Multiculturalism in Malaysia: All Things Indian

While Taiwan may be the "Heart of Asia"....Malaysia is "Truly Asia."  At least according to their tourism campaigns.  But from my experiences so far, I the slogan is true.  Malaysia really is a multicultural, multi-racial, multi-ethnic oasis.  The population is a healthy mix of Malay, Indian, and Chinese residents.  There is a lot of history and politics surrounding how these groups relate to each other, but Malaysia prides itself on the way in which these three ethnic groups live together pretty much in peace and harmony.

An advertisement for a bank, I believe, depicting Chinese, Indian, and Malay children co-existing in harmony.  Yes, we can all just "get along."

This makes Malaysia home to many colorful festivals.  I wrote previously briefly about Hari Raya (see Holidays).  At the end of October is the Indian celebration of Deepavali.  But like any holiday (think Christmas) there is commercialism surrounding it.  Living in the Little India part of the city, the effects have been prevalent for weeks.  About 2 weeks ago, the sidewalks in this area transformed from convenient paths to get to the LRT station or grocery store, to crazy obstacle courses filled with Indian clothing stalls, Deepavali decorations, henna artists, and sweets stalls.  Although the sights, sounds, and smells are amazing, I can't help but be slightly annoyed when I am trying to merely make it to the train station and have to wade through it all.   

No place left to walk, only to shop...



There were sales all over the city for Hari Raya, because that is when people treat themselves and their children to new clothes and special outfits to wear to all the celebrations and activities (visiting family and friends, etc.).  Similar for Deepavali, vendors have come out in full force to make sure there is not one Indian without a new outfit this month.  I might have to pick up some wears myself. 

Bangles galore.

Anyone need some incense?  Sometimes its burning so thick in some of the stalls that the smell sticks to my cloths and follows me home.

If you need it, they've got it.

Housewares.

Another site on my walk to the LRT station, Vivekananda Ashram.  Built in 1904.

It gave the artist that provided her henna services great pleasure to see how the color of the final henna on my skin differed so much than from the usual dark skinned Indian patrons. 

All in a Days Work

Another fun filled 48 hours with Rotary!  And no, I'm not being sarcastic.  Although from my past several post it may just appear that I'm bumming around Malaysia and having a great time on holiday, I am actually here on official business.  As I've mentioned, I'm in Malaysia as part of a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship.  Not to bore you, but I just thought I'd share what the meaning of this is.  The objectives of the scholarship are as follows:

•       To further international understanding and friendly relations among people of different countries and geographical areas

•       To promote international goodwill and peace

•       To promote Rotary’s ideal of Service Above Self

•       To develop humanitarian leaders

•       To impact all areas of the world through a balanced geographical distribution of scholars.

What does this actually mean for what I'm doing with my time here?  Well, the only "requirements" are to:
1)  Give 10-15 presentations to Rotary Clubs and other groups about "my culture"
2)  Be involved in Rotary service projects and attend the district conference

3)  Be a full time student

Sounds pretty simple, but we were chosen as Ambassadorial Scholars because we are involved in our communities and try to take every opportunity to participate in the world around us, and its a great way to learn about the culture.

So in the past 48 hours I gave two presentations, and was involved in 3 different Rotary activities. On Friday I took the train out to a suburb of KL call Nilai.  I was invited to speak at the school that the children of my Rotary "host" attend.  It is an international school and so they thought having me come an speak with the children about geography and community would fit with their mission.  So I spent Friday afternoon with 160 school children up to the age of 14. 

Geography presentation to the school children. 

Everyone tells me I look like I teacher.  Even at the university campus, many people ask me if I am a professor.  Am I really too old to be in college still?  This is the principal of the international school (she just got back from a cruise to Alaska) and my host Kirenjit (right).

From there I spent a few hours with my host and her children shopping and exploring around.  She is so kind got me an "early birthday present."  I am the proud new owner of a beautiful kebaya- a traditional Malaya outfit. 

No the best photo, but trying to show off my beautiful new kebaya.  Thanks Kirenjit!

I was scheduled for another talk that evening to a Rotary Club in KL.  I hopped the train back to the city.  Little did I anticipate that on Friday evening, many people use the train and it was much longer and way more crowded then on the way out.  It was standing room only, if that, so many people crammed in, and because of this, getting on and off was very difficult and stretched the train ride to 1.5 hours.  Once I finally reached KL, I had to then transfer to a lightrail train, and then scamper across many blocks and lots of traffic to make it to my meeting a half hour late.  So is the life that is based on public transportation...thankfully, the club I was presenting to was very laid back and all was well. 

