My 2 part series on Malaysia and Borneo Part 1 Malaysia.
Let’s be honest here, if you are from the US, you probably have a more negative impression of Muslims. When I decided to come to Malaysia, I will admit, I was nervous about coming to a perceived Muslim majority country alone. After all being an American Woman with white skin could be cause for some hatred towards me. When I found a travel partner, a young Swiss woman, I felt much more comfortable to be with someone else while walking the streets and being the “tourist.” I was taught thru many personal development books to feel the fear and do it anyways. So I booked my month to Malaysia and Borneo. I did not really know much about the country and since my travel partner had spent countless hours building an itinerary, I got to just “tag along” Her itinerary is wonderful focusing on mostly nature, the outdoors and animals with a lot of trekking.
I found Kuala Lumpur similar to any big city in the US, the older population all speak English so all the signage is in English, but now the younger generation gets taught in their native language. Getting around was very simple. I was not too much of a fan of the big city and felt 4 days there was plenty. There are the big Petronas twin towers that dominate the skyline, a large botanic garden that was lovely to walk around in, a short canopy walk along the tree line and of course the best Batu Cave Temple, a gorgeous Indian Hindu temple carved into the rocks against the mountain side. I found the public transportation easy to navigate and wat cleaner compared to Los Angeles Metro. The hostel was in a great location directly adjacent to the famous food street and we tried different places each meal and some good and some eh not so good. All in All KL was not as impressive as the other places I ventured to.
The reality of visiting Malaysia was absolutely 100% not what I expected. Not only are the people friendly and welcoming greeting me along the street with a smile, a hello or a compliment on my tattoos. I actually found the Muslim population friendlier then the Chinese or Indian population that I came across, which were also friendly. In Cameron Highlands, a small mountain town a 4 hour bus ride from Kuala Lumpur I bonded with several local people, we had in depth conversations (at different times) about religion and politics, you know all the stuff you are not supposed to discuss. I learned that we really are very similar in our beliefs. I made a sister with Marina, we had a late night conversation when everyone was sleeping, she enlightened me about her beliefs and we talked about our countries leadership, I learned so much from her and definitely made a sister with her. I broke fast during Ramadan with Ann, learning and enjoying the local food, she called me mom. I was also invited to a small village to celebrate the end of Ramadan, Hari Raya in Andy’s village which of course I accepted. How could I pass up an opportunity to stay with locals in a small village during one of the most festive celebrations, this is exactly the type of travel I seek (I will update this once that passes). The people are amazing and beautiful.
Back to Cameron Highlands, which you might have heard of it since there are plenty of tea plantations up there. I trekked and discovered the Rafflesia flower, which I had never seen or even heard of before my trip there. It was a fantastic adventure in the rain forest hunting and finding all stages of the parasitic flowers bloom cycle, from the buds, which look like canon balls, to the dead flowers which look charred and burned to the blossom, these flowers take 8 months to bloom and only flower for 5 days, of course when in the rain forest expect rain and leeches which we encountered plenty of. Then I trekked trails all thru the highlands with some housemates and local guide dogs that tagged along for the 7 mile round trip trek and kept me safe and guided me along the path, looking back making sure I was following. I found fantastic Indian food right in town a block from the hostel which I ate way too much of as it was so good. This part of Malaysia is so beautiful you could easily stay longer but most people stay 3 days. The hostel did a potluck each night for dinner so I met lots of people traveling thru and we got to be very social. This was actually a really great thing to do for solo travelers to get to meet up and hang out with other people and sightsee together, or in our case hitchhike thru town. Lucky enough to get picked up by Ing and his wife Janet who live in KL and took us to several spots like strawberry farms, tea plantations, a cactus shop and Kea Farm food street and even back to the town, showing me once again the true heart of the Malay people.
After Cameron Highlands it was time to head off to the next stop in Penang. I stayed in Georgetown which is a UNESCO world heritage site with my travel partner. The city of Georgetown is known for the street art and I had a fun time wandering around to spot it all. There are a few “famous” paintings and some I assume where not sanctioned but fun to see. There is a real mix of Chinese, Indian and Malay ethnicity. You can see this in both the variety of food all over town as well as the mix of Temples and Mosques. From the house which I stayed in for the 4 night visit, I could hear the call to prayer and the reading of the Koran which became a melodic song in the background while I worked each night, I found the melody quit nice. For my activities I did a few treks with my travel partner leading the way. The first trek we did was at the National park, the trek takes you over to a beach that you catch a boat from and stop at Monkey beach for lunch and then back to the starting point, this was a relatively easy trek and fun boat ride. Next day was Penang Hill and it was the hardest, starting from the botanic garden taking the stairs, the road and then an old equine trail called Moniot Rd, to more stairs and WOW that was a tough climb, I really had to focus on the present and not think about the climb, it started to rain on us and by the time we reached the very top and sat down to eat at the Cliff Café it POURED down outside, barely made it inside. The next day we had a more laid back itinerary to Kek Lok Si Temple which is the largest Chinese temple in Malaysia with a huge 30 meter tall bronze statue of the Goddess or Mercy Kuan Yin and was very impressive. We went there with a couple of couch surfers we met thru a gal staying at the guesthouse. After the temple visit we went for famous Laksa, which is a soup known in this region. This was 2 weeks in Malaysia and the end to part 1.
