Mercy Dash To Malaysia

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September 27th 2012

Published: November 4th 2012

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Delek Delek

Petronas Twin Towers

Arguably KL's most famous landmark.

Unlike most places that I visit these days, Malaysia is a place I am very familiar with. So familiar in fact, that initially I wasn't even going to write about it.
My parents both grew up in Malaysia so as a kid, I used to come here all the time on joyous trips to visit my extended family of grandparents, uncles, aunties, and cousins.
Unfortunately, the reason for my visit this time around was for a reason more solemn.

My grandfather has been battling cancer for the most part of this year but in August, his health had suffered a sudden decline. I had been hoping to come this way for Christmas to see my grandfather one last time but the state of his health had forced me to unexpectedly rearrange my plans. I booked my flights and made all the arrangements a mere three weeks before I was due to fly out.

It was too late. My grandfather passed away about a week and a half before I arrived.

The last time I saw my grandfather was seven years ago, on his 80th birthday. I will always remember him as a proud, loving and generous man. Whenever

Putra Mosque

The new national mosque in Putrajaya.

my father told him about any of my achievements at school, a smile would beam across his face. He used to be a schoolteacher and a volleyball coach and my dad would always tell me how strict he was with him. But he was never like that with me. He had a way with kids and he would always buy me gifts, chocolate and ice-cream.
He couldn't really speak English and I spoke minimal Mandarin so I never really got to know him that well, but I will always have happy memories of him.

This would be a holiday completely different to what you would usually read about in this blog.
No hostels, no drinking, no parties until the early hours, no sightseeing tours.
Instead, it was five days of eating, meeting family and family friends, eating, being ferried around everywhere by my uncles and aunties, eating, not being allowed to pay for anything, eating, staying in the suburbs, and eating.
My trip here was was also a chance to catch up with my father for the first time in a year, and spend some quality time with him.

My trip here was also a chance to gorge

Nasi Kerabu

A Kelantanese dish from northern Malaysia, where my mum grew up. The rice is coloured blue by a natural and delicious plant extract found in the forests up there.

myself on what is in my opinion, the best food in the world.
Whether it is the local Malay, Chinese, Indian, or a fusion of all three foods, there is just nothing like the food you get here. From old favourites such as nasi lemak (dry curry with coconut rice), roti chanai (greasy naan-like bread with curry sauce usually eaten for breakfast - yes, curry for breakfast), satay sticks, and goreng pisang (deep fried bananas), to regional specialties like nasi dagang (curry chicken on brown ginger rice) and nasi kerabu; from the delicious drinks such as teh tarik (sweet milk tea), and fresh fruit juices and coconuts, to the unique desserts and exotic fruits such as ice kachang (sweetcorn, sweet beans, grass jelly and rose syrup served on shaved ice), cendol (similar to ice kachang but with brown sugar syrup, grass jelly and a bright green jellydough thing cut into tiny strips), jackfruit, longan, rambutan, starfruit and dragonfruit, there is nowhere better to be adventurous and treat your taste buds than Malaysia.
The best meal I had was probably a Chinese lunch where the highlight was a sweet, Chinese-style roasted pork knuckle that went beautifully with an unusual but scrumptious

Sultan Abdul Samad Building

This building was actually designed by a British architect using Moorish architectural styles.

sweet mustard-like sauce.
Due to the ethnic diversity in Malaysia, a lot of the food and dishes here are cross-pollinated and wonderfully inventive - which means I always end up eating something I haven't had before every time I come to Malaysia, with mouthwatering results.
Funnily enough, the most famous food in Malaysia is one I detest - durian. Inside it's spiky, coconut-sized shell are avocado-like seeds with flesh on the outside. It's like Marmite in the sense that you either love it or hate it - personally I don't see the pleasure in eating something that smells like sulphur (to the point that my Uncle Alex refuses to transport it in his car as it leaves such a lasting impression) and tastes like a combination of rotten eggs and raw onions.
Anyway to say I was well-fed would be an understatement - I simply wasn't allowed to be hungry.

The only thing that stopped me from eating more was the heat. The first couple of days when my body was acclimatising to the heat and the time difference, were killer. I felt like a white guy in Asia for the first time, after going from a dry-ish fifteen

Petaling Street

Famous for its peddling of pirated goods.

degrees in London, to thirty degrees and 90% humidity here.
As well as acclimatising to the heat, you also have to acclimatise your stomach to food that you don't normally eat. In terms of both weather and food, things are a lot hotter in these parts.
I normally love to walk around when I am on holiday and really explore the places that I am in - but it is so hot here and the air is so heavy and oppressive that I just don't fancy it. You're sweating after just five minutes of walking outside and you're begging for air-conditioning.

