Every year during the Chinese New Year period, all roads and highways will be jammed up. It is an exodus of big crowd that destines themselves to go home before the grand day. The most important for all the haste and urgency is to attend the reunion dinner on the new year eve with the presence of everyone in the family. Because of this, everyone is rushing home at almost the same time after work or after the last school session of their children. A country like Malaysia, with only 26 millions population and about 5 millions Chinese, the jam is so bad, so one could imagine how bad it could be in China with 1.3 billion people.
Before the North South highway was ready, traffic was equally bad and I used to cut across the opposite side of the road, drove on the road shoulder on the other side, just to beat the jam! I remember very well my triple S, twin caburettors Datsun 160J, it was simply a fantastic sport vehicle for me. During one annual dinner company trip to Penang, I overtook all the cars on the way from KL to Penang, of course I lost to one BMW and we stopped to look at each other only at the Penang ferry terminal! When I get older, I drive more slowly and gently because I am aware of the dangerous consequences of driving fast on roads!
We tried all means to avoid traffic jams during the festive season, woke up and drove early to beat the crowd and even tried to use the old trunk road via Kuala Selangor and Teluk Anson etc. Somehow the jam was inevitable! Nowadays with the highways, things are better but when 3 lanes merge into 2 lanes, that is where the jam starts again!
For many years I had been traveling against the traffic jams because I was working in Penang and also overseas. This year I am against the flow of the traffic from east coast to KL. But from KL onwards then I will join the crowd this Friday. I hope the traffic congestion is mild so that we could have a slow and steady drive home after fetching my daughter from school.
God bless everyone and have a safe journey home and a wonderful Chinese New Year of the tiger!
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