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Malaysia 2002 |
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Finally in Kuala Lumpur! I had had to get up at 4 AM in order to catch my flight from Cologne to Amsterdam in the early morning - only to get stuck on Schiphol Airport for four hours until the departure to Kuala Lumpur. Although we had booked with KLM, the Dutch Airline, we flew with Malaysia Airlines who have one of the most modern fleets in the world. So even every poor soul in economy class got a little TV for himself which was inserted in the backrest of the seat in front. At first I had thought it was the best invention since sliced bread, but try focusing on a movie when you can see people in the row in front of you watching other movies. I ended up watching "The Musketeer", "Serendipity" and "Bandits" all at once and yet can't remember anything of the plots. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur in the morning, jetlagged and exhausted after a sleepless night trapped like a battery hen, so we splashed out on a taxi to take us all the way from KLIA to the city centre. Unfortunately we couldn't have our room at the hotel yet, so we left the baggage at reception and went out for our first walk.
Not a good idea when you're dead on legs anyway. The tropical heat and humidity knocked me out straightaway and the chaos on the streets and the messy little alleyways in KL's Chinatown took me aback so much that I was ready to jump on the next plane heading home. But after a shower and a short rest when we could finally access our hotel room, the world seemed a better place again. We ventured out again in the afternoon, this time into the Golden Triangle business district - the new face of Kuala Lumpur since the country's amazing economic boom in the 90's, culminating in the world-famous Petronas Twin Towers. It was too late to ascend the visitor's bridge and we later heard that they can only allow a few people up every day anyway because the bridge between both towers isn't that stable... Next to the towers was an airconditioned shopping mall where I was finally able to eat something and had my first encounter with that Malay staple diet "nasi lemak", we'd find ourselves living on for the next two weeks. It's simply rice fried in a delicious coconut milk with a spicey sauce, wrapped in a banana leaf. Afterwards we walked on to visit Chow Kit Market and Little India, before taking the LRT train back to the hotel for a good night's rest.
We had asked the local tourist office on advice on how to get to the Batu Caves outside of KL and ended up booking a "country tour" there to simplify matters. This included a pick-up service from the hotel to the tourist office, where everyone was assembled and then herded into a coach. Of course most of the stops were only aimed at getting at our money, but it was interesting nonetheless. We saw how rubber is won from trees, visited Royal Selangor, one of the largest pewter factories in the world, and a batik factory where we were shown how the famous batik clothes are made (and yes, I went ballistic in the shop and bought half their stock!). The only stop I couldn't appreciate at all was the "Scorpion farm" - not so much for the fact that those little poisonous beasts gave me the creeps, but more for the fact that all those poor scorpions, spiders and butterflies are only bred to be encased in glass and sold as souvenirs. No matter how awful the beasts, they're living beings, too.
The last stops were finally the Batu Caves, now a major place of Hindu worship in Malaysia. 260 steps are leading up to the cave and my knees were reduced to jelly by the time I had finally huffed and puffed my way up to the entrance. But the effort was certainly worthwhile, for the caves are a magnificent work of nature and the eerie atmosphere was strengthened by the Hindu deities and the heavy smell of incense hanging in the air. After our return to the city centre, we spent the rest of the day exploring the Colonial District with its beautiful old buildings like the railway station and the Sultan Abdul Samad Building. Had an amusing encounter with an Indian tourist guide at Merdeka Square who was looking for a German couple he had been leading around the town before they disappeared the moment he turned his back... I wonder if he ever found them again?
While Malaysia's railways are neither very good nor very cheap, the country has a fabulous system of express coaches connecting every town and village. However, if hell has a name, it must be Puduraya bus station in Kuala Lumpur, where the coaches depart from a basement that allows for no ventilation whatsoever while all the coach drivers keep the engines running to keep the air-co inside going. Five minutes on the platform feel like eternity there. And then there are the Malaysian coach drivers to keep in mind, too. The young man who drove our coach
to Penang apparently thought nothing of having a smoke while he was filling up the coach with diesel or of throwing the glowing butt right next to the petrol pump.
But somehow we made it to Georgetown in one piece and opted for the Cathay Hotel, a beautiful old colonial mansion near the seaside. However, though the hotel might have looked beautiful, the rooms were definitely on the grotty side and the air-co turned them into a huge fridge. After checking in we took a walk around the town and saw Fort Cornwallis, the first English stronghold after claiming Penang for the empire in 18th century, some beautiful Chinese temples (Georgetown is mainly Chinese), another Little India and the magnificent Eastern & Oriental Hotel, established by the same guys who had build the legendary Raffles Hotel in Singapore. I felt much closer to Asia here than in ultra-modern Kuala Lumpur and we had the added luck that they were still in the middle of the Chinese New Year celebrations. Even though that meant that we were thrown out of bed in the middle of the night by some uproar outside culminating in fireworks and heavy smell of incense as huge joss sticks were being burnt down in front of every house. Next morning we found out that the Hokkien Chinese celebrated the birth of the Jade Emperor on the 9th day of the first lunar month...
