Visit to Terengganu
Two things distinguish Terengganu from the other 13 states of Malaysia: batik and fish sausage.
Silk Batik
Above: Terengganu silk batik. 4 meters. Below: Closeup of same.
Silk Batik
Terengganu (trehng GAH noo) lies on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia, toward the north but not reaching the Thai border. Scuba divers go there, especially to a couple of islands. The long, quiet mainland beaches remain unspoiled. The state as a whole is rural and mostly undeveloped. Malaysians tell foreigners to visit Terengganu and the neighboring state Kelantan to see the Malay kampung (village) way of life.
Four of my colleagues planned this trip as a shopping excursion. One of them will be married in December and wanted to buy songket for her husband-to-be. Songket is a traditional Malay weaving art in which gold threads are woven by hand into a very tightly woven silk to create geometric designs. The stitches are like tiny grains of rice. We were lucky enough to be invited into the back room of one of the fabric shops, where a woman showed us the most incredible examples of songket, kept there in a locked cabinet.
The bride-to-be eventually found a beautiful white-and-silver songket for 250 ringgit; everyone agreed that the same one would cost 500 ringgit in Kuala Lumpur. In comparison, the songket in the back room cost 2,000 to 5,000 ringgit. We were shown one priced at 20,000 ringgit (about US$5,000). Its curving vines and flowers differed remarkably from the typical songket design, which is a grid or plaid.
Most Malay men wear songket at their wedding, wrapped around their waist like the short (above-the-knee) sarong they wear with baju melayu (a silky pajama-like suit of long pants and long-sleeved shirt, buttoned to the throat). For normal wear, the men's sarong is cotton plaid rather than songket. Women sometimes wear sarong made from songket, but as it is quite expensive and the top half of a woman's sarong is hidden by her baju (shirt or blouse), this is not very common.
So one of our missions was to make sure Zaliffah bought her songket. Our first priority after arrival, however, turned out to be the acquisition of fish sausage.
Fish Sausage
Keropok lekor comes in two forms: a cracker or chip that is thin and deep fried, and a chewy hot dog that is boiled. Either one can be dipped in a very tasty red-brown sauce (a little like a bottled hickory-smoke barbecue sauce in the U.S.), but the sauce (tamarind, chili, sugar, vinegar) is definitely required for the sausage. Both the chip and the sausage have an unappetizing dark gray color, like fish scales. "Keropok" means "cracker," and many varieties are available all over Malaysia. Some are very mild and some are expremely fishy in flavor. The color can be white, orangey, or brown. I have not been able to find a definition for "lekor."
Our guide to the keropok lekor stall was Nora, who vacations in Marang twice a year with her husband and their four children at the same resort where we stayed on this trip (more about that later). She turned off the main street in Kuala Terengganu and drove down a two-lane road in Kampung Losong lined with stalls, all selling keropok lekor. The one where we stopped had a patchwork roof of sheets of corrugated steel held up by poles; there were no walls. The roof covered an area maybe 30 feet deep and 20 feet wide, in which five women constituted a sausage factory.
Keropok lekor consists of fish paste and sago flour. The type of fish used varies, and the great appeal of the Terengganu keropok lekor is its extra-fishy flavor. With wrinkled nose and pursed lips, any Malay will tell you that the inferior keropok lekor sold in Kuala Lumpur is mostly flour, not much fish. A native of Kelantan recently told me than Terengganu keropok lekor is the best, Kelantan's is second best, and the worst is found in Kuala Lumpur.
Sago flour comes from the inside of the sago palm trunk.
Under the metal roof, two women worked rolling the sausage on a thick wooden board. Each woman had a wide, shallow bowl of mixed flour and fish paste. With well floured hands, they clenched a fistful of the keropok lekor mixture and rolled it against the board until they produced a rope about eight to ten inches long and an inch thick, which they then rolled off the edge, making a heap on the table. When the heap became almost as tall as the rolling board, a third woman came around with a large basket and scooped up the raw sausages. She took them to a fourth woman who controlled a huge wok of boiling water with a long-handled wooden paddle. When she had dipped a quantity of finished sausages out of the water, the third women tipped a fresh batch into the wok.
A fifth woman handled sales at the front counter. Numerous cars and motorbikes stopped in front of the stall, and customers came and went in a continuous stream. The third woman helped with the packaging -- fresh sausages were piled onto a waxy plastic sheet, wrapped securely, then bundled up in newspaper and stuffed into 5- and 10-gallon plastic bags. The chili sauce was sold both in plastic baggies fastened with a rubber band and in glass bottles.
Halimah didn't buy any keropok lekor for herself, but Nora and Zaliffah bought tremendous quantities, and Noraini also bought enough for a crowd. When we packed it into my spare travel bag the night before they left Terengganu (I stayed an extra day), we estimated the weight at 40 to 50 kilos. And that was without the bottles of sauce!
With most of the bags of keropok lekor safely stashed with our luggage in the trunk of our rented car, we set out to Marang, where we would stay at the Angullia Beach House Resort. Someone had brought a bag into the car, and the whole way to the resort, we ate warm keropok lekor. I was in the front seat beside Zaliffah, the driver. A hand from the back would poke between the two front seats, offering Zaliffah or me a fresh sausage. Then another hand would poke through, cupping the open baggie full of sauce for us to dunk into.
Without the sauce, the sausage would be rather boring, in my opinion. The flavor was distinctly fishy but not overly strong. The texture resembles a processed sandwich meat, like something you might encounter on an hors d'oeurvre tray, next to the cheese cubes.
Shopping for Batik
The consensus among women in the Faculty of Mass Comm. at UiTM is that Terengganu is the best place to go for batik fabric, largely because of price but also because you will find the best designs there. One of the saleswomen at the Pasar Payang (Central Market) asserted that the silk in Terengganu is all Malaysian silk, but if you go to Kelantan, the silk there will be imported from Thailand. Her attitude indicated that we should be quite pleased to have a guarantee of locally produced silk.
Malaysian batik designs can be on cotton, silk, or a silk-cotton blend. The silk is usually fine and diaphanous. The cotton can be thick and buttery to touch, thin and somewhat stiff, or thin and soft. The designs can be hand-painted (with brushes and small wooden tools), hand-printed (with a wooden or metal stamp the size of person's foot), or machine printed. The fabric commonly comes in a two-meter length (for a sarong or shirt only) or four meters (for a complete neck-to-ankle woman's outfit). It is rarely seen in bolts or longer lengths.
Silk Batik
Above: Terengganu silk batik. 2 meters. Below: Closeup of same.
Silk Batik
I visited the Terengganu State Museum has one of the best exhibits I have seen on Malay fabric traditions (the Islamic Arts Museum in KL also has a good exhibit), with examples of unfinished cloth on hand looms and also finished traditional clothing modeled by dummies, accompanied by excellent large black-and-white photos of people wearing the same type of attire. The clothing was particularly nice in that you see how people unabashedly mixed colors and patterns in ways that excite the eye, while at the same time modestly covering the body from neck to ankles.
Today's Malays mostly dress in much less exotic patterns. The women stick with patterns heavy in flowers, and batik is relatively expensive, so most of these are machine printed. Men wear mostly Western clothes, except on special occasions. Woven-pattern fabrics are seldom worn today, except the plaid sarongs (by both men and women).
We spent most of our shopping time in the somewhat labyrinthine Pasar Payang, a multi-storied un-air-conditioned building with a huge adjacent parking garage that was filled to capacity on Saturday morning. Unlike most of the rest of Malaysia, Terengganu keeps Friday as the holy day, and most businesses are closed. Saturday is the prime shopping day, and with seemingly acres of food and fresh fish and keropok stalls on the ground floor, the market is the prime shopping place. Noraini bought bags of tamarind fruit and shared them with us. The husks are brittle; like pale dry leaves, they crumble at your touch. You pull off the sticky dark-brown paste that clings to the stem inside the seed, long and bulging like a fat man's finger. Spit out the pits as your tongue finds them. The sour-sweet taste made my mouth water.
At breakfast (on the top floor), we unexpectedly met a former student of Zaliffah's, and her family took us around to some of the best places for songket. Nora already knew which stalls to visit for batik, and the local family gave us advice on that as well. I know my senses would have been exhausted in an hour or two by the floor-to-ceiling shelves of folded fabric in every shop, but since my four companions had different agendas (as well as different tastes), often I could just perch on a plastic stool and watch as they interacted with the saleswomen. That gave me plenty of chances to see things I really liked, as the bundles of fabric were unfurled and draped enticingly over the arms of the saleswomen. I wasn't sure whether I would buy anything, but of course, I did.
Cotton Batik
Above: Terengganu cotton batik (sarong). 2 meters. Below: Closeup of same.
Cotton Batik
Now the trick is to get someone to take me to a good tailor and help me explain what I want done with all this fabric! I do want to have a baju kabaya made for me from one of the silks I bought in Kuala Terengganu.
Marang
Marang is a village a little south of Kuala Terengganu, the state capital. I think you could drive straight through Marang and not realize there is a town there. The main businesses are fishing and ferries going to Pulau Kapas, a small island with several resorts. A short distance off the main road, a winding single lane leads to the Angullia Beach House Resort, a Malay-run compound of solid little wooden chalets with verandas facing the sea.
