Saturday, February 28, 2009

Vietnam/Malaysia 18






Malaysia

As Tet rolled around, Liz and I took advantage of the weeklong national holiday in late January to visit warmer climes. We enjoyed the Lunar New Year in Hanoi in 2008, but wanted to escape the normally chilly weather and desolate streets for something different this year. We joined our good friends Don and Bird for six days in Malaysia (photos: here) , a country that I had briefly visited 18 years ago while backpacking through Southeast Asia after law school.

This quick hop actually involved a day of travel as it takes three and a half hours to fly from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur, roughly the time it takes between DC and Denver. Maps can be misleading things. It takes 5 hours to fly to Tokyo or 11 hours to Australia. Not so close. And yet Bangkok is 1.5 hours, closer than Ho Chi Minh City.

Needless to say, this visit, in which we stayed at a five star resort on the northeast coast of Peninsular Malaysia and at the Mandarin Oriental in Kuala Lumpur was far different from my earlier journey spent primarily in hostels and budget hotels. Of course, my financial situation is not the only thing that has changed in the last 18 years (though the current global recession is bringing me closer to my twenties than I might wish) and I saw just how much Malaysia has developed over the past two decades.

We loved the resort, but who wouldn’t. Beach. Great food. Ocean front room. What’s not to like. No, what really impressed us were the clean bathrooms in the regional airport at Kuala Terengganu and the smoothly-paved, honking-free roadways leading from the city to the beach. Hanoi has much to recommend it. Modern public hygiene and courteous motorists are not on the positive side of the Hanoi ledger. Though it was overcast for much of our time on the shore, we relished the quiet and the clean air of the Malaysian seashore.

Unlike my previous experiences in Southeast Asia and Africa where our high-end vacations were largely spent among other expats or western tourists, we noted that our expensive and exclusive resort was patronized largely by local Malaysians, primarily extended families taking a break over the Chinese New Year. Though still a developing county, Malaysia is relatively affluent with a per capita income of nearly $6,000. By contrast, Vietnam just announced that after a decade and a half of high growth, per capita GDP had broken the $1,000 barrier.

Visible to even the casual tourist, Malaysia is a multi-ethnic community, made up largely of Malays, Chinese and Indians. Within these communities are additional fractures. For example, Chinese immigrants speak 8 different dialects depending on which region their ancestors came from. At the resort, young Chinese women paraded around in bikinis while Muslim Malay women suited up like they were about to go on a scuba expedition before entering the pool. On TV, Malay morning personalities questioned Chinese community leaders about Lunar New Year traditions. A visit to one of KL’s high-end malls found Malay families in the food court, Chinese teens texting one another in front of clothing shops, and groups of largely-male Tamil and Indonesian laborers taking group photos in the central atrium on a rare day off. At the same time, ethnic instability remains and news headlines focused on protests involving the death of an ethnic Indian robbery suspect in police custody.

Let me put in a pitch for Malaysian food. For some reason, unlike Thai or Vietnamese cuisine, there aren’t that many Malaysian restaurants in the U.S. Perhaps it’s because there is a smaller Malaysian émigré base that serves as a catalyst to introduce the food to the general American population. Whatever the reason, it’s a shame, as the food is terrific. Spicy curries, fresh seafood, fragrant rice, exotic fruits. South Asian and Chinese influences. Western cooking techniques. Great stuff.

When I last visited KL, the city had begun to develop, but nothing like today. From our hotel window, we gazed up (and up) at the Petronas towers, until 2004 the tallest buildings in the world. While they no longer hold that honor, they remain dazzling, incorporating Islamic design with modern technology to anchor the city skyline. Dozens of other skyscrapers dotted the landscape, which resembled a cross between Singapore and Bangkok – perhaps leaning more towards the cleaner and more open Singapore. Who knows? Maybe KL will be a roadmap for the development of Vietnamese cities. Or maybe it will be one of the Chinese metropolises or a city in India. It’s exciting to think of the possibilities.