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Perhentian Islands
Paradise Island:Pulau Perhentian BesarAnother country, another world. Up to now I spent my travels in mostly Buddhist countries but in Malaysia the majority religion is Islam. The difference is visible as soon as the border is crossed. The female officials were all wearing headscarves. In Brussels, I was used to see girls wearing headscarves. But here it's a bit different. A lot of them wear 'sexy' (high heels, tight jeans and shirts) western clothes and a lot of make up combined with the scarf. Others are wearing 'heavy metal' (Slipknot) t shirts and ripped jeans combined with their scarf... strange... They are not shy at all and came to talk to me several times. Another thing that struck me was that I realised that I hardly ever saw a Muslim girl with scarf drive a car in Belgium. It's always the husband, brother or father driving. Here cars full of Muslim girls raced by me on the street honking the horn and waving at me... very strange!
It is a fact that Islam in Malaysia has been pretty moderate. Unfortunately Muslim extremism has grown here also. Several Malaysians were involved in Jemaah Islamiah, the organisation behind the Bali bombings. Some drastic measures (Security
acts) have been taken by the government but the question remains whether this will solve the problem. Moreover the ' Muslim terrorism threat' has also been used to crack down on opposition in general. Sounds familiar?
Until the South East Asian monetary crisis of 97 Malaysia had done great. After becoming independent Malaysia was turned into an industrial country, poverty fell from 49 to 15 pct and a lot of foreign investment was attracted. An example for other underdeveloped nations, one would think at first sight.
Much of this growth can be attributed to Malaysia's former prime minister: the controversial Dr Mahathir Mohamad. In his 22 years as prime minister he often collided with western politicians and he refused to follow the conventional economical tactics the international organisations (World bank/IMF) prescribed and did it his way. It often worked.
However under his 'reign' he also made sure that the once independent media and the justice system were firmly put under state control.
Things took a turn for the worst after the '97 crisis. Mahathir and his deputy and close friend Anwar Ibrahim had different ideas on how to handle the crisis. Mahathir 'settled' this dispute by having
his 'friend' fired and jailed. The charges of 'corruption and sodomy' were rather dubious to say the least. A storm of protest went through the country. Mahathir eventually resigned in 2003. Lately I have been doing reading his biography and 'The prince' by Machiavelli and I have a feeling these two guys would be able to get along pretty well.
Oh and Malaysia is the only revolving monarchy in the world. There are nine Sultans. Each Sultan takes turns to be the monarch/king for 5 years. Maybe Belgian politicians should look into that and have the royal family members take turns to be king/queen. I would definitely make sure I'm around when it's Laurent's turn. Should be fun.
And I know I've said this for almost every country but it is incredibly hot and humid here (Can't wait to get to the Australian winter). Oh and the mosquitos are huge and they attack all day... bastards!
Perhentian Islands
I had been hanging around beaches for more than two weeks in Thailand and what's the first thing I do in Malaysia? I go to so more Islands.
These islands, the Perhentian Islands are definitely the
Kota bahru
Bird singing competition most beautiful islands, I have seen so far. There's 2 islands, only reached by boat a couple of times / day. There's no roads (or motorbikes), just jungle and beaches. Large, deserted white beaches. And the water, my god the water is so beautiful. Uncountable variations of blue. Made me forget about all the Thai Islands in a split second. To get from one beach to another, you either take a water taxi, swim or do a little jungle trekking. I liked the last best.
But I hadn't come here to lie on my lazy ass. No, I was planning some more diving. The guys convinced me to take the Advanced Open Water course. It was pretty busy but cool. I was studying in the evenings and diving up to 3 times during the day. It didn't all go as smooth as planned: The sea too rough for a night dive on the first night and a missed dive because of problems 'equalising' (diverish for "ouch my ears hurt because I can't take the pressure off").
The marine life out there was very good. Schools of fish in all different colours and sizes. Unfortunately I'm still not able
to identify most of them. However, I found out what a 'triggerfish' looks like and that they can be pretty aggressive...
