Already a week in Malaysia. I am getting a bit familiar with the country. The first couple of days at work were a bit chaotic technologywise but all got quickly fixed. Basically the IT guy gave up on fixing his proxy server and just gave me an exception flag.
Soon enough everything at work was running pretty smooth, more about that later.
The biggest problem I am now running into is that Malaysia doesn't have a proper form of public transportation.
This is fairly common in Asia, but most of the times it is compensated by cheap taxi's, car, motorbike, tuktuk, bicycle, you name it.
This isn't the case here, the first day I luckily got a lift back home from a co-worker but the second I felt like attempting to get a taxi.
Taxi's here are totally shit, they charge extremely high prices, they drive like maniacs, they honk their horn and roll down the window to curse at other car drivers, and the worst of all, it is very hard to even get a cab.
There is a shortage in cabs, and so, they refuse short(er) distance rides.
Above is a common Malaysian cab, it is made by the brand Proton, this is a Malaysian brand with totall crap quality controll.
A good example of how crap the car is, the driver has to turn off the aircon when he wants to pull away from the traffic lights. He also has to put his automatic gear in "P" (park) when he is waiting for a traffic light.
And this is just one of the many problems that these cars have.
If you'd look them up on the internet you will find that the speed-o-meter is actually based on the design of a Lotus Elise and the dashboard design from a BMW. Note, it is BASED upon, and like many clones, totall crap.
Actually a majority of the cars in Malaysia are by Proton and other Malaysian brands.
High import taxes on foreign brands such as Toyota and Honda make these cars often 200% more expensive than in the country of origin.
And because of the lack of any other form of transportation you basically need a car to get from A-B. Roads are pretty busy too, and short distances often result in long trips.
The only upside is that the petrol here is artificially dirt cheap.
Soon enough everything at work was running pretty smooth, more about that later.
The biggest problem I am now running into is that Malaysia doesn't have a proper form of public transportation.
This is fairly common in Asia, but most of the times it is compensated by cheap taxi's, car, motorbike, tuktuk, bicycle, you name it.
This isn't the case here, the first day I luckily got a lift back home from a co-worker but the second I felt like attempting to get a taxi.
Taxi's here are totally shit, they charge extremely high prices, they drive like maniacs, they honk their horn and roll down the window to curse at other car drivers, and the worst of all, it is very hard to even get a cab.
There is a shortage in cabs, and so, they refuse short(er) distance rides.
Above is a common Malaysian cab, it is made by the brand Proton, this is a Malaysian brand with totall crap quality controll.
A good example of how crap the car is, the driver has to turn off the aircon when he wants to pull away from the traffic lights. He also has to put his automatic gear in "P" (park) when he is waiting for a traffic light.
And this is just one of the many problems that these cars have.
If you'd look them up on the internet you will find that the speed-o-meter is actually based on the design of a Lotus Elise and the dashboard design from a BMW. Note, it is BASED upon, and like many clones, totall crap.
Actually a majority of the cars in Malaysia are by Proton and other Malaysian brands.
High import taxes on foreign brands such as Toyota and Honda make these cars often 200% more expensive than in the country of origin.
And because of the lack of any other form of transportation you basically need a car to get from A-B. Roads are pretty busy too, and short distances often result in long trips.
The only upside is that the petrol here is artificially dirt cheap.