Melaka and KL

The next day I walked around pretty much the whole city of Melaka. Melaka is a very cool city but not very big. It was conquered by the Portugese in the 1500's then the Dutch and then the English so there is a lot of history. Much Dutch architecture remains like churches and forts so I walked around that part of the city in the morning and learned a lot more about Malaysian history. After that I went back to Chinatown and ran into a Dutch/French restaurant and spoiled myself with a Dutch pancake with banana, chocolate, and vanilla ice cream all for a pricey 15R or so (about $5). I have realized that much to my dismay much of my traveling is focused around food. Instead of making sure to visit all the museums and sites I make sure to sample all the different kinds of food. I pretty much plan my day around eating which is kind of ridiculous. I really need to get better at that and just eat when I'm hungry and not at all hours of the day. After I ate I walked around Chinatown and went into some art galleries. Melaka is a really cool city because it is full of artists and galleries, it almost feels like Europe. I found a really cool gallery called The Orangutan House. The artist has different paintings of orangutans in bright colors, he has one creative piece showing the first right of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It was a cool, funky little place. That night I went to Little India and had murtabak which is like chicken or lamb baked into Roti (bread). It was ok but not the greatest I've ever had. That was pretty much it for the day. I feel like I saw all of Melaka and was ready to move on.

The next morning after sampling some dim sum I went to the bus terminal where there are buses to Kuala Lampur like every hour. I caught the next bus and arrived in KL as it is affectionately called around 3:00pm. This was the first place on my trip that I couchsurfed so I was excited for that. I found my way to Tuchkus' place and was ready to check out KL. Tuchkus is Lithuanian and he lives with his gf from Lithuania as well. They just recently moved into a new house and it was perfect for couchsurfing as there was plenty of space. A Kiwi named James was staying/living there too. They were all really good people. I took the very convenient lightrail to Merdeka Square which is a central point in the city and walked around. I walked to the National Mosque but it was closed for tourists so I went to check out the Malaysian history museum while I waited. It was actually a really nicely done museum with four sections. The first going back to the ancient neolithic times, then the next talking about Malaysia before the Europeans came and ancient kingdoms, then the third European colonization and influence and the fourth was about Malaysian independence and Malaysia today. Unfortunately I was not able to see it all as I got there shortly before closing but it was still really cool. After that I went back to the National Mosque and checked it out. I must say a lot of mosques look very beautiful on the outside but inside they are pretty much all the same, just a large carpeted area for Muslims to kneel down and pray. They are pretty bare inside but it is pretty fascinating to actually watch somebody sit down and pray. After that I went over to Chinatown for dinner. Chinatown is the main tourist area and main attraction in KL. It has a street that is just filled stalls of knockoff clothes, shoes, watches, and dvds. Around Chinatown there are some Chinese restaurants obviously too. The best part though, was by far the fruit. The fruit in Malaysia but particularly KL is delicious. I tried mangosteen for the very first time and I was instantly in love. Mangosteen's have a red/purplish shell that you press into and then there is the white kind of flower looking part that you eat. It was so sweet and delicious that I bought and ate about 7 of them. Overall though I was not that impressed with KL after the first day. It seems like all the major cities in Malaysia are the same at least Penang, Melaka, and KL. They all have a Chinatown that is kind of the main point and a Little India as well but its kind of sad if Chinatown is always the highlight of a city.

The next day KL grew on me, however. There was a German girl that was also couchsurfing and I went out with her the next day. We first went to Batu Caves which is like 13km outside the city. Batu Caves is a series of Hindu cave Temples and they are quite spectacular. We only went in the main cave but it was enormous. We were surrounded by cave walls with a slight opening at the top leading to the sky. Inside were Hindu sculptures and pictures of Hindu God's as well as a Temple with people praying. Another highlight of the caves were the monkeys. There were monkeys everywhere, they were on the steps (243 of them) leading up to the cave and inside the caves themselves climbing the walls and eating coconuts. I tried to get to close to one and he showed me his mean teeth. One thing I forgot to mention is that on the way to the caves, the ticket person on the bus forgot to tell us where to get off so we ended up having to walk like a km just to get there. No big deal, though.

After the caves we went back to town and just started walking, exploring the city. We walked through the heart of the business district and this is where KL started to seem like a major city. There are skyscrapers everywhere. The Petronas Towers (Petronas is an oil company) was a few years ago the tallest building in the world, but have since been overtaken by a few others including Taipei 101. People were walking with purpose down the street on their lunch break from work although few people were full suits or ties because its so damn hot. There is evidence of globalization everywhere; Mcdonalds, Starbucks, and 7-11 line the streets and people were walking around with their coffees. It was interesting to see Muslim women with head scarves in a business suit and it is the first place in Malaysia that it actually seemed like people had important and business related jobs. We sample some sweets in Little India (I have discovered that I love Indian food but hate Indian sweets) and then went back home to Tuchkus' house. The area where we were staying was really cool but it was not in the heart of the city and was more residential. Tuckhus lived in a neighborhood with mostly Chinese and there were the neighborhood food stalls that people met at in the evening to have a coffee or mee (noodles). There was one place that had seat outside and showed a movie. So we went there for dinner and relaxed. It also had free wireless which was a plus. That evening we also were able to catch the end of a weekly market that is held in the neighborhood as well. There was more fruit and weird Malay/Chinese sweets. The mangoes that we got there were probably the best I've ever head. They were so juicy and delicious. The rest of the night we just sat around talking about traveling. There was a map of Asia on the floor that we were all just staring at in wonder deciding where we wanted to go next. Even though we all were from different countries we all felt like we had so much in common, much more in fact than most people from our own countries. We were all travelers and all understood desire to see the world and to get away from the routine. My first thoughts of KL were not that great and although I don't think I'd ever live there, I left with a positive feeling about it and I'd go back, just for the fruit if nothing else.

So the next day I flew to Kuching in Malaysian Borneo. My time in peninsular Malaysia is over and I think just in time. I feel like I saw much of Malaysia, beaches, cities, and jungle and was ready to move on to something else. Borneo although still Malaysia should be a bit of a different experience.

I arrived in Kuching and was immediately pissed off because they had stopped public bus service to the airport so I had to pay for a taxi to get downtown. Driving through downtown I realized that this was a very modern, contemporary city with riverfront hotels and restaurants. Kuching is a good gateway to Borneo and definitely has a different feel than peninsular Malaysia. Malaysian Borneo was run by James Brooke who was British for many years so the city has a decidedly European feel to it. I tried ti enquire about maybe a longhouse tour or something but its the off season for tourists and you need a minimum of 2 or 3 people for many of the tours, so if your traveling by yourself your SOS. Thats ok though I took the time to relax and walk around Kuching. Again there is a Chinese and Indian area but are not the center of attention like other Malaysian cities. Kuching is a very clean and nice town. Unfortunately people, myself included think of Borneo as a mass of jungle with indigenous people who live in longhouses and have tatoos all over their body. Well good or bad, those days are pretty much over. Modern longhouses are built out of concrete and have electricity and satellite TV. The traditional wooden ones are pretty much just for tourists. Even so I still would like to see how the Kenyah, Kiyan, and Iban tribes live today. Tomorrow I am taking a boat to Sibu and will see if maybe I can set up a longhouse visit there.