The night dive was a bit scary, claustrophobic and we didn't see too much marine wildlife, but it was amazing to break the surface in the end and look at a full moon and thousands of stars while drifting in the warm ocean (+/- 30 C). Magic.
Due to the missed dive I basically took off as soon as I redid my deep dive. Boat ride back sure was bumpy; it felt like we were thrown in the air for a couple of meters from time to time.
Kota Bharu
I was planning on checking out some museums in the little town Kota Bharu, but I forgot Malaysia is a Muslim country and so on Friday everything Muslim related is closed. Nice timing Jan!
Instead I checked out the weekly 'bird singing competition'.... exciting huh! Actually it was pretty funny, hundreds of birdcages hung up in a park at the outskirts of town. Judges were walking around to mark the singing of the birds and give scores. Which objective methods they were using to
decide which bird sings the most beautiful song is still a mystery to me.
Jungle train
Another reason why I had come to Kotha Baru was to catch the jungle train there. This train goes from near the East coast all the way to Singapore through the jungle in the centre of Malaysia.
It's a good way to get off the 'tourist mini bus' trail that exists between the main attractions in Malaysia and to meet some of the locals.
My destination was Taman Negara, a tropical rainforest national park right in the centre of the country. Got up at 5 am to catch the 6 am train. There were a couple of other foreign travellers but most of the passengers were locals. I had a really interesting 'conversation' with the lady next to me. I took a picture of the people on the train and when she saw herself on my camera she got really excited and started talking to me in Malay. Malay may be one of the easiest languages in the world and it uses some Dutch words, but I had no clue what she was trying to tell me. She went one
forever while I tried to explain her that I did not understand what she said.
Another cool thing about this train was that I got to do all these things you are not allowed to do back home. Like hanging out the door to take pictures while the train is going at full speed : )
Taman Negara
Taman Negara is a national park right in the middle of the country. It is supposed to be the oldest tropical rainforest in the world. It has never been affected by ice ages, earthquakes, volcanic eruption, etc. The park used to be good for wildlife viewing (tigers, panthers, elephant, rhino, etc) but due to tourism all these animals have been pushed deep into the jungle. These days you are 'lucky' if you can spot some lizards or snakes. Some animals you won't have any trouble (unfortunately) spotting however are the leeches (bloedzuigers) yuk!. If it's been raining they are out en masse, looking for blood. The evening that
I arrived it was pouring down...
The next day I set off for my first jungle walk to the Canopy walk. As you can see in the
taman negara
Yes it's very hot in the jungle, even when you're in the tree tops, 25 m above the ground. pictures this is a circuit of suspended bridges in the tree tops +/- 25m above the ground. Nice to give the massive trees some closer inspection and nice views over the forest.
There I met 2 Americans (Kevin and Jeff) and we decided to go on a walk a bit deeper into the jungle. But first we would put on some anti leech protection. I was wearing 2 pair of socks (sprayed with cockroach spray) and my shoes were given the same treatment plus some tobacco was added. On my skin I had insect repellent and a 'tobacco tea' solution. All these are supposed to keep these creeps away. We pulled up our socks and rolled up our pants and made sure they fit tightly just under our knees (I really didn't want to have any of these creatures climbing up in the area above my knees!!!). My shirt tucked in my pants to avoid the tiger leeches that attack (from the trees) between the waist and the neck. Jeff had 1 kg salt for detaching any leeches that would make it on to our skin. We really looked like 3 total fools (see picture) and a Thai couple that
taman negara
Tree canopy walk we met was having so much fun looking at us... they were wearing sandals ("Oh leeches only like westerners blood"). The first hours were nice. We didn't see any leeches and were discussing Thai politics ( the Thai premier recently resigned after large protests) in the middle of the jungle. I was starting to think that all those leech stories were just sensation. But than we met a group of French people coming from the other side and several of them had bloodstains on their legs, t shirts and in their neck. So they were really out there! Just a matter of time before we would meet them. And 10 minutes later I spotted a first one. We all had been staring at the ground constantly, when I saw a tiny little brown creature coming towards my shoes. I called the others to have a look. When I looked down again 3 had already attached to my shoes and were rapidly moving up. That's when the madness started... Kevin did a hilarious little dance (like cowboys do in movies when some one is shooting a their feet) to shake off some. Jeff got out the salt and threw it at
taman negara
Jungle scene right before we found the first leeches. our feet and we got out of there as soon as we could. 5 minutes later we heard a girl screaming... the Thai girl. She had discovered the leeches too and 5 or 6 were already feeding on her feet, ankles. Her boyfriend sped out of there leaving the hysterical girl behind. Jeff rushed in with the salt and the leeches were taken off...there was blood all over her feet.
