My first destination after crossing the Thailand-Malaysia border was Georgetown, a historic city that may best summarize the diversity of this country. Compromising most of the old town are the neighborhoods of Chinatown and little India, a preview of the rest of the country. Along with the native Malay, these groups seem to intermingle freely and many seem to downplay their original heritage in favor of a Malaysian identity. Malaysia has had its share of race riots, but seeing Indian people buying dim sum from a street vendor next door to Chinese people eating Chicken tandori gives at least a temporary impression of racial harmony. Probably because of its status as a cultural melting pot, Georgetown is known as the food capital of Malaysia, and I had the good fortune of touring the city's culinary highlights under the supervision of some locals, stuffing myself with dishes like char keaow tow, laksa, hokkien mee, cendol, and abc (maybe the strangest - shaved ice with sweet syrup, beans, peanuts, assorted fresh fruit, and ice cream).
By the same good fortune, I was led to a small bar in the backstreets of Chinatown, which sold the cheapest beer in the city (alcohol is taxed to death in Muslim Malaysia - resulting in the cheapest beer costing $1.50 per can, and much nostalgia of 18 cent draft beer in Vietnam.)A pair of minivan rides through endless palm tree plantations delivered me to Taman Negara, or National Park, the oldest rainforest in the world at 130 million years of age. A variety of trails snake through this leech infested playground of flora and fauna ranging wildly in difficulty. One of the easiest trails leads to a canopy walk, which winds its way around the treetops at heights of up to 40 meters, which isn't very comfortable to know when you're walking on planks of wood and rusty ladders that seem haphazardly tied together with rope.
The main attraction here was the opportunity to spend the night in a hide, an extremely basic hut in the middle of the jungle where you can sleep and observe wildlife by night. Getting there required climbing up and down various creek beds in the hottest and most humid air my skin has ever come into contact with. To survive this round trip journey, I traveled with 2.5 liters of water, not nearly enough, but just enough to prevent me from becoming a delirious maniac (explanation to follow). The hide was a modest room with 8 bunk beds and a long bench facing a giant window overlooking a jungle meadow, kind of like an electricity-less plasma screen for neanderthals. Although the park is known for having tigers, elephants, tapirs, and giant snakes, the largest creatures I saw where geckos and rats. Most likely, this was due to the loud ranting of a dehydrated Dutchman who was sharing the sleeping quarters. This guy arrived at the hide in a state of despair, after hiking alone all day and recently running out of water. Still, the 6 hour journey was worthwhile for the sounds alone. As twilight faded into pitch black, a chorus of ticking and purring sounds emanated from the jungle, at a volume that could rival rush hour traffic in any major city. In the middle of the night, the sky erupted in thunder storms and rain pounded on the roof of the hide with all of the occupants fearing that it would likely collapse.In the process of leaving Taman Negara, one of my most memorable Malaysian experiences took place. Having had very little previous exposure to the Muslim world, images of Muslim women in my mind are severely limited, setting the stage for an entertaining and stereotype smashing moment. On the bus, there was a traditionally dressed Muslim woman collecting fares from the passengers. Her initial appearance and demeanor suggested she must be as rigid and old fashion a woman as you could possibly encounter. Shortly after our journey began, she proved otherwise, as her cell phone erupted, filling the bus with "dont your wish your girlfriend was a freak like me," being her ringtone of choice.
A train ride through more palm tree plantations led to Melaka, another historic town filled with colonial buildings from the days of Portuguese and Dutch occupation. Similar to Georgetown, one activity overrode every other - eating as much food as possible. Eating an average of 5 meals per day allows many opportunities to discover hidden treasures, and in Melaka's Chinatown, I found what I can confidently claim to be the best value meal I've ever consumed, and I mean best value MEAL, not best VALUE MEAL. The dish: Baba Rendang minced fish and prawn noodles - which features all of the mentioned ingredients in a bowl of spicy coconut curry sauce - quite possibly the best combination of flavors ever assembled in one bowl, and the price: $1.15.
On the last day in Melaka I managed to consume 2 servings with room for desert (mango cachang) to spare.
The next and final stop was the national capital of KL (Kuala Lumpur). To illustrate my ignorance regarding Malaysia prior to entering, there were only 2 symbols I could associate with the country, one being Will Farrell's portrayal of the prime minister in Zoolander, and 2 being the Petronas towers. The twin towers, as they're referred to locally, are a source of pride for most Malaysians, mostly due to their brief run as the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004. What i didn't know, is that Petronas is a multinational oil corporation, a lesson learned the hard way in my attempt to visit the catwalk connecting the towers on the 41st floor. Before ascending the high speed elevators which travel an average speed of 1 floor per second, visitors are corralled into a mini cinema and subjected to a 3-D movie (glasses included), of propaganda in its purest form. Imagine traveling dangerously close to the surface of the ocean towards a shimmering oil rig before plunging into the sea and down into the bowels of the earth in 3D! Most of the remaining minutes are spent educating visitors about Petronas' shining record of public service, what an asset they are to the community, how Petronas is more concerned with curing blind street children than profits, and of course how the towers are the most impressive feat of engineering the earth has ever seen. To be fair, the view was not bad and a free 3D movie is hard to come by, even if it brainwashes you to love the smell of gasoline.
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