Malaysia Diary, Day One: Right Hand Drive

I'd like to complain about my twenty-two hours in the air from TPA->IAD->NRT->SIN, but the truth of the matter is that I very carefully picked my United Economy Plus seats and I was able to read all 1100 pages of Neal Stephenson's "REAMDE" as well as a history book on Malaysia, without ever feeling cramped, sick, or claustrophobic.

With that said, I hadn't really slept for 28 hours when I arrived in the stunning Changi airport and met my main man Bobby from LiveLifeDrive.

"I have a Megane RS265," he said. "Wait till you see it."

"You mean wait till I drive it. Give me the keys. Hey, where's the steering wheel?"

They drive on the other side of the road in Singapore. But the good news is that many of the roads are one-way, so I wasn't continually freaking out about being on the wrong side of traffic. Shifting with my left hand was something else entirely. It took me a few minutes. It hadn't occurred to me that I would be racing a right-hand-drive car on Sunday.

I will be.

So that's interesting. Early thoughts on Singapore et al:

* The Megane is lovely. If we had them here, the GTI and Focus ST would rust in showrooms. * Singapore is a beautiful city, full of beautiful women who are very forward about winking and nodding at me. * And all those beautiful women have Adam's-apples. Like, bigger than mine. So I'll need to be careful. This is a subject of much hilarity among my Malaysian friends, the idea that I will wake up next to someone who was born male. Not going to happen.

Off to meet the Peugeot RCZ and see the Singapore F1 street course. More updates to come.