Owning a car has opened up a whole new world for me; an easier one, for the most part. Groceries are certainly less of a hassle with a car, as is going to church. Traffic is going to be a problem, but I am hoping I don’t have to do too much driving during the rush hours of the day. But owning a car has also meant that I got my first parking ticket in Malaysia. Honestly officer, I did try to park legally, but the machine was broken and I couldn’t find another that worked. But then, it is hard to argue with a broken machine. So I got a ticket. For 80 ringgit (about $25).

Fair enough, I thought. That is just the price of learning where to park, now how do I pay it. Turns out that isn’t hard, you just go to the fancy building in the next sub-division and pay it there. In fact there is even a discount on tickets if you pay on Friday. So I drove out to the very fancy parking ticket building and found a place to park about a block away that looked like it might be legal and strolled back to the building where I took a number and sat down to wait.

But I didn’t have to wait any time at all before my number came up and I went forward to deal with a very pleasant young lady who spoke perfect English. She informed me that I was not entitled to the Friday discount because I was not a Muslim, but there was a discount for paying in person within 15 days. Not only that, but there was a special promotion on right now and my 80 ringgit ticket would only cost me 10 ringgit (about $3). I can’t even park for 10 ringgit, so that seemed like an exceptionally good deal to me.

Parking is definitely going to be an ongoing problem in KL. There are lots of cars, and very few parking spaces. In fact as I walked out of the parking building I was greeted by the parking lot featuring cars that were double-parked while their owners went in to pay their tickets. You just have to laugh!