Malaysia & Singapore
Fun with Rambutans
MALAYSIA
Kota Bharu - Kuala Lipis - Bukit Fraser - Kuala Lumpur
SINGAPORE
May 28 - June 13, 1999
Fun with Rambutans
MALAYSIA
Kota Bharu - Kuala Lipis - Bukit Fraser - Kuala Lumpur
SINGAPORE
May 28 - June 13, 1999
Prior to entering Malaysia, my expectations we're absolutely non-existent; that is to say that the country of Malaysia was somehow evoking an "exotic" connotation. And it did not disappoint. My first and lasting impressions of Malaysia were the phenominal countryside of lush, green, rainforest jungle, the warmth and friendliness of the people, and the absolutely unexpected beauty and fun of the large cities - it completely won us over.
We began in a large coastal town along the Gulf of Thailand in northern Malaysia. Here we spent a few nights just attempting to survive heat and humidity like we had hoped couldn't exist on this planet. Walking around during the afternoon just absolutely saps any strength that we may have built up over the night, and we found ourselves finding reasons to linger around air conditioned banks, cybercafes, restaurants, jewelry stores...any place that wouldn't immediately kick us out. But once the sun went down, we had some amazing experiences in Kota Bharu. Right in the heart of the city every night in a huge parking lot, the locals hold the "night market" which is basically a hundred different food stands - each one making and selling between one and 50 different dishes - positioned around a slew of eating tables, drink stands and blaring music. (Don't know what the deal is with Malaysian music - consistently we were accosted with "Malaysian Heavy Metal" which is, as you can imagine, both interesting and very frightening.) We would first just walk around in absolute awe of the sights and smells - both of which were beyond our combined understanding or experience. Finally we would allow ourselves to be succumbed by the amazing food, picking out anything that looked even remotely able to be categorized by our knowledge of what we consider "food" (meaning, we're still a little hesitant to bite into what we know has eyes, especially if we have no idea what it is...), loading up our arms with steaming little bundles wrapped in bamboo leaves and eventually finding room in our shrunken stomachs to stuff every last amazing bit in. Lots of fantastic versions of BBQ chicken satay, wierd omlettey-paratha things that are really tasty, blue rice (still don't know what makes it blue and thankfully didn't think about it at the time), fern-like curried vegetables (there's something a little scary about chewing on ferns...even if they are good), noodles of every shape, size and texture, and great coconut/soy/rose drinks to top it all off. Dessert tables were absolutely beautiful - hundreds of sweets and pastries, none of which we could identify (imagine multi-layered rainbow jello...which most definitely is NOT jello). One of my favorites was this strange rice-meal formed in a tube shape, then stuffed with brown sugar, steamed, and topped with tons of coconut and sugar. Really good and really fun. All this for maybe $1-$2 per person for all we could fit.
But even this wonderful nightly habit couldn't hold us in Kota Bharu for more than a few days - we decided to take the "jungle train" through the middle of peninsular Malaysia to the town of Kuala Lipis. Expecting the home-away-from-home amenities of our Thailand train experience, we were shocked to find ourselves in maybe the single most "character-building" transporation experience of this trip. And it hurts me to have to condition that by saying, "so far." The "jungle train" is apparently not meant to be a commuter train (promoted instead as a "tourist train"), but nobody told the locals about this designation. We got on at 6am, found a seat on an AC car, and settled in for what we thought would be a gorgeous and fascinating ride through wild, untamed jungles. My naivity never ceases to amaze me. At the very first stop after we got on, no less than hundreds of kids literally jammed themselves into every square inch of the train - aisle, overhead bins, toilet - and we found ourselves immersed in a sea of headscarves in the midst of all these school kids on the beginning of a week-long religious school holiday. At every successive stop, more and more people would somehow squeeze themsleves on. No joke, as the train pulled up to each station there were arms and legs sticking out of every window and doorway, and the local conductor would attempt to push the dangling limbs back into the car - even just a foot or so, so that more people could be crammed in and hang off the side of the train. I didn't used to be clausterphobic. Not even after India. I am now. After holding our bladders for the first painful eight hours (before the kids boarded, we had unknowingly drank a half gallon of apple juice...), Paige finally attempted to get to the toilet, literally climbing on and over squashed bodies, and when she finally made it the 15 feet a half hour later, she found 5 guys jammed inside - unwilling and angry at the thought of moving. Oh, and I seem to have conveniently forgotten to mention that the AC in our car stopped working the moment the sun came out at 6:30am. And there are no windows that open in an AC car. Yes, the fun never ends out here where rubbing elbows with the locals perhaps went a little too far this time.
