I took a day trip to Johor Bahru (on the border w/ Singapore, but belonging to Malaysia) a few weeks ago, and then last weekend I took a few days each in Kuala Lumpur (the capital) and Penang (up north).
The TLDR: sightseeing can feel cliché until you seek out and bask in the small moments that come about as a byproduct. Here are some small details I picked up.
Johor Bahru
The day trip here felt mundane (shopping, temples) right until we went off script. After a conversation with a local, we decided to beat the heat by finding a Thai massage place (I was squirming at this point at the idea of doing a Thai massage not in Thailand). At our first stop, we couldn’t pay in credit and we didn’t have enough cash so the owner offered to drive us to another service in their chain, for free. In this vehicle:
Bit suspicious, but we went for it anyway. There were 6 of us — would not have advised if alone. Highlight of the day.
Later that evening at a random beach we talked to two fishermen who had just caught a mini catfish, and they recommended a seafood restaurant that we unfortunately could not get to. But I almost stepped on the catch:
Not much else to hit home about. JB is a paradise for Singaporeans seeking lower prices — we got a Korean fried chicken feast for around 5 USD per person. I can see its appeal for the spontaneous, chaotic, young Singaporean.
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur served as my proper introduction to Southeast Asian markets — and with it, a certain measure of self-questioning about haggling.
Haggling is commonplace in SE Asia, and I witnessed it in action several times. Often the buyer can make a move to walk away, which convinces the vendor to propose a lowered price, and so forth. Multiple times I saw a vendor willing to cut their proposed price in half.
After a satisfying round of haggling, my friend and I struck up a conversation with a vendor selling twin tower souvenirs. He told us he had been working on this street for several years, 6pm-3am a day. After humanizing my “opponent,” I found myself feeling just the tiniest bit of regret that I haggled with him.
An open question for another time, perhaps: should western tourists really be in the business of haggling aggressively in weaker currency?
Nearly every tourist-y destination in KL felt superficially satisfying. I can say that I’ve been to the Batu Caves and the twin towers and the 2nd tallest building in the world but I can’t really imagine myself remembering the details of the specific sights down the line.
I will remember, however, the durian we tried the way out of the 2nd tallest building (which was closed for construction) because we ran into an acclaimed vendor by happenstance.
I’ll remember when my friend spoke Chinese to a local student asking for directions to the building and got back a “wow! you’re handsome.”
And I’ll remember when our walk took us way past dinnertime but led us to try one of the best meals of my life: satay at a homey stall at 11pm at night.
Penang
You’ll notice that I relish the small details that come with the travel package of cheap sightseeing, more than the sightseeing itself — which is why Penang is now one of my favorite places in the world.
Our bus from Kuala Lumpur to Penang was delayed by 6 hours due to a horrible traffic accident, so I sat down to a Malay and struck up a few-hours-long conversation in an effort to ignore the growing hunger and thirst in our bodies.
He told me that it had always been his dream to visit the US, but he was worried about gun violence and other crime there. I told him my worries about mosquito-borne disease in SE Asia. We talked about other impressions and stereotypes of each others’ cultures whose details I’ll spare, but the conversation feels like a highlight during what should have been a lowlight.
Later that night during a pub crawl, I went up to a street band after their performance and told them they inspired me to get back into music. I meant it. An exchange student band is coming NUS’s way this spring, and I’m in the market for a used saxophone for this summer :). Shoutout the Great Odin!
At the Penang National Park the next day, we got some dessert recommendations from local passerby (cendol and ice kacang), which we made good use of later that evening at a local hawker center:
Finally, by sheer luck we visited the Kek Lok Si temple (a huge Buddhist temple near Georgetown) on the one huge firework show of the year, celebrating the upcoming Chinese New Year. Here’s a picture of the lit up version of the temple:
I am realizing that with my pace of travel and exploration (there are like 10 piece ideas on the backburner right now) I’ll have to accept a much worse quality of writing if I want to farm significant meaning out of writing as a reflective practice.
Maybe this means that writing about Singapore will be more analytical, and all else will be more like the above. Anyway, I hope this piece was still readable.
Up ahead: more on Chinese New Year, social norms, colonization, memorials — in Singapore; and a trip to Jogyakarta, Indonesia.
Peace!