Malacca is a wonderful example of an old city that has undergone hundreds of years of transition and come out more vibrant despite the challenges and change. The city is a beautiful representation of the art and architecture from cultures that have come here from all over the world. You can walk from forts built in European styles, to old Chinese homesteads, and then suddenly realize that you are still in Malaysia over the course of a few kilometers. This is our adventure to and from Malacca, and me trying to understand just how sunburned I can get over the course of about 8 hours. Note to anyone visiting Malacca - buy sunscreen.
I absolutely love the canals and waterways that ring Malacca, with the various forts and different strong areas that were set up hundreds of years ago to secure these places. The different cultural powers of the times used Malacca as a hub of trade and power, making the city both cosmopolitan and and making the areas distinct and somewhat thematic.
Just to show the drastic difference, The following photos were taken only about a kilometer apart.
The old fort and church on the top of the hill is quite the hike up, (Malaysia loves stairs), but is well worth the walk. Not only do you get an awesome view of parts of the city, but you also get the chance to get some time in the shade.
Sadly, I did not take my own advice and ended up looking a bit like a lobster when I was done with this adventure. After living in Hawaii for about a decade, and then in Thailand for about eight months, I still surprise myself at just how burned I can get when I am careless.
After spending a day getting completely burned in Malacca, we decided to take it easy and stay somewhat in the shade around Putrajaya. The Putra Mosque was well worth escaping the shade of the trees and risking more skin cancer. Not only is is a wonderful example of architecture, but it also is strikingly beautiful in the downtown government district of Putrajaya. The area was designed to house a lot of the government offices to move them away from Kuala Lumpur, It has a lot of the feel and beauty of the other federal districts that I have been to, mostly filled with art, official looking buildings, and very well maintained parks.
I of course had to take the time to pick up the one geocache in the area. I was also quite glad that it was in the shade. I am sure you cannot tell from this photo, but my level of burn was downright painful. I have only recently stopped shedding like a snake.
After cooking outdoors for a few hours, we retreated to a local mall to wait for our flight. I just thought that the bamboo walkway looked very pretty in that light, so we did what all the tourists must do - take a selfie!
One of the best things about traveling is the idea of getting to meet new people and stay in new places. My wife and I usually spend most of our time traveling staying with different hosts using connections made through couchsurfing. While sleeping on random couches and on sleeping bags on unused floor space might not seem like the most desired way to travel to many people, it does allow for people of our socioeconomic level to see parts of the world for about half the cost of staying there in a hotel. However, on this trip, we decided to stay at a rather nice hotel. I found a great deal on a five-star resort and decided to really go nuts and sleep in a nice bed versus a linoleum floor. The Hotel Pullman Putrajaya Lakeside did not disappoint. To say this location was amazing is quite an understatement. While we did realize that it was about two train stations away from Kuala Lumpur, the location was much cooler, and the train ride was so cheap that it was more than worth being that far out of the city center.
One of the best aspects of this hotel was the breakfast. Holy crap, the breakfast. I took photos that hardly do it justice.
I also was a huge fan of the decor and architecture style. The room that we stayed in was also the size of our apartment. Needless to say, it was quite hard to leave.
I can openly and honestly see how a lot of people can think that Batu Caves is a tourist trap. I love the place, but I can really see how others might feel that the locale has been commercialized to the point of losing all the intent of the people who first moved to the area. I am sure that it is a double-edged sword in a sense to have tourism and commercialization of these areas, but it is hard to imagine such a place existing to the extent that it does today without some form of commercialism and tourism bringing money for upkeep and improvements. Is it a perfect system? Not at all, but it is a start.
I started off by taking a quick video of the area to try and show just what a mixture of people, sounds, and animals were in a small area about the size of two football fields. The first thing that I noticed, besides the rather large golden statue, was the all of the music and noise coming from various areas of the entryway. I honestly still have no clue what was going on, but it was noisy and there must have been about a million different tourist attractions to try and get money out of anyone who was making the decision to climb the stairs.
Needless to say the stairs suck. I am quite glad that I spend some free-time running, as I was able to go up at a rather quick pace. One of the things that I thought was funny is that I spent so much time looking down to watch my footing on the rather mismatched stairs, that I came face-to-face with monkeys when I looked up to catch my bearings. The good thing is that the monkeys are pretty friendly, but the bad thing is that they will rob you blind for food and drinks. They are crafty bastards, and honestly you have to watch your stuff.
They do look cute, but again, they will rob you blind. Seriously, he probably ate more than I did that day and I am going to guess he had a stash of soda more expansive than any dorm fridge.
Another little devil monkey hamming it up for a photo with my wife. I am almost 100% certain that they stalk tourists and steal from people who are not paying attention. I watched them sit on these posts, and then grab the bottles of soda and water from anyone who was not paying attention or seemed weak in whatever monkey assessment they were given.
