POSTCARD FROM MALAYSIA
Almost home
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Malaysia is proof that sometimes there is truth in ad jingles.
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PHOTO: RAMYA KANNAN
Many cultures: The way to the Murugan Temple inside Batu Caves.
MALAYSIA totally restores your faith in tourism promotion campaigns. Here's one country where you get absolutely what they say you will: "Malaysia, Truly Asia."
Right from the word go, literally. And the best way to get in is on one of those early morning flights, because then you will be driving into downtown Kuala Lumpur at the best time there is — when the sun is rising. As brightness fills the North-South Highway slowly, sunlight forms brief patterns on motorists zipping past, some with the white prayer cap peeping from beneath helmets, all with windcheaters worn against their chest, covering their arms against the early morning chill. On the North-South Highway itself are the first signs of a pluralist society.
This acceptance of diversity is so nonchalant, it almost seems like home. Only, perhaps, much cleaner! On the roads, in hotel lobbies, in restaurants, in the wayside bars, in the discos, it's obvious that there are people not only from diverse religions, but also cultures and ethnicities, feeling very much at ease.
Even if it takes them forever to get your room ready for you, the advantage of staying in a luxury deluxe hotel is that you barely notice. At the Shangri La, where the cuisine is as exciting and plural as society itself, they do it in style. Hanging around in a deluxe room as you wait for the room to be ready is not so bad after all; even finding that your luggage has gone to the wrong room doesn't bother you so much because the staff is polite, reassuring and dependable. Things will sort themselves out is the thought that is last on your mind before you sink into oblivion and the supra softness of the bed.
And of course, things sort themselves out.
Around the city
You want to feel how a city ticks, the best way is to breathe it. The next best way is to walk it. There is no chance you will lose your way, for, you just have to look up and the tallest building in the world, the Petronas Towers, looms above, showing the way like a beacon. When your feet hurt, you can always take the monorail home.
Around downtown, they assure you it is quite safe to be traipsing about doing just as you please. And if shopping is what pleases you, there is a virtual mine out there. From cheap electronic goods to Gucci in the malls and fake-but-cool-looking Adidas in China Town, the plunder is waiting to be bought. Pack in a bargain in China Town; it's not only allowed, but also mandatory. And remember to stay out of the way of the pirated DVD sellers: they show an annoying tendency to pack and run without preamble when a cop is round the corner.
Tours and a temple
If you want to see more than just the city and have little time to do it, just do one of the package tours. There are smaller versions of the famous Big Bus, hop-on, hop-off tours, except there are smaller packs of hounding tourists in smaller vans and cars.
A good idea is to take the "Suburban Tour", covered in four hours' time, bringing you back in time for a bite before you catch your flight. It costs RM 50 and you can throw in a tip for the guide.
While much of the suburban tour — a trip to a jade museum, a pewter factory and the rubber-tapping routine — is "touristy", the Batu Caves experience will certainly remain a pleasant memory. The limestone caves, discovered by a Tamil, Thambooswamy, in 1892, is about 122 metres above sea level and is a key place of worship for the Hindus of Malaysia. The temple for Lord Muruga, which receives over one million visitors during the Thaipoosam festival, rests deep inside the main cave and is lit naturally by sunlight.
Bright frescos on the walls of one of the three caves illustrate scenes out of Hindu mythology and have most of the non-Indian visitors gaping and clicking rapidly. As for the third cave, Dark Caves, walk in only if you are not faint-stomached, the odour is overpowering.
Too brief
Clearly, it is a sin to be in Malaysia briefly, with just a day and a half to snatch for sight seeing. The challenge is to figure out how to do what you like within the time that's available to you. And when the locals list the zillion things you must do, you see what a big dilemma you are in.
Clearly, you can't have it all. What you do have is the conviction that you will come back, another day, the jingle doing re-runs in your head: "Malaysia, Truly Asia".
RAMYA KANNAN
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