Ray and Jeanne in Oz
Episode 9: Malaysian Interlude
Kuala Lumpur Supreme Court
Snorkelling off Pulau Tioman
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Farewell to Oz
Sunday 3 April
2004 OttawaI promised to write one more episode after
we got back to Ottawa. After a week and a half we are
pretty well acclimatised once again so here is our last
report of our visit to Malaysia on our way home.
Taking advantage of an extended layover in Malaysia
turned out to be just what we needed. It gave us a taste
of the country and the determination to return another
time to explore more of this very pleasant land.
We landed in Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 9
PM on March 9, 2004 and took a taxi 70 km into the city.
We had bought the latest addition of the Lonely Planet
for Malaysia before we left Sydney and their Author’s
choice of a budget hostel sounded just what we needed –
centrally located, good lobby/lounge area, breakfast
included and helpful personnel. If that was the author’s
choice I would hate to see the others. It was so run down
we only stayed one night. You can’t win them all.
We switched the next morning to the Coliseum Café and
Hotel. It was advertised as having a potent sense of
history. It was built in 1921 and has not changed since.
Apparently that is good luck in the Chinese tradition.
The Café remains very popular with locals and they had a
few suitable large rooms upstairs. The toilets with
original fixtures were down the hall. It was also close
to several good restaurants in little India, including
their version of a food court. You order from one of
several booths and find a place to eat on one of the long
tables while they cook your food to order.
Chinese Market
Chinese Temple
Kuala
Lumpur (KL) was easy touring. You can walk, grab a taxi
or take one of the above ground train systems to wherever
you want to go. A plus was the lack of hard
sell from the merchants and the general welcome from the
people. We spent two days exploring Kuala Lumpur. We took
a walking tour through Chinatown, visiting the central
outdoor market and searching out small temples hidden
between larger buildings.
The second day we
took a taxi to the 92-hectare Lake Gardens, once the
retreat of the British elite and now enjoyed by all KL
residents. We headed for the Bird Park, a huge mesh
covered aviary housing 160 varieties of birds. Most of
the mainly Southeast Asian species fly free under the
tenting, feeding on pieces of fruit skewered on sticks
and are quite tame. We spent the morning walking the
pathways, then relaxed in style in the next door
restaurant, lunching on the balcony overlooking the Bird
Park.
In the same area were the Orchid and the Hibiscus (the
national flower) Gardens spread over several hectares
where we admired more cultivars than we thought existed.
Our last stop was the mesh covered Butterfly Park where
about 150 varieties of colourful butterflies flutter by
your head, stopping to feed from the profusion of
flowering plants or trays of sugar syrup. Our favourite
was the National butterfly, Rajah Brooke’s, a bird sized
black velvet insect with iridescent green splashed across
its wings. When you leave the butterfly area you pass
through an insectarium displaying live and mounted
samples of the largest beetles, scorpions and spiders
found in the world. Most of them were scary enough to
give you nightmares.
Our initial plan to visit Malaysia entailed a
whirlwind tour of the peninsula. We changed our minds and
concluded that a week at a beach resort is what we really
needed to end our trip. Pulau Tioman, the largest island
on the East Coast of Malaysia, and the model for Bali Hai
of South Pacific fame, sounded ideal. At 20 km long and
11 km wide it offered at variety of accommodation,
excellent beaches and snorkelling and ferries ran
regularly from the port of Mersing, near the southeast
end of the Malaysian peninsula.
We left a huge bag full of camping gear and warm
clothing in safekeeping at the Coliseum and took off for
the bus depot. Six hours later we were in Mersing. We
were met at the bus by a representative of the Ferry
Company who asked if we were planning on going to Tioman.
Our bus had been a little late so the last ferry of the
day had been held for our arrival but was leaving in ten
minutes. He also offered accommodation at Panuba Bay
Resort. Lonely Planet has spoken highly of this resort so
we reserved for three nights and were whisked over to the
ferry. Three hours later we had crossed the 51 km to
Tioman, were checked into our cabin and were seated on
the balcony dining area ordering dinner.
Pulau Tioman is a volcanic island with steep, jungle
clad hills falling straight down to the coast. There is not much
level ground at beach level so most of the resorts are
built in a thin line across from the beach or up the
sides of the hills. Panuba Bay Resort was a collection of
simple wooden or more luxurious concrete cabins built on
stilts up the side of a hill. The Bay is bounded on both
sides by rocky headlands that ensure a quiet atmosphere
but make it difficult to visit neighbouring beaches. We
decided the resort suited us just fine. The beach was
white sand, the waters were nice and warm and the corals,
right offshore, were home to tropical fish of all colours
and sizes. We had a simple wooden cabin on stilts with
fan, with attached bathroom, cold water only, but we
cares when the days are warm.
Ray walked over the headland to the next busier beach
and reported back that we had by far the best
accommodation. With that news we upgraded our cabin to a
larger version with an air conditioner and extended our
reservation to one week. The breezes cooled our cabin so
nicely that we never even turned on the A/C and only used
the fan a few times for a short duration.
Panuba Bay Resort, Pulau Tioman
big monitor lizard
We
spent our days reading on the beach, snorkelling to our
heart’s content, being entertained by the macaque monkeys
that dropped fruit on your head if you sat under their
favourite tree, and watching a resident giant monitor
lizard crawl across the beach on his morning stroll to
the woods. We took two excursions to Pulau Tulai (Coral
Island), just offshore to experience even more coral
reefs.
We returned to KL to spend one last day in the city
before boarding a midnight plane back to Canada. We
arrived on the last day of campaigning before National
Elections. The streets were festooned with posters and
banners. A large group of campaign workers had a booth
setup on the sidewalk almost next to our hotel, the
Coliseum. The good news is that it was a peaceful
election, the bad news is that they blared forth music
and encouraged passing car and motorcycle drivers to honk
their horns in support until the wee hours of the morning.
My earplugs were put to good use that night.
KL communications toweer has a
restaurant on top
we went for lunch and the view
Our last Sunday in
KL we decided to treat ourselves. The highest
telecommunications tower in Asia, the Kuala Lumpur Tower
– like the CN Tower, but a little shorter – has a
revolving restaurant on top with a sumptuous buffet lunch
for 64 Ringits (less than $25 CAD). We were
able to get a table by the window and spent the next few
hours feasting from three long tables covered with
enticing Asian and Western foods and enjoying the view of
KL as it slowly passed our table. Ray looked very
sartorial in his Malaysian sarong, provided by the
management to disguise the fact he had arrived in shorts.
We got a photo of him with the Petronas Towers, currently
the world’s tallest buildings. After lunch we descended
one level to review the city again from the observation
deck. It was a great way to spend an afternoon.
We had kept our room at the Coliseum until 6 PM,
enabling us to have a rest and repack at leisure before
leaving for the airport. When we were ready we took our
bags down to the Café Bar and sat down to have a beer. A
young, local trio at an adjoining table said they were
fellow travellers and would we please join them for a
drink to share our experiences. They were most
interesting and hospitable, leaving us with pleasant
memories of our time spent in Malaysia.
And so another odyssey was ended. We pronounced our
whole trip a success. We still have parts of Australia
that we haven’t seen and we will be sure to return
another year to properly explore more of Malaysia.
So until next year, we bid you farewell. Now it is
time to visit all our friends and relatives back in
Canada.
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