Which is a good thing that there are so many shopping malls in KL. There is a slew of them downtown that are even connected by an air-conditioned walkway.
Shopping is big in KL and I wouldn't be surprised if there were more shopping malls per square kilometre here than anywhere else on Earth. The malls are stupendously large too and you can easily spend a whole day just exploring one of them. The newer ones are pretty flash too. Not long before I arrived, the first H&M in Malaysia had just opened and there were still queue

Pavilion Mall

The atrium of one of the new flashy malls that has recently been built in central KL.

ropes outside it when I walked past.
However, the best shopping experience I had was in the famous Petaling Street market, fine purveyors of pirated goods. Chief among said pirated goods are replica watches - where you can buy Rolexes, Tag Heuers, Longines and Breitlings for a small fraction of the price. Sure they'll stop working after a couple of months but hey, you can buy a new one every month and still never spend as much as you would for one of the real things.
It's big business - the fakes look pretty real, and there are apparently massive factories in Asia that produce these things.

It's big business because the whole thing centres around prestige and the image of success, which is so important to people in Asia. Pride seems to be an important thing to the Malaysian government as well, and nowhere is this better reflected than in the planned administrative monstrosity that is Putrajaya.
Opened in 2001, Putrajaya serves as the administrative centre of Malaysia and is where all of the government department buildings are now located. Truckloads of money was thrown at this "supercity", and it is quite a sight.
The main landmark here

Perdana Putra

While most head of states usually have one room in a building as their office, Malaysia's decided to have an entire palace.

is the Putra Mosque, standing imposingly over a man-made lake over which also lies the Seri Wawasan Bridge. Right next the Putra Mosque is the rather plush Perdana Putra, the prime minister's office. Gardens cover acres and acres of the land here, and is all kept in mint condition by gardeners working the grounds every day.
While quite a sight, you do wonder whether the money could have been better spent. Case in point is the national car scheme that my Uncle Alex was telling me about.
Most of the cars that you see on Malaysian roads are Protons - cars lambasted by Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear. Proton was set up by the Malaysian government in 1983 and with the help of protectionist government policies, quickly became the market leader in Malaysian car market. Although now privately owned, Proton still benefits from government excise duty rebates that keeps its cars competitive in the market.
Now if you've ever experienced KL traffic you will know that no-one really obeys traffic laws or looks out for anyone else on the road. You'll also know that the traffic jams are horrendous and that the city could really do with a decent public

Putrajaya Lake

Man-made lake in the planned government city whose construction started in 1995.

transport system. The roads can't cope with more cars yet the government is still pumping millions into keeping Proton alive, all in the name of misplaced national pride.
Part of it is the government's obsession with completely distancing the country from its colonial past. For a country that was under British rule for a long period of times, there are not a lot of colonial buildings around, and the ones that do remain are neglected. Many old streets and places have had their old English names replaced with Malay ones.

The old is what I came to Malaysia to embrace however. Old places I used to visit, old memories revisited, people I had last seen when I was a kid - people like Jolly Peter Lau and Uncle Jo Chan. Uncle Jo Chan used to study in London funnily enough, and he has told me that he hopes to visit me next year.
As well as old family, I also met some long lost family that I had never met before, people who had re-emerged as a result of my grandfather's death. Going out to dinner with family friends and relatives I didn't even know I had made me

KL Central Market

Once a agricultural 'wet market' the central market is now more of a cultural market with stalls selling local arts, crafts and souvenirs.

feel like a kid again - and because the elders still saw me as a kid and still treated me like one!
I don't mean it in a bad way, because people don't mean to do it and it is definitely part of the culture for the younger ones to be talked down to. Like when I am introduced by my dad to a family friend I've not met before and the family friend then starts asking my dad questions about me, even though I am right there! It's just so different to what I am used to now, but reminds me of my childhood trips to see relatives in Malaysia.
It was a shame that I couldn't see my grandfather one last time, but it was another timely reminder of our own mortality and the importance of family - a big thanks to my Aunty Cheng, Aunty Josephine, Uncle Wooi Ping, and Uncle Alex for looking after me while I was in KL.
Most importantly, a big thanks to my dad for well, just being my dad.

Friends of course, are important too, and after looking back for while, it was now time to look forward again. Which

Central KL

More flashy stuff outside the Pavilion Mall.

is why my next destination while I am down in this part of the world is Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where an old friend and old regular on these pages now resides. I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of you will be familiar with the name Gkee.

Selamat Tinggal,
Derek

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