When you reach the top there are more... stairs. I have no clue what it is about the trip to Malaysia, but I feel like some massive stair conglomerate decided to ensure that they were paid well and installed millions of stairs across the country.
Oddly enough, in keeping with our time-honored tradition of scoring free food while traveling, we again got fed at the top. No clue what was going on, but we just happened to be in the right place at the right time and got to enjoy a snack.
After enjoying the view from the top, I took some time to shoot a few photos and video some of the monkeys playing around outside the main shrine.
I also had to take a selfie with a monkey who stole a bottle of 7-up from a tourist. She never saw it coming. One second she was enjoying a nice sip of cold soda, and then the next second this little punk was running off with it. She was shocked, and I was dying of laughter.
I am not going to pretend to understand the decorating scheme of the temple area, but needless to say, it was a bit odd to get to the top and go inside a cave to find the main Hindu shrine covered in lights. Not quite what I was expecting, but then again, I guess that is all part of traveling?
A beautiful trip, and a great excuse to climb up the side of a mountain. The view was wonderful, and when you throw in kleptomaniac monkeys and free food - totally worth it!
Kuala Lumpur is the very definition of an ultra-modern city with all the amenities that one does not think of when one has never been to Southeast Asia. While we tend to think of Southeast Asia as a developing part of the world, the transit and infrastructure is on par with, or better in some cases than a lot of Western locations that I have visited. One of the first stops we had to take was to visit the park by the Petronas Towers, as it seems to be in just about every single photo of Kuala Lumpur. I also had the ulterior motive of visiting the park in the area to grab a few geocaches, so everyone was happy.
Although the towers were quite cool to look at, I have to admit that the artwork in the park was just as cool, if not even better. I mean, look at that whale! The park also had a great kids area where there was a wading pool and some awesome swings and play structures.
As Malaysia is a predominately Muslim country, we also thought that it would be good for Danielle to get some head-scarfs in case we wanted to venture into any mosque or their surrounding areas. There are countless shops that sell any color or pattern you could ever want. After buying a few, we were on our way!
We ended up spending a bit of time wandering around the National Mosque, and got lucky enough to have a tour by a few of Danielle's friends from when she visited ten years ago. They were an awesome group and the tour was very interesting and entertaining to say the least.
Kuala Lumpur is a beautiful and modern city that totally defies what any person who has never traveled to Southeast Asia might think. It is clean, bright, friendly, and has a great balance of old culture and customs while still creating a society that integrates the many different groups of people that find themselves living there. The Islamic, Indian, and Malay styles mesh beautifully together to create a hybrid of cultures, food, and help to make Kuala Lumpur one of the most friendly and open cities that I have visited.
I am sure that the content of this post will be both naive and wishful due to the fact that I only was able to spend three days in Malaysia, but in spite of that lack of time, I can honestly say that this is one of the most pleasant countries that I have ever visited.
We traded in the orange robed monks of Thailand and went for a Saturday-to-Monday trip to various locations in Malaysia. I must first admit before writing more that this is my first experience in a Muslim majority country, and as such I honestly did not know what to expect. I have many friends who are Muslim, but this would be my first experience in a country where it is more normal for a woman to wear a head covering than not.
As I sit here in Starbucks, gleaning off their free WiFi, I am able to look around the store and count about twenty women with head coverings of some kind, and two without, one of which is my wife.
The west tends to view the headscarf as a sort of oppression, but in all honesty, I think that they are extremely far from the truth. I realize that my knowledge of equality and privilege are skewed, but in Malaysia, these women seem to use these head-scarfs as a sign of individuality. Aside from the more formal solid colors, the fabric is all individual and comes in all colors of the rainbow. They seem to be a culturally appropriate way to represent the individual.
We in the West tend to over-simplify things to make it easier to stomach. Yes, cultures are quite different, but in order to rationalize this difference we tend to just lump that culture in as being evil or bad in regards to our "true" religious beliefs and our more "civilized" culture.
Examples:
Muslims - Bad!
Women wearing some form of covering - Oppressive!
Etc.
I was openly invited into many different mosques, met Muslims who lived by many different interpretations of their own culture and code, and had the opportunity to listen many times to the truly beautiful call to prayer.
I am by no means trying to say that the whole world is quite like this, nor am I saying that all of the Islamic world is as peaceful as Malaysia appears to be, but I am saying that the average person seeks peace far more than they seek any sort of divisive nature.
I have long been a proponent of befriending people outside of ones own culture for this sole purpose.
One of my friends that I used to work with said it the best - "The laughter of children sounds the same anywhere in the world."
The only difference between this Starbucks in Putrajaya, Malaysia, and any other in the world is that I am paying in Ringgits, and that the food they serve is halal.
A coffee is a coffee, and free WiFi brings people inside regardless of the color of their skin or their choice to wear a hijab.
Moral of the story - everyone loves coffee, and just perhaps free WiFi is the route to more peaceful interactions across cultures.
Also, Starbucks cannot spell your name right anywhere in the world.
