Malaysia, Indonesia Trip Nov 13-29, 2008

Summary: Two-week trip to Malaysia and Indonesia with Nadiana. Yes, I have a Malaysian girlfriend. :) For some background on how we met, click here. That was supposed to be a blog I was going to do for this trip, but internet access was too dicey. I just want to say that Nadiana is a wonderful, beautiful person and I feel very lucky to have her in my life. Traveling together can be hard on a relationship, especially when you add time-zone adjustment to the mix, but we were together 24/7 without a hitch, to which I give her all the credit. Vacation highlights included a stay in the Cameron Highlands, visits to two world heritage sites in Malaysia - Penang and Malacca, and a trip to Yogyakarta, Indonesia to visit another world heritage site. I also got a chance to visit with Nadiana's family - Dad, Mom and 2 sisters - just outside Kuala Lumpur.

It was a dark and stormy night...

First night in Kuala Lumpur. My plane landed in the afternoon and I took a bus from the airport to my hotel in central KL. Here's the view from my hotel room on the ninth floor looking out over Chinatown. For reasons never clearly explained, the airport is located a good hour and a half drive from KL. It was overcast and rainy. We do not have much rain in San Francisco and this trip gave me my tropical lightning storm fix for the year :). Nadiana showed up around 9 that night and we got to sleep early for the bus trip to Cameron Highlands the next morning.

Onwards, to the Cameron Highlands.

Cameron Highlands is the largest and most famous hill resort in the country. Due to its abundance of Tudor architecture, this resort area still retains the charm of an English village. The Highlands were named after William Cameron, a British colonial government surveyor who discovered the plateau during a mapping expedition in 1885. The fame of Cameron Highlands grew when British planters realised the potential of its fertile mountain slopes for growing tea, then a prized commodity. Cameron Highlands is still home to many tea plantations. It is also a major supplier of legumes and vegetables, and is one of Malaysia's prime tourist destinations due to its many attractions and relatively cool climate (about 70F).

The Highlands is about 214 km north of Kuala Lumpur. Nadiana and I took a 5 hour bus ride to get there. The last couple of hours were on pretty twisty, mountain roads. By the time we got there, we were pretty fatigued. I was also still dealing with time-zone adjustment, which is never easy for me. Kudos to Nadiana for her good humor during this.

Thank you sir, may I have another?

Nadiana found this absolutely charming place for us to stay called "Bala's Chalet." Built as a boarding school in 1934 for European ex-pat children, it is one of the oldest colonial buildings built during the pre-war era and has been preserved in its original structure and Tudor architecture until today. The Chalet has approximately 30 cottage style rooms. Good pick Nadiana!

It's all about the Tea

Cameron is famous for its tea planations, and we visited the farm and factory of one of the most famous -- BOH tea. BOH Plantations is the largest black tea manufacturer in Malaysia. The BOH Tea Plantation in Cameron is also the largest tea plantation in Malaysia.

And other stuff...

Other stuff in Cameron included visiting the butterfly and strawberry farms and going jungle trekking which included meeting some real aborigines. The butterfly farm also had some live animals like turtles and scorpions we were allowed to interact with. The aborigines showed us how to shoot their blowgun and play with their pet monkeys.
Cameron was a bit on the cold and rainy side, and it was nice to spend one morning at Starbucks just hanging out drinking coffee. Starbucks was on the main drag where the youth hostels were and seemed to be the place all the local westerners gathered.

Next Stop: Penang, Fort Cornwallis and food

Our next stop after Cameron, was Penang. Penang is one of Malaysia's main tourist draws. The island has served as a major port and has a rich multicultural history full of Chinese, Malay, Indian, and European influences. Penang is also well known for being the "food paradise" of Malaysia. The old section, Georgetown, is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

We took a 5 hour bus trip from Cameron to get there. This time, we stayed at a modern hotel not too far from the water, a large mall, and a well-known outside food court.

Our main excursion was to check out Fort Cornwallis, a fort built by the British when they took control of the island in 1786. The fort has been restored and done up as a tourist attraction with employees dressed in colonial gear (see above). The fort was adjacent to the old section, Georgetown, which we wandered idly through. It started to rain, so we took a cab back to the hotel. The food court on the water had some amazing food, including oyster omelets. Yummy!

Malacca

After returning to KL from Penang by bus, our next stop was Malacca. Malacca is about 150 kilometer south of Kuala Lumpur. Malacca had a lot of conquerors in the past centuries: Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and English. In the past, the city was a strategic place at the border of the Strait of Malacca and was a major port along the spice-route. The historical city centre has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 7th July 2008.

One of the popular attractions in the historical centre is the market along Jonker Street. The market sells the usual tourist crap and wasn't that impressive, but if you wander around the side streets, you can see a lot of charming architecture and small shops. Other attractions included the Stadthuys, the official residence of the Governor when the Dutch were in charge and that now houses the Historic Museum and Ethnography Museum which displays many traditional bridal costumes and relics. Nearby is the Christ Church built in 1753, another fine example of Dutch architecture. The ship seen here is the Maritime Museum, a reconstruction of the 'Flora De La Mar', a Portuguese ship that sank off the Coast of Malacca on its way to Portugal.
 
We were only in Malacca for a day, then it was back to KL and our Air Asia flight to Yogyakarta, Indonesia the next day.

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Once again, Nadiana finds us a charming place to stay. In this case, a delightful boutique hotel with only 11 rooms - the Rumah Mertua. It's outfitted in traditional Indonesian style and features a small, but nice pool. I got one of the cheaper rooms, which actually turned out well as it was in the back and affored us a lot of privacy. Rooms were about $30/night. (:-)

Borbodur ruins

The principal attraction in Yogyakarta is Borobudur, a ninth-century Buddhist monument. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. A main dome, located at the center of the top platform, is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupa. After a large restoration project undertaken between 1975 and 1982 by the Indonesian government and UNESCO, the monument was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

One of the reliefs is of a boat, which was reconstructed "Kon Tiki" style and used in a 6-month expedition between Indonesia and Africa. The reconstructed boat is housed in a museum on the Borobudur site.

Other ruins, Mt Merapi, the City...

Other attractions in the Yogyakarta area included Ratu Boko and the Prambanan Temple complex. The former provides panoramic views of the surrounding areas. Both of these are also World Heritage sites.

Our visit also took in Mt Merapi, the most active volcano in Indonesia which has erupted regularly since 1548. The last eruption was in 2006 and steam can be seen on most days escaping from the top.

Nadiana's family and goodbye...(:-(

After Yogyakarta, it was back to KL where we spent a few days with Nadiana's family. This included her parents, her sister (20), and her half-sister (5). They were fun to meet and hang out with! They took me to the airport where we had a final meal at Burger King. Fast food is still kind of a novelty there and is more popular through all economic strata then it is in the USA.

Food...lots of food (:-)

Oh, did I mention there was food on this trip? Lots and lots of great food! (:-)