chinese makan shop

at a chinese makan shop, it is perfectly acceptable to crash a table that has a few seats unoccupied. once you arrive and cant find a free table, the next best thing is a table with maybe one or two people sitting at it. you then walk over, ask if you may sit there, and proceed to have your meal in complete isolation from each other.

so if you see a bunch of people looking intently at their food atop white plastic tables at your nearby chinese coffee shop, its not that conversation has been held up by the meal - although knowing malaysians that scenario is also likely - its just that they may well be complete strangers, and only in each other's physical proximity because they need to eat.

dont you think that's wierd? in a special, only-in-Malaysia kind of way?