We booked another tour to get around Penang and first visited the famous Kek Lok Si Temple with its beautiful pagoda and amazing, colourful temples. I just wished that I had busied myself a bit more with all those Chinese beliefs and legends before my departure so that I'd known who all those statues in the temple belonged to. We also took a ride up Penang Hill on the funicular railway, which seemed to run on the principle "how many Chinese can you cram into one compartment before the railway breaks down?" Then it was finally time for the palm-fringed beaches I had been dreaming of for months. Well, strictly speaking there were hardly any palm trees at Batu Ferringhi, but at least it was a beach and cool, clean water to bathe in. In the evening we stood still by a truly historical moment - 20:02h on 20-02 in 2002, according to Malaysia's "Daily Star" a moment for prayer and contemplation.
Malaysia is currently doing its best to promote the Langkawi Islands in the north as a no.1 tourist destination and you can book all-inclusive holidays in posh island resorts for outrageous sums in Europe. Since it was possible to go to Langkawi by ferry from Penang, I decided that a one-day trip there to have a look around would suffice. The only sightseeing we did there was the "summer palace" near Kok Beach, before we gatecrashed a beautiful lagoon belonging to one of those posh resorts to spend some hours lazing in the sun or swimming in the sea.
The summer palace was part of the film sets for the movie "Anna and the King" with Jodie Foster and Chow Yun Fat, which was shot mostly on Langkawi and Penang after the Thai refused to have anything to do with the movie in which they saw a defamation of their king and history. The Malaysians welcomed Hollywood with open arms and the producers left the summer palace behind which has now become a tourist attraction and also displays various costumes and props from the movie.
Today we took a coach from Penang to the Cameron Highlands, a beautiful place high up where the air is fresh and the humidity of the plains forgotten. We found a lovely guest house with a garden and after the six-hour coach ride and a stroll up and down the main street of Tamah Rata (which was also the only street of that lovely little village) spent the rest of the day reading and chilling.
Time for another arranged tour since the Highlands are too widespread to reach everything on foot (unless you enjoy hiking which I most certainly don't!). The tour stopped at various places such as a butterfly farm, a tea plantation, a strawberry farm and a honey farm (well, a place with LOTS of bees...). I couldn't get excited about the strawberries since my area here in the western Rhineland is awash with strawberries in May/June, but as a tea lover I enjoyed seeing how my tea gets into its bag in the first place. The tour took most of the day and we spent the evening in a fabulous Indian restaurant where we had a "banana leaf dinner" with various dishes that are eaten off a banana leaf instead of a plate - and using your hands instead of cutlery. A joy for big children whose Mommy's smacked them when they messed around with their food :)
The journey from Tamah Rata to Kuala Lumpur was certainly one of the unforgettable moments of this trip... When I boarded the coach in the morning (after a hearty breakfast), I already wondered why there was a little plastic bag in every seat. Surely we wouldn't produce so much garbage that everyone needed his own bag? My invaluable companion, the Lonely Planet guide, had already mentioned that the road from Tamah Rata down to the motorway had something like 640 bends, but uphill I didn't notice as much as now, going downhill at a faster pace. Half an hour into the journey my breakfast decided to revisit and I was glad to have the little plastic bag at hand. And looking around I noticed that for once Caucasians, Indians, Chinese and Malays had all turned the same shade of green and half the coach were clasping their plastic bags for one and the same reason... though the four Chinese girls in front of me quite baffled me. Once downhill at the motorway toll gate, the coach driver stopped at a service station so that people could dispose of their plastic bags and visit the restrooms and the Chinese girls were the first ones to rush out. But once back on the coach, they immediately began to munch fresh food as if nothing had happened, while the smell of their little chocolate cakes was enough to make me turn green again.
Once more we had to enter that living hell, Puduraya bus station in Kuala Lumpur, worsened by the fact that it was some Muslimic holiday and half the town was crammed into the bus station for some day trip or family visit. I was glad when we could finally get on the coach to Port Dickson and head for the beaches.
Port Dickson isn't yet an international holiday destination like the Langkawi Islands (though the Malaysian government would like to change that eventually) and its fancy resorts are more a common weekend destination for Kuala Lumpureans fleeing the heat of the big city. During the week, the resorts and beaches are almost deserted and great bargains are to be had, so we splashed out on the Paradise Lagoon Resort for three days to enjoy some rest at a cool swimming pool. Spent two days doing virtually nothing but lazing in the sun, reading my books and swimming. I would have preferred to end the holidays like this, but you can't always get what you want and after two days of laziness I was glad to move on again...