Photos are here.
This is the kind of place you would never see on a package tour. The rooms are quite plain and small but scrupulously clean. There's air conditioning. Nothing but a short stretch of sand and a line of palm trees separates your verandah from the tiny waves, reduced by the location of Pulau Kapas. The bathroom is all ceramic tile and wood, with a good shower and a Western toilet. We didn't try the resort restaurant, but a sign printed in English inside the door of our two-room chalet informed us that we could have anything available cooked to order if we would only give the cooks one to two hours notice.
In the larger chalet next to ours, a big multi-generation Malay family was cooking and eating on their verandah almost continuously. On Saturday evening they prayed there, and my companions went over to join them after washing and dressing. Afterward, we went out to a local restaurant for dinner, then had a look at the "floating mosque," which was very pretty, lighted in the darkness and reflcting itself in the surrounding lake.
My four friends left before dawn on Sunday to catch the early plane back to KL. I had booked a room at a hotel in town for Sunday night. I got up around 8 a.m. and walked on the beach, meeting not a single other human in an hour. I sat under a palm tree and meditated while looking east, toward the island. Then I set off in search of breakfast. The resort family said they could make me some eggs, or I could try the food stalls on the main road, near the mosque (not the floating mosque but a local one). I walked past a lot of local houses and a munching pair of water buffalo to the stalls, where I had a plate of nasi lemak and two glasses of teh ais (iced local tea with sweet condensed milk).
All the other diners were men. Most of them were eating keropok lekor, which you could serve yourself from a large crockpot filled with hot water. Everyone used the sauce liberally.
One of the resort family brothers drove me to my hotel in KT. On the way he told me about their many international visitors -- from Italy, Denmark, England, Australia. Overhearing a conversation once between two European men, the resort owner realized that one of the men owned an international chain of hotels. He did not seem to be bragging as he told me this but rather to be marveling still that someone like that comes to stay at his family's place. Of course, I complimented him on the resort -- I said it seems very Malaysian, not Western, and that is really special. There is no swimming pool and no gift shop, just a few dozen chalets facing the ocean, a tidy garden of local shrubs, and coconut palms. Our room didn't have a TV.
Other Highlights
The Terengganu State Museum has the best keris exhibit I've seen so far. The keris (also spelled kris or kriss) was a significant personal weapon in the past, a long dagger with a specialized sheath worn tucked into the sarong around a man's waist. The local martial art, silat, includes forms for handling the keris. Its function is stabbing, not slashing or cutting.
The exhibit in the Terengganu museum includes information about the hilt (hulu), which normally has a turned bulge at the end. One of the five or six traditional designs is the tilted baby chick head, and some of these are quite beautifully carved. Two very good illustrations showed me how the keris should be held (a little like a pistol grip). Another part of the exhibit focused on the the ring that connects the shaft to the hilt; this is often a gorgeously intricate cap of silver or bronze. What I still don't know is why there's a little curlicue at one corner of the top of the blade, but I imagine it might be like a signature of the forger of the blade.
A disappointment in many museum exhibits here is the sparseness of explanatory text. Even in Bahasa, often there is no more than a label. The Terengganu museum had a lot of text in English (as well as Bahasa), but for beautiful exhibits such as the keris and the traditional textiles, it would be nice if there were enough text to really explain what the visitor is looking at. There's also a tendency to displays paragraphs of small text printed on small cards fixed to the back wall of a glass case. I don't know how many people can read text that small at such a distance, but I certainly can't. The museums here remind me of U.S. museums I visited as a child 30 to 40 years ago. I would guess that as Malaysia's development continues, museum curators will be trained in the new styles and the exhibits will be updated.
In a park on the museum grounds stand five traditional houses, quite nice to look at, but only one is open to entry. There is no text at all about the houses, so you don't know what you're looking at, except in the case of the Rumah Tele, which is open, but it is really a hodgepodge inside. They could have a small version of Sarawak's excellent Cultural Village here, but perhaps they have no funding for staff. The tiny gift kiosk was closed the day I visited.
Another nice thing to see at the museum was the Terengganu Stone, which I had read about. The inscription is Malay written in the Arabic script (Jawi) and confirms that the people of this land practice Islam. The date of the carving is 1303 CE.
On Monday I took a half-day tour with a local tour outfit. With four other Westerners and three Malays (two boatmen and our guide), I rode in a motorboat up the Sungai Marang, hoping to see some wildlife. We saw three or four swimming iguanas, a pack of monkeys that fled noisily as we got close, and several magnificent eagles flying overhead. We docked at a small kampung where we should have seen the palm roof-making industry in action, but all the roof-makers were out on the river gathering new branches, which they lash together to form giant shingles. We saw their finished work stacked up like decks of large leafy cards. We met a woman who sat patiently with two small children outside a small hut, inside of which she was boiling palm sugar for future sale.
We walked down a dirt track to a house in the jungle where an old couple live with three or four guard dogs and two tame monkeys, both of them chained to separate trees. One of the monkeys was unchained, re-attached to an extremely long rope leash, and sent up a tall palm to knock down a young coconut for us. The old man who managed the monkey wore a striped collar T-shirt, plaid sarong, and yellow rubber boots. Our tour guy borrowed an impressively curved parang and hacked into the coconut. Glasses were brought out from the home, and we all swigged a glass of the juice. A second coconut was brought down, but only the Malays and I drank a second glass.
Kuala Terengganu
Walking around in Kuala Terengganu later that day, I considered how little I know about Malaysia -- in spite of how much I have learned. The city is small and not terribly modern. One main road winds from the east side up around the north side, where the Sungai Terengganu ("sungai" mean "river"; "kuala" means the place where two rivers meet) enters the South China Sea, and on down to the west and the airport (which has only two gates). It's a four-lane road, not too difficult to cross at any point (unlike the busy highways that cover Kuala Lumpur, which one would not dare to cross). There is, as the Lonely Planet guidebook points out, no nightlife in this state capital. I saw only two fast-food restaurants, a Pizza Hut and a KFC, side by side near one end of the very small Chinatown. I think it's the first city in Malaysia where I have not seen a 7-Eleven.
I don't mean to use Western chain businesses as a measure of success or modernization per se, and in many ways, I think maybe Kuala Terengganu today is not so different from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (another state capital) as it was 30 years ago. Malaysia got its independence from Britain less than 50 years ago, and before that, there was only one university in the whole country. People didn't have electricity or running water. Today kids wear Bata rubber sandals; then they went barefoot. Today, there are far more motorbikes in KT than cars; then people walked. The roads today, which are mostly smooth and reliable, did not exist even 20 years ago in many places.
I realize I know almost nothing about how it feels to be a part of this culture, with one foot still in the kampung of 50 years ago, and the full weight of the body shifting forward to the other foot, the foot that is planted firmly in the future, with no going back.
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Friday, June 1, 2007
Malaysia Vacation Report
Malaysia Travel Guide:
We visited Georgetown (Penang), Kohta Bahru, the Perhentian Islands, Kuala Lumpur, and Sandakan (on the island of Borneo). There doesn't seem to be any epinions categories for the Perhentians or for Sabah, so I'll just fold everything in to one review.
General Impressions
The people of Malaysia were incredibly kind. They were always tripping over themselves to help us. They treated us very well and were happy to see tourists. This certainly made our time more enjoyable. Oh and by the way, they all speak excellent English.
However, we did not enjoy our time in peninsular Malaysia. We found the sights were not impressive and not well maintained. The cities were filthy - a kind of filth we never saw in Thailand. Homeless people are everywhere with various afflictions are everywhere. Santitation is often very poor. Now, when we finally make our way to China or India, this is what I expect to see - but there's no Great Wall or Taj Mahal in Malaysia. There's only the Petronas Twin Towers.
Our visit to Borneo (Sabah) we very much enjoyed, although we didn't really see anything more than the orangutan sanctuary we visited.
Budget accomodation was a huge step down from what we got in Thailand. We were glad to have the Lonely Planet to find some of the more expensive hotels - the budget hotels were below our minimum standard (clean room, private, quiet, safe, and hopefully a private bathroom).
Public transportation is well organized. We only took one inter-city bus, but local buses were good. Sabah is almost impossible to get around without flying due to the conditions of roads.
Georgetown
We arrived in the island of Penang after a flight from Chiang Mai in Thailand. We arrived in the airport late at night. After hitting an ATM, we paid for a taxi coupon to get to our hotel, such as it was.
The drive in from the airport to Georgetown took about 40 minutes. The Cathay Hotel was described in our trusty Let's Go guidebook as an "old colonial" hotel with lofty ceilings, and perfect for couples. We decided to splurge on it - it was twice the price of other Georgetown hotels and about 10 times what we'd been paying in Thailand. Well, the entry and lobby area was somewhat impressive, with a sunken lobby and big dual staircases leading up to the sky high second floor. If you closed your eyes, you could imagine a time when this hotel would have been beautiful. Passing the sign for the "Men's Health Club" ..ahem.. we got to our room. Yes, it had high ceilings. But any romantic illusion stopped there. The ceiling was sheetrock. The walls were worn and dirty with peeling paint. The shower, although it did have hot water and was private, had a hand held shower-head with randomly burning hot and freezing cold water. (Truly European, I guess!) But the most lovely touch in our room was a hand scribbled graffitti just beside the mirror from some long departed hotel guest: "Do not leave anything of value in this room, it *WILL* be stolen by the staff".
