Reflections of the Mekong

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THis post brings you news from our time in Pulau Penang (and other news from Malaysia). Of course, my posts are weeks behind now but I figured better late than never...

Seemingly every alleyway Pulau Penang's historic capital, Georgetown, leads to a surprise

The majority of our time (almost the entire second week) in Malaysia was spent on the island of Penang, located in the far northwest of the country, quite near Thailand. We made the decision to spend longer there based on a number of factors, most importantly being the cost and hassle of transportation in getting to each new destination.

 

The Cameron Highlands was a parking lot!

 

We really enjoyed Malacca and could have spent one or two more days there, but we had heard such good things about the Cameron Highlands that we decided to squeeze it in. In hindsight, it wasn't the best decision.

I cannot in good conscience recommend that anyone go to the Cameron Highlands at this point, either from either a tourism or environmental standpoint. The landscape is being completely ravaged by over-development, and (as usual) the marketing people are way ahead of the infrastructure. I haven't seen traffic jams of such severity since leaving Atlanta, hundreds of cars packed with people sitting at a standstill on two-lane mountain roads. The rainforest is disappearing at a rapid rate to make room for hotels and farms. Because the climate is cooler, the Highlands are a magnet for city dwellers who visit during holidays and weekends. Ironically, the deforestation is resulting in warmer trends and other associated problems such as pollution from farm run-off.

The Cameron Highlands wasn't all bad - the BOH Tea Plantations are a beautiful place to visit and away from all the traffic and chaos that plagues the main town centers.

The CH landscape and lush rainforest that remains is quite spectacular, but there seems to be no interest in either preserving it or providing (free) information or basic facilities to enable people to see it. Most visitors to CH seem to want to sit in air-con buses and get out occasionally to eat strawberry ice cream. Seriously. For those who are seeking a nature experience, it's still possible, but it will take effort and you need to be willing to get well off the beaten path. You'll also need to have decent outdoor skills. Walking trails were in poor condition (I can't tell you how many fallen trees we had to climb over during one of our walks), the maps are very poor and lack even the most basic details about distances or difficulty, and signs of any kind were almost non-existent. If you wanted more information, it didn't seem to exist in printed form (though later I found some decent track descriptions on the web).

In CH, we "discovered" the Malaysian Breakfast of champions:  Roti with Teh (tea) Tarik!

The world's largest flower, Rafflesia, is found in the Highlands and we really wanted to see it, but the tours were quite expensive. When I inquired about finding one on our own (assuming we were willing to get there ourselves) a tour agent replied that the nearest ones were some 40 km away. He explained that sometimes other tour companies were known to intentionally destroy any flowers that should bloom closer to towns or on public trails so that people cannot see them without booking a tour. To his credit, he then explained that this was the reason that his company didn't offer tours to see the flower. Nature tourism should provide economic benefits to the local population, but not like that. It was sad, really, and surprising (I don't know why – by now we should be used to it, right?) to see such short-sightedness. If there had been more opportunities / information provided, we might have stayed longer (resulting in more money for the hotel, local restaurants, etc.) but as it was we were ready to go after two days.

The entrance to Fort Corwallis in Georgetown, Pulau Penang - just one of many, many historic sites on the island

On the other end of the 'visitor experience spectrum' was Pulau Penang, or more specifically, historic Georgetown, the largest city on the island. Here was a place that 'got it' and you could tell they cared about both the community and their visitors. They must be doing something right – in 2009, Pulau Penang was named #2 of 44 must-see destinations around the world by the NY Times. Georgetown (along with Malacca) is designated a World Heritage Site in recognition of its outstanding cultural, historical and architectural splendors. In many ways, the two cities are quite similar, both being important ports of call for traders and colonial powers for the past 500 years (and earlier), but Georgetown is notably larger and more vibrant (and busier) than Malacca.

Georgetown's City Hall, a lit up at night

Chinese Clan Houses (and rickshaw cyclos!) are EVERYWHERE in Penang

To facilitate the exploration, the local arts councils and heritage trusts provide a number of terrific (and free!) walking tour brochures with maps for exploring the town's many temples, mosques, crafts centers, historic buildings and other heritage sites. Even foods were showcased (in not one but three different brochures!) highlighting the very unique and special local cuisines and trades/crafts that are distinct to the region. We used the maps to track down vendors all over town creating strange and tasty dishes like bubur kacang, assam laksa and rojak. After dark, the streets of Georgetown come alive with night markets and street stalls selling all kinds of weird and delicious stuff, and amazingly cheap. One can hope that perhaps these age-old traditions will continue to flourish if supported by the interest (and money) of tourism.

The AMAZING Chinese Clanhouse of the Khoo Khongsi. Words and this pic simply can't describe this building, which is said to have rivaled the Emperor's palace in China.  I so badly wanted to move the piece-o-crap car out of my photo!!!  This building was featured in the 1999 film "Anna and the King" starring Jodie Foster.

Kek Lok Si, a Buddhist temple complex on the west side of the island, featured beautiful temples and a gigantic 30.2 meter tall bronze statue of the Kuan Yin

I really can't say enough good things about this place - we had such a good time there and could have spent another week exploring Pulau Penang's hidden gems. As if the central city offerings weren't enough, there are also many points of interest around the larger island that are worth seeing. The public bus system is excellent (new air-con buses, awesome printed schedules, and even a free town belt bus!) and we used it to visit Balik Pulau, a town on the far west side of the island, as well as the Botanic Gardens and Kek Lok Si, an enormous Buddhist Temple (Kek Lok Si). Great fun, and there was still plenty more to do in the region that we didn't have time for.

Kuala Lumpur's iconic Petronas Towers, until 2004 the world's tallest buildings

Sadly, our time in Penang (and Malaysia) had to come to an end and we're back to Kuala Lumpur to get ready for our our next destination. Considering that Malaysia was not originally a strong part of our planned itinerary, we're both pleased to have given it more time (even despite the higher costs). No other country on our tour will have the complex and diverse mixture of different peoples, religions, language, foods, architecture that make it so unique. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's largest city, is in many ways representative of the country itself – a place of stark contrasts – great wealth next to extreme poverty, a melting pot of cultures, and a sense that the place is a rising star (with all the good and bad that comes with that status) in Southeast Asia. It will be very interesting to see what Malaysia looks like in 10-15 years.

Next stop: Hanoi, Vietnam