Wanderings through Malaysia

A long bus ride from Bangkok got us out of Thailand just before our visas ran out. We arrived in Malaysia and settled in to yet another country and different kind of life. It appeared that Malaysia was more diverse than anywhere else we had been. It seemed to be a good mix of Malay, Indian and Chinese cultures. It was evident in the buildings, the food and the people.

First though, after a few days with Cath, we had some chores to do and a nice rooftop area in Georgetown enabled us to catch up with the laundry.

We sat up on this roof ‘terrace’ every night eating different kinds of melon bought from one of the local street vendors.

One evening we also had a visitor in our room. We had a basic room with a fan (none of that expensive air-con for us). We’d opened the shutters and were sitting on the bed enjoying the cooler air wafting down from the fan when suddenly a huge creature (OK, probably not very huge) started flapping around the room. We were a bit spooked initially, but did manage to tun off the fan – although we knew it was unlikely to hit anything, we really didn’t fancy a room full of sliced up bat. We sat with the shutters wide open, trying to encourage him to fly back out, but for what seemed like an age he just circled and circled.

I suspect in the last 29 years that Georgetown will have changed beyond recognition. When we arrived, via a ferry from Butterworth, onto the island known as Penang, it was a relatively low-rise city. The one notable exception to this was the Komtar Tower. It was in the midst of a shopping area and had to be worth exploration.

It cost us a few Malaysian dollars to go up to the top. As a clever marketing ploy they also give you a ticket with your entry fee for $5 off an item in the gift shop at the top.  Following a lengthy time appreciating the views, and a drink and cake, we spent an age perusing the gift shop… This was where we decided that the majority of things were really not  worthy of purchase, not even with the discount. And it was where our little game “if you had to have something in this window” originated. The object of the game is to identify the most hideous thing and imagine putting everyone out of their misery of even viewing it, by buying it and dropping it from the top of the Komtar tower. As it turned out the Komtar tower was secure enough to avoid anyone dropping anything to its definitive demise from the top. Also, as you probably are aware, we were also way too mean to actually buy something expensive to destroy (I’d like to reframe that as non-materialistic and reluctant to waste…). We were also way too mean to not use our $5 vouchers, so after probably hours of searching (and possibly too much giggling/hysteria) we bought an attractive pack of cards with views of the city…So we finished with a purchase that was useful and almost free (we had to pay an extra $2 on top of the vouchers…not to mention the entry to the tower fee).

I bet the views from the top are now significantly different though!!

Georgetown was a city of red-tiled roofs, and ramshackle buildings. There was always something going on around the place, and it was a joy to wander around.

The number of ‘hawkers’ and people hassling you to sell something or scam you were much reduced after some of the other places we’d been…with the exception of the chap here behind the bike, using his lines on these unsuspecting travellers (he’d tried us the day before).

There was a huge Botanical Garden which was a delight to wander around, making friends with the resident population.

Just on the outskirts of the town there was a hill. We, even then, needed to get to the top. This time though, there was an impressive funicular railway up it. And then surprisingly there was another which took you to the top. It was lovely up at there, especially if you love just sitting around. It was cooler (at about 600m) than down in the town. Just sitting around watching the locals paid off, as one of the inquisitive ones came to be with us. He appeared to enjoy our company for an extended period of time. We wanted to take him home!!

A local tourist tried to get him to play with her and have photographs. He scratched and bit her…then came back to us to show us his appreciation (and we know he was enjoying being with us as he had a huge (for a small monkey) erection! Not sure we should be proud of that).

Despite our previous exploits on motor bikes, we hired another one to explore Penang Island. We found evidence of a rapidly increasing tourist trade, with expanding holiday areas along the coast. We also found a butterfly house, where we stopped and I just loved watching these huge things gliding past me. You could watch eggs being laid and butterflies hatching from their cocoons. I was in my element!

After Gorgetown we tried to go out and explore a bit more of the countryside. We took a bus to the Cameron Highlands where we discovered that as well as a lot of rain it was also cold!! Way too cold for us and despite extra night-time blankets I shivered through the night. We just weren’t equipped for the highlands…and the weather wasn’t looking great, so we didn’t stay long…but the bus ride back down was memorable for the mad driving down a winding road with parts of it obscured by low cloud.

Instead we headed to Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia was great at celebrating the outdoors and natural world, demonstrated by  the majority of my photos being creatures and flowers. In KL there was a huge newly-built walk-through bird garden. I remember it being either free or very cheap as it was new and we spent a couple of pleasant afternoons in there.

There was also an orchid garden and hibiscus garden. Just so colourful. Exotic.

KL struck us as a pleasant, clean and vibrant city. There were plenty of new buildings, with their Muslim-styled architecture, and there were older buildings. And there were brand-new buildings being built behind the facades of old ones. it was refreshing to see that such a quickly developing city had the time and awareness of preserving the old, whether for historical value or to keep  the character for visitors.