So, after heading out to the nearest payphone and making alternate arrangements for our accommodation the following night (it was too late and we were too tired to change hotels that evening), we went to sleep. The following morning we headed over to the Guidebook highly recommended Olive Spring Hotel, and found out just how nice a hotel Cathay actually was. Our room was on the third floor of a ramshackle old wooden building, with random holes in the floorboards and stairs, large enough that you could clearly see down to the floors below. In most first world countries, this building would have long since been condemned. But not in Malaysia. The "room" (such as it was) wasn't so much of a room as a partially enclosed space. The walls didnt reach all the way to the ceiling, so every noise of every other guest, or every noise from the lobby or street could be heard loud and clear. Not to mention that if we wanted to use the toilet, we had to risk life and limb going down those stairs (which were pulling away from the wall). We should have just switched hotels again, but since we'd never been to Georgetown before, we wanted to start seeing the sights. Such as they were.
We decided to start the day with a bus ride out to Dhammikarama Burmese Buddhist Temple and Wat Chayamang Kalarm. They were significantly less then inspiring (now we understand why neither of the hotels had even heard about them). They were badly kept up and featured strangely pink Buddhas. We hopped a bus back to check out the sites back in the main part of town. They were not much better. We visited a few temples. The Khoo Kongsi family Clan House was the most interesting, and was still pretty unspectacular. We visited little India, where we saw an old man on a bike get slammed into by one of the many motorcycles racing around town. We stepped over mounds of trash to get into the Kuan Yin Temple (Goddess of Mercy) temple, checked it off our list, and moved on.
By about noon, we were done with sightseeing in Georgetown and decided to try one of the day trips that were recommended in the guidebook, the Kek Lok Si Temple. The bus dropped us off about a 15 minute walk away. On the way up, we were forced into walking up a path with dozens of tourist souvenir stalls. Being the only tourists in sight, they were pretty aggressive for business. Upon finally arriving at the temple, we were greeted with a dirty pond of stagnant water full to the brim with turtles climbing over each other as they desperately tried to get out of the filthy water onto the little land that was available to sun themselves. Oh, PETA, where are you??
The temple itself was decidedly non-authentic. Almost each holy room seemed to also house a not-so-holy souvenir stand selling bulk-produced cheap trinkets (the same you see in every tourist stand). We paid our $5 each to climb the 7 tier pagoda (the one you see in all the tourist pictures). The tower is not well kept up - paint is falling off everywhere, an altar lies in ruin from some construction project long since abandoned. Scaffolding equipment, caked with dust, is strewn about the different floors of the pagoda. Bare wires hang down from the ceiling along the narrow crumbling stair case. For one of the main tourist attractions of this island, it is simply an embarassment. After the tower fiasco we decided it was time to give up on the sights of Georgetown/Penang, and head to the shopping mall.
Komtar is a modern eyesore of a building that dominates the downtown area. It is where intercity and local buses depart from, as well as a location for government offices. Fortunately, it also houses a modern, clean, A/C, cheap (and huge) shopping mall inside. We killed the rest of the day shopping for Malay t-shirts with hillarious engrish written on them ("Vast Regins of Spase!!", "Give me love - good friends is here!") and surfing the net, wondering why we'd left Thailand.
Kohta Bahru
We arrived early at the bus station in Penang (we did NOT want to miss our bus out of there). The intercity buses are very well run, we were even able to reserve front row seats for our trip to the east coast (reserving seats on a bus? Unheard of!! ) . The scenery was spectacular - we were glad we decided not to take the overnight bus. At one point, a police officer boarded the bus and started asking me questions in broken english - Passport, Bus Ticket, How do you like Malaysia (I lied), etc. We were worried he'd have to go through each passenger, but apparently I served as the representative for the entire bus and he was happy to let the whole bus go after grilling me.
We arrived in KB and got off the bus to the now-familiar dozens of touts offering taxi rides and accomodation. They even claimed they could get us to the Perhentian Islands (our ultimate destination) today - which as far as we'd determined, was impossible. The ferry leaves from Kuala Besut, which is 1 hour away, and the cabbie would only have about 40 minutes to get us there. We figured it was not worth the risk of getting stuck in Besut without accomodation, so we just decided to overnight in KB. We went to check out the KB Backpackers Lodge 2, just a couple minutes walk from the bus station. After our bad experiences with accomodation in Georgetown, we decided we would look a little more carefully before agreeing to the room. The dark, dingy room had cracks through the walls to outside, and a pretty frightening entry way. The main KB Packpackers lodge across the street wasn't much better. We walked 10 minutes to get to Pantai Timur Inn, which, while being twice the price, actually was comfortable, clean, and we felt safe. Obviously the standards for acceptable budget accomodation drop sharply once you step over the border from Thailand to Malaysia.
Our next task was to figure out how we'd get down to Kuala Lumpur after our visit to the Islands. We were interested in taking the train, as we read it is quite pretty scenery through the highlands (unlike the bus, which goes around). There is very sketchy information on the net about a train that goes to KL. From what we could figure out, as of 7/03, there is a night train that runs to KL daily. On Fri-Sun, there is also an express "day train" which leaves at 4pm? and pulls into KL at 4AM (!!). There might, or might not, be a "jungle train" which does leave in the morning from KB (5am?) and runs south towards Johor Bahru, but it would be necessary to make a connection in Jema to a different train to get to KL, and we wouldn't be there until 8PM, so we'd probably miss the last train and have to overnight in Gemas, but neither our Lonely Planet nor the Let's Go had any information on this town, so we just decided that the best bet was to fly from Kota Bahru to KL. This also bought us an extra day, but we didn't know if we'd want to spend it in the Perhentians or in KL, so we didn't make any transportation commitments.
For the rest of the evening we wandered around KB. There was lots of interesting looking food from street vendors, but we were being pretty careful about what we ate. We ended up eating at a horrible vegetarian restaurant (Naturel Vegetarian Food) with nothing but unsafe (fountain) drinks and overly salty, heavily fried noodles. The shopping was nothing special - I picked up a Terminator 3 VCD for $3. We walked over to the Gelanggang Seni Cultural Center to watch a display of "shadow puppets", a traditional Malay art. Scheduled to start at 9pm, the first hour had nothing but traditional music from a band hidden behind the curtains. Confused tourists got up from the grass and looked in on the band from the sides of the stage. Finally we got some shadow puppet action happening, but it would last for only 5 minutes then back to the band, followed by some wailing audio feedback which had everyone covering their ears. We gave up and went home.
The taxi picked us up at our hotel in the morning and got us to Kuala Besut with time to spare. We bought our tickets on the 'fast boat', and sat waiting with all the smoking Europeans for the boat. It was possibly the most unpleasant boat ride we'd ever been on. The boat did look modern and safe, but the driver was pushing the boat so hard that we were planing off every wave, slamming the boat down repeatedly. This is *NOT* a boat for anyone with back problems, or motion sickness. The driver seemed to be enjoying the rough ride, looking back and smiling and laughing at us as we kept losing discs in our back. The 50 minute ride is only from the pier on the mainland to the first dropoff point - depending on your hotel location, it can take a while before you get dropped off. The fastboat is too big to go on shore, so usually a motorboat from the hotel would come out and meet the fast boat to ferry the tourists back on shore.
Perhentian Islands
Our bad luck continued at our hotel. The Coral View Resort seemed to have a somewhat reasonable price, but the non-fan rooms only offered single beds that couldn't be pushed together. They are also high up on the hill and require climbing over rickety stairs to get to. We upgraded to the A/C room to get a full bed. Wendy went to use the toilet, and as it was draining, the wastewater spouted all over the floor. Ok - time for a new room. Again. I go down to the main desk, where I am told that is the last room in that class, and I'd have to spend an extra US $10 a night to get the next step up (1 minute walk from beach). They told me the toilet would be fixed within an hour - no thanks - and they wouldn't give me a free upgade to the next room. After arguing with the manager we finally agreed on a price in the middle.
The hotel's beach we'd landed on was full of coral and not very pleasent to walk or swim in. Fortunately, our guidebook told us that the most beautiful beach on the island was next door at the Perhentian Island resort. There is a series of steps/walkways over the headland to get there, and it's worth the walk. The beach is beautiful, the water is turquoise, crystal clear with nice soft sand. We spent the rest of the day sleeping, swimming, and checking out all the fish that swam around the coral on the headland.
We ate at the hotel's restaurant that evening. The food was edible but uninspired. The ambience was certainly nice however, as we overlooked the ocean. The only vegetarian choice was too spicy for Wendy (even after we'd asked for non-spicy), so we went for a walk down the beach in search of more food for her. We found a lodge serving pizza, and sat down on tables on the beach again. Earlier, we'd noticed there was a bit of wind off the shore, but the sky had been clear as the sun was setting so it didn't concern us. But suddenly, as we waited for our meal, the wind whipped up, and the waitstaff all came rushing out of the main restaurant area, yelling at everyone to get inside, bring their drinks, and table numbers! There was a bit of mad panic as everyone crowded inside the small roofed building, which suddenly was given solid walls as they rolled down the metal shutters. Seconds later the storm hit, an almost horizontal blast of rain and wind coming from almost all directions at once.
