After leaving
Singapore we travelled to Pulau
Langkawi, the largest island in an archipelago of 99 islands off Malaysia's north-west coast (104 islands at low tide).
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| Langkawi means reddish brown eagle in colloquial Malay |
We chose Langkawi as we were travelling during the rainy season on the east coast.
We had been planning to go
diving in the
Pulau Payar Marine Park, however the one day we had free to dive the dive operator never turned up so that was the end of that! We were not happy...
Instead we hired a car and drove round the island, which has a surface area of almost 500 km2. One of the places we stopped at was
Makam Mahsuri (the tomb of Mahsuri) which relates to one of Langkawi's most famous legends: Mahsuri was a beautiful young woman whose beauty inspired a vengeful accusation of adultery from a spurned suitor (or jealous village chief's wife in some versions) while her husband was away fighting. The village elders sentenced her to death but when the
kris (ceremonial dagger) was finally plunged into her she bled white blood - signifying her innocence. With her dying breath she cursed Langkawi for 7 generations of bad luck.
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| Mahsuri's tomb - she lived either in the 14th or 19th century |
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| looking south from the centre of the island |
We also sampled
Nasi lemak which is a Malay classic: rice cooked with a little milk and served with anchovy, cucumber, fried peanuts, egg and
sambal (a dip made with pounded or ground chilli), all wrapped into a cone shape and in this case held together using a banana leaf.
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| wrapped Nasi lemak |
We then flew to another
pulau (island):
Penang, which means "betel nut" in Malay. Due to its cultural heritage Penang became a UNESCO
world heritage site in 2008.
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| In Georgetown |
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| in Georgetown |
The island itself is about 300km2, but the most interesting part is the historical old town of
Georgetown, with its colonial buildings and mix of Indian, Chinese and Malay culture.
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| Old Christian cemetery, Georgetown |
Ku Din (1848-1932) was a Malay High Commissioner in the late 19th century and early 20th century and he built a residence which is now a hotel.
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| Ku Din Ku Meh residence |
Cheong Fatt Tze (1840-1916) was a penniless Chinese migrant who became a powerful local merchant. The
family home he built is also called "The Blue Mansion", and featured in the film "
Indochine".
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| Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, built in the 1890s |
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| Goddess of Mercy Chinese temple |
The
Kapitan Keling mosque is the largest historic mosque in the town. Founded in 1801, its current appearance dates from the 1910s.
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| Kapitan Keling Mosque |
After a few days we left Penang in a hire car and drove to the Cameron Highlands, crossing the Penang Bridge which links Penang island with the mainland Peninsula.
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| At 13.5km Penang Bridge is Asia's longest |
Cameron Highlands is in fact a large hill station comprising several towns and villages. It is famous for tea-growing.
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| Tea fields |
Jim Thompson, who helped rebuild the Thai silk industry, mysteriously disappeared in the Cameron Highlands in 1967 (I visited his
house in
Bangkok in 2009).
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| more tea fields |
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| satay |
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| our walks were rather muddy! |
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| At the Butterfly Garden |
At the Butterfly Garden there were also other local insects and plants.
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| Can you see the leaf insect? |
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| And this one? |
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| Pitcher plants - we also saw this in the wild in Borneo |
Our next stop was
Kuala Lumpur, 200 km to the south. Just before arriving at the city we stopped at the
FRIM (Forest Research Institute of Malaysia) where there are walkways and amazing views of forest canopy - similar photos to the one below have appeared in National Geographic!
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| forest canopy at FRIM |
In KL we had an amazing corner hotel room with a great view of the
Petronas towers.
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| Petronas Towers at night, from our hotel |
Here are the towers by day. They are occupied by Petronas, the state-owned oil company, and some multinational companies.
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| The towers stand 452m high and have 88 floors |
Kuala Lumpur is quite spread out and has a handy monorail and Light Rail Transit system to get about.
Although not as culturally and historically interesting as Georgetown or Melaka, KL still has some interesting sights. For example the Moorish-style
Sultan Abdul Samad Building was built in 1897 and today houses the Malaysian Ministry of Informations, Communication and Culture.
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| Sultan Abdul Samad Building |
The
old train station was completed in 1911.
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| old KL train station |
The
Kuala Lumpur tower is a 421m-high communications tower built in 1995 which gives good views over the city.
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| Kuala Lumpur Tower, aka Menara KL |
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| incense coils, temple |
Of course you can't spend much time in this part of
Asia without coming across the ubiquitous and smelly
durian. It's quite common to see
signs in lifts, public transport and public buildings banning
durians!
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| durian fruit stall |
We left KL by train (though not from the old train station!) and travelled to our final stop in Malaysia:
Melaka. Melaka itself does not have a train station - the station is actually 30 kilometres away at Pulau Sebang.
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| Sungai Melaka river |
Melaka was already flourishing in the 15th century, then was taken over successively by the Portuguese, Dutch and British.
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| Melaka |
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| Melaka |
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| a very well-presented Nasi Lemak |
The Portuguese used 1500 slaves to build the
A Famosa Fort, but today all that's left is the Porta de Santiago, as the British destroyed the fort in 1808. Built in 1511, it's one of the oldest surviving European architectural remains in Asia.
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| Porta de Santiago, A Famosa fort |
Nearby is the ruined
St Paul's Church, with many old tombstones lying against the interior walls.
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| St Paul's Church was constructed in 1521 |
The Protestant
Christ Church was built in 1753 to commemorate the centenary of the Dutch occupation of Melaka.
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| Chinese temple roof decorations |
As we had sadly come to the end of our trip we then took a bus back to
Singapore, before flying back to
South Korea.
Suggested reading:
The Rough Guide to Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei 
