Ah.. Malaysia - Malacca etc. Review on Malaysia, General

Malacca

Malaccais a city 90 km south of KL, which is of historical importance to Malaysia.It is said that Malaysiahas its origin in this city, when a Hindu pirate called Parameswara who wasdriven off from Siam(present day Indonesia)sought refuge on this minus civilisation forest-island. He was resting under atree known as Melaka, when he witnessed a deer bring chased by hound dogs.Suddenly, the deer turned back and chased off the hound dogs and Parameswarawas in awe of the deer’s feat. He considered the event as a good omen anddecided to settle down there. Coincidentally, Malacca, a natural harbour fallsright in the middle of the sea-route from India to Chinaand trade ships used to ply the route with spices, textiles, and what-nots.Parameswara, the pirate first offered ‘protection’ to these ships from piracyfor certain amount of money, which later became a regular toll for using theroute. By then, Parameswara was the king of Malaysia,and started trading the produce of the country with the Indian seafarers andthe Chinese emperor Ming. A few generations later, Parameswara’s descendantsembraced Islam. Then a couple of centuries later the Dutch, the Portuguese andfinally the English came to rule the nation one after another and left theirtrail in this city. Thus Malacca turns out to be a beautiful mêlée of all thesecultures: Indian, Chinese, Malay-Islamic, Dutch, Portuguese and the English! Ithas a number of museums including the Dutch-Portuguese Stadthuys Museum and the Chinese Baba Nonya Museum.

Theremains of the Dutch fortA’Famosahelp you relive the history when the Dutch governors and their wives plied fromIndiato Malaysiabetween their administrative and vacation days. The British East India Company too,considered Malaysia,Singaporeand Indiaas part of a single territory under their governance. One has to only imaginethe grandeur of those days when the English officers traded shares on theBombay Stock Exchange sitting in Malaysia or Singapore!

AndMalacca also as a functional port and a good beach with a fulfilling view ofthe ocean. I missed the ocean a lot when I moved from Bombayto KL. The reunion took place in Malacca! The place has a large number ofBuddhist temples almost of a size of small monasteries which are clean andpeaceful. At times the silence felt haunting to me and I had the feeling as ifI was being followed! Another striking feature of these temples was theirsimilarity to the Jain temples in India.The way the Chinese-Buddhists worship Lord Buddha in these temples issurprisingly identical to the Jain practise of worship. Even the incense sticksand fragrances are similar! There is however a prominent use of the colour redin these temples, whereas the Jains make a prolific use of white.

Inthe south of Malaysia, the other places worth a visit include Johor Bahru, PortDickson, Pulau Tioman (the Tioman Island) and of course, the Borneo. TheMalaysian Borneo consists of two beautiful provinces of Sabah and Sarawak which are heavenly. One can plan atrip of Sabah, Sarawakand the Sultanate of Brunei – the little, big rich kingdom – together. And donot miss climbing the Kota Kinabalu (Mt. Kinabalu)which is among the world’s highest peaks.

Inthe north of Malaysiain the state of Pahang, there is another small mountain called CameroonHighlands where they grow the Boh Tea, a Malaysian specialty. CameroonHighlands is a hill station with a number of small treks, if you like to walkamong the clouds for a while. Westward from Cameroon Highlands lies thebeautiful island city of Penangwhere one can spend about three days looking around and enjoying the goodvariety of Indian and Chinese food. Penang too, is a place of historical andcommercial importance, as it is one of the two busiest ports of Malaysia.While you read this, it is highly probable that all the information ispresented to you via a processor chip manufactured in Penang, no matter whetherit is an Intel or an AMD, because the manufacturing plants of both the rivalsare poised right in each others’ neighbourhood in Penang!

Thehistorical importance of Penangtrickles from the fact that apart from Malacca, this port was another gatewayto this country for the Indian and Chinese immigrants centuries ago. TheBritish brought the Tamil slaves, their Syrian-Christian Malayali supervisorsand the Punjabi and Sikh policemen largely via Penang, in order to govern the rubber andpalm plantations with ease. While the Gujarati traders chose to settle in Malaysia via Malacca, theChettiar moneylenders came in via Penang.A little up north from Penang is the mountain-town of Perlis, close to theborder of Thailand.Southward from CameronHighlandsis the Taman Negara, the National Forest which is as big as Singapore.You can organise a six day trek across the jungle and spend some time with theSumatran Tigers and Orang-utans!