Through the cracks of thunder, we could hear tree branches falling around the restaurant. We decided that this storm wasn't just a passing thing, and asked for our pizza to go. Within seconds of stepping out from the shelter, we were soaked to the skin. Fortunately, our little mag-lite was easily up to the task of getting us home, as we jumped over fallen branches, waded through flooded paths, and made our way along the beach, knowing that we were only a few hotels down. Amazingly, and fortunately, the lights never actually went out, so once we found our resort we could follow the path lighting back to our cabin. What was a 5 minute walk out to the restaurant turned into a 30 minute ordeal home, taking shelter under whatever buildings we could find during the harder downpours. It was scary.
Glad to be back in our room, we sat down and ate the pizza, such as it was. Then, an hour later, food poisoning hit me. I spent the rest of the following day in bed, trying to sleep in between the rev of the chainsaws and yells of the workers as the island cleanup began. Fortunately we'd brought some antibiotics from home, and the following day I felt well enough to try some snorkelling. The little bit that we did do was spectacular. We heard that there were sharks (not scary) and turtles to be seen just off the headland, but I wasn't feeling well enough to try it. Crowds of smiling, laughing Japanese tourists were being ferried back and forth all day from the resort's beach to see them.
By the next morning, I was fine, but uh-oh, now Wendy was not feeling too good. We had to get off this island and get to Kuala Lumpur. The fastboat ride was slightly better then the way over (thanks to a heavyset guy who sat at the very front of the boat, preventing it from planing over every wave!). We got a taxi direct to KB (We tried to haggle unsuccesfully, and backed down when we saw he was the only taxi left. Unfortunately what we didnt realize is that a 2 minute walk into town would have taken us to about a dozen more cabs sitting around). The airport in KB was very nice, modern, and air conditioned. When the ticket counter opened, we found that the next flight to KL was full, but we were lucky enough to get standby seats.
Kuala Lumpur
The KL airport is one of SE Asia's newest airports, and is immaculate, modern, and super-efficient. Although located 70 km (40 miles) out of the city, the brand new KLIA Ekspres train takes you right downtown in 28 minutes. Don't be suckered in by the cabs offering cheaper fares then the train - it can take up to an hour and a half, depending on traffic. The train is the only way to go. It was pretty empty both times we took it, lots of room for luggage, and very smooth. Which was important, considering how Wendy was feeling by then.
We took a few subway rides to the recommended hotel right across from the bus station, the Anuja Backpackers Inn. The room was very small, but seemed clean enough. The shared bathrooms however required walking through the smoke-filled lobby, past strange ever-present men who looked up from the TV to stare at us as we shuffled past in our PJ's. The A/C, although it appeared to pump out cold air, did not make a difference in the room temp. The smell of cigarette smoke wafted in from the lobby. However, what we didnt pay attention to as we checked out the room was the noise. It was on the second floor right next to a very busy street - we might as well have been camping on the street corner. The noise quietened down sufficiently that we were able to catch a few hours of sleep before the morning traffic woke us up.
Fortunately, another hotel that was mentioned in the guidebook as being for "business travellers" was right next door, the Katari Hotel. I went to check it out - it was American motel style, and exactly what we were looking for. For twice the price, we were able to get a private bathroom with oodles of hot water, great sound insulation from the road, and clean clean clean. I would recommend this hotel very highly. Great location, too. The 80 ringgit ($20) price was a promotion, but we would have been happy to spend twice that amount for the difference in comfort level.
Unfortunately, we spent most of our day in the room, still recovering from our little visit to the Perhentian Islands. The private bathroom turned out to be our most visited (and memorable) site in KL. We did make it out to check out a few temples, and some shopping. We would highly recommend the Peter Hoe boutique just a few minutes away from the central market - very good prices, high quality crafts, and nice environment. It might not be as cheap as elsewhere, but it's much more relaxed and no haggling. They also have a larger location juat a few minutes away. We also checked out the Central Market, saw a Batik demonstration and bought some other nice souvenirs (If you buy a traditional kite, good luck getting it home, there doesn't seem to be any boxes in Malaysia big enough for it!! Fortunately we found a post office in the airport on our way out of KL where the guy bent over backwards to create a box solution which worked perfectly). Anyways, the Central Market is definitely worth a stroll. Also, the covered street market along Petaling St. is full of knockoff t-shirt and fake designer watches and is an interesting walk.
The next sight we saw, unfortunately, was the private hospital next to our hotel, where they seemed just a little too keen to admit Wendy for the night. After determining that it wasn't anything more exotic then just pretty bad food poisoning, we just waited it out at the hotel.
Before our flight out of KL, we checked out the Must See sight of Kuala Lumpur, the Petronas Towers. We got there early (8:30am), as the free tickets up to the skybridge are given out quickly for the whole day. Our allocated time slot was at 10am. We got to spend about 20 minutes up on the bridge between the two towers. The view isn't that spectacular, and is only about half way up. I guess it's a must-do just because everyone now associates the Petronas towers with KL, but it really isn't that special. Apparently, the telecom tower offers a more impressive view.
Next up was Borneo.
Sandakan (Borneo)
Our flight from KL to Sandkan had us stopping in Kota Kinabalu. There isn't too much to do in the airport, except to drink $2 bottles of water and shop at a few overpriced boutiques. We arrived in Sandakan after a beautiful sunset flight over the spectacular Mount Kinabalu. Luckily we met up with a British lady who was also visiting the same hotel (Sepilok Jungle Resort) and had the organization skills we were lacking to arrange to be picked up by the resort.
The resort was unbelievably beautiful. Malaysia was finally starting to look up. Fantastic landscaped grounds with a pond running through the property. Great food at the restaurant, and very reasonably priced - especially considering there was no other choices! We paid $50 a night for a room with AC and hot shower. There were lots of places to sit down and just relax on the property, soaking in the environment of the jungle around you, the chriping of the birds, etc. This was definitely the highlight of Malaysia for us. The only negative was that there was cockroaches in the room. Not a lot - we averaged one squash a day - and they were coming up from where the shower drained. We couldn't really blame the hotel - the place was impeccable, and we were in the middle of the jungle, after all...
The hotel is just a 10 minute walk from the the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabiliation Center. The center re-introduces previously captured and injured orangutans to the wild. There are two daily feedings which help newly freed orangutans make the transition to living in the wild. This gives visitors a spectacular opportunity to see the orangutans up close and personal in the wild. We had enough time at the lodge to see three different feedings of the orangutans. During the first feeding it was raining, but a few still showed up, taking shelter between the trees as they scarfed down the bananas. The second feeding was the best as all the other tourists left after the first 20 minutes, leaving only a handful of us watching a family of orangs including a mother and a baby. It was an amazing experience. We got pretty close to them (within 10 feet as they swung by on the ropes to the feeding platforms). There were also macaque monkeys, who were a lot less shy (though they can be agressive) and would often scamper right amongst the tourists as they waited for the orangs to leave to eat the leftover fruit. Visiting the park isn't that cheap, about $8 a person (or $4 with no camera).
We visited Georgetown (Penang), Kohta Bahru, the Perhentian Islands, Kuala Lumpur, and Sandakan (on the island of Borneo). There doesn't seem to be any epinions categories for the Perhentians or for Sabah, so I'll just fold everything in to one review.
General Impressions
The people of Malaysia were incredibly kind. They were always tripping over themselves to help us. They treated us very well and were happy to see tourists. This certainly made our time more enjoyable. Oh and by the way, they all speak excellent English.
However, we did not enjoy our time in peninsular Malaysia. We found the sights were not impressive and not well maintained. The cities were filthy - a kind of filth we never saw in Thailand. Homeless people are everywhere with various afflictions are everywhere. Santitation is often very poor. Now, when we finally make our way to China or India, this is what I expect to see - but there's no Great Wall or Taj Mahal in Malaysia. There's only the Petronas Twin Towers.
Our visit to Borneo (Sabah) we very much enjoyed, although we didn't really see anything more than the orangutan sanctuary we visited.
Budget accomodation was a huge step down from what we got in Thailand. We were glad to have the Lonely Planet to find some of the more expensive hotels - the budget hotels were below our minimum standard (clean room, private, quiet, safe, and hopefully a private bathroom).
Public transportation is well organized. We only took one inter-city bus, but local buses were good. Sabah is almost impossible to get around without flying due to the conditions of roads.
Georgetown
We arrived in the island of Penang after a flight from Chiang Mai in Thailand. We arrived in the airport late at night. After hitting an ATM, we paid for a taxi coupon to get to our hotel, such as it was.
