Adventures of LP: Malaysia: Part 1

Well, I’m in Malaysia. I hadn’t really thought about visiting Malaysia, but as it lays smack in the middle of Singapore and Bangkok, my cities of arrival and departure, here I am. So far I’m having a good time here, though I am definitely realizing that I’m not that great at being a normal tourist. I don’t want to go shopping or stop for a photo-op every 5 seconds, cities and large masses of people are rather intimidating to me. I’m missing the quietness of the village a little bit.

My first stop in Malaysia was Melaka (sometimes spelled Malacca). It’s a small-ish town on the west coast. Melaka has some pretty interesting history; it was an important port for the spice trade and has been ruled at various times by the Chinese, British, and the Dutch. So there’s a mix of everything from old churches to temples. Some parts of Melaka are quaint and would make any guidebook writers describe the town as “sleepy”—there’s brick sidewalks by the river and murals painted on the walls. There’s old antique shops and stores making homemade pineapple cookies (yum!).

Unfortunately, they also mix in a healthy dose of tourist trap in Melaka. The town was recently named a world heritage city and they seem to be capitalizing on that as much as possible. I discovered that while there are some decent museums, there are scores of “museums” in town and a lot of them are just stores trying to lure you in, or are still in construction. Plus, due to its proximity to Kuala Lumpur, busloads of tourists are wandering around the center of town all day long.

In Melaka, I enjoyed wandering the streets, visiting the historic sites on the hilltop, and looking in the antique shops. It was a little funny to see charcoal powered irons and tin plates in the antique shops when my neighbors (and sometimes myself) were using those exact things just 2 weeks ago. I had to laugh at the pimped-out trishaws pedaled by smiling old men, but it didn’t take long before the masses of photo-snapping tour groups and junk gift shops drove me slightly insane.

My next stop was Kuala Lumpur. I didn’t really know what to expect here and it felt pretty much like a generic city—lots of people, traffic, and shopping malls. I don’t really know what it is with Asia and their huge, air-conditioned shopping malls, but man are there a lot of them! Shopping can be fun and necessary, but not really what I’m looking to do on my vacation.

Navigating the public transport in KL was one of the most frustrating experiences I’ve had on this trip. I feel like I can say I have some good experience with public transport having used it in various cities, but this was by far the most confusing system I have ever seen. Traveling by subway required buying a new token every time you had to change lines, which was often, and stations that were “connected” had unmarked pathways between them that were incredibly poorly labeled. By the end of the trip I adopted a strategy of avoidance for the subway.

To me, Kuala Lumpur was the opposite of Melaka: on first glance it seemed like a tourist haven but after further exploration I did find a lot of cool things to do in KL. I visited Merdeka Square, where they first raised the flag of independent Malaysia, browsed the textile museum (Malaysia is famous for really beautiful batik and woven cloth, among other textiles), went to the Batu caves (caves just outside town where they’ve built in a bunch of temples), visited a craft center where I got to paint my own batik, and even saw the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.

My next stop is the beach in northeastern Malaysia. I really need to get out of the city and relax for a while. I’ll check in after that, hopefully much more relaxed!