George Town (Penang) Malaysia

We docked overnight for a two-day stay in Penang.  Here are the highlights:

George Town, the capital of the state of Penang, has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, shaped by centuries of intermingling between various cultures and religions.  It is also known for the quality and variety of its culinary scene.  Nothing to do but hire a local guide to show us the best of it all.  

To tell you the truth, the many mosques and temples we’ve visited are all starting to look alike, so I’ll show you what makes George Town unique: its street art.  Cities with centuries-old architecture are not always able to maintain historical buildings to their original grandeur.  But those buildings still tell the story of the city’s history, and they deserve to be seen.  So the clever citizens of George Town came up with a solution: they hired an artist to paint interactive murals on some of the walls.  That has served not only to recognize the structures’ significance but also to attract tourists.  To wit:

There are lots of these around the city.  If you lived in George Town, you would never be at a loss trying to entertain your houseguests!

And then there is the food!  I can’t always name what we were eating, but it was all delicious.

The blue color in the rice is thanks to the butterfly pea flower.  The flowers are steeped in hot water to extract their color, then used to color the rice.  Durians were another unknown food, a fruit famous for having a foul smell!  We tried one that had been battered and fried, and it tasted like the richest-ever caramel.  

Another great adventure was our ride in a trishaw, a three-wheeled cart propelled by a bicycle driver.

I will say this about that: These vehicles were designed to transport people whose backsides take up less room than our own.  But off we went with our skillful driver who maneuvered us through multiple lanes of busy traffic on narrow city roads and returned us safely to our ship.  Hence the broad smiles:

Kuala Lumpur

Just a short distance up the archipelago from Singapore lies Kuala Lumpur, and the difference is startling.  1.76 million people and two million cars.  The government subsidizes gasoline, so there is no motivation  for enhancing public transportation.  The dilapidated buildings reminded us of our visit to Cuba, where people maintain their individual apartments, but nobody maintains the structure.  

And then there is city center:

There is obviously great wealth in Kuala Lumpur, but not everyone got a piece of the pie.

Tea at Raffles Hotel, Singapore

We couldn’t be in Singapore without having afternoon tea at Raffles Hotel.  Very genteel, very civilized, very swanky.  To wit:

Gardens by the Bay, Singapore

In the middle of bustling Singapore are 250 acres devoted to the spectacular Gardens by the Bay.  These pictures say more than I ever could:

The two glass structures are conservatories, or glasshouses, whose climates are carefully controlled.  The larger “Flower Dome” maintains a drier climate, while its neighbor, “Cloud Forest” has a moist one.

There’s a grove of 18 “Supertrees” that stand from 75 to 100 feet tall.  They are planted with thousands of bromeliads, orchids, and ferns.  We took their skywalk for a bird’s eye view of the gardens.

There was a massive display of orchids, and this area with an Eastern flair was under construction but still lovely:

Another thing that fascinated me about Gardens by the Bay is that it’s built entirely on reclaimed land.  To accommodate its growth, Singapore has gone up with their high rises; they’ve gone underground with their transit and an amazing network of retail.  The only option left is out.  Google “reclaimed land in Singapore” to learn more about this engineering marvel and plans for future expansion.

Singapore

Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia lie all in a row, practically touching, in the Java Sea and Indian Ocean, but they stand in sharp contrast with one another.  My last post was about Bali, Indonesia, so now I will move northwest to neighboring Singapore.

Anyone who saw the movie, “Crazy Rich Asians” already has an idea of what Singapore must be like whether they have been there or not.  Here are my take-aways:

Not everyone in Singapore is crazy rich, but I saw no sign of anyone who is crazy poor.  Most live in high rises of public housing that are attractive, well maintained, and very well landscaped.  There are also high rises of private apartments, but they don’t look that much grander than the rest.  Our guides also said that there is “landed housing,” which I interpreted as single family homes, but I didn’t see any in city center.

We were struck by how light traffic was, especially since we had just left nearby Indonesia, where cars and motor scooters positively jam the roads.  Our guide explained that strict government regulations put vehicle ownership beyond the reach of most Singaporeans.  It’s complicated, but it basically works like this:

First, you have to get a Certificate of Entitlement which allows you to own and drive a car, but only for ten years, after which, you start over.  The cost of a COE runs around $75,000.  A no-frills sedan by Toyota or Honda costs around $100,000.  A series of fees get added to that.  Then there’s insurance and maintenance.  All this is the government’s way to encourage its citizens to use public transportation, which is both comprehensive and efficient.  We took the subway and found it very safe, convenient, and inexpensive.  Even our taxi back to the ship, a half-hour’s ride, was only $13.00.  Those bent on owning a car are the ones who subsidize public transportation.