The drive in from the airport to Georgetown took about 40 minutes. The Cathay Hotel was described in our trusty Let's Go guidebook as an "old colonial" hotel with lofty ceilings, and perfect for couples. We decided to splurge on it - it was twice the price of other Georgetown hotels and about 10 times what we'd been paying in Thailand. Well, the entry and lobby area was somewhat impressive, with a sunken lobby and big dual staircases leading up to the sky high second floor. If you closed your eyes, you could imagine a time when this hotel would have been beautiful. Passing the sign for the "Men's Health Club" ..ahem.. we got to our room. Yes, it had high ceilings. But any romantic illusion stopped there. The ceiling was sheetrock. The walls were worn and dirty with peeling paint. The shower, although it did have hot water and was private, had a hand held shower-head with randomly burning hot and freezing cold water. (Truly European, I guess!) But the most lovely touch in our room was a hand scribbled graffitti just beside the mirror from some long departed hotel guest: "Do not leave anything of value in this room, it *WILL* be stolen by the staff".
So, after heading out to the nearest payphone and making alternate arrangements for our accommodation the following night (it was too late and we were too tired to change hotels that evening), we went to sleep. The following morning we headed over to the Guidebook highly recommended Olive Spring Hotel, and found out just how nice a hotel Cathay actually was. Our room was on the third floor of a ramshackle old wooden building, with random holes in the floorboards and stairs, large enough that you could clearly see down to the floors below. In most first world countries, this building would have long since been condemned. But not in Malaysia. The "room" (such as it was) wasn't so much of a room as a partially enclosed space. The walls didnt reach all the way to the ceiling, so every noise of every other guest, or every noise from the lobby or street could be heard loud and clear. Not to mention that if we wanted to use the toilet, we had to risk life and limb going down those stairs (which were pulling away from the wall). We should have just switched hotels again, but since we'd never been to Georgetown before, we wanted to start seeing the sights. Such as they were.
We decided to start the day with a bus ride out to Dhammikarama Burmese Buddhist Temple and Wat Chayamang Kalarm. They were significantly less then inspiring (now we understand why neither of the hotels had even heard about them). They were badly kept up and featured strangely pink Buddhas. We hopped a bus back to check out the sites back in the main part of town. They were not much better. We visited a few temples. The Khoo Kongsi family Clan House was the most interesting, and was still pretty unspectacular. We visited little India, where we saw an old man on a bike get slammed into by one of the many motorcycles racing around town. We stepped over mounds of trash to get into the Kuan Yin Temple (Goddess of Mercy) temple, checked it off our list, and moved on.
By about noon, we were done with sightseeing in Georgetown and decided to try one of the day trips that were recommended in the guidebook, the Kek Lok Si Temple. The bus dropped us off about a 15 minute walk away. On the way up, we were forced into walking up a path with dozens of tourist souvenir stalls. Being the only tourists in sight, they were pretty aggressive for business. Upon finally arriving at the temple, we were greeted with a dirty pond of stagnant water full to the brim with turtles climbing over each other as they desperately tried to get out of the filthy water onto the little land that was available to sun themselves. Oh, PETA, where are you??
The temple itself was decidedly non-authentic. Almost each holy room seemed to also house a not-so-holy souvenir stand selling bulk-produced cheap trinkets (the same you see in every tourist stand). We paid our $5 each to climb the 7 tier pagoda (the one you see in all the tourist pictures). The tower is not well kept up - paint is falling off everywhere, an altar lies in ruin from some construction project long since abandoned. Scaffolding equipment, caked with dust, is strewn about the different floors of the pagoda. Bare wires hang down from the ceiling along the narrow crumbling stair case. For one of the main tourist attractions of this island, it is simply an embarassment. After the tower fiasco we decided it was time to give up on the sights of Georgetown/Penang, and head to the shopping mall.
Komtar is a modern eyesore of a building that dominates the downtown area. It is where intercity and local buses depart from, as well as a location for government offices. Fortunately, it also houses a modern, clean, A/C, cheap (and huge) shopping mall inside. We killed the rest of the day shopping for Malay t-shirts with hillarious engrish written on them ("Vast Regins of Spase!!", "Give me love - good friends is here!") and surfing the net, wondering why we'd left Thailand.
Kohta Bahru
We arrived early at the bus station in Penang (we did NOT want to miss our bus out of there). The intercity buses are very well run, we were even able to reserve front row seats for our trip to the east coast (reserving seats on a bus? Unheard of!! ) . The scenery was spectacular - we were glad we decided not to take the overnight bus. At one point, a police officer boarded the bus and started asking me questions in broken english - Passport, Bus Ticket, How do you like Malaysia (I lied), etc. We were worried he'd have to go through each passenger, but apparently I served as the representative for the entire bus and he was happy to let the whole bus go after grilling me.
We arrived in KB and got off the bus to the now-familiar dozens of touts offering taxi rides and accomodation. They even claimed they could get us to the Perhentian Islands (our ultimate destination) today - which as far as we'd determined, was impossible. The ferry leaves from Kuala Besut, which is 1 hour away, and the cabbie would only have about 40 minutes to get us there. We figured it was not worth the risk of getting stuck in Besut without accomodation, so we just decided to overnight in KB. We went to check out the KB Backpackers Lodge 2, just a couple minutes walk from the bus station. After our bad experiences with accomodation in Georgetown, we decided we would look a little more carefully before agreeing to the room. The dark, dingy room had cracks through the walls to outside, and a pretty frightening entry way. The main KB Packpackers lodge across the street wasn't much better. We walked 10 minutes to get to Pantai Timur Inn, which, while being twice the price, actually was comfortable, clean, and we felt safe. Obviously the standards for acceptable budget accomodation drop sharply once you step over the border from Thailand to Malaysia.
Our next task was to figure out how we'd get down to Kuala Lumpur after our visit to the Islands. We were interested in taking the train, as we read it is quite pretty scenery through the highlands (unlike the bus, which goes around). There is very sketchy information on the net about a train that goes to KL. From what we could figure out, as of 7/03, there is a night train that runs to KL daily. On Fri-Sun, there is also an express "day train" which leaves at 4pm? and pulls into KL at 4AM (!!). There might, or might not, be a "jungle train" which does leave in the morning from KB (5am?) and runs south towards Johor Bahru, but it would be necessary to make a connection in Jema to a different train to get to KL, and we wouldn't be there until 8PM, so we'd probably miss the last train and have to overnight in Gemas, but neither our Lonely Planet nor the Let's Go had any information on this town, so we just decided that the best bet was to fly from Kota Bahru to KL. This also bought us an extra day, but we didn't know if we'd want to spend it in the Perhentians or in KL, so we didn't make any transportation commitments.
For the rest of the evening we wandered around KB. There was lots of interesting looking food from street vendors, but we were being pretty careful about what we ate. We ended up eating at a horrible vegetarian restaurant (Naturel Vegetarian Food) with nothing but unsafe (fountain) drinks and overly salty, heavily fried noodles. The shopping was nothing special - I picked up a Terminator 3 VCD for $3. We walked over to the Gelanggang Seni Cultural Center to watch a display of "shadow puppets", a traditional Malay art. Scheduled to start at 9pm, the first hour had nothing but traditional music from a band hidden behind the curtains. Confused tourists got up from the grass and looked in on the band from the sides of the stage. Finally we got some shadow puppet action happening, but it would last for only 5 minutes then back to the band, followed by some wailing audio feedback which had everyone covering their ears. We gave up and went home.
The taxi picked us up at our hotel in the morning and got us to Kuala Besut with time to spare. We bought our tickets on the 'fast boat', and sat waiting with all the smoking Europeans for the boat. It was possibly the most unpleasant boat ride we'd ever been on. The boat did look modern and safe, but the driver was pushing the boat so hard that we were planing off every wave, slamming the boat down repeatedly. This is *NOT* a boat for anyone with back problems, or motion sickness. The driver seemed to be enjoying the rough ride, looking back and smiling and laughing at us as we kept losing discs in our back. The 50 minute ride is only from the pier on the mainland to the first dropoff point - depending on your hotel location, it can take a while before you get dropped off. The fastboat is too big to go on shore, so usually a motorboat from the hotel would come out and meet the fast boat to ferry the tourists back on shore.
Perhentian Islands
Our bad luck continued at our hotel. The Coral View Resort seemed to have a somewhat reasonable price, but the non-fan rooms only offered single beds that couldn't be pushed together. They are also high up on the hill and require climbing over rickety stairs to get to. We upgraded to the A/C room to get a full bed. Wendy went to use the toilet, and as it was draining, the wastewater spouted all over the floor. Ok - time for a new room. Again. I go down to the main desk, where I am told that is the last room in that class, and I'd have to spend an extra US $10 a night to get the next step up (1 minute walk from beach). They told me the toilet would be fixed within an hour - no thanks - and they wouldn't give me a free upgade to the next room. After arguing with the manager we finally agreed on a price in the middle.
The hotel's beach we'd landed on was full of coral and not very pleasent to walk or swim in. Fortunately, our guidebook told us that the most beautiful beach on the island was next door at the Perhentian Island resort. There is a series of steps/walkways over the headland to get there, and it's worth the walk. The beach is beautiful, the water is turquoise, crystal clear with nice soft sand. We spent the rest of the day sleeping, swimming, and checking out all the fish that swam around the coral on the headland.