You'll see a lot of these official hand shake photos over the course of my ambassadorialship.  This photo isn't actually from the club that I presented to Friday night, its from a presentation I gave earlier in the week.  But you get the idea. 

Public speaking is definitely not my strong suit, but giving presentations about my love for Alaska and all the neat an unique aspects of the life and culture there is a lot different than giving presentations about my thesis topic, so I'm doing OK so far, and everyone loves the pretty pictures.

At 6:30am (yes, on Saturday), I headed out the door to join in on another "training" for my up coming Mt. Kinabalu climb (seea few posts back).  It was pretty laid back as we spent time jogging around a nice park and lots of working out on the stairs.  A nice way to spend the morning, but being drenched in sweat by 7am makes the rest of the day really sticky.  Straight from there I met up with the rest of my host Rotary Club and went on a tour of a bread factory, because October is Vocational Service Month in Rotary world so the club took the effort to arrange to learn about this profession and where our food comes from.  The tour was interesting enough, as it took us through 5,000 years of "bread history."

At the bread factory with my host Rotarian, her son, and her nieces.

This all took place before noon, and after the tour a Rotarian from our club invited us all to his house for lunch and some fellowship and to meet his first and brand new two week old baby granddaughter.  I always enjoy having the opportunity to visit people's homes here to see how typical Malaysians live.  They are always so warm and welcoming.  From there I was whisked away again to visit the grand opening of a boutique that was being launched by one of the Rotarian's nieces.  There I tried on and got a feeling for some Indian clothing as I'll soon have to purchase an Indian outfit to wear for my attendance at celebrations at the end of the month for the Indian holiday of Deepavali.

Lastly, the day was topped off with a non-Rotary activity, but I thought I'd include it anyways.  My roommate Tomoko and I attended some championship matches for professional tennis at the Malaysia Open tournament.  This wouldn't normally be something on my radar, but Tomoko, in her previous life in Japan, was a sports journalist, and is now pursuing her Master's degree in Sports Sociology at UM (same university as me).  There was a Japanese player that had a chance to make it to the finals, so we decided to see it live.  We ran into a little bit of misunderstanding at the box office though.  When we looked online, we saw options for "free seating," which we interpreted as "you don't have to pay for a ticket, if you sit in these specific seats, its free!"  But, what it turns out in meant was that it was "open seating/unassigned seating" and the tickets were 30RM each, which is only about $9.41USD, but was a little disappointing when we were expecting it to be free of charge!  The funny thing is that this confusion was not due to a language barrier- English is my native language and I still misinterpreted it- but was merely due to the difference of perspective of us as the consumer and the people selling the tickets.  We kept saying "we want the free seating" and they kept telling us "60 ringgit please."  Haha, unfortunately the Japanese player was beaten in the end and did not advance to the finals.

Malaysia Open international tennis tournament.

Taman Negara

On the third leg of their visit, we made our way to Taman Negara, Malaysia's "premier national park."  Molly and Ryan might call this the fourth leg of their visit because they took the opportunity to visit the town of Melaka (or Melacca) for a few days while I stayed in Kuala Lumpur and went to class.  Taman Negara is not a stright forward place to reach.  But the journey is half the adventure, right?  We took a minibus from KL to the town of Kuala Tembling, where we then boarded a long boat for a 3 hour ride up a river to the small town of Kuala Tehan at the entrance to the national park.  To actually get into the park, you have to pay 30 cents to get a water taxi to take you to the other side of the river.  Good thing transportation is super cheap here.  We paid $25 USD to get all the way there (bus and boat).  We could have done it for $16 USD each, but decided to splurge for the minibus instead of the public bus.  In the end the public bus may have been better, but we survived! 

Taman Negara was first protected as a preservation area in 1937, and its huge...4,343 sq. km (1,677 sq. mi).  OK, that's not that big if you are comparing to say Denali National Park, but its big for a small country.  We were fortunate to visit during a less busy time of year and were able to see some wildlife between our "night safari" and day hiking.  A night safari means riding in the back of a truck with high powered lights looking for animals.  We were lucky to see a small jungle cat of some kind, a snake, flying squirrels, some sort of a jungle deer, many monkeys, etc.  More details are in the photo captions....

Bright and early in Chinatown waiting to board our minibus for the 3 hour ride to Kuala Tembling where we would then catch a boat into the national park.  I'm glad I took Dramamine and fell asleep for the whole ride, because Molly and Ryan said it was more than a slightly terrifying ride due to the driver's speed and the condition of the vehicle. 

