My Favourite Transportation: Walking

Salam, friends!

I’ve been walking to places a lot these days, so I thought I could share some thoughts and tips with y’all about my favourite mode of transportation, walking.

Some benefits I’ve experienced are:

Now I will talk about safety tips and precautions.

1) Be extra careful when you’re crossing the road, look left and right multiple times and keep your eyes and ears wide open. I will teach you a very powerful body language, which is the hand-raising gesture.

You raise your hand as a way of saying thanks when a vehicle slows down/stops to let you cross the road. When a vehicle is approaching you, but not quite there yet, you raise your hand to let them know that you’re gonna cross and it also means thanking them for slowing down.

2) If there’s a pedestrian bridge, use it. Even thought it might be a few hundred meters away from you, just go the extra mile and use it. Don’t attempt to cross those big, crazy roads when you’ve got a pedestrian bridge.

3) Don’t cross a pedestrian bridge alone. Wait for at least one person then cross it with them.

4) Do not look at homeless people/beggars on the pedestrian bridge. Look forward and keep walking.

5) Keep your phone in your front pocket instead of holding it on your hand. Never leave it in your back pocket.

If your phone juts out of your pocket, pull your shirt over to cover it.

6) In some cases where you need your phone out for navigation and the like, hold it on the hand which is farther away from the road (if the road is on your left, hold your phone on your right hand). Same goes to your handbag or tote bag. This greatly reduces the success rate of motorcyclists stealing your stuff.

From these gifs, we can see that it’s actually very easy for motorcyclists to steal our phones. The best advice I can give you is to keep your phone in your front pocket, occasionally taking it out to look at the map when there’s no threat nearby. You can also turn the volume louder to hear the navigation voice.

7) Wear sneakers, preferably leather or waterproof ones. It’s easy to scratch and slip when you wear slippers, especially walking on grassy or rough terrains.

I always wear my leather sneakers when I know I’ll be walking a lot

8) Bring an umbrella in case it rains all of a sudden. If you think it’s too much hassle, bring a cap at least. Caps are fashionable and helps to keep your hair dry in light rain, whereas umbrellas will help you to fight off bad guys (hopefully no one would have to, but let’s get real guys).

9) Have nothing to do with dark, narrow alleys. I don’t care if you’re running late and that’s a shortcut to your destination. Always walk in places where you know there will be people.

10) Avoid walking alone at night at all costs. There was a time when I wanted to berbuka at a bazaar, so I set out walking in the evening. It was only evening, but it got very dark quickly like it was night. That crept me out and I almost ran for the entire journey.

11) Don’t wear expensive stuff or jewelries. A friend once told me that he always wears like he’s broke whenever he’s biking to places, because he figured that the robbers won’t make him their target if he dress like that. Smart guy.

12) Don’t wear too less or show too much skin. What you choose to wear is entirely up to you, but it’s a good idea not to attract too much unwanted attention to yourself, especially when you’re walking by yourself. Personally, I always stick to long jeans and t-shirts. It’s comfortable to me and I feel safe.

Happy walking!