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Diary This is Jan's diary. If you want to receive this diary by mail, write your mail on the contact form.
‹ Previous (06/05/2009) MONTH Next (2009-07-05)› ‹ Previous (2009-05-29 - Thailand) COUNTRY Next (2009-07-03 - Vietnam)› Malaysia Penang (see on map) 08/06/2009:
After relaxing for 5 days in the small and calm island of Koh Kradan, we took different minibuses again to do some more hundreds of kilometres towards the south, to visit another island, this time in friendly Malaysia, a country that we enter without any problem. The island, called Penang, is the most visited former English enclave in Malaysia, acquired in 1786 by the captain Francis Light in exchange for getting married with the daughter of the sultan of Kedah and in exchange for a military protection that he never provided. The captain Francis established the Georgetown city declaring it a free port, attracting quickly Chinese and Indians of other English enclaves. These different cultures, including the Malaysian, were successful in the city, preserving their community, identity and religion, being this one of the reasons of the fascination that at present produces Georgetown. In Georgetown there is the greatest proportion of Chinese in Malaysia (40% Chinese, 40% Malaysians and the rest mostly Indian). It can be observed in the great quantity of Chinese temples in the city: Taoist and Buddhists, which are very similar in design, with a full decoration, although the Taoist temples have statues of its idols and Gods and the Buddhists sculpture of Buddha. On the other hand there are some old churches (a small proportion of Chinese are Christian), hinduist temples and a couple of pretty mosques, to which the Malaysians go, mostly Muslim. In the mosque of the Kapitan Kelin, a Malay explained to me that, on the contrary to the Buddhists and Chinese Taoism and to the hinduist Indians, who worship the statues with offerings, incense and prayers, the Muslims do not have images in the mosques because they worship God directly. On the other hand, not everything is about temples, churches and mosques in Penang. Georgetown has an interesting Chinese neighbourhood with its shops concealed behind doorways and wooden shutters half open, and an Indian neighbourhood where its played music at high volume and Indian clothes. In this neighbourhood, the atmosphere is that of an Indian film, where you can recognise the Indian actors, and the temples and restaurants, but you can not smell the unpleasant smells of the Indian or observe the omnipresent dirt of the street. Surprisingly, the Indian neighbourhood was an clean copy of India, with clean and wide restaurants and good food with a lot of meat. In Georgetown we met with Kendra, a local girl of CS, and also with a German boy from Couchsurfing. Kendra, collected us with her car and the four of us went to the hippodrome of Penang that opened its doors for some days, afterwards we ate some delicious noodles (noodles) with shellfish, and in the afternoon visited the botanical garden of Penang that had an interesting exhibition of bonsáis, insectivorous plants and orchids. All the time, Kendra, of Chinese origin, offered us good conversation and explained to us that each of the three communities in Malaysia (Chinese, Indian and Malay) speaks its language and they have its traditions, but they relate among themselves and there are no discriminations. For example, in the state school, the cultures are mixed and the youngsters have friends of all the cultures. In spite of everything, sometimes there are problems with the government, because this applies the Sharia or Islamic law. For example, a Chinese girl married a Muslim and in order to do so she had to convert to Islam, but the relation was not good and they divorced. Then, the girl wanted to stop being Muslim but the Islamic law does not allow it (when one has converted to the Islam, will be a Muslim forever, wanted or not) and now she cannot get married with a Chinese of her culture because he should also convert to Islam. Today we have relaxed and have left to pass the hours of the day with calmness. In a given moment, it was in our small room of the hotel, looking at the fan of the wall that moderately was saving me of the heat of south east Asia, and i realised that I sit very happy, despite having given up since some time ago my life of comfort in Europe. I can imagine easily the rest of my life living in small and hot room of hotel, in exchange for not having a stressful work again or in exchange for power to keep discovering cultures and new people around the world. Kuala Lumpur (see on map) 12/06/2009:
