 | Malaysia Off the Beaten Path | Tips 1 - 10 of 193 |  |
Popular Off the Beaten Path | Miscellaneous Off the Beaten Path Tips | All Tips (193) Bukit Tanku is the locality of the richest and most affluent of Kuala Lumpur. The residential villas can be easily mistaken for palaces.
We visited the residential locality at night and were over-awed to see the elite of Malaysia. We saw a villa with 18 cars parked inside the compound. We found out that the villa belonged to a businessman whose wife held an important ministerial post in the Government. It explained it all hehehe.
However, looking back, these elites deserve the very best of life after having developed the economy of ther country. Leave a Comment |
What is it like , to be confined in an island
Pulau Jerejak, a small island just off the coast of Bayan Lepas, in Penang has a long and interesting history much of which has been characterised by neglect and confinement. In the distance Jerejak looks a mass of virgin jungle. On the shores palms and coconut trees abound.
Behind those natural beauty, it was actually a former leper colony where a thousand Asiatic lepers, largely Chinese, have learnt to smile in the face of the most awful visitation of Divine anger.
Subsequent to being a leper colony now moved to Sungai Buloh, Selangor the island was a centre for contagious diseases and later became a penal colony.
In fact Jerejak first appeared in colonial records when Colonel Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington who defeated Napoleon in Waterloo) proposed it as a possible alternative to Fort Cornwallis as a naval base in 1797.
It is interesting to know that the lepers were segregated according to race. The biggest complaint of the Chinese lepers, he wrote, was the poor quality of opium they received from the authorities. There was also one white couple living with the lepers. The woman, most probably from Lancaster, England, lived with her Australian husband, When asked her what life was like on the island, she said: There is nowhere to walk except over the short stretch of sand you see in front of the bungalow. There are no roads on the island it is all thick jungle, and one cannot get from one part to another without using the rowing boat
in the evenings I sometimes accompany my husband when he goes in the sampan to some of the other settlements. It is a little change. Perhaps we may be provided soon with a motor launch then the inspection will become almost joy rides. Leave a Comment |
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Tin mining was extensively in the Kinta Valley of Perak some decades ago. Today it is a sunset industry and most tine mines have closed down.
You can still find many mining pools, but this is the only dredge you see. It's an exhibition item near Chendrong, Batu Gajah. Leave a Comment |
Please be careful and don't play over-smart. In Malaysia you are under close watch 100% of the time.
And by this, I don't mean by Malaysian secret services, although that is also true. With so much of bad stuff going on in the neighborhood (e.g. Bali bombings, Phillipines, etc.), it is obvious that Malaysian secret agencies would be on their toes. This is good, because this would mean that Malaysia is very safe to travel these days.
I was actually pointing out to our wild friends. Birds are always watching you while you eat a sandwitch for fallen crumbs of bread, dominant Long-Tailed Macque male is watching you for keeping his troop safe. Most critically, there are more eyes watching you from bushes and crevices than we can watch them.
Here in the picture, Suhail took a snapshot of a Kanseel Rusa (Mouse Deer). But look carefully at the bottom left hand side of the picture. Eyes of a Deer in hiding are glowing under flash light. This Deer was not seen with ordinary eye. We only noticed it while seeing the picture. Leave a Comment |
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reincarnation
One of my fren informed me that the island is being developed as a tourist resort so a bunch of us decided to pay this island a visit.
My childhood memory of this place is that , we are not allowed to visit this place at all, only stories about the lepers being kept there and subsequently a prison for certain type of convicts. This trip is like walking into history , perhaps childhood dream to see what its like to stay in this island and to live in confinement, to feel what the lepers feel - totally cut of from outside world .
aren't we all very fortunate ? so I think we should all think of people in such situation when we are about to complain about this and that ...
Of course what we see now is hundreds of time better than what it used to be.
a beautiful and serene hideaway
A nice resort have been erected, with cluster of chalets/ bugnalows perched on the hill, a beautiful and clean swimming pool ( simple and of course more can be done to beautify it ) and a lovely beach to stroll and relax ....to avoid the major touristy beaches or island.
There is also a restaurant serving international buffet. We also spotted a bunch of girls practising traditional dance there ... traditional dance cool ?
