace in more than one way. First of all the walking pace, if you walk you would do in Denmark, then you would be drenched in no time. The humidity and heat is quite high and when we decided to walk to the nearby mall after a few days here,  the guards looked at us like we very crazy and asked a second time if he shouldn't call us a cab. On the way we found out why, it was quite hot and we had to walk slowly to not a sweat.
Also the Malaysians feeling of time is very different than in the Nordic, in Denmark if you have a meeting or appointment at 7,  then you'd better be there at 7 or at latest ten minutes after and hopefully you did send a message saying you are late.
In Malaysia the time of the appointment is considered as a guidance, people will come around 7.30,if you invited them at 7.  So don't have the meal ready right on time. If you are throwing a party then the meal should be ready about an hour later the the appointment.
To be honest I kind a like that they aren't so dependant on time, however I hate being late myself, but those times i was on time then I was the first. So I try to be a bit late from now on ;-)

Getting our house in order

We are still waiting for our stuff from Denmark to arrive,  but we have brought a number of furniture here,  as the plan was as well.  We have bought a king size bed,  queen size guest bed,  couch,  terrace furniture,  bed for Anton and a small table and chairs for his room as well. 
The prices are about two thirds of the prices in Denmark and then it is possible to haggle as well,  actually when you see some furniture you like,  then you always should ask the seller what the price is, even though it is staring you in the face,  they will always give you a discount and then you start haggling. A rule of thumb is that you should get around 30% off the list price. 
It will be really good,  when our own stuff comes as well and then being able to make a proper home,  as it is quite tiring not to have anything here.

We bought some Duplo for Anton yesterday and he really seems to like it,  probably because he misses his own stuff quite a lot,  hopefully we should get it within the next two weeks.

How is the food

Well Anton isn't to fond of it (yet),  we really hope he will be at some stage.  But for us it's good,  you don't use the same amount of salt as you would do in Denmark,  because everything is quite spicy,  they really love their chillies in Malaysia.  The kitchen is split between using mainly rice or noodles, and then mostly chicken or beef.  You can get pork,  lamb,  duck and mutton as well.  The prices are very reasonable being around 10 ringgit for a meal,  that's about 2 us dollars.  So if it weren't for Anton,  then we probably wouldn't cook as much ;-)
The names of the food doesn't really say anything about the contents,  so mostly we have been looking at pictures to figure out which dish to get.  But so far everything has been quite good and tasteful.
One dish that i(Jakob)  has grown quite fond of is Char Kway Teow, it a noodle dish with some brown gravi-like sauce that is quite strong,  it comes with spinach and then some kind of meat,  I'm still not really sure what is in it,  but it tastes really good :-)