Our walking pace went up exponentially and we were now racing through the jungle trying to avoid the leeches. It felt like one of those Vietnam movies: " We are under attack, let's go, let's go", and when someone stopped to flick off some leeches: "Clear the path, I coming through" or "Jeff, bring on the salt!!!". The Thai girl (constantly picking up new little friends) totally lost it and was throwing lots of salt on each leech she saw, while yelling "Die, die you f*ckers !!!"(People who did the same trek later that day told me they were surprised to find salt all over the path).
Despite our race we would not be able to make it unharmed. The leeches were all over the place and they are
taman negara
2 hours later at the end of the walk; posing in my 'anti leech'/'lederhosen guy wannabe' outfit. Don't I look cool? That's a bag with salt I'm holding. so small that they can easily make their way through your socks. Soon I noticed that some had gotten into my shoes and through my first layer of defence (socks). Kevin got some on his legs and curiously this calmed us down and we actually ended the walk at a normal pace again, accepting our fate as blood donors.
I went to my hotel expecting to find some leeches on my feet. But when I took off my socks and shoes I found 4-5 dead leeches in there but none of them had managed to suck my blood. Seems like the cockroach spray/ tobacco did the job anyway. Other people might say it didn't have to do with that at all...
Anyway looking back at it afterwards we all had a laugh and everybody had good stories to tell. I also met a cool Belgian couple and we had an 'after leech experience' (they had also met the little creatures) and Easter dinner. Because there were no chocolates available I ordered a huge banana/chocolate milk shake for dessert and it was great.
That night it didn't rain and on my early morning walk the next day I didn't meet
taman negara
But we didn't only see leeches... any leeches. I had enough of the jungle anyway and I took a jungle boat back to civilisation.
That night I met Eban again. Eban is a crazy Spanish guy (oops Bask I should say) who I met 2 months ago in Hanoi Vietnam. He's been travelling for 8 years now. Each year he goes home to Spain from May to September and works 2 jobs for 4 months and than goes travelling for 8 months. Amazing!
Cameron Highlands
After 2 days of rainforest trekking I moved over to the Cameron Highlands for more trekking... a really active period indeed. The Cameron Highlands are at +/- 1500 m which means: no leeches and a more humane climate (20 C). It was good to get a break from the heat as i was getting seriously over heated. I had hardly slept 5 hours the last couple of nights.
Kevin joined me over there and the next day we went climbing some mountain. My guidebook said it would be a 'day hike' but after 2 hrs we were standing on the top. We did 2 more "day hikes" before getting back to the hotel at 3
Cameron high
After 2 hours at the end of our "day walk" pm where most of the other people were laying in the sofas watching movies. It was great to catch a movie ('Sin City': finally!) after the exercise.
Kevin left the next day and I decided to do an "easy walk" (cf Lonely Planet) and maybe continue to a tea plantation "45 minutes further on". The "easy walk" turned out to be a very narrow, slippery path with lots of landslides. I somehow made it and decided I wanted to see the tea plantation that was a '45 minutes walk' away. Sure 45 minutes to the entrance of the plantation. What the guide book didn't say was that the plantation is basically a whole valley and it took me another hour to get to the visitor centre/factory.
As some of you may know I really love tea. So the walk was definitely worth it. Got to check out the plantations and the factory and saw a movie on the production of tea and some very interesting tips on how to make and serve tea. I tried the delicious new 'Teacino' Caramel and started to walk back. After 1 km some nice Dutch people gave me a ride back to town... just
Cameron high
A lot of English style buildings remain in this former British hill station. in time for the afternoon movie.