We ate at the hotel's restaurant that evening. The food was edible but uninspired. The ambience was certainly nice however, as we overlooked the ocean. The only vegetarian choice was too spicy for Wendy (even after we'd asked for non-spicy), so we went for a walk down the beach in search of more food for her. We found a lodge serving pizza, and sat down on tables on the beach again. Earlier, we'd noticed there was a bit of wind off the shore, but the sky had been clear as the sun was setting so it didn't concern us. But suddenly, as we waited for our meal, the wind whipped up, and the waitstaff all came rushing out of the main restaurant area, yelling at everyone to get inside, bring their drinks, and table numbers! There was a bit of mad panic as everyone crowded inside the small roofed building, which suddenly was given solid walls as they rolled down the metal shutters. Seconds later the storm hit, an almost horizontal blast of rain and wind coming from almost all directions at once.
Through the cracks of thunder, we could hear tree branches falling around the restaurant. We decided that this storm wasn't just a passing thing, and asked for our pizza to go. Within seconds of stepping out from the shelter, we were soaked to the skin. Fortunately, our little mag-lite was easily up to the task of getting us home, as we jumped over fallen branches, waded through flooded paths, and made our way along the beach, knowing that we were only a few hotels down. Amazingly, and fortunately, the lights never actually went out, so once we found our resort we could follow the path lighting back to our cabin. What was a 5 minute walk out to the restaurant turned into a 30 minute ordeal home, taking shelter under whatever buildings we could find during the harder downpours. It was scary.
Glad to be back in our room, we sat down and ate the pizza, such as it was. Then, an hour later, food poisoning hit me. I spent the rest of the following day in bed, trying to sleep in between the rev of the chainsaws and yells of the workers as the island cleanup began. Fortunately we'd brought some antibiotics from home, and the following day I felt well enough to try some snorkelling. The little bit that we did do was spectacular. We heard that there were sharks (not scary) and turtles to be seen just off the headland, but I wasn't feeling well enough to try it. Crowds of smiling, laughing Japanese tourists were being ferried back and forth all day from the resort's beach to see them.
By the next morning, I was fine, but uh-oh, now Wendy was not feeling too good. We had to get off this island and get to Kuala Lumpur. The fastboat ride was slightly better then the way over (thanks to a heavyset guy who sat at the very front of the boat, preventing it from planing over every wave!). We got a taxi direct to KB (We tried to haggle unsuccesfully, and backed down when we saw he was the only taxi left. Unfortunately what we didnt realize is that a 2 minute walk into town would have taken us to about a dozen more cabs sitting around). The airport in KB was very nice, modern, and air conditioned. When the ticket counter opened, we found that the next flight to KL was full, but we were lucky enough to get standby seats.
Kuala Lumpur
The KL airport is one of SE Asia's newest airports, and is immaculate, modern, and super-efficient. Although located 70 km (40 miles) out of the city, the brand new KLIA Ekspres train takes you right downtown in 28 minutes. Don't be suckered in by the cabs offering cheaper fares then the train - it can take up to an hour and a half, depending on traffic. The train is the only way to go. It was pretty empty both times we took it, lots of room for luggage, and very smooth. Which was important, considering how Wendy was feeling by then.
We took a few subway rides to the recommended hotel right across from the bus station, the Anuja Backpackers Inn. The room was very small, but seemed clean enough. The shared bathrooms however required walking through the smoke-filled lobby, past strange ever-present men who looked up from the TV to stare at us as we shuffled past in our PJ's. The A/C, although it appeared to pump out cold air, did not make a difference in the room temp. The smell of cigarette smoke wafted in from the lobby. However, what we didnt pay attention to as we checked out the room was the noise. It was on the second floor right next to a very busy street - we might as well have been camping on the street corner. The noise quietened down sufficiently that we were able to catch a few hours of sleep before the morning traffic woke us up.
Fortunately, another hotel that was mentioned in the guidebook as being for "business travellers" was right next door, the Katari Hotel. I went to check it out - it was American motel style, and exactly what we were looking for. For twice the price, we were able to get a private bathroom with oodles of hot water, great sound insulation from the road, and clean clean clean. I would recommend this hotel very highly. Great location, too. The 80 ringgit ($20) price was a promotion, but we would have been happy to spend twice that amount for the difference in comfort level.
Unfortunately, we spent most of our day in the room, still recovering from our little visit to the Perhentian Islands. The private bathroom turned out to be our most visited (and memorable) site in KL. We did make it out to check out a few temples, and some shopping. We would highly recommend the Peter Hoe boutique just a few minutes away from the central market - very good prices, high quality crafts, and nice environment. It might not be as cheap as elsewhere, but it's much more relaxed and no haggling. They also have a larger location juat a few minutes away. We also checked out the Central Market, saw a Batik demonstration and bought some other nice souvenirs (If you buy a traditional kite, good luck getting it home, there doesn't seem to be any boxes in Malaysia big enough for it!! Fortunately we found a post office in the airport on our way out of KL where the guy bent over backwards to create a box solution which worked perfectly). Anyways, the Central Market is definitely worth a stroll. Also, the covered street market along Petaling St. is full of knockoff t-shirt and fake designer watches and is an interesting walk.
The next sight we saw, unfortunately, was the private hospital next to our hotel, where they seemed just a little too keen to admit Wendy for the night. After determining that it wasn't anything more exotic then just pretty bad food poisoning, we just waited it out at the hotel.
Before our flight out of KL, we checked out the Must See sight of Kuala Lumpur, the Petronas Towers. We got there early (8:30am), as the free tickets up to the skybridge are given out quickly for the whole day. Our allocated time slot was at 10am. We got to spend about 20 minutes up on the bridge between the two towers. The view isn't that spectacular, and is only about half way up. I guess it's a must-do just because everyone now associates the Petronas towers with KL, but it really isn't that special. Apparently, the telecom tower offers a more impressive view.
Next up was Borneo.
Sandakan (Borneo)
Our flight from KL to Sandkan had us stopping in Kota Kinabalu. There isn't too much to do in the airport, except to drink $2 bottles of water and shop at a few overpriced boutiques. We arrived in Sandakan after a beautiful sunset flight over the spectacular Mount Kinabalu. Luckily we met up with a British lady who was also visiting the same hotel (Sepilok Jungle Resort) and had the organization skills we were lacking to arrange to be picked up by the resort.
The resort was unbelievably beautiful. Malaysia was finally starting to look up. Fantastic landscaped grounds with a pond running through the property. Great food at the restaurant, and very reasonably priced - especially considering there was no other choices! We paid $50 a night for a room with AC and hot shower. There were lots of places to sit down and just relax on the property, soaking in the environment of the jungle around you, the chriping of the birds, etc. This was definitely the highlight of Malaysia for us. The only negative was that there was cockroaches in the room. Not a lot - we averaged one squash a day - and they were coming up from where the shower drained. We couldn't really blame the hotel - the place was impeccable, and we were in the middle of the jungle, after all...
The hotel is just a 10 minute walk from the the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabiliation Center. The center re-introduces previously captured and injured orangutans to the wild. There are two daily feedings which help newly freed orangutans make the transition to living in the wild. This gives visitors a spectacular opportunity to see the orangutans up close and personal in the wild. We had enough time at the lodge to see three different feedings of the orangutans. During the first feeding it was raining, but a few still showed up, taking shelter between the trees as they scarfed down the bananas. The second feeding was the best as all the other tourists left after the first 20 minutes, leaving only a handful of us watching a family of orangs including a mother and a baby. It was an amazing experience. We got pretty close to them (within 10 feet as they swung by on the ropes to the feeding platforms). There were also macaque monkeys, who were a lot less shy (though they can be agressive) and would often scamper right amongst the tourists as they waited for the orangs to leave to eat the leftover fruit. Visiting the park isn't that cheap, about $8 a person (or $4 with no camera).
Thursday, May 31, 2007
malaysia Melaka
Introduction
Melaka is located on the Western Coast of Peninsular Malaysia facing the Straits of Melaka, about 147 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur and 245 kilometers from Singpore. Melaka is actually found sandwiched between the states of Negeri Sembilan and Johor. It can be reached by excellent roads from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Internally it is serviced by a very good network of roads leading to all the historical places of interest. It covers and area of 658 square kilometers and is divided into three districts namely Alor Gajah, Melaka Tengah and Jasin.
Melaka was founded by Parameswara (or Raja Iskandar) the last Malay ruler of Temasik (ancient Singapore) in 1396 when he and his followers retreated up the straits to Muar, then to Sungai Ujung before settling at Bertam near the estuary of Melaka River.
Finding the place of strategic location, he decided to make a permanent settlement there, naming it "Melaka" after the name of the tree he leaned against.
The Melaka Sultanate occupies a special position in the history of Malaysia. Its inauguration marked the beginning of the emergence of a new Malay empire. The birthplace of the Malay Sultanates and Malaysia's historic city, Melaka provided the stage on which the Portuguese, Dutch and English played out their roles in shaping the history.
Melaka emerged as a strong maritime trading state under the industrious Parameswara and his chiefs. Melaka also began to be noticed by Muslim traders from West Asia and India, who until that period, had been concentrating their activities in Aru, Pedir and Pasai en-route to the East, especially China. Because of its strategic location straddling the Straits of Melaka, it thrived as a port-of-call and a centre of entrepot trade with ships and merchants from China, Japan, India, Arab and South Africa.
