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Hello everyone!
Sorry its been a while, but I’m back to bring you one more update on my travels. After taking a long break from traveling (ie. living in Thailand), I couldn’t resist one more adventure. This time the trip takes us south, to Malaysia.
From the southern Thai city of Hat Yai, its short hop to the Malaysian border. The first sign I see says “Be Forwarned: drug trafficing means death under Malaysian law!” hmmm….lucky I’m not in that business. Another interesting Malaysian rule is that all nationalities are issues automatic tourist visas by just showing up at the border….except one, Israeli citizens.
First day, its off to Georgetown on the island of Paneng. Sort of cute little place. All Malaysian cities come in standard configurations, with a town square, a large chinatown, and next door, a smaller Little India. Georgetown was not different, and I quickly satisfied my Dim Sum craving by strolling through the ancient looking Chinatown (still have rickshaws for transport). Venturing out, I walk through the more modern part of town where the Muslim population lives (Malaysia is 2/3 Muslim and 1/3 Chinese). Some friendly looking Muslims smile at me and ask where I’m from…..instinctively I answer, “America!” ….the smiles disappear, they give me some mean stares and walk away. (I guess this is why there are no Americans out here) Ok, fine, I’m Canadian from now on! And I think I’ll hang out with the friendly Chinese.
Having finished my Cultural lesson, I go south to Kuata Lumpur, the capitol city. First pleasant Asian capitol I’ve seen. Relatively clean but somewhat boring. Muslim architecture can be impressive, mixing religious symbolism into modern buildings…most skyscrapers are built to some muslim theme (and you can see what is disputetly the tallest twin buildings in the world….disputed because they cheated and built a tall rod on top, adding to the height)
To get a bit off the beaten path, I fly out to Malaysian Borneo. (anyone flying through KL airport, be forwarned….bring heavy sweaters…your airport tax is used to recreate a North Pole climate….maybe the frigit climate keeps terrorists away?)
Anyways, back to the story….Borneo is a huge island, part Malaysian, part Indonesian, and sliver belonging to Brunei. Its also the land of the legendary Headhunters (once even more fierce then the Sillicon Valley variety!) I start in Kuching, site of all the tourist attractions. There are several interesting and protected state parks here, where you can get your fix of monkey watching and other wildlife. My highlight was seeing the Orangutan apes. I watched several of them feeding….bananas flying and all….such massive and beautiful animals!
Now, upriver to find those Headhunters. Distances are measured by the number of gory kung fu movies you can watch on the boat, and I travel about 3.5 movies upriver to a small remote town called Kapit. The former headhunters (the tribes are now mostly farmers, fishermen, and loggers) live nearby and come here for trade. These tribes live in longhouses, where from 10 to 100 families live in one big building….each family has its own bedroom, and they all share the common area (living room?)
I go out to visit one such legendary longhouse (legendary because National Geographic featured it in one of its columns). Its kinda homey here in these longhouses….all the families sit around, working on varies odds and ends…feels like summer camp….can never get lonely here! As everywhere else, the elders complain about western culture’s negative impact….the teenage girls used to learn how to weave traditional baskets….now they just sit in a room and listen to American music. One thing unchanged over the years is thier display of skulls. Yes, dozens of blackened skulls hang on the front porch, all nicely strung together. Back in the day, young men from the tribe had to go out on headhunting expeditions (they attacked neighbor tribes) and bring back skulls to prove themselves men and secure a good wife. Kinda makes our inner-city gangs look pretty wimpy by comparison!
Ok, time to fly back to the mainland. (I would have visited Brunei, but my guidebook said you need a nigh end Mercedes to fit into this oil rich country…and alas, I forgot to bring mine along)
Back in the mainland, I travel south to Maleka, a window into Malaysia’s colonial history. First the Portuguese held this strategic port town in the 1500’s, then the Dutch, and finally the English. Yea, 400 years of European hot patato. Walking around oldtown, you feel like you’re still in the little European village, 17 century churches, cobblestone streets and Portugese forts are all part of the landscape. One of the museums is a reconstruction of a portuguese ship which, after thier victory, brought looted Malaysian treasures back to Portugal. The enscription reads something like, “once you lose control of your political fate, you lose everything”…..hmmmm….another great reason for spending more money on the military!
Now on to the customary stop in Singapore. Most come here only for the shopping….but I figure i’d do something more useful, like checking out the animals. Singapore is a wealthy island-state and spared none of that wealth when building thier zoo. Even at a brisk pace it takes over 3 hours to finish. Very few of the animals live behind bars or glass (natural looking moats and rivers keep the animals from feeding on the tourists). But even more impressive then all this is the night safari. Next to the daytime zoo, this safari allows us to walk at night and observe nocturnal animals at work (soft spotlights allow even people like me to see the animals in the dark!) Fishing cats dip thier deadly paws into the stream to catch fish, a leapord hangs from a tree eating a nice slice of meat, and crocodiles peer out into the night.
A day is more then enough in Singapore, and so back we go to Malaysia. Of course a visit to Malaysia is not complete without going to the famous islands. I choose Pulau Tioman, the island where “South Pacific” was filmed in the 50’s. Its not hard to see why Hollywood chose this place….imagine a lush green forest on top of a immense towering mountain, on top of the ocean, ringed by white sand beaches. If you’ve gotta be stranded in the pacific, this is the place! Walking around the beach, its not much different then the Thai islands….cheap bungalows, hammocks under the palm trees, and in between restaurants and bars. But it quickly becomes apperent that this is no Thailand. Something is missing…..Muslims may be able to build resorts, but they still don’t know how to have fun, and it shows….the kickback Thai nature is missing…replaced by the serious Muslim regiment. Oh well, the sand, the sea, and especially the snorkeling is good, so can’t complain too much.
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