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Published: November 28th 2006
It feels like a country in transition, but from what and to what?
It's been hard to make sense of Malaysia. Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and China all have distinct personalities, but not so Malaysia. Perhaps it's the multi-ethnic nature of the place where people of Indian, Chinese and Malay heritage all mix in what seems about equal numbers. Maybe it's the fact that it's a Muslim country but with such a strong presence of the Hindu and Christian faiths. Maybe it's because it's only been independent from the UK for 50 years. But in re-reading this it seems that this sort of mix ought to make for a country with loads of character. Or maybe the opposite is true. Maybe this mix means that everything operates at the lowest common denominator so as not to offend anyone.
Another factor that seems to affect our perception of the 'personality' or otherwise of this place is that it is the most westernised of all the Asian countries we've been to. It's full of malls, and Starbucks, and large cement buildings. It has fully embraced industrialisation, and the high rise building. Everywhere we went in Georgetown and Kuala Lumpur and even little
Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands, there is a huge amount of building work. And a lot of it is very high rise. We are told that a lot of it is happening to stimulate the economy, and that there is a bit oversupply of property. Which might explain why there doesn't seem much thought given to the sensitivity of the area in which the building work is occurring. We really noticed this in Georgetown which still has the feel of a large provincial, post colonial town, where lovely early 20th century houses on good sized sections live next door to thirty storey apartment blocks. The sad thing is that most of it lacks character or any sense of it being designed to make the area an attractive or liveable environment. So those things that make us as tourists want to go somewhere, are being crowded out by all the sorts of things we can get at home, and are trying to escape. Not that we begrudge Malaysia its desire to develop, it's just sad it's not happening with a little more forethought.
Curry
A - One of the best things about Malaysia has been the presence of
lots of Indian food. Which is to say, that Daren has had the opportunity to eat loads of curry. We had great curry in Georgetown and several good curries in Tanah Rata. And they are so cheap. For around GBP1 you can get a bamboo leaf, literally covered in food - rice, a curry, three sides, a pappadom, samosa and yoghurt. Plus a drink. So Daren was in seventh heaven. Even happier than I was being able to eat Thai green curry or Pad Thai for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Crossing the border to Georgetown (Penang Island)
The prospect of leaving Railay saw us with heavy hearts and a reluctance to depart. We had set a route which took us down the West coast of Malaysia, via Georgetown and the Cameron Highlands. We were warned off travelling down the east coast due to the current unrest and recent spate of indiscriminate terrorist bombings in the south-east of Thailand (5 bombs in 12 days). This area has been a hotspot for years but it's not an area we hear about. We only learnt of it when we checked the FCO website to get an update on the status of
the coup.
An early start saw us long tail (boat) it back to civilisation (roads, non-satellite internet) then on to a mini-van for the 8 hour trip across the border. At the border, we were sheparded from the van to the kiosks, where, seeing 11 white faces approach, the guards promptly closed up shop and waved us away. Odd, we thought, as the signs said that the border is open until 11pm and it was only 6pm. It was only after a brief discussion with our driver that we were informed that we had to pay 10 baht (GBP1.30) each for 'overtime'. Oh well, we'd managed to get this far without having to bribe. But it still rankled.
Off to Malaysia, where, on the request of the shipping company, dual nationality Abbie 'switched' passport from British to Kiwi, to smooth our passage to Australia. No such luck, as the Malaysian border control couldn't find her exit stamp for Thailand. 'Oh, I have two passports' was met with furrowed brow and much muttering as a higher rank official was summoned. It took some time to explain to him that it is possible to be the citizen of two countries.
Reclining Buddha, Georgetown
These were all over Asia, but this 'cartoonised' one is the only reclining buddha we saw.Even so, three steps of officiality later and no luck. Abbie was going to have to be British in Malaysia.
We arrived well after dark, right into the heart of Chinatown. How normal it now seems, arriving in a strange town, 9.30 at night with no booking or reservation, not knowing a single word of the local language and trying to find somewhere to sleep.
