The Year of the Tiger

Well, I'm back in Korea after my holiday in Malaysia. I really loved Malaysia, and would recommend it to anyone. It's a bank holiday for weekend for Lunar (or Chinese) new year. This coming year is the year of the tiger.

The pic of the week shows the sunset on Pantai Cenang beach on the island of Langkawi. I took this just in front of my hotel.

Kuala Lumpur
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I flew Air China from Seoul to Kuala Lumpur, via Beijing. I was upgraded to business class on the first leg of the journey, which didn't seem very communist to me.

When I arrived in Kuala Lumpur I met up with a work colleague.

I wasn't really clear on the geography of Malaysia before I travelled. There are really two completely separate parts of the country. There is 'peninsular' Malaysia, which is south of the border with Thailand, and extends down to Singapore, and is next to Indonesia. Then there are the two provinces Sabah and Sarawak which are on the island of Borneo. Borneo is shared with Indonesia and Brunei. There is about 600km of South China sea separating the two parts of Malaysia, and all my travels were on the peninsula.

Malaysia is the most Muslim country I've visited. A lot of the women wear the veil. There are all different styles, from just a head scarf worn with jeans and t-shirts, and sometimes motorcycle helmets and heavy make-up, to fully head to toe in black with just a slit for the eyes. It was unusual to see the situations where women wear the full head-to-toe garb. I saw two games mistresses in a school, with their dresses right down to the grass as they ran around the pitch, and women swimming in the sea in Langkawi, still dressed from head to toe.

I liked Kuala Lumpur more than I expected. Mainly for the multi-cultural atmosphere and food. There is a Chinese/Indian/Malay mix, and the feeling is relaxed and easy. The food is fantastic in Malaysia, and I put on about 5kg while I was there.

Penang
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I met a guy in Seoul shortly after I arrived in Korea who had travelled extensively in Asia. I asked him what place he would most recommend to visit, and he said Penang, Malaysia. So for the end of our first week we headed there. However, I couldn't really understand why he had recommended it. It was way more built-up and industrial than I'd imagined, and there was a lot of shipping around the port. However, the food was even better than Kuala Lumpur, and our arrival coincided with the Hindu festival of Thaipusam.

Hindu pilgrims travel to a temple near the Botanical Gardens, bringing gifts (mainly milk to bathe the statue of Lord Murugan, a God). We hired motorbikes, and headed there, and went on the pilgrimage up the hill to the temple. We saw the more extreme penitents, some of whom had pierced their cheeks with skewers, and had hooks through the skin of their backs, and were 'towing' someone else up the hill. Not for the squeamish (as in ME), but the whole experience was really interesting.

When we finished in Penang, my friend headed back to Kuala Lumpur for a flight to Sri Lanka, where he was to be best man at his friend's wedding, and I took the ferry to Langkawi.

Langkawi
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I really didn't know much about Langkawi before I got there. I just knew it's the name of a lovely Malaysian restaurant in Dublin. I had heard that the most beautiful Malaysian beaches were on the east coast. But as I was already in Penang on the west coast, it seemed more logical to go stay on that coast.

I absolutely loved Langkawi. It's a lush tropical and quite small island. I rented a scooter, and was able to travel from South East to North West (about the furthest points apart) in about 40 minutes. There are beautiful beaches, and tall mountains. I went on a cable car trip to the top of one mountain, and got a beautiful view of the entire island.

It's also a duty free island, so alcohol was cheap, and there were duty free shops everywhere. In general, because it's a muslim country, alcohol isn't freely available. However, as I was in mostly tourist areas it wasn't a problem, although they recommend that you don't take it into your room if you're staying at a family guesthouse, and it wasn't unusual for it not to be available in restaurants.

I was supposed to travel back to Kuala Lumpur on Friday, for my final night. But I decided to book a flight (€60), which effectively gave me two extra days on Langkawi, because I flew to KL airport on Saturday night, and linked directly with my flight back here.
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So I loved my two weeks away, and the injection of sun and hot temperatures into my Korean winter was most welcome. I left KL at midnight when it was still in the high 20s, and arrived in a snowy Beijing six hours later at -6 degrees!

Well, that's it for now. So until next time,

Annyeong-hi kaseyo.

Éamon

Today's headline in Donga llbo: President Lee stresses 'no more feud' at his party