Some facts about Malaysia
Malaysia was a British colony and is divided into two geographic areas, separated by the southern Chinese Sea at a distance of some 650km. Eastern Malaysia is on the island of Borneo and is an interesting destination on its own. It will take quite some time for you to see the natural beauties of it. It’s a place of rich cultural heritage, beautiful beaches, flourishing tropical forests and excellent Asian cuisine. The island part is divided into two states Sabah and Sarawak that show the genuine life of old Malaysians to a tourist. Both are sparsely populated, for they house only one fifth of the entire population. Some of them still live in the so called »long houses« and is there’s enough adventure spirit in you, you can spend a night in their company at these native shelters. The continental, or western, part of the country, unfortunately, has a bit too much of the hectic phase for me, known also in Europe. It’s the economic, financial, mercantile and political developed, modern part of the Malaysia. As a result of European colonization the western part is the most densely populated.
The ethnical structure of Malaysia is very various. The biggest ethnical group are the Malaysians, who adopted Islam in the 15th century and speak the Malaysian language. After 1980 Chinese started immigrating into the country; they became merchants or mining workers, and Indians started moving in as workers in rubber tree plantations.
Malaysia has a tropical climate and high humidity. On the west coast the rain season lasts from October until February. The east coast has an area of one of the most various bird habitats in the world, and among larger animals elephants, rhinos, cheetahs, tigers, orangutans and baboons live in Malaysia. The wildlife, highlands, rainforests, pleasant climate and beautiful beaches attract so many people to the peninsula. The east of the country still has native tropical forests that are among the largest and oldest in the world. Cutting down the rainforest is the prime environmental issue of the country, and wood industry their major activity.
The economic meaning of Malaysian agriculture is diminishing, but still employs about 18% of countries work force. Most of them work on their own land and the main agricultural product is rice, but the country must still import it, for they do not produce enough of it. The tea, tropical fruit, sugar cane, cocoa and rubber plantation are mostly export oriented. Malaysia is one of the top ten exporters of cocoa in the world. The modernization is also felt in Malaysia, for there are more and more people interested into planting oil palms, for which mechanical tools can be applied.
A stroll
This time I did not travel alone, but had a friend with me. We needed full 30 hours to reach Kota Kinabalu, at the north of Borneo, which is the capital of Sabah. In expectation of new adventures the hours passed quickly. We started our journey at Vienna and on to Doha, where we continued toward Kuala Lumpur and took the inland flight to Kota Kinabalu.
We spent seven days on Borneo, for which it turned out, it was not enough to soak in all the beauty that Sabah and Sarawak offer. This is now a good excuse to return to the country. Due to the lack of time we left the exploration to the professionals. Two years ago in Egypt I’ve met lady Bessie from Malaysia, who is a member of the Malaysian Youth Hostels Association and asked her for help. Feel free to visit their website
www.hi-malaysia.org.my/v5/. Bessie helped us a lot, during our stay. We’re very grateful to her, for her help and support.
We arrived to Kota Kinabalu in the late hours of the day. Tired from our journey we went straight to bed, but felt quit jetlagged. When we finally got some shuteye the alarm clock was quite ruthless and our exploration has begun. After a full breakfast and first acquaintances with the local cuisine a bus was waiting for us in front of the hotel. With other tourists we left for mt. Kinabalu, which is (with its4.095 m) one of the highest mountains in southeastern Asia. It’s the big attraction of the national park Kinabalu, covered by a thick jungle and various plants. We didn’t go to the top of the mountain, for you need some three days to get up there, yet we had no time. The drive alone took two and a half hours with a short stop in the town of Nebalu, where we had some fresh fruit and admired the local craftsmanship. We got a great view of the magnificent mountain, which was, sadly, covered with hick clouds.
One of the main attractions of the park is the giant plant named Rafflesia. It’s among the biggest protected flowers in the world. It has a huge blossom, but no stem. The bloosom can weigh up to 10 kg and has a very unpleasant sent of rotten flesh. You can count yourself quite lucky to be able to see one in such a size.
We continued towards Poring Hot Spring. It’s an open natural health spa, made in Chinese style and attracts people from all over the world. It was a very lively place with many children, thus we only took a look at it and went on footpath to the suspension bridge between the tall treetops. Walking over the suspension bridge was very exciting and made many people wonder weather or not to go on. There was a lot of laughter and screaming and although you keep telling yourself the bridge is safe, some fear is present and it makes it an even more unforgettable experience. We spread out on our separate ways to explore the nature and I came back with a valuable collection of photos.
We went back to the city with a bus that gently rocked us to sleep, only to be awoken by rain that came pouring down on the bus and wetting the landscape around us. Satisfied with the water tightness of the bus-roof we went back to napping.
The rain has stopped before we reached the city, so we went for an evening walk and dined on the excellent Chinese delicacies. We discovered we won’t go hungry here, for the country is famous for its good food. People eat up to six times a day, enjoy their food, but aren’t overweight, for they eat healthy and genuine natural food. Next we visited the night market with all of the jewelry, knick-knacks and souvenirs. Compared to other Islam countries like Egypt or Tunis, the people here are not pushy. They are happy if you buy from them, but they don’t push into you. After that we went to our hotel room, made a plan for the next day and hit the hay.
