MALAYSIA – The Trip

Malaysia   April 15 – 24, 2013.

After crossing over the 2nd link bridge from Singapore on the deluxe (wide reclining seats), A/C bus, it was a quick stop to get the free visa on the Malaysia side. There was no need to change buses. I stopped briefly in Johor Bahru and had a brief look around. The 5 hour trip to Kuala Lumpur was on a great 6 lane divided highway with little traffic and no towns until KL was approached. The minimally rolling terrain was covered with forests and miles of palm oil plantations.

KUALA LUMPUR (pop 1.5 million) is a big modern city very similar to Singapore but without all the rules and more traffic and people (the metro in Singapore is so good that most of the citizens are invisible underground). I stayed at the Reggae Mansion, a big and beautiful “party” hostel. It is just north of Chinatown and close to all the sites, most of which I was able to see in a few hours in the heat.

Masjid Jamek, set in a grove of palm trees beside the concrete enclosed river, is lovely with onion domes and minarets of layered pink and cream bricks.

I walked through Chinatown to the Old Railway Station, a fanciful castle of Islamic arches and spires.

Nearby is the Masjid Negara or National Mosque. Open to the public with no restrictions on the wearing shorts, everyone has to put on a purple robe to enter. Built in 1964, it is the most modern mosque I have ever seen. I holds 15,000. The main dome is an umbrella shaped 18 point star symbolizing the 13 states of Malaysia and the 5 pillars of Islam.

Sri Mahamariamman Temple, a typical Hindu temple with a chaos of brightly painted statues on the quadrangular tower, is dedicated to Kali. However they weren’t sacrificing any goats here like in the last Kali temple I saw in Kolkata.


It was then a good 30 minute walk to the Menara Kuala Lumpur, a 421m high tower, the 4th highest in the world. It was a 58 second elevator ride to the observation deck at 277m. I thought it would be nice at night but maybe the views would have been better during the day with more detail and a view to the horizons. Above the observation deck are a revolving restaurant, banquet hall, telecommunication floor, broadcasting station and antennae mast.

The other towers in the world are CN Tower-Toronto-553m; Ostankeno Tower-Moscow-540m; Oriental Tower-Shanghai-468m; Menara KL-421m; Tianjin Tower-Tianjin, China-415m; Tashkent Tower-Uzbekistan-375m; Fernsehturm-Berlin-368; Tokyo Tower-333m; Sky Tower-Auckland-328m; Amp Tower-Sydney-304; Barcelona Tower-288.
Probably the major attraction in KL is the Petronas Towers. These twin towers were the world’s tallest skyscrapers until Taipei 101 took the title in 2004. They are the headquarters of the national petroleum company. Of the three tours, the best is to the 88th floor observation deck in Tower 2 but the views are not as good as from Menara KL.

The next morning I caught the 4 hour bus north to Tanah Rata, the main town in the centre of the Cameron Highlands, the hill area north of Kuala Lumpur. This area is a great reprieve from the heat of the rest of Malaysia, with temperatures that rarely drop below 10C or go above 21. Most come here to trek on the many trails or visit tea plantations and farms. With a pleasant young German, we did Path 1 that climbed up a steep, muddy, path full of roots to Gunung Brinchang, a 6,666′ mountain north of town. Arriving in the mist, we walked down to the Mossy Forest boardwalk, and then down the steep road. With a bunch of other young guys we hitched a ride through big tea plantations back to the main road and to Tanah Rata.
This has been a nice relaxing place with a welcome cool climate and great company. With only 6 days left in this winter’s trip, I decided to move on to the east coast and the town of Kuala Besut, the jetty town for boats to the Perhentian Islands for some snorkelling and possibly diving.

PERHENTIAN ISLANDS
The brand new Toyota minivan was a pleasant surprise and it was a comfortable 5 hour drive with four unusually nice French travellers who made a real effort to include me in the conversation. The road moved through huge oil palm plantations.