Zaikha and Faizal were the first couchsurfers that I lodged in my home now i will go to their house after about four years. Of that meeting a good memory remained, and from the goodbye we decided to see eachother again in the future, when my journey around the world took me to Kuala Lumpur (or KL as they call it here). Zaikha and Faizal had travelled in Europe with their small daughter Aresha, but now already she has grown, however, there was a new baby in the family, Zara. The family gave us the room of Aresha and, taking advantage of their Internet, the day after we remained in their house, relaxing and conversing with Zaikha. The following day, me and Alexandra celebrated our third anniversary together. I have never been so much time with a girl, and sharing so many hours and adventures. The communal life has not always been easy, but, we have started to learn with time to accept our differences and to understand our personalities. Probably, once the journey finished, the communal life will be much easier, although we cannot forget that we still have about two or three years of journey. Even then, we follow with the idea about marrying once arrived in Europe, because we love eachother and because it can help to get the US visa easier. The celebration in itself was not too special, to us maybe yes, because we went up on the bridge that joins the two towers Petronas (with 252 m, one of the highest buildings of the world) and we did an activity that we did not do since we went out of Europe: going to the cinema (we saw: Angels and Demons). Yesterday, on the following day of our anniversary, we arrange to meet with another boy of couchsurfing, Yu Wei, of Chinese origin, and with his car we went towards Melaka, another colonial town that reminded us of Penang. The state of Melaka is one of the oldest Malay sultanates (it is at present one of the few states that does not have sultan) that was successful up to the arrival of the Portuguese, who conquered the city and built a strength. In spite of everything, the Dutch stole it from the Portuguese, finally yielding it to the Englishmen. One may not miss that the city has interesting traces of this colonial past, although we visit them without entertaining ourselves too much, preferring being settled in a bar to talk with Yu Wei and Kirksman, a boy from Melaka of Chinese origin that was training for the olympic games as weight lifter of dumbbells. The races, which are an identity sign for the Malaysians, are a sign of prejudice or racism in Europe, was one of the first subjects of conversations. In any case, in Malaysia it is normal to talk about races and to name some of the discriminations that the Chinese or Indian suffer from the Malaysians. For example, the universities have a maximum number of entrance for the Chinese, that are seen obliged to studying abroad (many do not return). On the other hand, Yu Wei and Kirksman complained that in spite of the help of the government, the poorest communities were the Malay and Indian ones, and that that was owed to the Chinese culture, that it is always centred in working and gaining money. Today, to finish rounding the week up, I have met with Roman a Swiss friend with whom we had shared some weeks on the beach of Goa. Roman has just received his Land Rover in KL originating from Bangladesh (quite more economic that to send it from India). Anyway, with the car caught in the south of asia, Roman yet does not know which would be his immediate future, although he continues with the dream of travelling around the world with his 4 x 4 (even in the very expensive Japan). Roman has a feeling of bond with his 4 x 4 very similar to the majority of travellers with car; similar also to mine, although I managed to break it abandoning the car in Nepal, that has been a very good decision, because it has allowed us to travel with a much more adjusted budget. On the other hand, even if Roman had been travelling less time than we, he was already intoxicating himself with the spirit of the traveller, and declared to me that he started to dream of travelling during all his life, even if he kept sacrificing the relation with his distant girlfriend, who did not decide to follow him. 14/06/2009:
Yesterday it was a happy day, although at night I went to sleep with a feeling of sorrow. The day was happy because we were invited to the celebration of the wedding of the brother of Faizal. The weddings in Malaisia are celebrated on different days, a day at the house of the family of the girlfriend and another day at the house of the family of the boyfriend. One of the reasons of these celebrations in parallel is the great quantity of guests who invite each other, who in the case of the brother of Faizal could be counted by the hundreds (they told us they expected about a thousand people). In any case, that did not frighten Elma, the mother of Faizal and of the groom, at the house of which the wedding was celebrated; then Elma is one of the most hospitable women of the world, who has lodged more than 350 people through couchsurfing in two years. We arrived at eleven in the morning, when they were still preparing, although not much later people started to arrive and delicious food started to be served. Little more late arrived the couple, accompanied by the noise of different Harley Davidson and a band of drums. The couples were received and a throne was adapted, where they were photographed and blessed; and later in the nuptial table, which had a special menu and much more delicious than that of the rest of guests, because according to the tradition, the couple has to feel as kings for a day. Among the different guests there were different people from couchsurfing, friends of Zaikha and Elma and guests of them. Among these there was a boy from Iran who showed his worry about the results of the elections in Iran of the previous day (in Malaysia there are many Iranians working and studying). According to the official communiqué, Armadinejad had won the elections with an absolute majority, but the leader of the