What’s so special about Malaysia?

Malaysia is in South East Asia. It’s population is a mixture of Muslim Malays, Canton and Hokkien Chinese and Tamil Indians, plus the almost extinct Orang Asli, the original people or aborigines. It’s nature is similar to the countries around but not that special and badly damaged. It has some nice coral islands along the East coast but on the West coast the sea is not clean due to all the pollution in the Malacca Straits. It has some of the few remaining “oldest” jungles on earth which survived many ice ages. Its history perhaps is a little more special due to its geographic importance during the days of spice trade. Although the first colonies were Portuguese and Dutch, it entered the last century under British rule and is still a part of the British Common Wealth. There are some nice historical sites to be seen in Malaka and Penang. It’s also a fairly developed country. Its petrol and palm oil production has created much wealth in the past decades (and destroyed most of its forests), which is distributed better than in other countries of the region. Malaysia has the world’s highest twin towers, one of world’s longest bridges, most successful budget airlines and even a space program. It is a so-called democracy with very little freedom of speech and a less than democratic election law. It has the world’s only rotational kingdom system, which permits the kings of 13 states be the king of the whole country for 5 years each but their responsibilities are symbolic… But for me, none of these are what makes Malaysia special.

Kuala Lumpur landscape with Menara KL and Petronas tower on the back.

Petronas are the world’s tallest twin towers.

Having different cultures living together creates the richest aspect of Malaysia. In many places there is no apparent majority of the population. Each society has its organizations, schools, press and even special laws. For example there are things Muslims cannot do, such as play lottery or join a meditation retreat. The Chinese own most of the big business and have their own schools in Mandarin, while the Indians represent the lower part of the economic scale and lately have been expressing a rare discontent because of this. Apart from these it is not uncommon to see Christian churches, Tibetan Buddhist temples and others.

Traditional Chinese tea in China Town, Kuala Lumpur

Perhaps it’s this cultural mix that makes a foreigner feel at home. A westerner who’s visiting Malaysia is many times treated the same way as a Malaysian person as long as s/he doesn’t act like a tourist and not in a touristic area. If you have traveled in Asia you can understand how precious this can be. In Thailand, which is the most popular tourist destination in the region, wherever you go, however you behave, even whichever language you speak, Thai people will see you as a “tourist”. In return, most westerners see Thailand as an oversized hotel (though it’s not easy to say which comes first). But here in Malaysia you are almost a local after a couple of months but as soon as you arrive you’re already a person, not a tourist. This changes the feeling you have just walking around or talking to people. It is very pleasant.

Tea plantations of Cameron Hills.

And you thought all that tea came from Darjeeling?

It’s not that Malaysian people just mind their business and leave you alone. If you need help or just want to chat, you can just go and start it and most people would love to talk to you. Malays like it if you can speak a few words of Bahasa Malaysia, the Chinese or the Indian don’t mind but pretty much everyone speaks English. So if you are a social person you easily make friends here and they will be friends.

Attempting to make friends with the kids of the tea plantations

One contributing factor to the pleasant feeling one has visiting this country is that Malaysia is relatively more prosperous than its neighbors. It’s not that Malaysia has more resources than the rest (like Brunei Darussalam) or historically more privileged (like Indonesia). I think most of it comes from being smart in managing what they have and also the lack of corruption. I believe as long as there are politicians there is corruption but around this side of the world there are guys such as Soeharto of Indonesia and Marcos of the Philippines who stole the wealth of millions of their citizens and even after decades their countries are still trying to take the money they stole back (in fact, there is still a continuing court case against the Marcos family to get the billions of dollars of the country back). As oppose to these pro-American dictators, Malaysia had Dr. Mahatir Mohammed which was like an Asian version of Hugo Chavez at his time. He didn’t take orders from USA or the World Bank, created one of the biggest growth rates in the area and successfully carried Malaysia to safely across the big Asian financial crisis which collapsed the economies of all countries North and South (which also slowed down Malaysia). Today the country neither has Mahatir nor a closed economy and is tensely waiting for the tsunami of the global economic meltdown. But although there is possibly corruption, it is not big or widespread enough to keep the country poor. And the distribution of wealth is pretty well.