We then took a short trip to Malacca which showed off it’s Dutch heritage.

We went on a river trip there where we saw some large monitor lizards and lung fish in the smelly mud. The highlight might have been the ridiculous head-gear that we were loaned… Shady huh?

We also went to the ‘son et lumiere’ and were impressed by the sound and light of the show – but were maybe a bit confused about the story-line. The most memorable parts of it were a repeated chorus of “Merdeka, boom, boom, bang-a-bang”. We continued using and perhaps embellished this line for a while – and only now have I googled the Merdeka bit which means freedom or independence! We didn’t have Google then.

During our travels we stayed on the peninsula of Malaysia, but having travelled a fair bit down the west we treated ourselves to a short but decadent flight over to the the north east coast to avoid a very long bus ride.

We landed at a town called Kuala Terengaru, ready to explore the eastern coast. One of my enduring memories of the place was that we decided to go for a swim, as the local brand new public pool was very close to where we were staying. We were obviously a bit naive and as we went off to our respective changing rooms we had no idea that we were also going to different pools. Mark found himself in the 50m men’s pool and I found myself on my own for an hour or so in the women’s 25m pool. We did manage a brief conversation through a wall at one point…and I entertained a group of giggling schoolgirls in the ladies changing rooms (just by being there!).

It was probably our first real exposure to the Muslim religion as the majority of places we’d travelled in India were predominantly Hindu. So this was the first place that we were also woken early in the morning by the call to prayer.

Heading south along the coast a little we went on a river trip from a place called Marang. We saw numerous animals initially but then stopped off to see the local people at work: panning for gold; using monkeys to collect coconuts; making caramel from coconut sugar and plaiting palm leaves to make things from. And cocoa pods growing (I had never seen chocolate growing before!). All fascinating stuff.

Then a batik factory. Batik is everywhere along the coast – the working conditions for these people were horrendous…you can clearly see the potential for accidents with the open fire, hot wax and dye. They probably earned a pittance too.

The coast is a holiday haven – and we indulged ourselves, boat trips, snorkelling and swimming.

Down the coast a little we stopped at the village Rantau Abang. We had read that it was a good place to see the Leatherback Turtle. We went down to the Turtle Conservation Site where we read about the amazing creatures who chose this steep beach for their egg-laying. It was seen as a perfect place for them as they didn’t have to make their way up a long beach. We were in for a surprising night.

At about 1.20am we were woken by loud cries of “Turtle, turtle” so everyone scrambled to get up and dressed ready to see a rare sighting of these creatures. We were shepherded by the guides down to a van, then at the North beach we were shown the way over a rickety bridge and a fair way along the beach to where there was an incredibly bright light. There, a crowd had gathered. All gathered around a 7ft turtle. We saw it was heading down the beach…That seemed a little strange, because if it had just arrived on the beach then surely it would be busy laying it’s eggs. Even more strange was that one of the guides kept sticking a large stake in the ground so that it turned around and went back up the beach. It definitely wanted to go down the beach though, but as the guides were dependent on getting their cash if you saw a turtle, then it was sort of understandable what they were doing…

When they eventually allowed the poor creature to go down to the water, they spread a plastic sheet on the sand in front of it so that it got onto it and was transferred into a dinghy – ready to be transferred to another beach ready to be ‘shown’ to another crowd of hopeful onlookers.

We were horrified. We had thought that as we were seeing the turtles at a conservation site that we would be seeing a natural event. No way!! We were seeing some animal cruelty of a high order that was being fuelled by the tourist economy – us Westerners wanting to see a rare event. The next days were taken up with some serious letter writing to the WWF (who were supposedly involved in the conservation there). Sadly, but maybe unsurprisingly, having just Googled the area it appears that from the 1950s when there were around 11,000 nestings that by 1999 it had dropped to fewer than 10. Certainly our viewings in 1991 would have discouraged any animal to return there.

Our last Malaysian stay was in Cherating. It was a pleasant little settlement with a beautiful expanse of beach. We were surrounded by palm tress and had our own little bungalow (shed) with its own bathroom (extended wall with no roof). And, oh look, the opportunity to do some more laundry!

We spent some relaxed days here and also made our own batik t-shirts. It was such a relaxing way to while away the time – totally engrossed in the process. That’s probably not how those people who do it every day in awful conditions see it.

In the next bay there was a ClubMed hotel – one of those places that you don’t ever have to leave. They did have a lovely beach accessible from their compound, jelly-fish free, with clear blue waters. It would have been a real shame if people actually did travel all the way to Malaysia without seeing the people and their way of lives and eating the amazing food on offer everywhere.

Of all the places we travelled in 1991 the food in Malaysia was my favourite. The mix of Indian, Chinese and the Malay cuisines was perfect. There was so much fresh produce, with especially impressive fruit and nut offerings.  You are lucky that Instagramming food had yet to be invented. I have, you will be relieved to know, not one single picture of my Gado Gado or Nasi Goreng. I do have very fond memories of them though.