Common Courtesy

Sunday, December 20 - There’s a public service announcement that gets some pretty prominent airplay on the radio around Malaysia. The PSA basically urges people to be more courteous to one another.

It’s not working.

The motto around here seems to be “fend for yourself,” and the selfish attitude is really draining – especially for people coming from Canada where everyone is so apologetic and (generally) quite conciliatory. Here are a few examples:

• At the subway, we never cease to be surprised by the throngs of people trying to get onto the train before those disembarking have had a chance to leave. The signs are quite clear urging passengers to let people disembark first. And it’s not like there’s a risk of the train leaving – the train driver waits for everyone to get on. The same story holds true for elevators, too.
  
• At the urinal, if there’s a line up, get ready to rush for a spot because if you don’t, you’ll likely wind up wetting yourself before anyone will let you in queue in front of them.
  
• It’s always good advice to keep out of the way of moving cars if you value your life, but in Canada, it’s pretty much understood that pedestrians have the right of way at crosswalks and in parking lots. Oh ho! Not so in Malaysia. You gotta watch yourself. They will not stop and you’re likely to lose a limb or two if you’re not careful.
  
• Queuing in stores and for food can be particularly trying. Today we were at a food court, in line with one other person in front of us. We got a nod from the neighbouring cashier and, before we could let the patron in front of us (who was looking the wrong way) know it was her turn, another couple of people had swooped in to place their order! Never mind that they weren’t even in line before! Who raised you?! Jerk. Later, at a pharmacy, we were next in line and another person just barged in to place their items at the cash. It’s infuriating, and Junkii made his annoyance known, and the patron stepped back.
  

Yeah, we’re pretty much ready to leave for the next part of our trip now. Time to give Cambodia and Vietnam a go. It’s possible we might be jumping from the frying pan into the fire, but our guidebooks all seem to indicate that the people of Cambodia are just about the most friendly people on the planet. Here’s hoping!