Malay Madness

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August 26th 2008

Published: August 30th 2008

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Friends Reunited

Here is Rani and Thelma underneath the Malaysian flag. I have no idea why it looks so similar to the US flag.

After the Philippines, we headed towards Malaysia. We only had one week on the Maylay peninsula, so we focused on Kuala Lumpur and Taman Negara. Thelma has a friend, Rani, who lives in Kuala Lumpur, so we spent a week with her exploring the city and the jungle.

Kuala Lumpur felt like the most modern city, besides Tokyo, that I had been to in Asia. I wasn't even afraid to drink the water. It was a very clean city and didn't seem as big as I imagined it would be. There aren't too many major tourist attractions in KL, but the biggest by far is the famous Petronas Towers. These are the same towers that starred in the movie "Entrapment" with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones. They are gleaming stainless steel and glass towers which are connected by a sky bridge on the 41st and 42nd floors. This is where the viewing gallery is. At night they are both illuminated and appear as two silver beacons from a distance. The cross section of each tower is shaped in such a way to resemble two squares superimposed over each other at a 45 degree angle with circles around each intersection

KL Post Office

This is the post office in Kuala Lumpur. It was originally the offices of Petronas, before they built their towers. Although a skyscraper, it adheres to Islamic principles. I kinda liked it.

point. It is very symmetrical and somehow adheres to Islamic principles. As an admirer of sky-scrapers, I found it beautiful. At one point it was the tallest building in the world, but the Sears Tower still has more occupied floors than the Petronas Towers.

Malaysia is a former British colony and an interesting mix of native Malays, Indians, and Chinese peoples. It is a democracy and is accommodating of many religions, but it is primarily an Islamic state. In the grand tradition of Southeast Asian countries, it is slightly corrupt as well. This was front and center in the news while we were there. The former deputy PM, Anwar Ibrahim, was being charged again with accusations of sodomy. This is after being proven innocent years ago the first time around. Ignoring the illegality of sodomy, this shows what happens in Malaysia if someone other than the prime minister (who has been in power for over 20 years) gets too popular for his own good.

While we were in KL, we were luck to be able to witness the "Beat the World" international drum competition. It was on display for free at the beautiful Perdana Lake Gardens. This used

KL Architecture

KL is a pleasant mixture of Islamic buildings and high rises.

to be the posh area of KL where the colonists built their fancy mansions. The local population was almost certainly not welcome in the park back then. But times have changed and now all of the gardens are open to the public.

Warming up the event was a pair of fire breathing dancers in traditional tribal war paint. If it wasn't for the circle of tourists with cameras (me included), they would have been pretty intimidating. They would take a mouthful of what smelled like kerosene and spew it out over a flame to produce a gigantic fireball, which almost singed my eyebrows. They looked like I felt after eating a spicy curry in India-town earlier that day.

Back on the stage, the competition was starting up. First up was a drum group from Indonesia. They probably had the widest assortment of drums on show. Their play was fast paced, but totally in sync. Their drum stick shuffling was reminiscent of an American style drum corp.

A Korean troupe was up next. Their focus seemed to be more on choreography than actually drumming. They had, but far, the most women in their group. The women danced out

KL Towers

These towers can be seen from all over KL at night.

on stage with their unique double-sided drum slung over their shoulders. They would jump, twirl, and glide across the stage, all the while with as wide and bright a smile as they could muster. In perfect sequence, they would hold a drumstick high above their heads before striking it down upon the drum. As a performance, it was pleasant, but their drumming was not as loud as the previous troupe. Sometimes, the cymbals being played by the men over powered the women's drums.

Next up was the final act, a drum troupe from Egypt. Their performance had a rhythm and power to it that seemed to out shadow the previous competitors. Never try to beat an African at drumming! They had a single dancer to accompany their beats. He came out with a head scarf and a thick skirt to match his thick mustache. At first I thought he was an ugly woman, but soon the skirt revealed its purpose.

As he began to twirl, faster and faster, the skirt began to rise up to reveal he was in fact wearing three skirts. As he twirled, he brought the first one over his upper body. It was double-sided

KL Towers

Here you can almost see the cross section of one of the towers.

and as it rose above his head, he looked like a human U.F.O. He cast aside the first skirt and went to work on the second. This one he brought over his head and started twirling with one hand as if it was a giant circle of pizza dough. How he managed to stop spinning around without falling over I'll never know. I was getting dizzy just watching him. He made a few sorties into the crowd before finally tossing the skirt away for a finale. The crowd enthusiastically proclaimed the Egyptians the winners, and they deserved it.

