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Published: November 3rd 2009
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Canopy walk
Taman Negara
“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.” - Bill Bryson
Malaysia wasn't on our original itinerary, it just seemed a logical crossing from Indonesia to Thailand. We'd have to hurry through, we thought, because Ramadan was in full swing. Ramadan is a month long religious holiday where practicing Muslims are forbidden to eat during the daytime in order to remind themselves that there are less fortunate people in the world. What ends up happening, though, is everyone is irritable at each other and tourists have a hard time finding something to eat. In some parts of the world, people even spit every few minutes because swallowing your saliva is considered drinking. And sadly a lot of people don't survive the whole month. In the evening after the sun goes down though the whole country celebrates. Every so often we'd hear a loud explosion that sounded like a bomb, and we realized they let small children light off fireworks that could probably blow up a
dog house. I couldn't help thinking the incredibly politically incorrect thought: “Is it really a good idea to teach Muslim kids to play with explosives?”
Our first stop was Kuala Lumpur, where fortunately there were plenty of Indian and Chinese restaurants open. Here we were first introduced to Roti, and Indian breakfast with fried pancakes that you dip in curry sauce. 😊 The thing about KL is that its so modern it feels like the whole city was manufactured on an assembly line, no sense of culture or history. We just wanted to see the Petronas Towers and get out of town. We learned, however, that if we crossed into Thailand we'd only get a 15 day visa, but if we applied for one in KL we could get one for 60 days. So we were stuck a few days while the embassy processed the visa. We spent the time going to the mall, watching movies that weren't supposed to be out yet and trying not to get the swine flu. Apparently Malaysia has a 6 time higher death rate for swine flu than anywhere in the world, so you'd see everyone on the subway wearing surgical masks. At
that point I thought up a genius idea for a business: designer surgical masks! You could wear your surgical mask and have giant lips painted on the front, or vampire fangs! I don't know, probably wouldn't take off. I also heard that they were considering about shutting the entire country down for 6 days and confining everyone to their homes until the swine flu died out. Apparently they already had to do that in Mexico and it worked. A-choo! Oink! Oink!
One day we were bored so Ammi asked me to get a few DVDs to watch at the hotel. I walked into Chinatown and a guy asked in drug-dealer like tones “Psst! Want some DVDs?” Not too obvious, but not so secret either. I said yes and was led to a small shop full of movie covers. I picked out “Terminator Salvation” and “Harry Potter 6” and the guy went to get them ready. It was then that I noticed something strange. Another customer (a local I think) was apparently trying to steal something because one of the employees grabbed a 4 foot stick and started beating his legs mercilessly. And the weird thing is the guy just
Manga super store
I've tried to get into manga (Japanese Comics) but I can't. "Full Metal Alchemist" and "Narruto" aren't too bad though. took it, didn't cry out, or try to run, but just looked at the floor with a forlorn expression. He must have had the choice of being beaten here or being turned over to the police and this was the better option. The other employees didn't seem to think this was strange but all the foreigners were quickly making for the exit. I decided to follow suit. I found another place and got the movies there. I'm not entirely decided how I feel about pirated DVDs and pirated software. Copyright laws are really not enforced at all. In one mall, we saw DVD sellers standing in front of a sign that says don't buy copied DVDs. Kind of funny. On the one hand it gives people in these countries a job. On the other hand people in Thailand are deathly afraid of having their painted artwork copied and sold in other countries. I know its technically stealing, but having studied filmmaking I know from firsthand experience that if a scene calls for 6 ornate candle holders, the art director will just buy one and then make a mold to fake the rest of them. I don't know if that's any
Batu Cave
Kuala Lumpur different from copying DVDs. Is it fair to charge hundreds of dollars for the next version of Windows if they haven't even fixed all the bugs yet? It's very easy to rationalize. Is it the nature of the universe to steal when you think you won't get caught and only talk about morality when you're being stolen from? I don't know. No matter how you feel about it, the quality usually sucks. It's very grainy and you can see people walking around the movie theater or coughing. I saw the new “X-men” movie and the visual-fx weren't even finished. Wolverine would go to jump off something and suddenly he was on wires in front of a green screen. If I really like the movie I'll buy a real copy when I get home.
Thai visa in hand, we made our way to the Cameron Highlands, full of tea plantations, the worlds biggest flower, (which smells like rotting meat apparently) hikes to waterfalls, bug farms, and the best tasting strawberries we've ever had. The tea too was incredible, best we have ever tasted and after spending 3 months in tea drinking places (Ireland, England, and the Middle East) that is
really saying something. It was also a great break from all the heat and humidity and I got to pet a scorpion.
Jumping in a small van we nicknamed the “Vomit Comet” we made our way to Taman Negara, a small nothing of a town in the middle of the jungle. Here we went on long walks through the jungle looking for suspension bridges, looking for exotic plants, smacking telephone trees that produce a loud thunk which can be heard over many miles and used to communicate between villages, walking to bat caves, and avoiding blood-thirsty leaches. Every time we get stuck in a big city we crave getting away and doing untouristy things. Then we come somewhere like this where we go on crazy hikes that make us sweat through our wallets, and we kinda crave showers again.
Last stop was the Perinthian Islands, an out of the way place with amazing snorkeling. We stayed in wooden shack with 3 ft lizards that would leave fish heads on our doorstep where we had to fight yellow tree frogs for the right to use the toilet and dodged bats on our porch. Just your typical vacation spot really.
There we took a full day snorkeling trip, seeing 6 foot reef sharks, turtles as big as Volkswagens, and tons of clown fish. “I found Nemo!” Every time we swam up to a sea anemone the clown fish would swim out and encircle our hands just to check us out. Very cool. We finished the day off by jumping off a 20 meter light house.
All in all Malaysia isn't a bad country. We would have probably enjoyed it more had it not been Ramadan. A lot of people tell us that the Malaysian part of Borneo is really interesting, but that would have to wait for another trip. Why are things that are more authentic and interesting so hard to get to? Seems unfair really.
Next stop: Southern Thailand 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱 😱
***TIPS FOR TRAVELERS***
If you want to see the Petronas Tower Sky Bridge get there early, like 7 am. It's free admission but they only give out 200 tickets a day and they go FAST! Also they are closed on Mondays.
If you are planning to go to both Taman Negara and the Cameron Highlands we suggest you go to Taman Negara first. It seems to be cheaper to get to the Cameron highlands from Taman Negara than vice versa.
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David Martinez
non-member comment
Amazing!
Beautiful pictures! I would love to go to travel through Asia someday! I hope you are doing well on your adventures.