Today we went to Malacca, the only truly historic town on the Malaysian peninsular. The Portugese came here first in 16th century, only to be driven out by the Dutch one century later before the English came and made Malacca a part of their Straits Settlements that also included Penang and Singapore. The first thing I noticed was that Malacca was a lot cleaner than the other towns we had visited so far - could it be because there are so many tourists there who need to have a favourable impression of the town? Whatever, we climbed up St.Paul's hill, visited Christ Church and the Stadhuys, which had been built by the Dutch centuries ago, and the Maritime Museum which is accommodated in a life-size replica of the Portuguese ship Flor de la Mar that sank off the coast in 16th century. We also visited Jonkers Street, world-famous for its antique shops, but although I saw many fabulous items there, I wouldn't have known how to drag most of those home.
The morning was spent on a riverboat cruise taking us upriver to the Kampung Mortem, an old-fashioned Malay village with pretty houses and also gave us a chance to watch fat lizards and other local wild life by the riverside. The travel guide had insisted on trying local Nyonya cuisine in Malacca, but I'm afraid that to me it was just another one in a seemingly endless stream of chicken-rice dishes.
Finally we reached the last destination of our trip: Singapore. Since my camera had broken down in Malacca, our first excursion took us to that world-famous shopping paradise Orchard Road, where I could buy a new camera and gave way to my western cravings by rushing into the next Starbucks for a decent caffe latte and a bagel. But Singapore didn't only surprise me with its boundless shopping opportunities - it wasn't half as covered in concrete as I had feared from various photos or travelogues on TV. Sure, there's a handful of skyscrapers in the business district, but unlike Manhattan which is choc-a-bloc with concrete, Singapore has many green, open spaces, broad streets lined with palm trees and of course the wonderful quays at the riverside, where you can dine and drink under the stars in the evenings. Neither did the draconic fines of Singapore worry me - more people were crossing the streets while the lights were red than here in Germany and most of those heavy fines can be avoided by simply using common sense. I for one was glad to walk along streets that were free of litter, of rotten old chewing gum and cigarette butts, and to be able to visit any public restrooms that weren't an offense to the eyes and nose. After a walk around the colonial district we had dinner at Clarke Quay and enjoyed the first Singapore Slings - the famous pink cocktail that was created at the legendary Raffles Hotel early in 20th century.
The day was spent on Sentosa Island, the Singaporean version of Disneyland, though not as tacky as the real thing. You can either simply lounge on the beaches all day or the huge "Fantasy Island" water park, or you can visit the various attractions - the biggest one probably being "Unterwater World", where you can walk along a huge underwater tunnel while sharks, stingrays and lots of fishes in all shapes and sizes swim around you. Being the notorious worrier I am I couldn't quite enjoy myself that much, wondering what would happen if the tunnel burst - whether we'd drown or be eaten by the sharks first. Personally I enjoyed the waxwork exhibition "Images of Singapore" more with its pretty street life scenes of 19th century Singapore and the chance to peep into various Malay, Chinese and Indian households without offending real persons. We also visited Fort Siloso (a real fort that was used - without success - in world war II), the Maritime Museum and the Asian Village, which was unfortunately more than half closed, so we could only stroll around the various villages without a chance to look into the houses. The day was rounded off with a cable car ride from Sentosa across the strait to the Singaporean mainland and those six minutes up in the air seemed to be the longest of my life! How anyone can be insane enough to actually book the fancy dinner package in one of the cabins is beyond me, I couldn't get a morsel of food down while hanging several feet above the water.
Today was the best opportunity for some real research for my story and I visited the Singapore History Museum, where I didn't only find some beautiful "diorama" scenes depicting old Singapore but also some great paintings of 19th century Singapore providing me with fresh inspiration. However, I also noticed that you cannot busy yourself with Singaporean history and not stand still by the terrible events of world war II and the Japanese regime of terror from 1942-45. In the afternoon we were just walking past the Raffles Hotel when a sudden tropical downpour stopped us short in our tracks. Well, there are worse place to get stuck in than a worldfamous hotel and its equally famous "Long Bar", where the Singapore Sling was created and colonial yarn was spun (a tiger below a pool table? Oh please...). Luckily the weather improved quite quickly, so we could have dinner at Boat Quay once more and I really couldn't believe that this was the last evening of our trip. Time had flown by and I treasure every minute of this holiday.
Maybe I wasn't as overwhelmed by Asia as I had hoped to be while I dreamt of going East all those years, but even so I learnt one very important thing: To see the world from a different angle. I saw a culture in some ways so far removed from ours that it made me stop and realize how well off we are here in the west in some ways, but also how much we have forgotten what really matters in life - namely friendship, support and honesty. Ultimately I was shocked to see what a cynic I am, always expecting the worst from people instead of simply believing that they only mean to help. This was especially true of the taxi drivers in Malaysia - more than once I suspected them to lie to me in order to get more money, but they were always right with what they told me. I also noticed the totally different attitude towards strangers in the streets of Malaysia - wherever we went people smiled at us simply in passing, even greeted us and generally made us feel so welcome in their country. I didn't hear a single rude word in all the days and I can only say that we all should learn from these people. Instead of travelling all over the world and coming back to say "Wow, those people are so friendly!", let's try to make this corner of a world a friendlier place again, too.
