Multicultural Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur and Penang Island

The first picture of our trip to Malaysia is actually taken from our flat in Singapore. Why? We had to leave so early to the bus station that we could see the amazing sunrise from the window of our place.

We had a Chinese noodle breakfast in the 6 hours bus that brought us to Malaysia’s capital city, Kuala Lumpur. 

A dirty, humid and busy city were the first impressions we took from the place, although once we found the hostel – a cool backpacker place with a rooftop bar – and rested a bit we started enjoying more the exotic streets.  Some colonial buildings from the 20th century mix in the landscape with modern financial buildings.

If you want an adrenalin shot you just need to cross a main street: the traffic, plenty of motorbikes, is crazy and they don’t even respect the traffic lights since the fine for crossing a red light is only 35RM (around 8€). 

The best thing to do in KL is to simply walk around the streets and get lost in the most local places. The Independence Square has really nice views and you can find the tallest flag of the world there. A tropical storm caught us so we went inside a Chinese market in Chinatown, where you could buy very cheap things – bad quality, though. We bought chewing gum because it’s forbidden in Singapore so we ‘missed’ it. 

At night we went to the symbol of the city and the country… the Petronas towers!!! 375m high, these connected twin towers were once the highest buildings of the world. The ‘greenish’ lighting at night is really impressing, even if it’s raining as it was!

 Next day, after clarifying that we could get a bus to Penang that evening, we decided to go to the Batu Caves, on the outskirts of KL. Some cultural differences we experienced in the train on the way: we couldn't enter in some coaches because they were only for ladies and in the entire train 'indecent behaviour' was forbidden...

Although Malaysia is a Muslim country, it has a surprising mix of cultures from the surrounding countries including Chinese, Indonesian and Indian. The Batu Caves are an Indian sanctuary with many hinduist temples, a local market and some Indian food courts. 

After having a spicy Roti Prata for lunch we went up the long stairs that brought us to the caves and we saw some curious monkeys on the way. 

 That night we took the bus to Penang, an island in the north-east coast of Malaysia which is actually connected with a long bridge. We left at 11pm, pretending to sleep there all the night, yet the AC was so strong we were freezing and we arrived at 4am in Georgetown -the main city of the island-,  so were pretty tired when we got there. A taxi driver brought us to the city center and dropped us next to a local indian foodcourt with cheap meals for 1-2€.  

Yet the problem was we didn't book a hostel for that night since we planned to stay longer in KL. We expected to find a place easily because other exchange students had been there before and they found many backpacker hostels. One by one we checked the availability, but they were all booked...

I promise we don't follow the religious festivals... they follow us! After the trip in Bintan where we accidentally found ourselves in the middle of a Buddhist celebration, our trip coincided this time with the most important Hindu festival of the year: Thai Pusam. Indians from all over the country travelled to Penang or KL because of the Hindu temples there are to be found there, and that was the reason why all the hostels were booked when we came. 

It took us almost 5 hours but we finally found a cheap place to stay next to the 'Red Garden Paradise Food Court', where we tasted some delicious ray fish with rice. That day we took a bus to the north of the island and we chilled out in a nice beach next to some resorts where people did jet ski and other kind of water sports. 

Malaysia is more modern and developed than we thought before coming. We expected a Muslim traditional and very conservative country, yet we saw some of the local people that had adapted their religion rules in a more modern way, with colourful veils instead of black ones for example.

Another curosity we found on our way was a building surrounded by fences with 'swastikas' that reminded us to the nazi symbol, although we knew that it is actually a Hindu symbol that Hitler took later on. 

We finally saw the huge crowd and we knew we had arrived to the place where the Thai Pusam festival was taking place. The intense smell, the loud Indian music and the heat stroke us at the beginning but after walking a while through the crowded streets we got used to it. We enjoyed the exotic situation, just staring at the people and their fancy Hindu dresses. They offer in several stands a 'holy' salty spiced milk to all the believers.

Suddenly we saw the people that make the Thai Pusam an attraction for many foreigners. During this celebration, people make wishes to the Hindu Gods and if those wishes come true, these people have to make a special sacrifice for their Gods in order to express their gratitude. A couple of prayers are enough, we thought to ourselves... but that would be a ridiclous gratitude sign for a Hindu God! 

This is what they do:

 The shiny metal vases that hang with needles from their naked skin contain holy milk that they have to bring to the temple. But it takes around 9 hours to get there, since they begin their ritual far away and they walk - barefoot - and dance to the rhythm of the music until they come to the last temple. Some of them are stung with over 100 needles... the pain is the offer to the Gods.

  And on this hill there is the last temple they go to after the 9 hours ritual through the streets to finish their prayers and offer the holy milk.

Still a last surprise waited us before leaving the country. The van that drove us broke down in the middle of a highway... 

If the life gives you lemons just make lemonade, they say. So we took it with humour and we listened to some chill-out music tanning under the sun while we waited for another driver to pick us up. Nothing could spoil our amazing second trip of our exchange! So far, so good!

...