We found a packaged tour to take us up to Taman Negara and back for three days, so there was little to organize and worry about for our jungle trek. Our journey consisted of a few hours on a bus and then onto a long-tail boat for a three hour tour up river through the jungle. I found the boat ride to be pleasant and relaxing. As we made our way from the port and further into the jungle, clearings and short trees gave way to tall and thick forests on either side of us. The river was wider than I

Desert? Yuk!

This is the Malaysian version of the Filipino Halo Halo dessert. It is basically shaved ice with everything thrown in there, including corn and beans. I don't think Thelma was impressed.

expected, and sadly I didn't get that feeling that the jungle was right on top of me; rather at a safe distance. Taman Negara is one of the few virgin rain forests left in the world. It has thrived untouched by de-forestation or disaster for millions of years.

As we meandered down the river, we caught glimpses of monkeys swinging from trees and water buffaloes poking their heads above the water. Sat next to me was Zepher, another American but from Virginia. He was teaching English in Korea and was over in Malaysia on a short holiday. I discovered that Zepher means "gentle westernly breeze", which still doesn't explain that Chilli Pepper's song for me.

That night we went for a walk in the rain forest with a local guide. As we swatted away the mosquitoes, our guide pointed out spiders, termites, frogs, beetles, millipedes, and giant moths. We even witnessed a warthog trot right by us. It was exciting to creep about and anticipate what your light was going to shine on next. We didn't come across any snakes, but we did manage to see some wild deer having a night time graze.

The next day

Oh Captain, My Captain

Who would have thought you would see Ryan Giggs in a Blues jersey?

we did a day-time hike through the forest. Some of the critters we saw the previous night had disappeared into the forest, but the spiders remained. Our guide demonstrated how to call for help in the rain forest by hitting a rock against a big tree. The noise reverberated upwards and outwards across the entire forest. We capped off the rain forest hike with a walk through a tree canopy rope bridge.

It gets pretty hot and humid in the rain forest during the day. After our hike, Thelma retired for a nap while Rani and I experienced some rapids upriver, and visited a local village. The village is small and consists of local indigenous people. Their way of life hasn't changed much in hundreds of years. They still live in huts in the jungle, speak their own language, and practice animism. They didn't even understand Rani when she spoke to them. The government has made an attempt once to educate the children, but by the third day of school, no students were showing up any more. The tour we went on helps by giving the villagers money. They demonstrated how they make fire by using a little wood

I'm The Firestarter

I think this was a Mentos moment.

and friction. They also demonstrated how they hunt with a blow-dart gun, and we each got to take a turn practicing our blow-dart ability.

The village we visited was next to the river. It consisted of half a dozen huts. The main village was deeper in the forest with maybe 200 indigenous people living there. They tended to move the entire village if they sensed evil spirits. Although the natives had no way of communicating with us, we were assured that it was okay to talk to them, take pictures, and peer into their huts. I realize that the villagers get money from our tour, but I felt like a voyeur, and something just didn't seem right about the experience. For such a prosperous country, I think the government could do more to help these communities. It will take some creative thinking though.

After the village, we went for a bit of a swim in the river. Our guide demonstrated that if we stayed very still in the water, little fish would swim up and nibble at us. Sure enough, I felt one on the back of my feet. Some people pay good money for that treatment in

Indonesian Drummers

These guys had a pretty good rhythm.

spas, but Rani and I got it for free.

That night, Thelma and Rani went out on a night safari and I searched for a place with a decent television and satellite dish. It just so happened that Chelsea FC were in Kuala Lumpur that night to play the Malaysian national side. I don't think that the Malaysians are that into their football as not too many knew it was happening. After checking at the floating restaurant, and two hotels, I had to give up. I had to settle for watching highlights on Malaysian ESPN. The blues won of course.

The next day we had to head back to KL the same way we had come. We moved down river in 2 hours instead of the 3 it took to get upriver. Back in KL, we had a day to relax before our extreme journey to Thailand. I didn't get a chance to really immerse myself in Malaysia, but I saw the two things that I really wanted to see the most. In addition to the Maylay peninsula, there are a number of islands that make up the country. Seeing everything would take many months.

I was

Korean drum line

More style than substance.

glad that we had Rani with us. She was able to explain a few things to me, like why my shoes and feet are offensive to Asians, besides the smell, and she even laughed at some of my stupid jokes. Although she grew up in Malaysia, we were all exploring it together for the first time, which made it more fun. They say you never go and see what is in your own backyard. I hope the beauty of Taman Negara encourages her to go see what else is out there . It's a unique country and one not to be missed.

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