We were ecstatic to hurl ourselves off the train once we reached Kuala Lipis, and celebrated with a piping hot plate of DAL! BHAT! No, just kidding, we of course celebrated with sweet beer. Occasionally when we arrive in a weird town in some exotic country, we try to imagine that if we had been beamed down from space right there, would we have any idea whatsoever where we were, or even what country we were in - or even what part of the world? And Kuala Lipis defied any possible expectations. Seriously, we would have guessed 1950's central valley California with its single "main street" lined with buildings, nice landscaping on the outskirts of town and the old fashioned beer signs and B+W American movie posters all over the place for some reason. Originally we came to Kuala Lipis to organize a recommended "jungle trek" through some self-promoted spectacular areas of one of Malaysia's best known National Parks, but we unanimously decided against it when we found out we could take a bus to a really posh, upscale Malaysian/Singapore resort and stay there for next to nothing. So after one brief night, we were off again.
Bukit Fraser, otherwise known as "Fraser's Hill," was a blast. It's this stunningly perfect upscale resort situated at the top of this hill in the middle of the jungle. You can only reach it by a single road, and the road is only open from 7am to 8pm. Furthermore, the road (about a 20 minute ride) is only wide enough for one car, so it's open going up on the "odd" hours of the day, and going down for the "even" hours. Once at the top, we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of something resembling a gated Lake Tahoe community. And we were gloriously above the heat and humidity of the lowlands.
We spent a few days exploring Bukit Fraser through rainforest jungle treks, exploring unbelieveably extensive and upscale condos that are 95% empty (don't know why - we theorized it was because most were owned by Singaporians who only come on weekends or holidays), and by golf. Yes, the whole thing is focused around its posh jungle golf course, which we splurged and found ourseves hacking away on one afternoon. We were literally the ONLY people out there all day. And I do mean "all day" - green fees mean "until you get tired," but in our case it meant, "until you lose all of your balls." Which thankfully was just about 18 holes for us. Hey, we haven't played in a year, and we weren't that good to begin with anyway. Still, it was really fun - even when the monsoon revisited us on the 11th hole with a vengence. Don't worry, we had beer in our bags...
Finally we found ourseves in the capital city, Kuala Lumpur. This is truly a fascinating city. Clean, modern, fun, great public transportation, amazing highrises and architecture, and great food were available everywhere. We loved it. And I'm not just saying that because we got to see the new Star Wars movie the first night we were there either. We explored "KLCC" which are the famous two towers (the highest in the world) housing the single most amazing mall on its lower levels, we spent a lot of time in Chinatown - a jam packed area of town with amazing smells, food and sights, and we stayed in a 2 star hotel for next to nothing. Malaysia is really hurting from lack of tourism and we were lucky enough to reap the benefits of their attempts to lure us all in.
Durian fruit - the most sensual and stanky of the fruits
There's no mistaking Malaysia for Thailand from the second you reach immigration at the border until the second you leave. Immediately you are accosted and pelted with the immense "Big-Brother"-like aspect of the government with huge blatant signs like, "Consider yourself warned that drug trafficking results in the mandatory death penalty" literally lining the hallway towards the immigration officer, and their additional statistics that each year Malaysia puts to death more people for drugs than the U.S. does for murder. The Malaysian government - and of course ultimately the media (which is just the government here anyway) is the most entertaining and yet unnerving aspect of our Malaysian experience. Unnerving for the obvious supression and repression (which I will delve into a little deeper later), and entertaining because we have the "luxury" of freedom of speech back in the U.S., which we realized that we had somewhat taken for granted before arriving in Malaysia.
But let me now take a minute to perhaps examine "why" tourism may be suffering. Could it be Big Brother? I know you really haven't seen a lot of political talk in our updates, but honestly, the long tentacle of the Malaysian government is simply fascinating to us. Every morning we bought at least two newspapers to get our fix - and I have to admit that it kind of feels like reading the "National Enquirer" or something...at least if the government was the editor of the National Enquirer. Malaysia is preparing for elections in a couple months, so political talk is prominant every day. "PAS," the Islamic party, has been repeatedly sticking its foot in its mouth to the delight of the competing parties, who are far from exempt in this arena. Malaysia is seriously the most diverse (culturally) country we've visited on this trip since England. Malays (Muslims), Chinese and Indians are the most prominant, with a whole slew of other nationalities. PAS, who is a very influential and powerful player in the government, makes no bones about the fact that they want to instill an Islamic state - a frightening concept for the huge population of Non-Muslim Malaysians. Attempting to lure more support for their goal, PAS made a statement that they were changing their bylaws to allow non-Muslims to join their party: "Non Muslims who join our party can enjoy 1/4 membership status as Muslims, but will not be allowed to hold a party position. We believe non-Muslims will embrace this." As you can imagine, no one embraced this, and in addition, many PAS members threatened to quit if non-Muslims were allowed in at all.
