The oddest car park in the world.

Today, I saw what, to me, was a very odd "car park". In fact, it was in a place you would least expect a car park to be. Please have a guess where you think all these cars I saw, were parked. Reflect on it, given your knowledge of the world. It might help if you have knowledge of Malaysia, though, otherwise, you have little chance of guessing correctly.

Well, have you guessed? Please call your guess to mind and then compare it to what I write.

Today, we took a taxi to Jalan Duta, which is where a particular government office is located. The main road alongside the government buildings suffered a rather peculiar blockage. Lining both sides of the road, were parked cars, as far as the eye could see. Well, you might say, there is nothing odd about that. Yes, true. However, along the CENTRE of the two lane road, was another double column of parked cars stretching off into the distance, all along Jalan Duta, for as far I could see of it. (This meant that, at all points along the road, that I could see, there were FOUR cars parked in the road: one on either side and two in the middle.)I was immediately struck by the oddness of it: there were hundreds of cars parked in a way that must have been illegal, RIGHT OUTSIDE A GOVERNMENT OFFICE. The road was about 75% blocked, what with parked cars lining the middle and sides of the road, leaving a narrow channel in the middle of the two opposing lanes.

I marvelled at it. I really did. I marvelled at the sheer cheek of the average local, to park their cars so inconsiderately, so illegally, so inconveniently for others, RIGHT OUTSIDE A GOVERNMENT OFFICE. Only in Malaysia, in my experience, could you ever see such a thing. Indeed, I have never seen it anywhere else. Here, cars are parked wherever the owner pleases, without any regard for any rules that might exist: they just leave them where they please. Today, that happened to be in the middle of the road, which had been turned into an impromptu car park.

So, now you know. In Malaysia, the highway itself can become a car park. The space normally expected for the use of MOVING cars, can become the place where cars are parked. The puzzle of it is that people around here wonder why they have such terrible traffic jams. Perhaps if they parked their cars more carefully, traffic would flow rather more fluidly.

I have many readers, from countries all over the world. So, please relate your tales of oddly parked cars, in the comments below. Can you beat my experience of today, for inconsiderate parking? Your memories please...

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

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