Disappointed in Malaysia

I don't know why, but I'm disappointed by Malaysia. Perhaps it's just backlash from exotic Bali. Maybe it's because Liz has come down with a case of Montezuma's (or his local equivalent) revenge, thus limiting our touristing. Maybe I'm suffering from depression at losing our netbook. Oh yeah, we got the bag back, sans netbook. Damn! I'm still mulling over the security implications of this. As far as I remember, it was "clean" as far as sensitive data and the like, but did carry an address list of friends and family. Only time will tell. But, all those pictures. Does that mean we have to go to Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand again? Wait a minute, a ray of sunshine there!

Anyway, both Malacca (spelling varies, the locals seem to prefer Melaka) and Kuala Lumpur (commonly referred to as KL) are mostly comparatively modern downtowns with historic districts surrounded by really drab housing areas. Every other woman wears the muslim headscarf and full burqa can be seen on occasion. Granted, there was lots of western dress visible, and nearly no exotic native apparel. Maybe that's what I miss. I was surprised to find that Malaysia has been Muslim since its founding as a nation in the early 1400's. Some Hindu and Buddhist influence and the ubiquitous Chinese but you can not escape the dominant Muslim presence. Other than that, the cities are fairly orderly and mostly depressingly workaday.



Apartment block - typical
Cruise ship, also typical



In Malacca, our hostel, the Backpacker Freak Hostel (Would I make  that up?), was the only place available during Chinese New Year and was as basic as it gets but with a very pleasant atmosphere. Lots of foreign travelers, mostly German and Chinese. Nearly all with some English skills, the single uniting theme we've seen in hostels. If I'm going to travel with one language, it had better be English. It's located right on the edge of the historic district, just across a strange little amusement park. During Chinese New Year, this park was jammed. From the common room in the hostel, we saw some interesting dragon shows (Durn camera batteries were exhausted!) and lots of fireworks. All through the park and the historic district, the most colorful and noisy pedicabs hauled Chinese tourists around. Saw lots of museums relating to the changing influences on on Malacca and the rest of Malaysia, from the founding Muslim prince to Portugese to English, Japanese, then independence. During a quick river cruise we saw that the most colorful areas (walls painted in all manner of pictures) were Chinese.

Pedicabs like this all over streets of historic area



River scene, lots of shops line riverbank





St. Paul's Church, built 1600's, used by the British in 1800's for gunpowder storage





More pedicab






All that's left of old Portugese fort