April 6, 2008
From India through New Zealand, we spent the last six months in former British colonies. Not that we planned it that way. In fact, as embarrassing as it is to admit this, I was unaware that Malaysia was a former colony of any country, until we got there. (This is why you should read about the places you're going to visit before you get there. It saves you from some awkward conversations once you've arrived.)
At any rate, these countries don't have so much in common, really, but the inhabitants do all insist on driving on the left side of the road. We were prepared for this, somewhat, by spending the beginning of the trip in the UK, but even with six months of practice we never got used to looking right first before crossing a street. David managed to step into oncoming traffic half a dozen times because right is the wrong direction to be looking. We also never managed to reconcile ourselves to the fact that the drivers' seat is on the right. I tried to get into any number of buses by going for the drivers door, startling many very nice people.
Despite the driving similarity, interestingly, there is no commonality between the countries in terms of which side you walk on when on the sidewalk (or whatever passes for a pedestrian area). In Australia they are quite rigorous about walking the way they drive: on the left. In India it's too crowded and all anyone cares about is getting where they're going, so sidewalks are also like the traffic: chaotic. In Malaysia, it doesn't seem to matter, either, except that people are astonishingly polite and get out of each others way, whatever side you walk on. And in NZ, possibly because almost as many people visit the country as live there (3 versus 4 million), there is a tendency to walk on the left, but not everyone does, and no one really cares.
So, of course, when we got to Argentina, where people drive correctly, I tried to get on the bus on the wrong side; we still do multiple double-takes, trying to figure out which side of the street to look down before we cross; and we've flustered any number of people by insisting on walking on the left side of the sidewalk.