Right after breakfast we took a cab and hired a boat at the harbor and went for Tunku Abdul Rahman park, only 20 min from Kota Kinabalu. It consists of five islands with warm water and rich marine life, ideal for swimming and diving. We went for the smaller island of Sapi, covered by tropical forest. After a short boat ride, with a life vest and diving goggles, we reached the splendid beaches with numerous colorful fishes. It was a real treat to dive among them and their greatness makes you feel quite puny. Every now and again one of them pinches you, which feels odd to begin with, but you get used to it in a few minutes. After a refreshing swim we continued to the forest and went up a footpath in hope to see some interesting animals. Very soon we saw a huge iguana that wasn’t really glad to see us, so it hid away. We learned we have to be very quiet, patient and careful if you wish to meet a reptile. The humidity within the jungle is higher so we soon felt sweat drops and mosquitoes all over our body. Some time later we reached the other side of the island with a rugged beach of huge rock and the sea pounding them, dimming all the other sounds. It’s a good place to recharge your batteries and on our way back we saw three more iguanas, walking gracefully and searching for food. With some unease we followed them to make some nice shots of something that’s quite normal for the locals and it’s very interesting watching them walk around these reptiles, without a shred of fear. The time came to leave the island, full of nice memories.
The sun was high, the heat was too and half a day was still in front of us that we spent exploring the city and looking for a market. Closer we got to the city, livelier everything around us was and soon we a big restaurant with golden-brown crisped chicken out front and where the crunchy shish kabob full of flavor were being grilled under the fingers of an elderly cook. My tummy started noticing this smell too, so there was no turning back and thus we went on towards our destination after a good meal. A huge market, full of friendly people, living colors, exotic fruit and vegetables was surrounded by the smell of stench from duriana. It’s a fruit nicknamed: Smells like hell, tastes like heaven – and it really does. We both made tons of shots with our cameras, for there were so many interesting motives in front of us, as never before: a woman with a baby in her arms, covered by tropical fruit; a man with an ancient scales that you can’t find anywhere near home any more, with which he weight the vegetables; a fisherman hoping to sell his fresh catch; a girl covered in black selling red chilly; a group of young girls happily jumping in front of the camera; a boy wanting attention… A snapshot after snapshot, and a smell after smell, lead you to an unforgettable world of friendly and warmhearted people. You could spend hours here just watching it all wondering about what’s better: the tempo of life we’re living, or the relaxed atmosphere they enjoy.
We had to get up early to catch our morning flight to Mira and got ready quickly although it felt we just closed our eyes. Leaving Sabah and slowly descending to Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, we had an interesting road ahead, so we stopped over at the town of Niah and saw one of the smaller national parks with some unusual attractions.
The distances between towns there are huge and the connections are somewhat bad in not non-existant at places, so an airplane might be the only way to reach a certain destination. An airfield feels more like our busy bus station and we were awaiting our short flight to a two day adventure in the company of Paul, who’s been into tourism for years now. He’s charming and very professional, and you can count yourself lucky if you get to see the island in his company. He presents the country for you, the life of people, their habits and in general, he can teach you a lot about the island. Once we reached Miri he was anxiously waiting for us at the airfield and we drove to breakfast to get to know each other better. We soon realized these will be two great days. After a 90min drive with easy chitchat we learned there are two types of rice, the one it grows in water and the one it grows in hills, or that palm oil is also used as fuel? We learned it all from our guide, who was like an open book of answers for our questions. During our drive we stopped over at a few stands by the road where elderly women were selling fruit. They enjoyed posing for pictures as they were filling our bags with fruit.
We were approaching the national park at Niah and saw a tall mountain with a huge cave, known for the bird nests (Swiftlet) and bat guano. We reached a settlement of houses inside the national park, where we spent the night. The heat cost people to move out of site. We didn’t mind the heat, so we just prolonged to the cave, which is not the biggest, but it is famous world wide and among the most beautiful ones. In comfortable clothes, with a lot of water, and the biggest lenses for the camera, we crossed the river and went walking through the greenness of an Asian forest. Wild birds escorted us by singing all the way and the butterflies were passing us along with small creatures that for their own protections change color – oh, and there were many bugs there too. We saw the bat guano collectors, who are using the droppings as fertilizer. They had up to 100 kilos worth of bat shit on their backs and behind them we sensed the stench from the cave we were approaching. Some time later we reached the entrance, where 40 millennia ago people lived. In all its monumentality it invited us into the world of bats and birds known as Swiftlet. The lamps were lit and the exploration of the foul smelling cavern has started. Soon we realized we were not alone, for an echo revealed other people in the underground world we entered. Paul explained they were looking for bird nests here. The nests had an important role in local medicine, but were hard to reach on top of the cave, where people climbed to on various ropes hanging down. At the end of the day, they do not return to town, but sleep (with the bats) in the cave, to save the time. It’s their only income, so they have no choice. A thought occurred to me there and then: I love my job, I love my apartment! While the bats were dangling above our heads we descended to the part of the cave, where daylight has no entrance to. We stopped for a moment and soaked up the feeling of fear in the absolute darkness. It wasn’t pleasant, so I was relieved, when I saw daylight on the other side. Next we went to the second cave, known for its ancient cave paintings that we admired over the fence, protecting the paintings from nosy tourists. We had a snack and slowly returned, for our deserved afternoon nap. The sounds of the wilderness have woken us into a state of hunger. We drove to a nearby village and concluded the day at a hefty Asian dinner.