opposition and the Iranian boy assured that there had been an electoral fraud. The boy wanted to go to protest in front of the embassy of Iran, although he was also very frightened by the consequences that they could make. In the end we, a north American and a Malaysian girl, decided to accompany the boy. In the embassy of Iran in KL there were not too many people and the police dispersed us threatening us that if we did not stop they would take strong measures. Even then, the people met in the site from where the campaign of Mosavi (the opposing leader) had been organised. The site was full to burst, with about a hundred or two hundred people completely indignated and looking at the television to receive new news of the conflict that was exploding through the streets of different cities in Iran. As they explained us, observers of the party of Mosabi had attended the counting of ballot papers in the embassy of Iran in KL and the result had been 80% in favour of Mosavi, but in the morning, the embassy announced officially that the result had been 70% plus for Armadinejat. All the world was convinced that the same fraud had been done in all Iran, and taking into account some declarations of Armadinejad according to which, to lie to favour the country or the Islam is not a sin. In the end we returned home sad, impotent and worried with our friends in Iran. It is not only about the result of some elections, it is about the future of millions of people that want to live with more freedom. The people are very disappointed and a revolution can be produced, and the revolutions can finish with many deaths, independent of victory or not. Cameron Highlands (see on map) 18/06/2009:
We have left our friends in KL for some days and gone towards the mountainous area called Cameron Highlands, where the landscape and the temperatures are excellent. Alexandra, tired to sweat in the heat, immediately was enchanted, and I also. Despite passing many hours in the hotel connected to Internet and consulting in direct and with worry of the subsequent events to the elections of Iran, I have dedicated each of the three days to do an excursion through the surroundings, while Alexandra remained relaxed walking through the village of Tanah Rata, at an altitude of 1380 m. The first day I walked up to the next mountain of Gunung Beremban (1812 m), walking among different greenhouses all cultivated, and going up on a small road that passed through the middle of the jungle. In some moments, the path was really steep, and if it were not for the roots of the trees where i could grab me,it would have been impossible to continue. Anyway, the magic of the path was captivating at all times, walking among lianas; below fallen trees; above roots, moss and leafs; for the side of pretty orchids, mushrooms, insects; and surrounded at all times by the intense noise of other animals. The path was quite well marked, but not always, for when going back i had to choose between a path to the right and another to the left, and that of the left keept getting complicated slowly until I arrived a slippery descent through the humid bed of a river. On the second day, I did a hike simpler up to the mountain of Junung Jasar (1670 m), in the summit of which I found myself a man with a big butterflies collection (through the surroundings of Cameron Highlands there are many farms of butterflies and insects where they are exposed, alive or dead). When going down for the other side of the mountain, I decided to do hitchhiking to return to Tanah Rata and they immediately took me (a good news for David and Maria). And today, I have left the mountain and the jungle, to see another attraction of Cameron Highlands. I have caught a local bus and went to the plantations of tea of Boh or Sungai Palas, where the sights of the small bushes (similar to bonsáis) of the plants of tea covering the laps of the mountains of the surroundings were impressive. I have been walking through the middle of the plantation, going over the labyrinthine paths that create the plants until I found different workers (they all seemed of Indian origin) that they cut the tender leafs of the plants of tea filling a big bag. When returning I did hitchhiking again, a family of Singapore, and a driver of a van empty of passengers took me to for the local price of the bus. Perhentian islands (see on map) 23/06/2009: Alexandra was feeling too well in Cameron Highlands and was impossible to be convinced to visit the Perhentian islands, although she did not manage either to convince me to stay. So, we decide to separate for a few days and meet again in KL at the house of our friends. And, even if i missed Alexandra, the visit to the islands was worth, mainly for the sea fauna that I could observe. Each of the four days that I passed in the small island of Perhentian I rented some glasses and some feet of duck and swam for the corals of the coast, observing many goldfish, some of which of a considerable measure, as different blankets (1 meter of diameter) and different families of fish Napoleón with copies of a metre and a half, which i feared when they were showing curiousity with me and approached me. I also observed different sharks every day, some of which of 2 meters long, but only they frightened with the name, for i knew that these did not attack the human beings and on the other hand they