PAS further strengthened their platform when asked a couple of key questions. To the question, "when women make up 52% of Malaysia's population, why don't they hold more key political positions?" - PAS responded, "Women aren't involved in our party because they believe politics have negative connotations." Well, duh. To the question about the fear that non-Muslims such as ethnic Indians and Chinese would be hurt by the installation of an Islamic state, PAS responded boldly, "WE never promised equality for non-Muslims." Hey, at least they're honest about it.
The more we travel, the more obvious it is that ALL over the world, the United States is everyone's scapgoat. We're hated, but we are both the basis for their own success and we are needed for almost every attempt at stability. We're made fun of constantly, but when help is needed then we're the devil if we don't dish it out at a moment's notice. But make no mistake, we are talked about in the press in a negative fashion wherever we go. (As a positive sidenote - it is very heartening to know that the local people wherever we go realize that politics and the population are far removed from each other; if they hate the U.S., it's the governement and usually not the people.) In Malaysia, we began to see a pattern in comments that the Malaysian Prime Minister made. Apparently Malaysian students and travellers (specifically to the U.S.) were setting up web pages devoted to disclose the atrocities of Malaysian governmental supression. The "TOP STORY" one night on TV was that the Prime Minister stated, "Malaysian students abroad are being controlled and led to say negative things about the government and they are 'urged' to pay heed." This became comical at the end of the newscast when they did a 30 second recap of the TOP STORIES, saying, "Malaysian students abroad told, 'DON'T BE TOOLS TO FOREIGNERS."
We almost felt guilty as we laughed out loud. OK, I'm getting a little carried away - I'll let Paige put in her two cents...
Malaysia is full of interesting contradictions. Of course, we can only see them from a very superficial perspective (for such a short stay, a tourist rarely gets past wandering around the streets, eating out at local restaurants, and patronizing the museums). Because we don't speak Malay, we are not able to have in-depth conversations with the locals but we are constantly impressed by how many people speak our language. Having lived in the Bay Area which has pockets of neighborhoods with new and old immigrants alike that don't know a word of English (or let on that they do), we are constantly thankful that at every Malaysian corner shop, someone speaks English. The person selling newspapers, flipping chicken wings at the local A&W (yes, we humbly admit that we have succumbed to fast food....but more about that later), and your local man on the street if we ask directions. Malaysia on the surface appears to be harmoniously balanced with indigenous Malay people, Chinese, Indians. Local Malaysians absorb all that is Western by having cybercafes, Georgio Armani boutiques, and Sharper Image-type electronic gadget shops in every mall (I'm not so sure if this is such a good thing!). Every other person in the street carries a cell phone. Their new light rail system in Kuala Lumpur is right out of a futuristic movie. (Wait until the Sean Connery new movie is out on video before you bother watching Entrapment, filmed in Kuala Lumpur). Down below this love affair with all that is Western is a very complex Asian culture. The reason why I earlier said that the different ethnic groups appear "harmonious" is because the three segments of society are often not in agreement due to politics, power, money and most importantly religion.
Politics and religion are inseparable here, which is hard for us to digest coming from a secular country where we hold separation of church and state so dear. The Malay majority is very conservative and very Muslim, and wants to one day create an Islamic State. The Chinese and Indian communities retain a strong minority presence (and most of the money). However, even though they are just as "Malay" as the Malays, as their families have lived in Malaysia for literally hundreds of years, they are not perceived or treated as equals. It's a shame we can't learn more about the deeper levels during our limited visit, because it is very fascinating.