Georgetown - a small town that's reaching for the sky
We can't quite remember why we decided to visit Georgetown - possibly because it was within a day's striking distance of Thailand. It is a post colonial town, set up in the 18th century while the British Empire was still spreading its wings. As a result, there is some interesting Victorian architecture that has been adapted to the local climate, with features like large air vents, windows with shutters and courtyards the norm. The Cathay Hotel where we stayed was a fabulous example of this type of architecture and centrally located near Chinatown and Little India. Which was handy when it came to food!
It was very warm here, but we made the effort to visit a few sights. One
highlight was visiting the blue mansion, previously home to Chueng Fatt Tze, a Chinese entreprenuer from the turn of the twentieth century. We were given a comprehensive and enlightening tour of the house and its history, and an unexpected summary of all the elements of feng shui, which is apparently responsible for many of the idiosyncracies of the house.
We have learnt while we have been travelling to shop around. For everything. Not just to get the best price, but to get an idea of what is available. So when we decided to do a Penang Island tour advertised at our hotel, on the spur of the moment, we were probably destined to learn the lesson again. The itinerary looked great. What a pity our driver/tour guide decided to deviate from it so completely. It felt like an exercise in herded shopping. Pewter and Batik (cloth painting) shops alternated with temples. We probably don't need to say much about the pewter and batik, other than that at each stop we got a two second demonstration before the 15 minute sales pitch. We succumbed in the Batik factory.
The temples were interesting only in so far as the Burmese
Big red flower tree, Georgetown
Didn't catch the real name of it. temple had the tallest Buddha in Georgetown, and the Malaysian the largest reclining Buddha in Malaysia. I'm not sure what it is about big Buddha's, but there seems to be a lot of competition to have the biggest one. We also visited the snake temple. This is a temple where venomous pit vipers live, free to roam around and eat the goodies (mainly eggs) left as offerings. It might have been interesting if there had been the slightest hint of danger, but the snakes just sat around like wasted stoners not even moving. Apparently all the incense keeps them doped up.
And so on to the best part of the tour, which was to be the trip around the island with its hilly, jungly interior and beautiful sandy beaches. Except that our driver/tour guide seemed determined to break the record for the slowest journey around the island. Without stopping. It was only when the lovely Sri Lankan girl sharing the tour with us asked firmly to stop at the beach that we were released to have a romp around in the sand, before being ferried sullenly back to our hotels. At least we had curry to make up for
it!!
Cameron Highlands - Scotland revisited
Maybe the sense of weirdness we felt in Malaysia was partly as a result of the Cameron Highlands. We arrived here and it felt kind of familiar. It was definitely cooler than at sea level. It was hilly. And it had the sorts of awful 1970s shops that you might find in small out of the way places in Scotland (or indeed New Zealand). It had large areas of forest (admittedly jungle isn't that common in Scotland) and lots of turn of the century, British style architecture. But it was full of curry houses and Malaysians.
We did a bit of jungle walking while trying to avoid snakes and spiders. And we did another tour (we did some shopping around this time). We loved the tea plantation. It's like visiting a wine region, but hillier and with more haphazard planting. And walking through the mossy jungle at 2000 metres was pretty cool, and incredibly muddy. We ate a lot of curry.
Kuala Lumpur - time to shop
We visited here in Feburary on our way through to New Zealand, so haven't felt an urgent need to do any touristy
stuff. It's been all admin and shopping. And trying to avoid the torrential afternoon showers.
Where to Next?
Today is Tuesday 28th November. Tomorrow sees an early start for us, jumping on the train to port Klang to intercept our container ship. This is scheduled to depart at 2am on Thursday (hopefully), arriving (hopefully) in Perth, Australia on 5th December. Hopefully. Things have been a little haphazard in arranging this.
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Andrea Sheridan
non-member comment
Wow. Lots of love. So is it a baby conceived in OZ for the next headliner?