did not show much interest with my presence. One of the days I also hired a tour to visit different coralline areas far from the beach and to see a big turtle swimming in the water. Apart from the fish that lived under the water, the island was only interesting for some great lizards that from time to time crossed calmly by the path, with some of them measuring almost two meters. But leaving the fauna aside, the island was not too interesting, besides being very expensive. I found a room of hotel shared with 8 people for 3euros, facilitating me the communication with other travellers of the island, most of whom were Englishmen (and the rest of Anglo-Saxon countries) and many youngsters, with whom it was difficult to integrate, although I maintained some interesting conversations about religions with some of them. In general they were very inexperienced travellers, many of which had been robbed in the island because they did not pay attnetion: they had forgotten the door open to the room, had fallen sleeping drunk on the beach, had gone to swim leaving the possessions on the beach... So, I passed apart from maintaining some interesting conversations quite a lot of hours by myself sweating in the bed of the hotel, following the correction of my novel and being still worried about the events of Iran, although in the island i was completely disconnected. Kuala Lumpur (see on map) 29/06/2009:
As i returned from the Perhentian islands and met again with Alexandra at the house of Zaikha and Faizal, I recovered the connection of Internet and I obsessed following the post-electoral conflict of Iran again. Men, women, youngsters and old men (among whom there could be our friends) kept dying in the pacific demonstrations of Iran, killed by snipers, to knocks of felling axe or knocked merciless. I read compulsively the depositions of people who had been arrested and the tortures that they had suffered, knocking them until they broke their bones, cutting them the fingers, drowning them in water or even raping them (men as well as women). I felt impotent, powerless to help some of the populations that have treated us best during our journey, but that live under this bloody regime. I was conscious that, parallelly to this conflict, there were many other conflicts in the world where a lot other people suffered under still worse regimes, but was completely stuck emotionally on Iran. Maybe that's why, to the same day that I arrived to Kuala Lumpur, I started to feel a headache that was increased the following days with intensity. I had to lay in bed powerless and to turn off of my mind the imagenes of the demonstrations in Tehran and the people that died shot by the basiji. Finally, on the third day, the headache was so unbearable that I decided of visiting a doctor, who prescribed some tablets for me, indicating that the cause could be in my immersions in water under 3 or 4 m in the islands Perhentian. Really, the tablets that the doctor prescribed for me made the headache disappear, and the following day I was capable of reconnecting myself to Malaysia to attend the last meeting of Couchsurfing. The previous three days different meetings had been produced, one of which in the previous night that had managed to attend about forty members of couchsurfing that were talking and drinking until the dawn. Maybe by that, many people to the meeting of yesterday was not presented, although sufficient so that it was nice. Among the assistants there was Roman, our Swiss friend with whom we expect to cross paths again, and an Iranian with whom we try to do more bearable the news that arrived from his country joking on Armadinejad and the basiji. And today in the night, with the thicket of aeroplane towards Vietnam in the pocket, we have said goodbye to Zaikha and Faizal (and their daughters Aresha and Zara) that have treated us very well during the ten days that have been housing us. Really they have made us feel at home, and it has again saddened us to say goodbye to our friends. Anyway, the four of us have expectations to meet for the third time, when they travel to Europe again or when we visit Malaysia again, which for sure we will do, for we have loved the country and its people. Vietnam Ho Chi Ming City (see on map) 03/07/2009:
There were made so many films that, inevitably, when it is named Vietnam one remembers the war that the United States played the lead against the communism. It seems a little unfair to start our story of Vietnam mentioning this war, because the country seems to have forgotten the fights and the suffering of the past, but not in a complete way. We have arrived to Ho Shi Min City (HSMC), the biggest city of Vietnam (almost 7 million inhabitants), in the south, which I identify more with its old name of Saigon. HSMC was the name that received the city, when United States abandoned the war, in honour of the big national hero Ho Shi Min; the revolutionary that founded and presided over the communist Vietnam and initiated the war against the United States. But not only the names remember the last wars, in HSMC the museum of the war is exposing the suffering of the people of Vietnam . In the museum, it surprised me to observe techniques of torture and of imprisonment very similar to those of the Khmer Rouges, wondering who copied who, if the communists the CIA or the CIA to the