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Published: December 14th 2011
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What we have been up to recently…..Part 1
Apologies for the relatively long delay since the last blog, there are no real excuses to be honest other than that we have been quite busy! Last time we posted anything we were about to leave Thailand for the second time, and enter Malaysia also for the second time. As I write today on December 13
th we are back in Indonesia (again for the second time) and planning to leave again in 4 days time. As you can gather, there is a fair bit of stuff that falls in the “time in between” category. In fact, there is probably too much for one blog so consider this your first instalment of the update.
Today’s topic ladies and gents (pens at the ready) in Malaysia.
After a relaxing couple of weeks eating Thai curries and doing as little as possible, we jumped in a minibus and headed south to Georgetown, on the island of Penang. Now before you start to think that our lives are all islands and beaches, I should point out that Penang is not that kind of island, at least not on
the Georgetown side anyway. The town’s name comes from the invading British Empire (sound familiar?), though the only remaining sign of our boys in red is a small fort overlooking the harbour. The rest of the town owes more to the invasion of Chinese merchants than anything else, each street a succession of two or three-storey shop houses. Curiously there are almost no pavements in Georgetown which makes wandering around a touch more exciting.
In many ways Georgetown is a snap-shot of Malaysia as a whole, a cultural melting pot to make any Minister for Diversity warm inside. Malaysian people hail from lots of different places, a sign not only of the trading importance of the country over the last three hundred years or so, but also of the tolerance that rules within the borders. Indians, Chinese, Burmese, Javanese, Portuguese, Dutch, British, you name it, they live here. Perhaps even more curiously (then again perhaps not) nearly everyone speaks a sing-song form of Malay English as a second language, which makes things both easier and less exotic at the same time. In fact, the ease with which a foreigner can survive in Malaysia is noticeable. Not once
did we get the opportunity to use our own language skills, not once was there any confusion over travel arrangements, indeed at times it felt no more exotic than being in the centre of Bradford. It was also just as easy to get good Indian food in Malaysia!
The problem with things being easy though is that you start to take things for granted. Georgetown reminded us of Kuching in Borneo in terms of architecture, but it reminded us of Europe in almost every other way. The same is true of the rest of what we saw of the country. If Thailand is the home of Cultural Contamination, then Malaysia is a close second. In Kuala Lumpur we even saw a thirty foot Christmas tree, fake snow and a local band playing Christmas hits in one of the shopping centres. At that moment I felt as far from South East Asia as is possible without actually leaving.
Leaving Georgetown we decided to head into the hills to escape the consumerism of the cities, and spend a few days wandering around the Cameron Highlands. The name is yet another nod to the colonial past, and
the area is famous for another Imperial staple, tea plantations, and this was our first stop. From the top of the hillside as far as the eye can see the hills are carpeted with tea plants, each around a metre tall and thick with dark green leaves. We learned the difference between white, green and black tea, we learned about the history of the highlands, and we also learned a thing or two about the export of tea. None of it is blog worthy though, so let’s move on.
After another day wandering around the hills on our own, and two and a half days of eating nothing but wonderfully cheap and delicious Indian food for every meal, we decided to head south to Kuala Lumpur, the capital. We hadn’t intended on going back to KL except to catch our flight to Indonesia, but in my haste to find a job for the future I had somehow managed to arrange an interview in KL for a job in Sydney. This meant a trip to the capital and a couple of hours doing what the residents of KL do best – shopping! I figured that flip flops and
shorts didn’t quite convey the right message for a job as a consultant, so we headed to the nearest shopping mall – in KL that usually means you have a choice of 6 within a two mile radius.
So in the end we spent 5 days in KL as I had to stay for a second interview, which was 5 days longer than planned and meant that we got to see little of the rest of the country. Like Thailand this is obviously a shame as there is lots we missed on our two trips, but like Thailand I am not too concerned, as it meant we got to spend more time in Indonesia – which is fast becoming my favourite place on earth!
So from KL we flew to Bali (again) where we managed to time our delayed arrival with that of someone else who was going back to Indonesia, namely Barack Obama. We didn’t have time for a coffee unfortunately as we had another plane to catch early the next morning, but Barack is an understanding sort of guy.
Anyway, that next plane will be the beginning of the
next blog, so if you are interested in tropical paradise, complete with volcanoes, lakes, palm trees and 3m long dragons, then stay tuned!
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