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Published: August 7th 2007
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After leaving Taman Negara and embarking for another seven hour trip (two hours by boat, then half an hour by a minivan, a lunch break in Jerantut and four more hours by bus) to Kuala Lumpur I promised myself that I could get whatever I wanted in the capital city to make me happy after too big a portion of nature. Starbucks, massage, western food... Funnily enough, as soon as I got rid of my smelly and bloody (from leeches) clothes, had found a safe place to stay and walked to Chinatown I started to feel much better. The vibrant Chinatown, beautiful Colonial Quarter and some North Indian food were my program for the first night. What a welcome change the tandoori chicken and naan bread made to my diet. I must say that variety in the rice/noodle dishes in Taman Negara wasn't quite sufficient and I like the Malay food less and less every day.
On the second day I checked the places around Merdeka Square (the spot where Malaysia was declared independent exactly 50 years ago this August) including the National Museum of History. It was good to get a better insight into the country's history. The area
(then called Malay-Indonesian world including in addition to the named countries Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines) was first dominated by the Hindu and Buddish cultures that were imported by the Indians. Then the Arabs brought the Islam in the 10th century and converted most of the Malay World into it. At the same time the Malay-Indonesian Empire was broken up into many smaller sultanates, the most important of which was the Melaka. The Portuguese started the European invasion to the region and conquered Melaka in 1511 making it their colony. They lost it for the Dutch, however, in 1641. In the 18th century the British made an arrival by establishing bases at Penang and Singapore. They made an agreement with the Dutch, called the Anglo-Dutch treaty, in 1824: Malaya went to the British, what we call Indonesia today to the Dutch.
In the World War II the country was occupied by the Japanese. Very traumatic time for Malays, who suffered greatly of the cruelties of the Japanese. This triggered national feelings in the Malays and started the process of the country becoming independent from the British colonialism. On the other hand, the Chinese, who feared the Malay and Islamic
Dayabumi Complex
Islamic tradition combined with modern architecture domination, turned in large numbers to the Malayan Communist Party. Called the Malayan Emergency (although it really was a war), it took 12 years (1948 - 1960) from the British and Malay Federation to lift the threat of the Communist Guerillas.
So that's enough about the history. Anyway, it's not good to see that the Malays form only a half of the 25 million population and indigenous people (such as Orang Asli) not more than 11 %. The Chinese and Indians (who were brought into the country by the British to meet the needs of the colonial economy) dominate economic life, even if the Malays control the political power. Then, it's said that Malays are lazier than the other ethnic groups and have only themselves to blame. It's so difficult to find the real truth as everybody you talk to seem to have a different view. Chinese (as high tax payers) think that social security is too high, some Malays have said to me it doesn't exist...
Then came the turn to see the new face of Malaysia: The New Centre of KL is all about huge shopping malls and skyscraper - improved economy and shopping opportunities. The
Jamek Mosque
KL is one city where you can hear the prayer call from the nearby mosque to be mixed with disco music from the bar next door. Petronas Twin Towers, one of the tallest buildings in the world is the headquarters of the national oil company and a symbol of the new Malaysia. The architecture is striking, that can't be denied. In addition to the downstairs up market shopping mall and the concert hall you can visit the bridge linking the two towers. Though free it's an exhaustive process: you need to be there early in the morning to queue for the tickets, then back later on the day, at the allocated time, for the actual viewing. And the sights are not that amazing as the bridge connects the towers not higher than in the 41st and 42nd floors. There was a much better, actually fantastic, view from Menara KL Telecommunications tower. The weather happened to be bright and I could see the whole city from the 421-metre-high tower.
Lots of time was lost, however, in the numerous malls. Even if I couldn't buy many things I still found it fun to wander around in them - perhaps because it was something I haven't done during the whole trip. I've seen lots of markets and occasional department store, yes, but nothing like these huge complexes, one
Petronas Twin Towers
Seen from another high building, Menara KL communications tower. after another. Probably if I HAD the need and space in my backpack I'd found the malls overwhelming. Now, as said, it was a good change in agenda.
This is not to say that there weren’t any traditional markets in KL. I even visited a few: Chow Kit, the largest day market in the city and a smaller one in the nearby Little India. I wonder if they still exist in 30 years time or has the younger generation abandoned the old markets and do all their shopping in the malls. Probably the food markets will survive as you still can't see too many supermarkets here.
Even if I had four nights in KL I still didn't have time to do everything I wanted. Most disappointingly I missed the Batu Caves and Orang Asli Museum, which are both located outside the city. Ever since Taman Negara I've been fascinated by the Orang Asli people and would have liked to learn more about their life. Well, another time (if I need to make a stop over on my way to somewhere else - I can't see myself coming back to Malaysia otherwise).
So I continued my trip south
Monorail
I prefer the metro that runs overground rather than underground. to Melaka (previously Malacca). There the history I had learnt in the National Museum somehow became more concrete. After all it is the place where it has mostly taken place and luckily there were some buildings left to tell the story. The town was founded in the late 14th century by a Sumatran prince. During the next century it grew into a booming international trading post, which wasn't left unnoticed first by the Portuguese, then by the Dutch and British, as I described earlier. The Portuguese influence is dated so long back that there is only one, nearly ruined gate left from them in the centre of the town and a ruin of the Church on the St Paul's hill. The Dutch left much more relics, however. There is a whole square filled with the buildings they built: Stadthuys and Church being the most important. For some reason all the buildings have been painted with the same red paint so they have lost their original features. Makes it look pretty united and idyllic though.
The British left mainly graves. There are numerous tombstones, in the graveyards and on the walls of the churches. It sadly looks like lots of
people died in young age, particularly women on their child beds and sometimes whole families were swept away by diseases. This is nothing new of course, or different to other places in the world at the same time, but they just left quite impressive tombstones with touching writings in them.
Melaka's Chinatown is the prettiest one I've seen. There used to be a wealthy community of Chinese living in Melaka, steam and rubber merchants amongst others, and they have built very nicely detailed houses. Some of these inhabitants were Baba-Nonyas, descendants of the Chinese pioneers who married Malay women. These people tend to be very rich having fantastically big town houses decorated with the best materials imported from China, Italy and England. Some of them have converted as museums and I visited one. The Baba-Nonyas created their own culture and cuisine incorporating Chinese and Malay customs. Many of them were sent to be educated in Britain and that's how they knew to have all the latest European gadgets in their houses.
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