In 1511, it fell to the hands of the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch in 1641 after a fierce battle. In 1795, Melaka was given to the British to prevent it falling to the French when the Netherlands was captured during the Napoleonic Wars. It was returned to the Dutch in 1818 under the treaty of Vienna but was later exchanged by the British for Bangkahulu, Sumatra. From 1826 onwards, the British East India Company along with Singapore and Penang governed it, under the Straits Settlement administration in Calcutta.
The Dutch, who held Melaka for over a century, left many fine buildings marking their heritage. The most imposing relic of the Dutch period is the Stadthuys, a strikingly pink town hall which is today the oldest Dutch building in the Far East. Right next to it stands the bright red Christ Church, constructed with pink bricks imported from Holland and covered with local red lacerite. Today, these buildings together with the ruins of the Portuguese built A Famosa and St. Paul's Church are the most prominent reminders of the Europeans' presence in Melaka.
After World War II, anti-colonial sentiment bred in the country among the nationalists, the result of which was the proclamation of Independence by Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, Malaysia's first Prime Minister, at the Padang Pahlawan (Warrior's Field) at Bandar Hilir, Melaka on 20 February 1956.
Melaka is located on the Western Coast of Peninsular Malaysia facing the Straits of Melaka, about 147 kilometers from Kuala Lumpur and 245 kilometers from Singpore. Melaka is actually found sandwiched between the states of Negeri Sembilan and Johor. It can be reached by excellent roads from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Internally it is serviced by a very good network of roads leading to all the historical places of interest. It covers and area of 658 square kilometers and is divided into three districts namely Alor Gajah, Melaka Tengah and Jasin.
Melaka was founded by Parameswara (or Raja Iskandar) the last Malay ruler of Temasik (ancient Singapore) in 1396 when he and his followers retreated up the straits to Muar, then to Sungai Ujung before settling at Bertam near the estuary of Melaka River.
Finding the place of strategic location, he decided to make a permanent settlement there, naming it "Melaka" after the name of the tree he leaned against.
The Melaka Sultanate occupies a special position in the history of Malaysia. Its inauguration marked the beginning of the emergence of a new Malay empire. The birthplace of the Malay Sultanates and Malaysia's historic city, Melaka provided the stage on which the Portuguese, Dutch and English played out their roles in shaping the history.
Melaka emerged as a strong maritime trading state under the industrious Parameswara and his chiefs. Melaka also began to be noticed by Muslim traders from West Asia and India, who until that period, had been concentrating their activities in Aru, Pedir and Pasai en-route to the East, especially China. Because of its strategic location straddling the Straits of Melaka, it thrived as a port-of-call and a centre of entrepot trade with ships and merchants from China, Japan, India, Arab and South Africa.
In 1511, it fell to the hands of the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch in 1641 after a fierce battle. In 1795, Melaka was given to the British to prevent it falling to the French when the Netherlands was captured during the Napoleonic Wars. It was returned to the Dutch in 1818 under the treaty of Vienna but was later exchanged by the British for Bangkahulu, Sumatra. From 1826 onwards, the British East India Company along with Singapore and Penang governed it, under the Straits Settlement administration in Calcutta.
The Dutch, who held Melaka for over a century, left many fine buildings marking their heritage. The most imposing relic of the Dutch period is the Stadthuys, a strikingly pink town hall which is today the oldest Dutch building in the Far East. Right next to it stands the bright red Christ Church, constructed with pink bricks imported from Holland and covered with local red lacerite. Today, these buildings together with the ruins of the Portuguese built A Famosa and St. Paul's Church are the most prominent reminders of the Europeans' presence in Melaka.
After World War II, anti-colonial sentiment bred in the country among the nationalists, the result of which was the proclamation of Independence by Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, Malaysia's first Prime Minister, at the Padang Pahlawan (Warrior's Field) at Bandar Hilir, Melaka on 20 February 1956.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Malaysia Vacation Planning
From our starting point in the historic, port of Georgetown on the west coast, we'll venture into the rarely visited interior of the Malay peninsula - still covered by vast expanses of dense, jungle and inhabited by hunter-gatherer tribes.
We'll stay in bamboo, beachside chalets on coral-fringed islands off the east coast, for a genuine, 'off-the-beaten-track' look at this fascinating and surprisingly little known country. Discover a vibrant mix of cultures: spectacular and varied scenery, exotic flora and fauna, delicious local food and plenty of friendly people!
Take the Family
Although our holidays are usually unavailable to persons under the age of 18 we do offer selected tours to accompanied young people. Please note that our itineraries are suitable, or can be readily adapted, for children of all ages and we are hapy to provide tailored tours to family groups of four or more persons. We have successfully provided tours for families with children from ages 5 to 18. Malaysian itineraries are also easily modified by replacing more strenuous days with extra days in Bangkok, Ciang Mai, Penang or a couple of extra days at the beach.
Itinerary
Day 1: Departure from London for Penang Island.
Day 2: Arrival at Penang and transfer to a Chinatown hotel in the heart of old Georgetown. Afternoon to relax, or explore this historic town.
Day 3: Tour of some of the sites of Chinatown with the Penang Heritage Trust: temples, Chinese clan houses and British colonial period architecture.
Day 4: Visit Penang Hill with its Victorian era cable car, jungle canopy walkway and hike to the famous Botanical Gardens.
Day 5: Head into the interior, through the jungle-clad highlands to tranquil Banding Island on Temengor Lake. Accommodation at a beautifully situated, lakeside resort.
Day 6-7: 2 day expedition into the surrounding Belum Forest: trek through pristine rainforest to mountain streams and waterfalls, visit a village of the indigenous, forest-dwelling Orang Asli tribe, an exciting night hike through the forest and camping overnight in the jungle. With luck we'll see monkeys and elephants - spectacular scenery guaranteed.
Day 8: Transfer to Kota Baru on the East Coast – renowned as the centre of Malay, Muslim culture. Evening tour of the colourful, bustling night-market.
Day 9: Off to the Perhentian Islands, jungleclad and coral-fringed. Explore the island, swim or laze in a hammock. Tourism is still relatively undeveloped in these islands and we'll be staying in simple, comfortable beachside chalets.
Day 10: A snorkelling tour of some of the archipelago's lively coral reefs, with a chance to see baby reef sharks and giant sea turtles
Day 11: Relax on the beach, explore the jungle interior or check-out the prehistoric looking, giant monitor lizards that abound on the islands.
Day 12: Head south to the small town of Kuala Lipis. Situated in the centre of the peninsula, this now quaint backwater was an important administrative centre and rubber producing town during the colonial era.
Day 13: Leave by local train for a day trip to the little known Kenong Rimba Forest Reserve, where we'll trek through dense jungle, discover the amazing tropical flora and fauna, visit some of the area's unusual limestone cave formations and return in the evening to Kuala Lipis by riverboat.
Day 14: Continue south by train to Kuala Lumpur, where our hotel is situated in the heart of the Capital's vibrant Chinatown quarter. Evening to explore the local markets.
Day 15: Day tour of some of the sites of the fascinating Malaysian capital: Little India, Chinatown, the fabulous Victorian era architecture of Merdaka Square.
Day 16: Free morning to relax or an opportunity for some last minute shopping before an evening return flight to London.
Day 17: Morning arrival in London.
We'll stay in bamboo, beachside chalets on coral-fringed islands off the east coast, for a genuine, 'off-the-beaten-track' look at this fascinating and surprisingly little known country. Discover a vibrant mix of cultures: spectacular and varied scenery, exotic flora and fauna, delicious local food and plenty of friendly people!
Take the Family
Although our holidays are usually unavailable to persons under the age of 18 we do offer selected tours to accompanied young people. Please note that our itineraries are suitable, or can be readily adapted, for children of all ages and we are hapy to provide tailored tours to family groups of four or more persons. We have successfully provided tours for families with children from ages 5 to 18. Malaysian itineraries are also easily modified by replacing more strenuous days with extra days in Bangkok, Ciang Mai, Penang or a couple of extra days at the beach.
Itinerary
Day 1: Departure from London for Penang Island.
Day 2: Arrival at Penang and transfer to a Chinatown hotel in the heart of old Georgetown. Afternoon to relax, or explore this historic town.
Day 3: Tour of some of the sites of Chinatown with the Penang Heritage Trust: temples, Chinese clan houses and British colonial period architecture.
Day 4: Visit Penang Hill with its Victorian era cable car, jungle canopy walkway and hike to the famous Botanical Gardens.
Day 5: Head into the interior, through the jungle-clad highlands to tranquil Banding Island on Temengor Lake. Accommodation at a beautifully situated, lakeside resort.
Day 6-7: 2 day expedition into the surrounding Belum Forest: trek through pristine rainforest to mountain streams and waterfalls, visit a village of the indigenous, forest-dwelling Orang Asli tribe, an exciting night hike through the forest and camping overnight in the jungle. With luck we'll see monkeys and elephants - spectacular scenery guaranteed.
Day 8: Transfer to Kota Baru on the East Coast – renowned as the centre of Malay, Muslim culture. Evening tour of the colourful, bustling night-market.
