The firm impression that I had in my mind was from that movie with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones where they had gone to Kuala Lampur for a hiest. Somehow, the picture I had gotten was that Kuala Lampur would be a congested, smelly, noisy town with nothing to recommend it other than the twin towers. That was re-enforced by seeing no other landmark than the towers. Therefore, nothing else worth seeing existed. I admit that my attention was focused on Catherine Zeta Jones which may have made me miss anything else that there might be.
As to the TV ads, I never believe anything that I see on TV. Other than CZJ, that is. I was sure that all Malaysia had achieved was to hire a good PR firm.
Hence, I was prepared to be totally underwhelmed by my vacation over there. Two weeks in a Third World country would go a long ways towards preparing me for a "real" vacation next year and to have the kids appreciate the tourism facilities of a modern country.
I didn't spend much time going over the tourism Web sites as I was more concerned with hotel and transport bookings at the time.
With such trepiditions did I land in KL. The airport looked like the one in Frankfurt except for being cleaner, airier, less noisy and less cluttered. Well, ok, so it didn't look much like Frankfurt.
One step outside and the image I had of Malaysia started to shatter. There countryside anywhere else would be part wilderness and the rest rambling metropolis. On the other hand, the one in Malaysia looks like a well kept lawn. The land is quite hilly but each and every hill has gleaming clean channels for guiding rain water, all the trees are lined in ruler straight lines and all the grass is mown. Who does all of it? I didn't see any member the horde of gardners who prune the branches and pick up litter, so I guess that they must work at night.
On Day One we took a taxi tour of the city. While watching the sites, small things kept nagging me. It wasn't something that was there, more like something was missing. What was it? The smooth flow of cars? The missing traffic jams? Then one by one, I started counting. There are no honking horns, no drivers cussing at each other, no smoke or smog, no pieces of paper fluttering in the gutters. Why a city of this size doesn't have a single piece of paper on any street at all is beyond me.
Hour by hour I was amazed at this city and started to fall in love with it. The people are not shy and quiet becuse they lack anything, it's becuase they are extremely polite and well mannered. They are well educated and speak multiple languages. Nobody shouts. Nobody even talks loudly. No body runs after buses. What makes everyone so relaxed? Marijuana?
The worst profession there must be the police. There just aren't any. Even if they are all hiding in branches, I should have seen their cars parked somewhere nearby.
The place is swarming with tourists. According to the taxi driver, some of the new condo start from a cool million Dollars and are all owned by Arabs and Japanese. There are people who fly to visit in private jets, sail by yatch from Holland and back-packers from each and every country in the world. The malls go on and on. Each shop is filled to capacity. But have I mentioned how clean and quiet it all is? I mean, wow!
Inland travel can use any mode, they all cost the same, are dirt cheap and each bus, train and plane looks as if it just rolled off the asssembly plant.
We took the train to Butterworth. You sit in the plush compartments and watch the lawn roll by. Yep, its still a lawn. Not a tree out of line, not a rag fluttering in the wind. I mean come on, its ok to leave a few leaves on the ground under the trees. Lends authenticity to the surroundings. Not so here.
Are you getting the idea that I was in a surrealistic mood and trying to sell you a fairyland? Actually, I feel that I the reality is much, much better than I am able to get across.
Back to the narrative.
A short ferry hop and we arrived in Penang. It was the middle of the night and at such times its the right of the cabbies to gouge tourists. Not so in Malaysia. They don't turn on their meters but rather than overcharging, actually give discounts. They have fixed rates for point to point and hourly charges. The next day we rented one by the hour and he charged me five Ringits less than the union rates. Even so, he gave me half an hour as discount.
Places to go in Penang are better explained on the Websites so I won't go into that. One place I must mention. There is a street bazaar that is the destination of all the tourists there. I asked the concierge if it was safe for my wife to visit alone. "Yes", he replied, "All of Malaysia is safe and Penang is the safest place in Asia". In uttering that one sentence he beamed all over and swelled to a veritible giant with pride. In a people so soft-spoken one is amazed by the so much pride with a total lack of arrogance. As a taxi driver said: "We are islanders and each of us has to be friendlier than any place else if our island is to retain its place as the best place to live in all of Malaysia".
Our next leg was via a fast ferry to Langkawi. Boy, oh boy! What a place! What's your idea of a vacation? Museums or parks or malls or just lying around on the beach? You name it, Langkawi is the answer. Take the river cruise no matter what else you do or not do. I would never go into that cave filled with bats but I understand that other people care for such places. The boatman let us off to walk over one patch of island infested with monkeys. Nice little creatures chittering away at each other and paying no mind to gawking, picture taking tourists. Until, that is, I took out the milk bottle for my little girl. Then they transformed into screaming beasts swinging though the trees and leaping till one finally got the bottle and took it up into the branches. I have a picture of it on the Web. Darn animal!
The boat next stopped at a fish farm where the boy wanted everyone to put crabs on their heads for the massage their bony claws gave. Er, pass.
The boatman took us to the open sea. I could not imagine why till I saw it myself. Have you seen the color blue? No, you haven't, not till you watch the sky reflected in the water from that point.
Here's an example of why I am going on and on about Malaysia. In Langkawi it rains every day. Some days it might drizzle and others it really pours. Regardless of that fact, while driving over a road in the middle of nowhere I saw a cleaning crew scrubbing the barriers on the side of the road. It's not the big things, it's small things like that all put together that makes for a great country,
Another small touch to show what I mean. The Langkawi airport is a small one that doesn't have those neat little tunnels to load and offload passengers. Instead the planes park near the gates. It's just a few steps. Even so, there were a few lazy raindrops falling when we were called to board. The crew gave everyone umbrellas at the gate which we handed back on entering the plane.
How does one record all the memories of a pleasant time? Authors get rich on travelouges on just such. They ramble on and on for a few hundred pages and add glossy pictures to bump up the prices of their books.
I would stop here with the strong suggestion: Words fail to do Malaysia enough justice. So, stop reading about it and buy your own tickets to go there for your own next vacation.
