Entering Malaysia

What to say about Malaysia? It's difficult to know where to begin because I think we both entered this country with few expectations, not knowing much about the country or culture. What we've found is an amazingly diverse people living amongst beautiful beaches, jungles and mountains and, unfortunately, slightly higher prices than we've been experiencing on this trip thus far! (Oh, and a stretch of bad luck... but we are hoping that's over with.)

Read the rest of Megan's babbling...

Certainly the item that sticks most vividly in my mind is the mix of cultures here. I am writing this from the capitol, Kuala Lumpur, and I think of some of the things I saw today: colonial buildings next to new skyscrapers, an English movie with both Chinese and Malay subtitles, Hindu temples near mosques near Buddhist or Taoist temples, women in full burka (the first time I've seen this in person! A whole other range of thoughts goes with my first sighting of these fully covered women) standing in line with women in Indian sarees and Sikh children with their hair done up high on their heads in cloth-wrapped buns. I know it's a muslim country, but I am also still suprised at the head scarves- most women wear them here. Our neighborhood in Manhattan was fairly diverse, but we at least all dressed similarly. This is something else entirely! An example from George Town: this old Chinese temple is next to an English colonial building, complete with skyscraper in the background (and a mosque up the street)!

Malaysia itself consists of the southern tip of peninsular SE Asia and parts of the island of Borneo (which we will not have time to visit). We entered Malaysia from Thailand on the West side of the peninsula and headed straight to the old colonial town of Georgetown on the island of Penang.

Mostly I was amazed at the incense the size of my calf in front of this temple...

Let's just say George Town grew on us. At first we saw a busy, dirty city where we were expecting a quaint, colonial town. But after a night of great food from hawker stands and a day walking around some of the old sections, our opinion changed. George Town was founded by the East India Company as their Malay base, complete with a big stone fort and canons and all. As a major trading center, the city attracted all numbers of foreigners, and now lovely English colonial buildings are nestled in old Chinese, Malay, Indian and Armenian neighborhoods. I especially liked the "shophouses" that lined the old streets (see photo below), and Little India, with it's cramped but clean, noisy and colorful streets actually got us excited about visiting India!

A row of typical old chinese shophouses- long and narrow, the living quarters were below or above a store front. The first floor projects over the ground floor, so many Malaysian sidewalks provide protection from the sun and rain (if not completely full of motos and cafe tables and covered with tiles that are extremely slippery when wet!)

All these cultures make for interesting food. Our lunches in Little India were served on big banana leaves, we had grilled sting ray for dinner one night, and we ate lots of part Malay-part Chinese noodles, all of it cheaply available from stalls. These hawker stands are like a mall food court. You order what you want from the right person, sit down somewhere in the open air seating area (with the ever-present Asian plastic chairs) where you order your drinks and then pay when they bring out the food. We were never exactly sure what we were going to get...

The old English cemetery was very interesting and meloncholy. We saw the grave of the founder of Penang and the husband of the Anna who inspired the play "The King and I".

We arrived at this beautiful mosque just as Friday services began, so men with little white caps were streaming in. Just around the corner is the oldest Hindu temple in town and a famous Taoist temple is behind me as I take the photo!

My favorite thing in George Town was the tour we took of the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. This mansion was built by a very wealthy Chinese merchant (for two of his eight wives) according to Feng Shui principles. Our tour guide was extremely knowledgable about the building and its incredible restoration in the 90's. I was so impressed, I bought the book (despite having to carry it around in a backpack)!

The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, no photos allowed inside...

From George Town, we took an overnight bus straight across the peninsula to Khota Baru and the Perhentian islands on the East coast. Josh talks about the Perhentians in his diving post, but let me just quick cover some non-diving adventures, because it seemed for a while there that our Malaysian time was jinxed...

First, the Perhentians are home to a number of huge moniter lizards. We saw a few, but this was by far the biggest (~4'):

Not as big, but this gecko liked to sneak into our bungalow...

But on the islands it was the dives that kept going wrong. It's supposed to be non-monsoon time on the East coast, but a heavy storm our first night stuck around making rough seas. Our first dive sight was changed en route because the waves were too big for our little boat. As a new diver, the experience of dropping backwards off a tiny outboard into rough waves was a little disconcerting. The next day, the currents and waves made for poor visibility (making the shipwreck even more eery, we decided) and then our boat ran out of gas on the way in! Since it had been cloudy, we had no sunscreen on. Guess what happened to those grey skies while we hung out on the boat? Yup, nice and sunny (and nice and pink for a few days). We barely made it back in time for our boat off the islands.

grey skies.

And now for that boat... It was exciting and terrifying all at the same time. The 4pm "ferry" was about 24' long, maybe one and a half times the size of a Michigan ski boat. When we first left to make the 10 mile trip, we had over 20 passengers. The captian saw the big waves on the open water as we rounded the last island and gunned it... and it was scary. Even he must have thought so because after a few hard waves, he turned around and headed back for the fishing village. Then he did a typical Malay thing- he just hung around and waited, hoping someone would volunteer to take some of us or something.

Eventually, half of the passengers opted to remain on the islands for another night (this was the last boat back) rather than risk the sea. About 10 of us remained (mostly foolish Westerners), and by the time we made it to the mainland, we had all bonded, taken photos of each other, and were SOAKING wet! Just as we were nearing the mainland and (maybe) getting used to the hard hit of the waves, we saw a big storm rolling in complete with a spectacular lightning display. Now what was it mom said about not swimming when it's lightning? In my head, I kept going through the irreplaceble items in my pack and debating the best way to dry out a wet passport on a deserted island. We should have made it by 4:45pm. Instead, it was 7! But who cares- we made it!

You should not be this wet after a boat ride.

Thank goodness for plastic!

From the East coast, we headed South right through the middle of the country on the Jungle Railway. This 7 to 11 hour train ride goes right through mountains and jungles, ending in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore. We enjoyed the ride and the view except for one small thing: the heat. Our car was supposed to be air conditioned, but there was a panel between the cars that showed this (keep in mind that 30C is 86F):

10am: 26 inside, 30 outside

11:30am: 29 inside, 33 outside

1pm: 31 inside, 36 outside

Ugh. We were lucky, though, the trip only took 7.5 hours, and we made it in time for the boat into Taman Negara, the rainforest national park, of which I will post about later! Since there is only one track in places, it can take up to 11 hours to make the treck.

Also, this is where our camera broke. Again, unlucky. We're being extra careful now...

All in all, Malaysia is good: amazingly diverse, good food, cheap transportation unless you take the tourist buses, friendly people. We haven't been overly impressed with the choices in accomodation and I am so ready for my own clean shower adjoining my own room with a real, comfortable bed. But... you can't have everything!

P.S. Added on 6-26

Here is a photo from a fellow traveler when the waves were calm enough for him to dare take out his camera. The waves are smaller in this picture than they were normally but it at least gives you an idea of what the sky looked like.