Malaysia: Exotic, Safe,� Clean and Inexpensiveby Judy Babcock Wylie
Malaysia is full of surprises, from� iguanas overhead to� its shiny new space-station-style� airport, to the sleek and soaring buildings of the ultra-modern city of Kuala Lumpur, to an affordable� 5-star island resort so luxurious that Pavaroti sang at its opening. In fact,� thanks to the country�s� slow but steady recovery of the Asian financial crisis, Malaysia is still a real bargain. Unlike its neighbor to the north, Thailand,� tourism has not ruined the culture, and unlike� nearby Indonesia� its political system is stable. It�s safe, exotic, clean and affordable. Whether you�re a� beginner at Asian travel or an old hand,� Malaysia is now the best gateway to the East. . At Tanjong Jara., the� remote seaside resort on the East Coast,� near there we took the boat trip,� we� sat on the verandah for dinner late one� night, tasting� succulent chicken satay with peanut sauce and� Chinese vegetables, the muted chime-like tones of an� Indonesian gamelan group playing in the garden, wafting over us. You could walk the resort�s beach for a mile and see no one, but we after dinner we chose to stroll to �the infinity pool that seemed to stretch into the ocean, thanks to a trick of design, and slipped into the still-warm water under a fat tropical moon. For roughly $175 per night you could stay in a large room with bath suite� within reach of the sound of the pounding surf, and have a one-hour transcendent Malay massage in a special indoor-outdoor meditation room with rich woods and woven reed walls, treating the body�s pressure points for under $40.
Psngkor Laut is four� mini-resorts in one. Emerald Bay has perhaps the most perfect little white sand beach in the world, protected� by rocky arms of the small bay. Royal Bay is near the center of the main restaurant cluster, where I stayed out over the water, and by Spring of next year� there will be a Spa Villa area built around the spa treatment facility. If the recent tech explosion has left you with so much money you can hardly spend it,� you can book one of the Marina Bay Estate villas at Pangkor Laut for a week. It will only cost� you $14,000 a week,� and it includes a two-bedroom private villa with two indoor-outdoor baths, an infinity pool and private living and dining� pavilions. A butler and cook are provided of course, as are all meals. At night, the small lantern lights dotting the shore sent shimmering beams out across the water of the Straits, where pirates once plundered Portuguese and British ships laden with silks and spices heading back to Europe.�
Exploring the city the next day,� I was struck by the green belts and parks everywhere, even along the busiest stretches of highway. The historic district, with its crypto-Moorish fantasy buildings designed in the last century� by British colonial architects, have been restored and offer parapets, towers, minarets and swooping spiral outdoor staircases.
�The tin miners first set up camp where the rivers met, and the Indian-Muslim- style Masjid Jamek mosque marks it even today. Its cupolas, arched colonnades and balustrades are built� with stripes of red and white brick. For a� stark contrast I walked over to the new KL Twin Towers, an office building with great shopping on the lower floors. It was here in a shop called Asean that I met� the Rice God, carved on top of a wooden rice planting tool, his face in a permanent scowl. The two-foot long tool had an open section with a sliding piece as a noise maker. The idea is that you poke the ground to make a hole for the rice seed, and the noise alerts the rice god to wake up and bless the planting.� The best place to see crafts made was the �Karyaneka Handicraft Centre� in Jalan Raja Chulan., where we saw artists in individual open-air studios, demonstrating weaving, batik, traditional painting and mengkuang, or palm leaf weaving. You could also buy cloth, ceramics, glass and silverware at good prices here. A piece of batik fabric suitable for a long skirt cost less than $12. As� we drove back to� the new Kuala Lumpur Airport, about an hour from the city, its soaring space-age design was softened by greenery. They call it �an airport in the trees, and trees in the airport� design.� Walking to our Malaysia Airlines gate, under the high-tech building supports overhead that looked like spirals of chromosomes,� I could hear the clank, clank of the Rice God commenting on it all� in my carry-on bag, muttering something about the future being fine, but� it�s the past, including the jungle and the history of� trade in rice, spices, silk, tin and rubber that still makes Malaysia exotic,� and a country not to miss.� All hotels mentioned can be booked Malaysia Travel Advisors (MTA) Malaysia Airlines� flies to Kuala Lumpur from Los Angeles four times a week. �The nice thing about Malaysia Air is that coach seats are bit wider than most and there is a video terminal at each seat, �plus� the chicken�satay meal sure beats the peanuts of our domestic carriers. �(800) 552-9264 |
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TM
Whoosh! The river ahead suddenly erupted in a ten-foot high splash that threw everywhere.�� Something big and heavy� had plunged into the water from above as we approached. �Iguana,� said� our guide Sabik Kahn. �There�s another one.� He pointed overhead. Draped� on a mangrove tree branch� that reached� out over the water was a� plump seven-foot long� greenish yellow iguana, his tail touching the tree trunk and his four arms� and claws grasping the underside of the branch. As we passed under him, he opened one golden eye and gazed down at us without much interest. He was right out of central casting for a monster movie. 
