Malaysia

Malaysia

We’ve just had an excellent couple of weeks in Melbourne, being wonderfully cared for by Jenny and Neil (Byrne). Its hard to believe but Jenny has been in Aus for almost two years (but happily, as yet, she doesn’t sound like Kylie).

She and Neil have set up a lovely home in Melbourne’s suburbs, I won’t mention that she has a swimming pool as we hear that’s its been a bit cold at home (!) Melbourne, however, was having a heat wave and after three days of 43C or 45C we were glad to scoot over to new Zealand. Little did we realise just how serious this weather would prove and we were so lucky to have missed the horror of the Bush Fires, which sadly, continue to ravage the Victorian countryside.

So we’re now in New Zealand for seven weeks, feeling well rested after the previous months in Asia. Thoughts have eventually returned to our blog and I can't believe that we're so far behind. A strange thing... a few months ago, out of the blue a text message popped up from my Mum - quite a big deal for someone still wrestling with use of the TV remote control. Just imagine how we felt this morning when an email came through from her; as the Aussies might say "Good on Yer Mum!"

And now then, back to September 2008, we were just about to leave Indonesia...

Onwards to Borneo

In high spirits and with Mama Mia’s Dancing Queen ringing in our ears, we set off for Jakarta Airport, heading for Kuching, Sarawak, North West Borneo. The flight was fun (especially the free squirt of Chanel 5 at the airport) and having landed at 9pm, we were settled and comfortable in our hotel less than an hour later.

Borneo was of course amazing, albeit ridiculously humid. Our main reason for going was to visit the Semenggoh Orang Utan Sanctuary, where Orang Utans, either orphaned or rescued from captivity, are trained to survive in the wild. As you probably know the name Orang Utan means “old man of the forest” and the resemblance to humans was striking; they even sweated just as much us. Our friends in Mumbai have recently commented how lucky we’ve been to have seen both Komodo Dragons and Orang Utans, two rare creatures. Can’t argue with that and the memories will live with us for a long time. We remain deeply indebted to Rose and David whom we met in Kyrgyzstan for recommending the trip.

We were there for the end of Ramadan and the festival of “Hari Raya Adil Fitri”, comparable to our Christmas festivities, not only exchanging gifts but also really bad television programmes. Malaysia’s an interesting place as the indigenous people only just form a majority; the other two main races are Chinese and Indian, who often continue to speak in their native tongues and follow their own religion. Strange and yet it all seems to work. In Sarawak, 40% of the people are Christian yet Ramadan was more noticeable there than any of the Muslim places we’d just been. So clearly everybody mucks in celebrating all the religious festivals be it Diwali, Christmas or Adil Fitri (end of Ramadan). Maybe it’s a belief in integration or may be they don't want to exclude any of the religions just in case it proves to be the true God!

The Santubong Peninsular

After a day or so of town life in Kuching we set off for the coast and the Santubong Peninsular. We couldn’t quite afford the Holiday Inn, instead booking into the Santubong Peninsular Resort on the sands of the South China Sea.

We arrived to find a huge complex, easily able to accommodate a thousand people and yet we were two of about eight guests. Our room was huge and even had a Hair dryer (a first since leaving Turkey) but with near 100% humidity what is the point.

One of the many things to do was a river trip, primarily to spot the rare bottle-nosed Irrawady dolphin. The trip took us down river past numerous villages and mangroves. Easily spotted all along the muddy river banks were bright blue crabs and mud skipper fish. These are quite the strangest of fish and so entertaining as they darted crazily along the muddy banks.

Views were slightly spoiled by a murkiness in the air apparently caused by smog from the burning of forests. The Malaysians blame Kalimantan (the Indonesian half of Borneo) for burning forest in order to plant Palms for palm oil, a cash crop used for bio fuel. Apparently, the smog was so bad one year it caused an obstruction to shipping in the Malaccan straights some 500 miles away.

There we were all “David Attenborough'd” up and flew back to the mainland for a few days in George Town, on the Island of Penang, close to the Thai border. It was still holiday time (Adil Fitri) but we were getting good at this travelling game so booked ahead; imagine our delight to arrive at midnight to find our room was above both a nightclub (Boom, Boom, Boom until 4am) and the local “knocking” shop. Bleary eyed we moved next day to something far more suited to a good nights sleep.

Penang

Georgetown wasn’t quite as Wow as we’d expected but with time to pass before going on to Thailand it was a pleasant place to wander around and we were happily entertained.

Imagine our surprise to see a Tescos! It was a little out of town but had a free shuttle-bus so it seemed rude not to go. Discipline prevailed and we only bought earl grey teabags and salt-and-vinegar crisps and at the check out were even offered club card points. Spooky.

The food in Malaysia had proved a little disappointing but at night the street level food stalls opened. Several streets around our hotel developed a festival atmosphere and although still missing Indian food we happily scoffed on the fusion food that is Malaysia’s own.

Cameron Highlands

Next stop was the Cameron Highlands, named after a British colonialist, its an area on the central mainland abut 1,500 m above sea level. This gives it a completely different climate; can’t tell you how refreshing it was to be cold after so long. I even broke out my sleeping bag to keep warm at night; cold beers were replaced by hot chocolate. Lovely.

The Cameron’s are famous for tea plantations and strawberries; would you believe cream teas are served every where, often from mock Tudor tea rooms. The area is quite small and glad though we were to have visited we were looking forward to the beaches of southern Thailand (well who wouldn’t) so we jumped onto the overnight bus to Hat Yai.

The Malaysian VIP buses are well named and quite something. They have only three seats across, don’t think bus seat more armchair and every other row has been removed so you can lay almost flat. We were almost looking forward to the 14 hour journey!

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