Updates
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Subject: Confusing start in Malaysia!
Date: Sun, 08 Sep 2002 12:01:58 +0000
Hey up Everyone!
How are you? Hope you are all ok!
Here I am 'Bryo-less' and in a very strange country indeed! I have now been in Malaysia for 3 days and I think it has been the biggest culture shock so far! Maybe it's because I started in Georgetown on the Island of Penang which hosts mostly Chinese, Muslims, Indians and Malay - a lot to take in in one go I guess! So far I have seen many Chinese people burning paper and incent on the streets and at local temples, I have heard the bells of a Catholic church and I have been kept informed of the time by the regular praying calls coming from the nearest mosque!! When you think about it it's
pretty damn amazing that this place manages to keep it all in such harmony! Just a few hours ago I saw an old Chinese man reading his paper in front of his house while 3 little Indian kids were running around him! You don't get to see that in many places!
Having said that, this place does have an certain uneasiness about it. All the rundown colonial buildings, which make most of the centre of the city, are beautiful but very ghostly at the same time! Most of them have bars on their windows, padlocks on their grid doors or lockable gates! When I went to buy some films from a shop in Little India I think I saw more security men than customers, my carrier bag was sealed at the cash desk and I had to show the receipt when leaving, I don't think Heathrow has that much security!!!:))
I was recommended by a local lady to bike it round the island. So yesterday morning after much faffing, I found the lady owner of a restaurant who rented me the bike of her son's girlfriend! It's a terribly long story but renting a bike in Georgetown that has a bag-rest at the back is next to impossible! Anyway, through persistence I found one, and off I went along the north coast working my legs through a disappointing scenery considering I had to cycle mostly on the main road which isn't right by the beach. The beach itself wasn't all that either! A couple of hours later I found Batu Perringhi, a seaside resort, where I was to stop for the night. This place, to me, was like the Malay equivalent of staying in Margate! I wasn't very impressed! A faded resort with tired tourists!!
Still, refusing to be discouraged I set off for a tropical fruit farm in the afternoon which WAS SUPPOSED TO BE 6 ILOMETRES AWAY!!! WAS IT? Was it hell! it was more 10km away but most of all it was all up hill and I wasn't particularly equipped for the occasion with my cruiser Chinese style bike with no gears and a increasingly annoying squeak developing!!!
Like for everything though, there is justice somewhere because the first car I stop in the middle of this hill was occupied by a very helpful New Zealander couple! 2 minutes later the bike was in the boot and they took me all the way up there! You won't believe how much I enjoyed coming back down (all the 10km!!!!!) it's like I'd won a battle against fate!!! ;)
Anyway apart from that it was pretty uneventful and a bit of a waste of time! This afternoon, back in Georgetown I enjoyed hours of exploring in Chinatown, little India and the centre in general. The British definitely have left a mark here closely followed by all the other cultures being brought thereafter. I will leave Penang in a better frame of mind than I
arrived in! My next destination is the Cameron Highlands where the jungle thrives and where I am told the weather is cooler! let's see what that brings...
All take care.
Little Mendez xxx
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