The road are all well cemented or tarred , unlik yesteryears .... Leave a Comment |
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While exploring roadside planations and Indian villages, we thought about Scott (herzog63 on VT) and Terrence (ecuriosity on VT).
The temples of Indian villages would have really interested these two great VT travelers.
Historically, while Chinese were brought to Malaysia for mining and business, Tamils were brought from India for working on palm oil and rubber plantations. The plantations labor force still consists of Indians.
Palm oil plantations are encroaching on rain forests of the land. On the other hand, due to man made materials, natural rubber's use had reduced in the past, but is going up again.
Caution: Plantations are owned by private parties and big corporations. Avoid tresspassing. Explore only in the company of authorized people. Local Indians are very helpful people. You can get lot of information from one conversant in English. Leave a Comment |
We traveled to Kampung Kuantan, Kuala Selangor to witness one of the nature's wonders.
The mangrove forests become home to Fire Flies at dusk till 10:30 p.m. at night. Each family of the fire flies takes a mangrove tree. The males' bodies glow to attract the females and the females return the signal, although a weaker one. The rate for female is once every 3 glows from the male. It seems that the whole tree is glowing on and off as if it is Christmas.
The story goes that there was a local villager by the name of Jaffer who discovered the fire flies colonies. He started running his private eco-tourism packages. But soon the success got to the Government, who took over for better management purposes. Jaffer, it is said, got broke and went mad.
You have to sit in a traditional oars driven wooden boat and keep quiet so as not to disturb the fire flies. You cannot take any picture, because if you use flash light, the fire flies recede into the forest. You can use video camera though.
The picture here is actually a view card. Leave a Comment |
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In the wooded areas even of Kuala Lumpur city, there is an unceasing game of life and death being played between the hunters and the hunted. Here, when Suhail was taking my picture, his attention was diverted by a lizard coming down quickly from a tree and grabbing an almost foot long milipede from right behing me. As I ran away screaming, Suhail was only able to get this shot before the lizard hid in the tree again. The milipede tried desparately to get out, but lizard held on. Leave a Comment |
Petrosains Museum, built by Patronas (National Petroleum Company of malaysia)and spread over 7,000 square meters of exhibit area, is located on 4th Floor of Petronas Towers. It is an interactive science discovery center that presents a story of science and technology of petroleum industry in a very engaging way.
As you enter the museum area, you find that it has a smaller 'Dino Walk' section to your right. Tickets are purchased from the same window as for the Museum. 'Dino Walk' has moving Dinosaurs that can surprise the parents and shock your children.
The trip to the museum itself begins with a Walt Disneyish ride and then you move on in a linear sequence in such a way that you begin to understand how petroleum forms, is drilled out and supplied. You get to interact with several experts through 'Arif' the interactive console placed at convenient locations.
There is a fantastic heicopter simulator that takes you from shore to an off shore drilling platform, of course after negotiating terrible weather conditions.
You get to know many unanswered questions this far in your life - for example, why is that Middle East has so much of oil deposits.
The Museum is quite a favorite with children. Children from several schools were visiting the Museum as were many older groups. It soon appears that Patronas has taken upon itself the responsibility of educating the young generation of Malaysia in science and technology.
Warning 1: people will tell you that it is 2 to 3 hours routine. Wrong. Soon you discover that the activities are too engaging and you needed at least 5 hours to explore everything. We spend nearly that much time - 5 hours.
Warning 2: Not many tourists, travelers and hotel people know about this Museum. We were simply lucky as Ifrah found it out on the web. Leave a Comment |
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The climax and most enjoyable part of our trip to Malaysia turned out to be a very educating and entertaining visit to Elephant Sanctuary in Kuala Gandah, located near Lanchang, Pahang at the edge of the thickly forested Krau Wildlife Reserve.
Malaysian elephants are on the list of endangered species, as there are only about 1200 left in the wild. They are losing their natural habitat to human expansion through construction and plantation. The Elephant Sanctuary provides shelter to orphaned elephants and also organizes catching and relocation of elephants posing threat to humans and in return causing threat to their own lives.
Although we get to hear a lot about threat to African elephants, its actually the ones living in the dwindling rain forests of south east Asia that are endangered and need our attention.
Please read all about the sanctuary in the two travelogues built by Ifrah. Leave a Comment |
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on February 19, 2004
on May 16, 2004
on August 8, 2005