Recycling?

I love rivers so I quite enjoyed the 3 hour ride up the river though the jungle.... 

...until the Dramamine and late afternoon sun caught up with me and I fell asleep.  Good thing I was wearing sunblock on that arm!

Floating restaurant, there were several of these along the river.

The boat dropped us in Kuala Tehan, a river town on the opposite bank from the national park.  We splurged and stayed at a "real" hotel because they had 3 person rooms, and it would have cost more to get 2 rooms at a hostel/guesthouse.  It was definitely nice to enjoy the pool as the temperatures during the day were blazing and the muddy river with a strong current was not inviting to swim.

Applying our armor against leeches.  This included rubbing salt all over our feet and legs, topped by DEET bugspray, putting on socks, and re-applying salt and bug spray on the outside. 

Additionally, we took the stylish look and tucked our pants into our socks.  It worked, leech free at the end of a 4 hour hike through the jungle.  There was one close call, Ryan spotted a leech 1/2 way into his sock, but a rapid attack with salt assured he was not harmed.

The forest in Taman Negara is 130 million years old (claimed to be the oldest in the world).  None of the Ice Ages had any effect here and this area eluded volcanic activity and other geologic upheaval (according to the guidebook).

We got up early and beat the guided tour groups to the canopy walk.  It was constructed in 1992, and it was actually much more impressive than I was expecting.  We had the whole thing to ourselves so it was great to take our time exploring and enjoying the wonders 45 meters above the jungle floor. 

This move was actually a lot more daring than it looks.  The bridges tended to have a sway to them once you start walking.

This part was a bit terrifying as the ladder walkway did not connect to a solid platform at the top, it only connected with another flat hanging bridge portion. 

OK ecologists, you win if you can tell me what this is.  I have no clue, but its pretty cool looking.

Don't bonk your head on this one.

We visited an Orang Asli camp up the river a little ways.  They demonstrated their fire starting techniques, and how they make their blow gun and dart weapons.   We "ran the rapids" on the way up and the guide was sure to get us nice and wet.  I can't say that I have ever done white water in a wood constructed long boat.

Orang Asli camp, a specific aboriginal group called the Batek people.

Ryan trying his hand at dart blowing.  I tried, but my dart barely made it to the target, and didn't have enough power to stick.  I don't think I would be able to shoot a bird with this technique. 

Mini blow gun weapons meant for your "annoying neighbor."  Or just for tourists to take home and hang on their wall.  Molly and Ryan successfully got 2 back through customs to the United States. 

Another Tropical Island...

On the second leg of Molly's visit, we headed north to the island of Langkawi.  We were apprehensive about going there because it was likely to be very touristy, but it was very beautiful and definitely worth the visit.  Molly's husband had been working on a project in the Gulf of Thailand for a few weeks, so he and his co-worker came and met up with us.  They were happy to be off the ship where they had been living for 3 weeks!  My roomie Tomoko also joined us.  We had a great time enjoying the beach and sunsets and great cheap food.  For two days we rented a car and explored the island (you can easily drive around it in a day), visiting several waterfalls and heading up a crazy cable car to experience the view from above.  Unfortunately, we got a flat tire on the second day,and the car lacked some of the necessary tools to change the tire. But with 2 engineers and a few MacGyver skills we were able to change it and be on our way.  These photos share just a few of the many highlights!

The beautiful beach and Pantai Cenang.  The water wasn't as warm or clear as when I visited the Perhentian Islands, but its hard to complain : )



Twice I found this grasshopper friend on my chair, but he only had one back leg.  How does he do it?

The Langkawi gang, from left to right: me, Rich (Ryan's co-worker), Tomoko (my roommate from Japan), cousin Molly, Ryan (Molly's husband).

Waterfall #1.

Another beautiful beach on our tour of the island.

Waterfall #2.  We took advantage and went swimming at each one!

Our charming accommodations at the Palms Guesthouse.

Langkawi sky bridge at the top of a slightly terrifying cable car ride.

View from the top.

A slightly crazy engineering feat.

Waterfall #3.  We hiked to the top and the river had carved amazing natural rock slides and we played in for over an hour.  Even though it was pouring rain, it was still warm. 

There was this mountain that we really wanted to drive to the top of, but it was completely fogged in, and by then we were chilly.  So we took the offer of "free" tea at the top of this view tower.  Execpt it cost $3 to get to the top!