Malaysia

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On my free day in Singapore I had the opportunity to go to Malaysia. The original plan was to spend a couple of days in Singapore and a couple of days in Malaysia but that tour ran out of room so we booked for Singapore only. Once we got there the guide said that enough people were interested we could to a day trip to Malaysia which is about 30 minutes from Singapore. I decided that I wanted to get on that band wagon and was so very happy that I did. I have to also admit that I wanted another stamp on my passport.

Although it took a lot just to cross the broader, we did not need a visa but to officially depart from Singapore through immigration and then enter Malaysia through immigration. Fortunately there wasn’t a lot of people so the wait wasn’t too long.

I really enjoyed Malaysia because it was so different from Singapore, Malaysia’s population (about 60%) is Muslim. It was very strange to see the female airport officially wearing head coverings. I wanted to take a picture of the immigration officer but that is not allowed. It really felt as if I was in the middle East, the majority of the writings are in Arabic. Malaysia also have a high Indian population that observe the Muslim beliefs.

Our first stop was to a Mosque but non-Muslims are not allowed to enter. It was nice to see the outside and see the bathing fountains where participants must wash their hands and feet before entering.

The second stop was to an authentic Malayan home where they performed traditional Malayan dancing and created beautiful vases, drinking cups from either pewter or silver. We got to see the craftsman created many of the product available for purchase. It was nice to know that I purchase something that actually came from Malaysia and not something made from China, as is many things in Vietnam.

Because Malaysia is majority Muslim, pork is not a meat that they provide. Most restaurant is Halu, which means free of all pork product. We didn’t get to eat Malay food for lunch, it was Chinese which wasn’t all that great.

In Malaysia they have a Sultan and a Prime Minister, kind of like England. We visited a place of the Sultan (who currently has 2 wives and six children) that he no longer occupies and was surprised by it’s architecture, it was colonial inspired with a Japanese blue tiled roof. Although the land surrounding the palace and it’s out building is used as a park. The palace and it’s out buildings are for the use of the royal family only. The Sultan has very little political power but is still seen as the figure head of Malaysia. The only thing that he really does now is commute and death sentence to a life sentence. Capital punishment is practiced here by hanging only.

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