Malaysia

Malaysia
3/20/2023
Kuala Lumpur, Langkawi, George Town
As we sailed up the western coast of Malaysia, the Viking Neptune made three day stops: Port Klang/Kuala Lumpur on the mainland and the capital of Malaysia; Langkawi, an island 30 miles off the northwest coast; and the island of Penang/city of George Town, Malaysia’s second largest city.

3/18/2023 – Kuala Lumpur
In all fairness, we probably should not have signed up for the Putrajaya Lake and Botanical Garden tour the day after visiting the world-renowned Singapore Botanic Gardens. The weather was extremely hot and it is now the dry season, so the garden was not in its best shape, but we enjoyed our short visit to Taman Botani Putrajaya, the “Mother of All Gardens”. Most interesting to us was the location of today’s excursion. Putrajaya is a federal territory and a planned community just south of KL, where the

administrative and judicial capital of Malaysia is now located. New buildings, new housing, & new parks -- all built since the late 1990s, and a work/live/play model to (hopefully) be emulated across the country. It was pretty in a staged sort of way. Honestly, it was a little “Stepford Wives-ish” to us. Yikes. KL is still the national capital city per its constitution and is also the seat of the head of state and Parliament. Anyway, we had a boat ride on the manmade Putrajaya Lake and viewed all of the short bridges that were designed after famous bridges from Paris, London, Sydney, San Francisco, and other places around the world. Probably the most interesting thing I

saw all day, aside from the beautiful Pink Mosque, was when we stopped at the convention center, located on a hilltop, to take in the view “one more time”. I went inside to use the restroom and found a Mary Kay mini convention going on. Who knew MK was in Malaysia? My first clue should have been the pink car parked outside….

3/19/2023 – Langkawi
Mike and I went our separate ways today on this beautiful island. I went kayaking along the mangroves in the Kubang Badak BioGeo Trail and Mike went on a jungle trek very nearby, though we didn’t know it at the time. My four-hour kayak trip took us towards the Strait of Malacca where we battled the incoming tide, but fortunately my partner was a very strong woman who is currently serving in the Australian Navy. Whew. We stopped for a hike to the limestone caves, which are only about 150 million years old, and are home to

two bat varieties: the Cave Nectar Bat and the Large Asian Roundleaf Bat. During our trip we also saw one Crab-eating Macaque and a Brown-winged Kingfisher. The trip back was easier, but we still had to paddle against the outgoing tide. Talk about timing. Dropped off nearby to where I was paddling, Mike headed off into the rainforest jungle with his co-hikers, his walking stick, and a guide for a hard two-hour hike. No real good animal sightings, but he did spot a few termite mounds (from both black and white termites) as well as lots of evil plants that could hurt you. His guide pointed out tree tumors, which is nature’s way of a tree recovering from being wounded, which might occur if the locals were testing it to see if it was usable. If not, they would leave it to recover on its own. The guide also demonstrated the Liana Vines, aka Tarzan’s transportation of choice back in the day. These vines can grow to 3,000 ft in length, but do not strangle their host trees. Instead, these vines connect trees, making it easier for the animals to move around the jungle without coming down to the ground. We met back at the dockside bar after our adventures – enjoying a beer and comparing our wounds. All in all, a great day!

3/20/2023 – George Town, Penang Island
Today we hired a taxi driver to take us on a little tour. First, we went to the railway station to ride the funicular from sea level to about 2,400 ft above sea level to the top of Penang Hill, or Bukit Bendera. Built in 1923, it has been remodeled a couple of times and is a fun and quick ride to the top. It was a cloudy day, so our views weren’t so great, but we had fun poking around – looking at the mosque, the Hindu temple, and all the pretty flowers – especially the Hibiscus, which is Malaysia’s national flower. The biggest treat was finally (!!) seeing some monkey action. These cute little Colobines, or leaf-eating monkeys, were great entertainment as they swung around doing their thing and totally ignoring us. After taking the funicular back down, our driver took us to see two temples: Dharmikarama Burmese Buddhist Temple, where we bought a Burmese sand painting and Wat Chayamangkalaram, the Thai Buddhist Temple, built in 1845 and home to one of the largest reclining Buddha statues in the world, coming in at 33 meters/108 ft. Both temples were awesome – and I mean that in the true meaning of the word. It was another exceedingly hot day, so after paying off our driver and being all “templed” out, we called it a day. After spending the rest of our Maylasian money in the

cruise terminal – on a bag (40 packets) of Penang White Coffee (Kopi Putih), a hibiscus magnet, and Tic Tacs (thank goodness we finally found more!) we hunkered down in our air conditioned room and watched the world go by from the verandah of room 4113 on the Viking Neptune.

Final Thoughts on Malaysia – We learned a lot about the history of the country from our resident historian, but three short stops in a country does not in any way provide you with any sense about the country or its people. Having said that, we really enjoyed listening to

our young guides during our hike/kayak adventures. They were so knowledgeable & invested in saving their flora & fauna Our Putrajaya guide told us that Malaysia has 4 seasons: hot, hotter, wet, and wetter. We were there only during “hot” and were pretty darn miserable. The jury is still out on whether we’d ever need a return visit. But, oh those monkeys!