In Kuala Besut, it was a quick transfer to the water taxi for a half hour ride to Long Beach on Pelau Kecil, the most “backpacker” of the Perhentian group of islands. I stayed the first night at Perhentian Tropicana, but it was disappointing – no wifi, power on only at night, no A/C, and a very plain room for $25, a relatively high room rate for Malaysia. Coral Bay, a 10 minute walk across the island, was much nicer and that is where I spent all my time as it was wifi enabled. All the beachfront restaurants have a BBQ at night. It always feels odd to be the only one sitting alone out of hundreds of others – mostly twenty-somethings and a few families.

The next day I went snorkelling to five sites with imaginative names like Fish Point, Shark Point and Turtle Bay (yes there was a very cooperative turtle). The Lighthouse site had gorgeous fish – schools of little fish that you felt you were fighting your way through and loads of other larger fish. I upgraded my hotel to one on Coral Bay (the huge Shangri=La resort), with A/C and wifi in an attractive room for $25/night. I went diving to a ship wreck called Sugar Wreck that sunk in 2000. It was a cargo ship that carried sugar. Only about 20m deep, it was my first wreck and quite interesting with lots of fish and urchins. The third day, I went diving again to a pinnacle called Temple. Again there were many interesting fish but mediocre corals.

PENANG
So after four days of the beach life, I caught the 8AM water taxi back to Kuala Besut and then another minivan 6 hours across the entire peninsula to the west coast and Penang. An island accessed by one of the longest bridges in the world at 13.5km, it was listed as a World Heritage Site in 2008. I was the only one in the 9 passenger van – how do they make money at this? It was a similar landscape with trees and oil palm plantations. The main city is Georgetown (pop 180,000), a big city with a big cultural mishmash. Outside the historic centre with its chaotic streets and allies and British Raj-era architecture, are soaring skyscrapers and massive shopping complexes.

My last day in SE Asia was spent sightseeing in Georgetown. I hit the best roti canai stall in town for a great lunch. The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion was built over 8 years by a Chinese wealthy mandarin, finishing in 8 years in 1888 (8 is a very lucky number in Chinese culture). With 38 rooms, wonderful stained glass, Scottish wrought iron, paste and glue ceramic dioramas, and a blue paint scheme, the 1 hour guided was well done.

The Penang Museum illustrates the customs and traditions of Penang’s ethnic groups (Malay, Chinese and Indian), a worthwhile museum to visit. I walked the seawall to Fort Cornwallis built on the cape by the British in 1776.

The Penang Peranakan Mansion has stunning carving on every door, wall and archway and a good jewelry museum.

Kuan Yin Teng is one of the many Chinese temples in town (Confusius, Buddhist and Tao) with spectacular dragons on the roofs and gables. Sri Mariamman Temple is Penang’s oldest Hindu temple.
Kapitan Keling Mosque is Penang’s first mosque.

Khoo Kongsi, possibly the nicest temple, is Penangs finest clan house, with a mixture of dragons, statues, paintings, lamps, colourful tiles, and wonderful carved lions, pillars and friezes.


This only took 5 hours but I arrived back at the hostel totally knackered – the heat (33) or old age? There were lots of British style architecture in the old town.

This was my big fly day, April 24th, with 4 flights to arrive in Vancouver 9 1/2 hours after starting by gaining a day and several hours traveling east: Penang to Kuala Lumpur: 55 minutes, 2 hours layover; Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok: 2 hours, 2 hour layover (one certainly notices a step down in country development in Thailand – poor A/C in airport, bureaucratic process to get WiFi that works so poorly it is useless); Bangkok to Hong Kong: 4 hours, 1689km, 2 hour layover; Hong Kong to Vancouver: 11 hours. The Vancouver airport is one of the loveliest in the world with all the glass, water features, and Indian carvings. The Canada Line to Broadway, bus 99 to Commercial and a 3 block walk to get to my lovely daughters house. A gorgeous walk on the sea wall on a warm, sunny day in Vancouver, dinner at Vij’s (lamb popsicles are so yummy). So nice to be home. We live in the best country in the world (except for our right wing prime minister). I need a holiday.