Caught in the bustle of a city of millions

A tuk-tuk driver waits for customers along a busy street in Bangkok. — AFP

YOU cannot miss a Malaysian walking on the streets of Bangkok. They are so apologetic and considerate.

You can always recognise Malaysians by how they walk in a crowd there; they avoid people, hunch a little and say sorry repeatedly as they wade through the crowd.

I bumped into an apologetic man in Bangkok when I went to the Coldplay concert and instantly knew he was my fellow Malaysian.

All others tried to walk through me or over me, if they could. They simply collided with me and tried to shoulder me out of the way with nary an apology nor even a glance of acknowledgment.

I have learned that it is not easy for Penangites to travel to foreign lands because our sense of civility and warmth is quite high.

This is how we are raised, so it was a shocker for me when no one said sorry or tried to avoid knocking into my friend and me when walking in Bangkok. Then came the traffic.

The wide, massive roads did not seem to matter when it was rush hour and in Bangkok, every hour is rush hour.

It was my first time to that city in three decades and while I was awed by the incredible infrastructure, I was shocked by the seemingly never-ending gridlock.

When we reached Bangkok on a Friday evening, we did expect some after-work traffic.

Our hotel was 24km from the airport and we were sure it would take an hour at least. It took two hours. We were famished and fatigued, and even then the driver said: “Lucky we took the highway; it was faster.”

We thought it was a one-off incident, but later hailing a ride at any time meant an odyssey through traffic jams.

Heading to the Chatuchak weekend market just 13km (the length of Penang Bridge) from our hotel took us almost an hour.

I do go to Kuala Lumpur often, but the traffic jam in Bangkok is many times worse than our own capital.

While the train system is great and clean, the time it took to get to the station, line up to buy tokens and wait for the train was so much longer than the train ride.

Twice during my holiday, the ehailing application asked me if I was safe and needed assistance because the car had been idle for too long.

Most stunning was a night ride to a bar 1km from our hotel that took us 30 minutes.

We could have walked but it was dark and we wanted to play safe, so we bit the bullet and hailed a ride, but the drivers could cancel on you at the last minute.

In Bangkok, my top advice is to not spend time pre-booking rides. They will cancel on you a few minutes before you need to depart. It became so common for us, so if the driver does show up, thank them for honouring the booking.

Despite this, would I return to Bangkok? Yes. It was fun and it felt safe for us ladies.

I did not worry about carrying my bag. I did not feel unsafe as a woman and I definitely did enjoy the atmosphere of it all.

Bangkok is a metropolis of 11.2 million people.

The whole of Penang has 1.74 million people and the 2024 estimated population of George Town is a little over 101,000. George Town’s population is less than 1% of Bangkok’s.

I cherish Penangites because we have time for each other, will respect personal space and even lend a helping hand expecting nothing in return.