Advertisement
Published: December 9th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Greetings!
We are currently lapping up the sun and green curry in far removed, far southern Thailand, following a nine day trip through the bustling cities and bucolic highlands of peninsular Malaysia.
First up: Kuala Lampur, whose reputation as a sprawling metropolis we confirmed early on, during the hour it took us to drive four miles from the bus station to our hotel. Once we arrived, however, it was easy to get our bearings because downtown KL is dominated by the massively spectacular 88 story Petronas Twin Towers. Lured like mosquitoes to Anna--more on that next blog--we spent the morning exploring the whole tower complex, including the surrounding park (where we admired the looming towers until our necks hurt); the seven story basement mall (which was apparently designed as some sort of retail Noah's Ark, with two Starbucks, two Nikon outlets, two Pradas etc. etc.); and the mid-point, visitor sky bridge, which we toured for "free" after signing up four hours in advance and surviving a 25 minute video on the awesomeness of the state-run Petronas oil company and its beneficent directors.
After taking in KL's main attractions each day, including the impressive Islamic Art Museum, we sampled
its justifiably renouned international cuisine at night, although we elected to skip one local delicacy--fish head curry--after a well-meaning gourmand answered our question about how to eat it by explaining that "the best part is the jelly that forms behind the gills." We also managed to take in KL's Saturday night club scene; impressing ourselves with our ability to stay up past 10 o'clock. Heading out, we told our cabby to take us to the most popular dance place in town. After confirming our marital status, he explained it would be a bit of a drive, since the clubs near the tourist areas are geared towards groups of vacationing Middle Eastern men and the eastern block, Thai, and Malaysian prostitutes who cater to them. "Go long," we agreed, before chatting him up about the pedagogical irony of a Muslim country that tolerates sex tourism from Arab nations, but whose National Fatwa Council had that same day (literally) issued a fatwa banning Muslims from practicing Yoga for the stated reason that it is the first step on a slippery slope towards polytheism. ~ Arriving at the club we quickly got our swerve on; it was a fun time, and fabulous people
watching. Two points stood out from our quick case study of the twenty-something Malay crowd: (1) they had obviously not spent their college years upping their tolerance to alcohol, as exemplified by the retching that was audible over the music near the bathrooms; and (2) while they knew the words to the American hip-hop being played, they certainly did not know the moves, to the extent that Jub's infamous karate-chop shuffle would likely have placed in the event of an impromptu dance contest.
From KL, we headed four hours north and two thousand feet up to the cool, moist (yeah, I said it) Malaysian breadbasket known as the Cameron Highlands. Once there, we dug our jeans out of the bottoms of our bags and spent a day hiking through the outskirts of the area's beautifully terraced farmland. The following day, we toured a few of the farms we had skirted around, including Malaysia's largest and perhaps most photogenic tea plantation, a huge hydroponic strawberry operation (oh the things Portlanders could learn here), and a nursery with more bizarre tropical flowers than we could admire in the hour we were there. We initially regretted having only two days in the
highlands. We were happy to board the bus to Penang, however, after realizing that our encounter with a gang of faux sword- and gun-wielding toddlers in the hotel lobby that morning was not a random event, but the result of our arrival at one of Malaysia's most popular family holiday destinations on the first day of a public school holiday.
Penang (a.k.a Georgetown) is located in far northern Malaysia, was named an UNESCO world heritage city earlier this year, and is a former colonial trading outpost that now has a majority Chinese population. We witnessed both the pros and cons of this cultural shoulder-rubbing on our first night in town. The pro came at dinner in the open-air night market behind our hotel where we ate Japanese food while watching a dozen impeccably dressed (think sequins) Chinese couples ballroom dance to a band playing American top-40 music. The con came during our later cab ride when our Malay driver explained that the people we saw living in a large swath of crumbiling, derelict stilt houses were recent Chinese immigrants who were actually all extremely rich businessmen who liked to use the stilt houses as second homes when not staying
National Mosque
As seen from inside the Islamic Arts Museum, KL at their plush new condos in the suburbs. Overall though, we found Penang to be an authentic, middle-sized break from the glitz and beaten-path feel of Singapore and KL. One obvious difference was Penang's Chinatown and Little India, where the street scenes were actually dominated by Chinese and Indians rather than tourists. To wit: we ducked into a video store in Penang's Little India as part of our on-going quest to find a DVD copy of David Lynch's masterpiece "Dune" (we both finished the book in Indonesia); unlike countless previous stores selling pirated American movies to tourists, however, this one was only selling Bollywood hits, which were being perused by woman in Saris, one of whom was convinced that we were looking for 2004's smash hit "Dhoom," and was disappointed to learn otherwise.
Our last night before busing to Thailand was Thanksgiving, and we had a huge, albeit non-traditional feast at the oldest hotel in town, the swanky (as in a white-tie wedding reception was getting underway), colonially-rooted (as in the doormen all wear safari outfits and pith helmets) Eastern & Oriental Hotel, where we tried our best to make the Pilgrims proud with multiple trips to the buffet's
Jub & Snake
Fort Cornwallis, Penang seafood grill, curry station, cheese trays, sushi platters, and dessert bar. On our way out, we were elated to spot a pumpkin pie that had just been set out, and doubly so when we saw we could eat our perfectly-nutmegged pieces in front of the Christmas tree that the staff had just finished decorating.
We are beaching it for another week before heading to Northern Thailand, with plans to be in Bangkok for Christmas, provided everyone is playing nice by then. Stay tuned!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.063s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 7; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0375s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Kathy Sortun
non-member comment
HUH?
I'd worry more about the GERMS ON the hooka than the tobacco or whatever was IN that hooka! :) GORGEOUS FLOWERS! Love your blogs, and both of you. MA/Kathy