Kuala Lumpur
The bus down from the highlands was another adventure. The drivers here are really speeding downhill, cutting off blind corners only depending on the horn to warn drivers in the other direction. When there's 2 horns at the same time there's trouble. And of course there was trouble...our bus managed to avoid a collision with a truck at the last moment. The truck lost a rear view mirror but no big damage. After that the driver calmed down a little.
Getting off the bus in KL (as everyone calls it here) was hell. The heat and humidity that wasn't there in the mountains just fell on me and I had to run for the cover of the nearest budget guesthouse I could find.
I spent the whole Friday afternoon racing through town, trying to change the date of my flights. I was sent from here to there and back; while the sun was pounding on my head without mercy... eventually I found out where to go and rushed over there. I arrived sweating like a pig to find out they had just closed and would only
Cameron high
Tea plantation. Tea plants as far as the eye reaches. open again on Monday... great!
The next morning I got up early to get tickets for the Petronas towers. These towers, once the biggest building in the world ( believe there's a new bigger one now somewhere in China or Taiwan) are pretty spectacular. Though I must say I was more impressed by the Twins in NY when I first saw them.
You have to get there early because by 9 am all tickets for the day are gone. I arrived at 8 am and got tickets for 10.30 am. I spent the time between wandering around the towers and in a huge deserted (shops open at 10 am) shopping centre... weird.
The next day I spent checking out China town and the Colonial district, nice but nothing special. Also did some shopping: after 3.5 months some of my clothes needed replacing.
KL is not really my favourite town. I had heard from several travellers that had gotten attacks of home sickness in this town and I can understand why. It's so hot, humid, busy and impersonal.
I got my flight tickets changed on Monday morning and quickly jumped on a bus to Melaka.
Melaka
Cameron high
Tea everywhere + tea factory Melaka is nice little port town on the West coast. It was built as a stopover on the Indian-Chinese trade routes. Its central location on this route made it a popular target for western trade companies. The first to arrive were the Portugese, followed by the Dutch and finally the English.
This results in some interesting architectural cocktails using elements from all the western styles and combining them with Chinese styles. It's pretty funny to visit the "Stadhuys" and see a traditional Dutch Windmill in the middle of town.
Lots of good museums which are also good way to escape the heat and humidity. I had hoped the heat would be less near the coast but it was not the case. I'll just have to deal with the fact that after 5 minutes out in the sun there's hardly a dry spot to be found on my T shirt. I Never thought I would appreciate a 1/2 hr stroll through the local (air conditioned)shopping mall this much.
Getting out of Melaka, 10 hours, 4 busses and 1 cheap Air Asia (Ryan air style) flight later I arrived in Semporna on Borneo.
Cameron high
harvesting tea.
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andy & lena
non-member comment
Malaysia
Hey Jan, Het is leuk om te lezen dat je daar ondertussen 'vrienden' maakt ... Zelfs moslim-vrouwen schijnen uw aandacht te trekken !!! En zelfs kleine 'griezels' kunnen U blijkbaar niet klein krijgen ... Een buscrash, een volledig leger met griezels, ... Men zal echt met iets 'spectaculairder' voor de dag moeten komen. Opvallend is toch wel het grote contrast tussen den jungle en 't stad: echt 'oer'-woud en hipermoderne torens ... Terwijl jij Malaysia veroverde, werd in Teku-Kan de jaarlijkse Trojaanse Oorlog herdacht met de wereldbefaamde Teku-Kan Cup. Persoonlijk vonden we het niveau niet echt schitterend, maar hoeft dit eigenlijk wel ? Niettemin werd Roel verdienstelijk 1° en dit zowel in kata als in kumite en dus winnaar van de Teku-Kan Cup. Wat betreft De Pinte hebben we net groen licht gekregen om op 1 oktober aanstaande het Vlaams Kampioenschap voor Senioren in te richten ... Tot wederhoren, Uw peter-familie Andy & Lena