Giant poster of the Malaysian space program

So this creates the scene of lots of cars and motorbikes and just a very few people dumpster diving. In Malaysia you don’t find the insisting souvenir sellers in Thailand who are desperate to sell you that one dollar thing so they can profit one cents. Neither do you find as many beggars or inhuman living conditions as in most other places around. Things are a bit more expensive than other countries around with the exception of food. Ah, food…

Adam and Eve Beach in Pulau Perhentian Kecil,
where I swam with many little friendly sharks

I’ve seen the ancient jungle in Taman Negara, dived around a couple of coral islands, seen the tea plantations and some historical places in Malaysia but in my eyes, none of these makes Malaysia as special and worthy of a visit than its food. First of all there is the Malay food, which is mainly lots of spicy curries (not nearly as spicy as in India), fish soup, fries, and some light sweets. Then there is the Chinese food which is like… well, Chinese food. It can be anything and all different ways of cooking them. Then there is the Indian food which brings the roti chanai (like bread and curry), tandoori, tosai, chai and some more spicy curries (still not nearly as spicy as in India). And there are mixtures of these like the Nyonya kitchen which is Malay-Chinese mixture. Western food is also pretty common but you’d be missing a lot if you stick to your old food habits.

Lok Lok stall in the night market. You pick an assortment of
things on sticks, boil them there and eat with yummy sauces.

It would take a long blog entry to explain the food of Malaysia. As far as I know, it’s the only country for which the Lonely Planet guide has planned “Food lovers’ country tours” in its local guidebook, which are tours you can make around the country in search of different tastes. As a person who spent most of his life hating to eat and seeing the whole thing as a chore, I had a second awakening about food here. First time I went to India I discovered the art of cooking. Now in Malaysia each time I go to an evening food court I feel like I’m in an amusement park. Food courts are like big parks where many people put up small food stalls at night and there are tables in the middle and sometimes there is even entertainment on stage. You can find stalls where you fill your ingredients into a bowl and ask them to make them into a soup or you can get things on a little stick (almost anything edible from tofu to crabs to quail eggs) and boil them yourself (lok-lok on photo). And as soon as you take a seat, someone comes to ask you what you drink, which can be a variety of fresh fruit juices to teas and coffees to healthy barley water or sometimes shakes. But when there is no food court, like here in Teluk Bahang, I go to the lady on the corner who cooks at home and sells them on a table every evening. I get rice and self serve myself a choice from her almost 20 yummy dishes. And it’s cheap.

Another pleasant thing about Malaysia is its peacefulness. First of all the country has no serious army or military confrontations. It doesn’t have any terror or people who are seeking independence for Malaysia. And in a smaller scale, you don’t come across people fighting or even quarreling. I’ve spent many months here and haven’t seen a single loud quarrel in public space. They don’t even raise their voice and they don’t drive as aggressively as people do in other Asian countries (although, of course, you cannot compare it with European driving). There is some crime, especially kidnapping of little girls (I think it has to do with the conservative Muslim society) or bombing of ATM machines to rob them. But there is not the prevalent feeling that there can be a criminal next to you who can steal your bag or any dark street can be dangerous. You get these feelings rightfully in neighboring countries but not so much here. Malaysia also doesn’t have any natural disasters, no volcanoes, typhoons or earthquakes (it was hit only lightly by the famous tsunami although it’s very near to where it originated). And best of all, Malaysia is the only country I know which gives 3-months free visa at the border to citizens of almost all nations (it doesn’t recognize Israel). There is even a “Malaysia My Second Home” program, which permits foreign pensioners to deposit some money in a Malaysian bank and stay as long as they wish (or live). And there are many foreigners living, working, studying here but you don’t see the expats of the type that is so common in countries such as Thailand, Cambodia or Philippines, because there is no sex tourism here.

Tree top canopy walk in the
ancient jungles of Taman Negara

Friends ask me why I spend so much time here in Malaysia, why I chose it as my base? I love the people, I love the food, I love the feeling, I love the peace, it is right in the middle of the region and conveniently has the cheapest airlines and other connections to everywhere, and I’ve found here a little place with a garden which I like to see as my home for the moment but that is a subject for another post…

A warning sign in Lake Garden’s Park, Kuala Lumpur

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*I feel I may write more later but meanwhile if you have any questions, any points about Malaysia or the region that you’d like to be clarified about, please leave a comment and I’d be more than happy to reply each of them.

*Most of my time in Malaysia I didn’t have a camera, so the photos here may not be a good selection to represent the country.