Day 9: Off to the Perhentian Islands, jungleclad and coral-fringed. Explore the island, swim or laze in a hammock. Tourism is still relatively undeveloped in these islands and we'll be staying in simple, comfortable beachside chalets.
Day 10: A snorkelling tour of some of the archipelago's lively coral reefs, with a chance to see baby reef sharks and giant sea turtles
Day 11: Relax on the beach, explore the jungle interior or check-out the prehistoric looking, giant monitor lizards that abound on the islands.
Day 12: Head south to the small town of Kuala Lipis. Situated in the centre of the peninsula, this now quaint backwater was an important administrative centre and rubber producing town during the colonial era.
Day 13: Leave by local train for a day trip to the little known Kenong Rimba Forest Reserve, where we'll trek through dense jungle, discover the amazing tropical flora and fauna, visit some of the area's unusual limestone cave formations and return in the evening to Kuala Lipis by riverboat.
Day 14: Continue south by train to Kuala Lumpur, where our hotel is situated in the heart of the Capital's vibrant Chinatown quarter. Evening to explore the local markets.
Day 15: Day tour of some of the sites of the fascinating Malaysian capital: Little India, Chinatown, the fabulous Victorian era architecture of Merdaka Square.
Day 16: Free morning to relax or an opportunity for some last minute shopping before an evening return flight to London.
Day 17: Morning arrival in London.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Malaysia Vacation Guide
SABAH is Malaysia's premier nature adventure destination situated in the northern tip of Borneo Island, the third largest island in the world. Sabah is popular for its wildlife conservation attractions, rain forest, surrounding nature and islands, beach resorts, tropical white sandy beaches, crystal clear water, and its warm and friendly people. If you are thinking of visiting Borneo, these places of interest and activities will whet your appetite!
Mount Kinabalu
Let me begin with my favorite place and definitely not to be missed if you are visiting Borneo, Mt. Kinabalu (4,093m). It is the summit of Borneo and the tallest mountain in South East Asia. This mountain is sacred to the locals. Thousands from around the world have trekked to its peak. At the feet of this mountain is Kinabalu National Park, a botanical paradise where rare plants are found: rare orchids, nepenthes pitcher plants and the rafflesia, the largest flower in the world.
Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre
If you haven’t heard yet, the most popular native of Borneo is the Orang Utan. The world-famous Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre enables visitors to come in close contact with these amazing animals. This sanctuary allows visitors to witness an exciting conservation programme in action. Set in 43 square km of beautiful rainforest, the sanctuary helps once captive Orang Utans learn to fend for themselves in the wild. Watch how these orphaned Orang Utans being taught to climb, and then go to a platform where you can witness them coming in from within the forest for their daily meals of milk and bananas.
Danum Valley Rain Forest
If nature is close to your heart, then this next destination I am going to introduce you is a must visit, Danum Valley. Danum Valley is nestled deep in the rain forest of Borneo where nature is at its most pristine. As you travel deeper and deeper into the jungle, you will suddenly come across a magical paradise of the Borneo Rainforest Lodge (BRL), erected overlooking the magnificent setting of the Segama River and flanked by tall hill ranges. BRL is an impressive resort, designed by naturalists and built on stilts using traditional timber materials, and has the comfort of a 3-Star Hotel. I totally recommend Danum Valley to those who yearn to see wildlife in a primeval Borneo rainforest - the rare Sumatran rhino, proboscis monkeys, Orang Utan, elephants and over 275 species of birds.
Tunku Abdul Rahman Island Park
When you think you have enough of sightseeing and you want to take a day’s break idling around to charge your energy, then I suggest you tak e a 30-minute boat trip to Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. The park is made up of five beautiful islands and is a well-known sanctuary where peace and tranquility prevails. The tropical white sandy beaches are ideal for relaxing and tanning. The crystal clear water is fantastic if you fancy snorkeling or watching the sea lives and corals. The park is also a great spot for a BBQ picnic under the long hours of golden sunshine. Other activities include windsurfing, fishing, parasailing, kayaking and bird watching.
Golfing Holidays
If golf is your sport, then try the numerous high quality golf courses in Sabah. One of the courses as described by its designer - “I had to create a masterpiece by combining the natural splendor of the mountains and the seas, with ingenious architecture, and create a first class championship course to provide an enjoyable, yet challenging game for top professional golfers and amateurs alike" - Graham Marsh. Enough words said for the quality of golf courses here.
White-Water Rafting
For the true adventure seeker looking for an adrenaline-pumping activity, Sabah offers some of the most exhilarating thrills in the world. My scariest experience, only because I am not a good swimmer, is white-water rafting down the Padas River (a grade-3 river). Whilst trying to negotiate the rapids along this raging river for a distance of about 5 kilometers, do enjoy the breathtaking view that the surrounding rain forest does offer. However, be warned, don’t take your eyes off the rapids and waves too long!
Scuba Diving
Off the North Eastern coast of Borneo lies a tiny jewel of an island, Sipadan, with a marine ecosystem so perfect and unique that it is world renowned as one of the best dive spots in the world. Sipadan Island rises as a pristine Coral Sea mount, 650 meters from the floor of the Sulawesi Sea. This pinnacle off the eastern coast of Borneo is an oceanic magnet for marine life. As soon as you enter the crystal clear waters of Sipadan Island, you’ll understand why you have endured a journey that has taken you halfway around the world. As you begin to descend into this tropical water, you'll also understand why the World Wildlife Fund says, "No other spot on the planet has more marine life than this island."
Mount Kinabalu
Let me begin with my favorite place and definitely not to be missed if you are visiting Borneo, Mt. Kinabalu (4,093m). It is the summit of Borneo and the tallest mountain in South East Asia. This mountain is sacred to the locals. Thousands from around the world have trekked to its peak. At the feet of this mountain is Kinabalu National Park, a botanical paradise where rare plants are found: rare orchids, nepenthes pitcher plants and the rafflesia, the largest flower in the world.
Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre
If you haven’t heard yet, the most popular native of Borneo is the Orang Utan. The world-famous Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre enables visitors to come in close contact with these amazing animals. This sanctuary allows visitors to witness an exciting conservation programme in action. Set in 43 square km of beautiful rainforest, the sanctuary helps once captive Orang Utans learn to fend for themselves in the wild. Watch how these orphaned Orang Utans being taught to climb, and then go to a platform where you can witness them coming in from within the forest for their daily meals of milk and bananas.
Danum Valley Rain Forest
If nature is close to your heart, then this next destination I am going to introduce you is a must visit, Danum Valley. Danum Valley is nestled deep in the rain forest of Borneo where nature is at its most pristine. As you travel deeper and deeper into the jungle, you will suddenly come across a magical paradise of the Borneo Rainforest Lodge (BRL), erected overlooking the magnificent setting of the Segama River and flanked by tall hill ranges. BRL is an impressive resort, designed by naturalists and built on stilts using traditional timber materials, and has the comfort of a 3-Star Hotel. I totally recommend Danum Valley to those who yearn to see wildlife in a primeval Borneo rainforest - the rare Sumatran rhino, proboscis monkeys, Orang Utan, elephants and over 275 species of birds.
Tunku Abdul Rahman Island Park
When you think you have enough of sightseeing and you want to take a day’s break idling around to charge your energy, then I suggest you tak e a 30-minute boat trip to Tunku Abdul Rahman Park. The park is made up of five beautiful islands and is a well-known sanctuary where peace and tranquility prevails. The tropical white sandy beaches are ideal for relaxing and tanning. The crystal clear water is fantastic if you fancy snorkeling or watching the sea lives and corals. The park is also a great spot for a BBQ picnic under the long hours of golden sunshine. Other activities include windsurfing, fishing, parasailing, kayaking and bird watching.
Golfing Holidays
If golf is your sport, then try the numerous high quality golf courses in Sabah. One of the courses as described by its designer - “I had to create a masterpiece by combining the natural splendor of the mountains and the seas, with ingenious architecture, and create a first class championship course to provide an enjoyable, yet challenging game for top professional golfers and amateurs alike" - Graham Marsh. Enough words said for the quality of golf courses here.
White-Water Rafting
For the true adventure seeker looking for an adrenaline-pumping activity, Sabah offers some of the most exhilarating thrills in the world. My scariest experience, only because I am not a good swimmer, is white-water rafting down the Padas River (a grade-3 river). Whilst trying to negotiate the rapids along this raging river for a distance of about 5 kilometers, do enjoy the breathtaking view that the surrounding rain forest does offer. However, be warned, don’t take your eyes off the rapids and waves too long!
Scuba Diving
Off the North Eastern coast of Borneo lies a tiny jewel of an island, Sipadan, with a marine ecosystem so perfect and unique that it is world renowned as one of the best dive spots in the world. Sipadan Island rises as a pristine Coral Sea mount, 650 meters from the floor of the Sulawesi Sea. This pinnacle off the eastern coast of Borneo is an oceanic magnet for marine life. As soon as you enter the crystal clear waters of Sipadan Island, you’ll understand why you have endured a journey that has taken you halfway around the world. As you begin to descend into this tropical water, you'll also understand why the World Wildlife Fund says, "No other spot on the planet has more marine life than this island."
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