People and businesses are taxed on their income, property, and the things they buy, but another major source of government income is the fines it imposes.  Driving just 12mph over the speed limit carries a $100 fine, and at 24mph over it’s $750 and possibly imprisonment.  $750 if you’re caught using your cell phone while driving.  Unauthorized use of a reserved parking spot: $300.

Theft carries even stiffer penalties, usually accompanied by years of jail time.  Punishment by caning is still enforced.

Even littering carries a stiff penalty, with a fine of up to $1500 for the first offense.  Repeated offenses can be thousands more.  Surveillance cameras are everywhere.

Quiet hours extend from 10:30pm to 7:00am, and violators face stiff fines as well.

Anti-discrimination laws are enforced in the workplace with heavy fines charged to violators.

This all may sound like too much government interference, but what the people get in return is a safe, peaceful, and clean place to live, work, and raise their families.  The people with whom we interacted were unfailingly smiling and helpful.  They seemed happy.  We really enjoyed the time we spent among them.

Bali, Indonesia

We are spending about a week traveling through Indonesia, a chain of 17,508 islands, 16,000 of which are uninhabited.  The population of Indonesia (285 million) is 87% Islamic and only 1.7% Hindu.  But the Indonesian island of Bali is 87% Hindu, and our excursions on that island increased our understanding of the Balinese Hindu faith.

Life on Bali centers around its many small villages.  Most people spend their entire lives in the village where they were born, with married women typically moving to their husband’s village.  Each village is known for its specific vocational skill which is passed down from generation to generation.  As we drove through various villages, we found the streets lined with shops specializing in local products.  Specialties included batik fabric, silver jewelry, wood carvings, or roof-thatching.  Each village also has two important buildings: one a temple for worship and another for community gatherings.

The impression we got of those who practice the Hindu faith in Bali is that their daily lives revolve around spiritual practices.  We spent a day with a private driver and learned that he starts each work day by placing an offering on the dashboard of his car to ask for safety.  Everywhere we went, we saw offerings, some as simple as a square of palm leaf topped with a flower or a few grains of rice and meat, that people had left as symbols of their devotion.  We also saw women carrying much larger offerings: towers of fruits and flowers that they balanced on their heads and took to the village temple for a special celebration.

Dance is another expression of Balinese Hinduism.  Many dances are only done as part of sacred rituals and not performed for tourists.  One evening, however, we went to a dinner that was followed by the Kecak Dance, which was mesmerizing!  It started with dozens of men wearing black and white sarongs, seated in a circle on the floor and chanting in unison.  Elaborately dressed dancers entered the circle and interpreted the story of Ramayana, basically the struggle between good and evil.  I took a short video, but it may be too large to load here.  It would be worth Googling, however, just for you to hear the chanting and get a feel for the intensity of this ritual.

Our final stop on Bali was a visit to Pura Taman Ayun Temple, or the king’s water temple, in Mengwi.  Built in 1634, this UNESCO  World Heritage Site’s name means “beautiful garden,” as it is surrounded by lotus ponds whose pink flowers add to the  beauty of the setting.

Komodo National Park

Am far behind in my posts!  We left Darwin on February 19th, and it is now March 2nd!  There’s so much to see and do that the days pass quickly.  I’ve made good progress on my Hawaiian appliqué project, so at least I have that to show for my time.  Today is a sea day as we travel from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, a good chance to catch up…starting with Komodo (ko-MO-do) Dragons!

The largest lizard on earth, and sharing common ancestors with dinosaurs, Komodo Dragons can grow to 10 feet long and weigh 300 pounds.  They are aggressive and fearless predators with 60 razor-sharp teeth and a venomous saliva that can paralyze their prey, which includes water buffaloes!  They are mostly found on three Indonesian islands, and we visited one of them, Rinca.

Their largest population is found on nearby Komodo Island, but its neighbor Rinca was chosen as a more suitable destination for cruise ships and research teams, as encroachment there can be more carefully controlled.  Elevated walkways make for safer sightings even if the presence of humans has driven most of the lizard population to less accessible parts of the island.  What we lost in the number of sightings, we gained in the excellent visitors’ center at the end of the walkway.  There, we saw skeletons of both a male and female lizard and also learned about ongoing research and conservation efforts taking place on Rinca.