Advertisement
Published: January 13th 2009
Edit Blog Post
We spent the last two weeks in Malaysia.
From Southern Thailand, we arrived by minivan in Penang, an old colonial town. Even though this town is at its core an old city, Malaysia surprised us by being more developed and modern than Thailand. In Malaysia, the majority of people are Malay, but there are many ethnic Chinese and Indians as well. Penang itself is mostly Chinese, and we stayed in the Chinatown area.
The city tries to preserve its old charm, and was recently declared a UNESCO World Heritage city, along with Melaka (more on Melaka later). In India, I was disappointed not to see any bicycle rickshaws. Supposedly they have them in Delhi and other places we didn't go to. So I was happy to see them in Penang, although we learned the hard way, that they are too small for two American behinds to sit on at once... :-)
What we enjoyed more than the bicycle rickshaw was the best funicular
EVER. If you read our funicular entry, you know we have a soft spot (some might say obsession) for this mode of transport. Well, Penang has an amazing one that takes half an hour to
go up a beautiful hill. At the top are hotels and restaurants, and a gorgeous view of the city, the sea, and the lush green hills all around. We also visited a large Chinese Buddhist temple up in the hills. On New Year's Eve, while waiting to take the funicular back down the hill, we got to talking with an ethnic Indian couple from Kuala Lumpur. They were very friendly, and we ended up grabbing street food and watching fireworks on the boardwalk along the waterfront.
After Penang, we headed to the Cameron Highlands. This was a former British hill station, during the colonial period. It is the highest spot in the Malay Peninsula, and feels very different from elsewhere in Southeast Asia for a few reasons. One is because it is so much cooler than everywhere else. It was the first time in a long time we truly felt cold. The other reason is that many houses are built in the English Tudor style that was popular here during the colonial period. They also serve you strawberry scones and tea everywhere. You can easily forget you are in Asia and feel transported to a Swiss Alpine ski resort.
In fact, it reminded us quite a bit of Chamonix, a famous French ski resort we visited earlier on this trip. On a day trip, we visited strawberry farms and one of Erin's highlights of this entire trip - a tea plantation. Seeing the many thousands of rows of tea plants in various shades of green (the darker leaves are more mature), on hillsides, is truly a wonderful sight. This is what we hoped to see in India a few months ago, on a day trip to another former British hill station, but didn't. We had lunch at a lovely old English inn called The Smokehouse Hotel. It reminded us of being in England, or at the Pelican Inn in Marin County.
Also on our day trip, we saw some strange insects that we had only seen before in places like National Geographic Magazine and Animal Planet. Insects that look
exactly like leaves, giant "rhino" beetles and other strange creatures are native to the forests of the Malay Peninsula, an incredibly diverse biosphere.
After Cameron Highlands, it was quite a change to go on to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's modern, crowded, and busy capital. It was also our least favorite
place in Malaysia. One of the reasons might have been the place we stayed. After checking into our guesthouse and returning from dinner and a walk, we discovered a mouse running across our bed! The management wasn't at all surprised, and told us there were no other rooms. They also refused to give us our money back. We went a couple blocks, and stayed at another shabby hotel. Attention, budget travelers: Where you stay can really make a difference. K.L. just didn't have the charm of other places in Asia. In fact, we spent one entire day at the shopping mall watching movies. We did get out to see the amazing Batu Caves, a Hindu temple built in a cave, with 272 steps to the top. And, of course we saw the great buildings K.L. has to offer: the K.L. Tower, one of the world's tallest towers (it resembles the Seattle Space Needle), and also the Petronas Twin Towers, which until a few years ago were the tallest buildings in the world. We went up to the skybridge, and got an incredible view of the city. Another highlight of our time in K.L. was Erin going to the American embassy,
to get additional pages in her passport because all her pages were full. This is something I had to do at the embassy in Ethiopia last year. This is when you know you've really "arrived" as a world traveler, so it was a proud moment for her.
Our final stop in Malaysia was Melaka. This old port town follows a colonial pattern we have noticed many times elsewhere (e.g. Cochin, India). "Discovered" by the Portuguese, it was then taken over by the Dutch, and finally, the British, before gaining independence. This was once a very important port. Like Penang, there is a large Chinatown, and many colonial and historic buildings. We liked it instantly. It also has a nice long river, and the first night, we went for a lovely walk along the river. The following day, we took a boat ride on the river. We love towns by the river. They are so romantic... There is also a large night market, bicycle rickshaws like in Penang, but decorated even crazier, each with hundreds of colorful plastic flowers and other knickknacks. We also visited the former Sultan's palace, an impressive teak building that has been turned into a museum.
We really enjoyed Melaka, and our time in Malaysia as a whole.
Traveling is wonderful, and we are lucky we have been able to do this. To discover the world, and to see so many amazing places. BUT... we've been starting to get homesick. Moving around every few days gets tiring. We want to see our friends and family. We want to go home soon. So it's a good thing we're going home in a few days.
For more photos see http://picasaweb.google.com/ejmcaleece
Advertisement
Tot: 0.288s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0522s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Jodi
non-member comment
Rhino beetle
...ok, that rhino beetle - yuck!! My mind is still completely blown away by your amazing life journey - simply remarkable!! It's so wonderful that it's documented and shared - a real treat for your friends and family!!