129 km per jam - Urban Legends of Malaysia

I'm back.
Applause please for Freckles who has been blogging furiously by herself during my absence.

Saturday night, i met up with the Blackhead Gang to distribute goodies i got overseas. Some of them left early. The rest of us (3 from the Gang and 1 other friend, Hairy) were restless at the coffee joint and wanted to move on somewhere else. Someone said, " Aiyah we go Genting and gamble la!"

Suffering from post-holiday blues, i immediately agreed. and so did the rest. We uprooted from our chairs and sped home to get our passports.

At the strike of 12 midnight, we were on the way to Genting! 6 hours later, we arrived to typhoon-ish strong winds that chilled us to the bones. We left at about 1030am for Malacca.

The story begins here. We heard alot about the local TP who would stop you for speeding n the highway and let you off IF you "settle it here", meaning you give them $$ and they will "take care of the picture for you".

Having been on countless road trips to Malaysia, we never encountered any.

We were stopped by Genting security and they asked for the Hairy's license. On their table were four books, each with the labels 'SUVs', '4 by 4', 'vios' and 'vans'. one of the guards proceeded to ask if her if she "cakap melayu". Hairy shook her head and after scribbling down something on the notepad, we were let off.



That was weird. But we didn't think much of it.

The first TP stop came. On the way to Malacca, after payin for toll, further in front was a road block. Acne was driving. She didn't have her driver's license with her so she took Hairy's and gave it to the TP. He scribbled something on his notepad.

"Speeding you know. One two nine ah. Fine 300."

He continued to scribble. We asked him in our most 'broken english'.

Acne: "Then how liddat?"
Fat TP: "You want to $ettle here?"
Acne: "Huh, how settle here?"

The fat tp was hesitant. He mumbled then finally he said. "$ettle here 100".

Immediately we knew he was asking for $$. ASKING TO BE BRIBED!

We had no choice so we handed him the $100. How suay. Acne said she was actually travelling on 140, not 129km/h. We shrugged our shoulders and continued on our way to Malacca.

We were exhausted beyond words, having stayed up for more than 24 hours with only insufficient naps in between. We decided it was time to go home after lunch.

We were near Tuas second link. After paying for the toll, we saw a road block up ahead. AGAIN.

Overfriendly TP: "Speeding. You know? One two nine."

129 again???

This TP was direct. He asked if we wanted to settle immediately.

Hairy: "How much?"
Overfriendly TP: "How much you give?"
Hairy: "We only have 50."
Overfriendly TP: "Ok. Thank you ah. The picture we will take care."

He stuffed the $$ under his notepad.

129km/h again? The whole time Hairy was going at 140km/h. The more we thought about it, the clearer the picture became. It was a scam right from the beginning. We were stopped in Genting, and both times we were stopped for speeding at 129km/h. There were no pictures shown to us. So if we 'cakap melayu' and '$ettled' there, would we have been let off in Genting and not fined TWICE later on?

Yes, we encountered one of the many urban legends of Malaysia. Truly Asia.

We could blame no one but curse our bad luck.

To all who frequent Genting, tell us if you've encountered similar incidents. To those planning on road trips, be prepared to "$ettle here".