Driving in WA

 

while i had the luxury for my dear trusty maroon vios back home, over here we drive a beat-up 17-year old Holden Barina hatchback. a small dented car with no power-steering.  if i put the photo up here you'd think i got the car from the junkyard ...ahaks! but hey..it's only $950 and most importantly, it moves :) and alhamdullillah for the car, for we have neither the patience nor the discipline to survive on the public transportation system here which runs on a timetable (as in the bus comes like sejam sekali and got to change so many buses just to get to one place) with no taxis to flag down.

i've been doing a fair bit of driving around here, mainly to playgroup and to mengaji and social visits, especially to sofia's place for the last few weeks before she left. here's the thing - these places i drive to, they are located South of the river, in suburbs like Langford, Thornlie and Lynwood. Very simply, Perth is somewhat cut into North and South by the Swan River. I live up in the north, and the journey each way is about 22km. that's like...from bt panjang to eunos?

yes, back in singapore i'd be crazy to drive all the way there and back 2-3 times a week just for a 2-hr playgroup for Ilhan or for a class or to visit a friend (my easterner-friends like Lina and Hariati can testify to this...those sunday darul sessions tu kirakan ku gagahkan diri tu..haha). but over here, well i guess distance is relative, and it's either the long drive or ilhan and i have our four walls as company.

and after a few weeks of taking a long route cutting through the City, i tried out a route to get there via Tonkin Highway, Leach Highway and Albany Highway. yes, that's 3 highways for you.

now...the highways here are not exactly wide 3-laners that i'm used to back home. they are 2-laners with a speed limit of 100km/h and are travelled on by mighty Speedy Gonzales-es. i was one too back home, but that's with the security of driving a shiny new car and the urgency of being very late for school.

over here, my Barina coughs and splutters and pleads mercy when we hit 90km/h. the scariest part is, the Tonkin and Leach highways are travelled on by many many trucks. not our friendly-looking Nissan pickups, but monster, BJ-And-The-Bear kind of trucks. like...18-wheeler kind of trucks.

i hope these pictures appear, so you can have an idea of what's racing against me on the road. yup...you read that right...these monster trucks race. as in over here, the left lane is not for slow-coaches or large vehicles. to my horror, these monster trucks and other huge vehicles yang sewaktu dengannya go at at least 100km/h, over-take you if you are going a tad bit slow, or tailgate you to get you to move faster.

being in a beat-up old car and looking at the rear-view mirror to see a big fat boy trailing my a** is not a comforting sight, i tell you. and i'm on the LEFT lane, mind you...nak aku pergi mana lagi?

and once i got lost on the Roe Highway (i was supposed to go left but i went right). i stopped at the road-shoulder and flipped through the street-directory with trembling hands (not very helpful, i tell you). why trembling? cos as each of these big fat boys zoomed past me on the narrow road shoulder my car trembled and shook from their sheer speed and power. damn scary i tell you.

but you live, you learn.

and i start each drive with lots and lots of du'a and baca-baca along the way. :)