communists. Unfortunately, observing the photographs and reading the explanations, I also remembered the tortures and repression that recently the people of Iran are suffering, reinforcing a belief of mine, that the wars and repression are unacceptable in any place and moment. Even so, I also admit that there are wars more abominable than others, and that the one in Vietnam could be an example, where the orange agent was used by the Americans, an defoliant that devastated the jungle where the guerrillas of the Vietcong were hidden but that also incorporated some toxins that were absorbed by the human beings, provoking severe deformations to the posterior generations. These consequences are a taboo for the current society of Vietnam, but there keep being as it explained us Laura (http://goodmorningsaigon.blog.free.fr/), a French girl that worked some hours as a volunteer taking care of boys and girls with mental and physical problems caused by the orange Agent. Laura and Victor are a French couple of Couchsurfing that lodged us in their big house in HSMC. The house was a pretty building of 3 or 4 floors, but of only 2.5 or 3 meters of width, a common characteristic to the majority of homes in HSMC. There were also other elements representative of HSMC, as the great quantity of cables that there were hanged by the street, as in some places of India, but tidier and clean (or as in Bucharest, as Alex reminded). The great quantity of motorcycles that circulated through the streets, which we had to keep avoiding if we wanted to pass to the other side, was also surprising. Also i was amused to observe most of the restaurants and bars having some minuscule seats and tables, equal to those for small children in the kindergarten, although they did not stop being comfortable. On the other hand, Vietnam keeps being a communist country, although it seems completely dominated by the capitalism, in fact, it has not changed only the nonexistence of democracy and the freedom of politic parties, individual or of association. During the four days that we spent in HSMC, it has rained quite a lot, remembering that we were in full rainy season, a season that fortunately we have kept avoiding in the majority of countries visited during these 3 years. Even so, the rain has not prevented us from going out with Laura and Victor to eat in different delicious and economic restaurants and to visit some of the monuments of HSMC, which includes some colonial buildings and different Pagodas or Chinese temples. Visiting the temples I reflected with the fascination that the religions produce me, although already does time that i stopped believing in God and in the dogmatic truths, and perhaps because of that they surprise me that in spite of their falseness they continue being a big fountain of inspiration for millions of people, which keep dedicating time, money and faith. Hoi An (see on map) 05/07/2009:
From HSMC we caught a nocturnal train to the North, sleeping comfortably in two beds in a shared compartment with a family that had two very noisy children. The day after at noon we arrive in Danang from where we caught a bus towards Hoi An, a pretty small town on the edge of the river Thu Bo. Hoi An is a town with narrow streets and with an architecture influenced by the Chinese, Japanese and European, due to the importance of the town as a trading port during the 16th centuries and XVII. This old charm of Hoi An, has faded away a little with the great quantity of tourists that strolls through the town and who has contributed towards changing its physiognomy, each house has converted into a tailor's shop, or a restaurant, hotel, shop of food, or exhibitions. Anyway, some of the former pagodas, which as always are interesting to visit, are still preserved. On the other hand, there were also some trades with quite a lot of charm, preserving old craft traditions of the town: creating lamps of clothe, paintings with thread of different colours and sewing nice dresses of European and oriental style. And it was the great quantity of tailor's shops that it made Alex decide to make a very pretty dress of pastel tonality that she will use for the first time at the beginning of the next year, when we have intention of getting married. Today, the second day of walking through the town, we met David casually, a Spanish traveller that after a few months on the road is also catching the taste of travelling and starts to study the possibility to continue with this type of life. Together we continued walking through the town and through the market, the most authentic part, where almost all the saleswoman women and buyers wore a hat of straw of Chinese style. There we also observed how in some places they ate eggs boiled with the chickens inside (right some days before appearing), a traditional food in Philippines according to David. Unfortunately, walking through the market we also we realised that two or three times we had to drink to a price more expensive than other places, because we were tourists. Even so, we did not become annoyed, because the price continued being economic and the deceit was not as exaggerated as in India; or with the Vietnamese it was simply more bearable. ‹ Previous (06/05/2009) MONTH Next (2009-07-05)› ‹ Previous (2009-05-29 - Thailand) COUNTRY Next (2009-07-03 - Vietnam)› |
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