Until that moment, gripping the sides of a 14 foot wooden boat painted a fading aqua, �we had been drifting slowly� down the Pimpin River in the state of Terranganu, on Malaysia�s undeveloped east coast. Thick stands of mangrove trees leaned over� water the color of� cocoa and the air was warm and moist..� We heard only� the low mutter of our small outboard motor, the high metallic whine of cicadas like a distant fire siren,� and the occasional call� of an unknown bird singing one note that slid down the scale and abruptly stopped. 
The exact same moon seem to hang waiting� for us� when we arrived on the other side of the country at Pangkor Laut, a� private island� and resort� off the West coast� in the Straits� of Mallaca. We had arranged for a luxury car and driver to take us down from� Kaula Lumpur,� which cost about $100 for all four of us, then boarded a small� yacht to reach to the resort, passing tiny fishing villages on the way, with fishing shrines built over the water. As Pangkor Laut island appeared, it had element of a mirage. Thatched -roof villas stood on stilts over the water. Other villas clung to the lush tropical hillside. Immediately after coming ashore, we were ushered into a� reception lounge overlooking a deep blue pool, and offered� a coconut still in the husk, filled with a� frothy fruit drink. The grounds were bright with� heliconias, spider lilies, hibiscus, wild orchids and birds of paradise.
After settling in a villa over the water, framed in reddish- brown Nyatoh wood, and thatched above, I walked over a long slender boardwalk over the water to dinner at Uncle Lim�s a Chinese restaurant built on a rocky outcropping, with soaring traditional wooden architecture rising in a conical ceiling above, and sides open to the tropical night. The lazy- susan� table rotated to offer� rustic spicy Hockchew cuisine; country food such as� whole curried fish and a dozen other items.�� At the Samudra restaurant the next day, built out over the water,� we tasted the local Nyonya cuisine,� which was developed by blending Chinese and Malay cooking styles, and is rich in tastes of lemon grass, coconut milk, chilies and lime. Dinner came with rice and six small dishes of curried chicken, sambal fish and other specialties. �
You should start and end your stay in Malaysia with a stay in Kuala Lumpur. Thanks to the current economy you can stay at the most elegant hotels for little money. Try the Ritz Carlton, a small boutique hotel with the most attentive staff on the planet for $80 per night. When I checked in, in the middle of the night� after an overseas flight and walked to my room, the whole hallway was filled with the delicious smell of mint. �That would be your hot bath which we drew when you arrived,� said the concierge leading me to the room. As I sank into the brew of mint and ginger it soaked away the bone-tiredness of travel and left a pleasant sleepiness. 
�Muddy rivermouth� is the literal translation of Kuala Lumpur,� which was formed at the meeting of the Klang and the Gombak rivers. It reached prominence as a trading and tin mining port, though wars with local Chinese gangs and bouts of malaria caused constant trouble.� A British Resident was appointed in the late 1800s and KL became the most important city in Malaya. The Moorish railway station built in 1910 and the earlier copper onion-domed Sultan Abdul Samad Building built in 1897 reflect the British designers� dreams of Asia. Nearby is the Central Market, which once sold fish and vegetables but now offers crafts and spices; I bought a purple paper fan for $1.50 and three rounds of raw sugar wrapped in palm leaves for $.65.