It would take many a year to understand Malaysia. They are running full force toward the next century, yet most of the women cover their entire body (heads, arms, legs) as women did hundreds of years back. Their search for a deeper spiritual content is a stark contradiction to a country also embracing the lure of Hollywood, the internet, and "democracy." I put democracy in quotes because just this week, as Chris mentioned, the Prime Minister of the country has been on several televison broadcasts denouncing the evils of the West, the corruption of the Internet, and general "manipulation" by foreigners. Ahh, I should have never gone down this alley of politics because I know so little about the real situation. But it has encompased every moment of our days in Malaysia. You must ask yourself the paradox of women who carry Calvin Klein purses, wear stiletto high heels, Marilyn Monroe-ish bright red lipstick, skin tight spray painted-on jeans AND cover their heads because their religion says that otherwise they will be tempting men.
About A&W.....During this year, cycling through the green valleys of Ireland, spotting elephants on African safaris, camel-riding in the Sinai desert, sipping tea in smokey Turkish cafes, diving the great coral canyons of the deep, and jumping with open arms into all the other random and exotic adventures we've undertaken, we have made a determined effort to not patronize American fast food joints. Mickey D's is a monster that has conquered every civilisation. Here in Malaysia, fried chicken seems to be the national food pastime and favorite. On one major K.L. intersection, we spotted 2 KFCs across the street from each other, flanked by a Kenny Rodger's Roasters, and the local Malaysian franchise of Nando's (also specializing in fried poultry). We chose Nando's. Then, later that day, we also succumbed to a glorious Coke Float at A&W. We blame it on our desire to sit in an air-conditioned bubble, but we admit our weakness. We wanted a bubble of Westerness. It was stronger than our desire to try local, hole-in-the-wall, true Malaysian cuisine. We are definitely succumbing to more and more familiar culinary comforts these days.
Chris back again...finally after totally enjoying our Malaysian experience, we grabbed a (thankfully) very nice overnight train down to Singapore in preparation for our impending departure to Indonesia. Wow, Singapore...I don't want to get carried away in this description because it is an absolutely fascinating place, and yet a total enigma when compared to the rest of south east Asia. Singapore is a small island that is as modern, clean, beautiful, sterile and amazing as the most advanced 1st world countries on the planet. In fact, it may be perhaps THE most advanced country. Within 5 minutes upon arrival, we were convinced of this fact.
Modern architectural highrises are the heart of the city, clean and streamlined public transportation, well-dressed professionals, breathtakingly beautiful riverfront development and landscaping at every glance...we couldn't help but feel inadequate and out-of-place in our dirty, tattered clothes and flip-flops.
We were extremely concerned that Singapore would be a debilitating drain on our finances, as high prices go hand-in-hand with all this modernness and development, and we had heard and read horror stories about not being any "budget" places to stay in, in Singapore. Thankfully, this was all just a little sensationalistic. Yes, Singapore is very expensive. But we found a great private AC room for about $15 (U.S.), and we eat all of our meals at the phenominal Chinese food-court markets where you can fill up with great exotic food for around $2. However, simply being in the presence of all these wonderful modern amenities, we immediately found room for some things that we haven't experienced in a LONG time. Like non-Nescafe coffee. We were stunned to run across a Spinelli's outlet here - our absolutely favorite coffee in the world (Spinelli's is a small chain based out of San Francisco which is where we had thought it would remain in relative obscurity - now they've expanded from SF to Singapore with no in-between), and we've loaded up on thick, black, motor-oily, extremely bitter and wonderful coffee every morning.
We have found ourselves just walking around the riverfront (the "Boat Quay") at night, soaking up the beautiful outdoor restaurants and bars positioned next to the water with the modern scyscrapers amiably looming (can I use "amiably" as an adverb for "looming?") in the background. Singapore is truly a comfortable place to live and/or visit. Maybe a tad too many malls however. There is literally a mall - and I mean full-on, "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" MALL, none of this "mini-mall" crap - on every single corner. Very convenient, but very disturbing.
Singapore's Boat Quay
We also found Singapore's sole microbrewery (how could we not?)- Brewerkz - and last night found ourselves stationed at the bar ordering up the first India Pale Ale and hoppy Oatmeal Stouts that our livers have had the pleasure to process in much too long. Our joy was short-lived, however, when the bill came and we realized that Brewerkz's overhead must be astronomical. Each pint was US$8! Any remaining joy was further squashed when our Amex card was declined because some brain surgeon back in the states cancelled Paige's Amex card instead of mine when mine was stolen back in Bangkok. However, joy was fully reinstated when as we were dealing with this over the phone, the manager of Brewerkz came over and apologized for our problems, stating that our beers were "on the house." God bless each and every microbrewery around this great world! Oh yeah, and God bless Singapore too!
Happy hour at the Quay
Thanks for reading,
Love,