Malaysia
Itinerary: Malacca – Kuala Lumpur – Taman Negara – Cameron Highlands – Ipoh – George Town – Pulau Perhentian
Malacca
After spending two and a half days in Singapore, I leave early on Monday morning by bus for Malacca. I booked online, the bus leaves at 7:15 two blocks from my hotel. Where exactly is not entirely clear; There are no signs, but there are a few people at a bus stop who say that the long-distance buses stop there, so I decide to trust that. My bus indeed shows up, a little too early, and is almost empty: a German woman and I are the only passengers. After half an hour’s drive we arrive at the border with Malaysia. First we have to go through Singaporean customs at the Departure Hall, then a short distance by bus, and then through Malaysian customs. It’s not busy, so it all goes very quickly.
From the border it is a three-hour drive to Malacca, the capital of the state of the same name. Malaysia is a federation of thirteen states and three federal territories. Nine of the states have a sultan, the other four have a governor appointed by the state government. The nine sultans take turns as king of Malaysia for five years.
Malaysia is officially an Islamic country and many residents are practicing Muslims, but the country also traditionally has large Chinese and Indian communities and in practice it is a very multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious country. Along the same lines: the Malay are Muslim, the Chinese are Confucian or Taoist and the Indians are Hindu or Muslim. The different population groups also largely live separately from each other; there is not really a ‘melting pot’. There are the so-called Peranakan, descendants of Chinese immigrants who married Malay women, and Eurasians, descendants of European settlers who married local women. The original indigenous tribes, the Orang Asli, have been completely marginalized.
Malacca is located on the coast, on the Strait of Malacca, which separates the Malay Peninsula from the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The Sultanate of Malacca was founded in the fourteenth century and what is now the city of Malacca was then just a fishing village. Due to its favorable location halfway along the trade route between China and India, Malacca grew into a flourishing port city in the fifteenth century – and therefore an attractive prey for the European powers of that time. To begin with, Malacca was conquered by the Portuguese in 1511. In 1641, the Dutch made a deal with the sultans of Johor, elsewhere on the Malay Peninsula, and together they drove out the Portuguese. In 1824 Malacca fell into British hands. While Dutch trade concentrated in Batavia (in present-day Indonesia) and Singapore grew into a modern metropolis under the British, Malacca fell into oblivion.
The advantage of the latter is that the old center of Malacca has been largely preserved. The old center is full of old ‘shophouses’ (so called because a shop or workshop was located downstairs with the house above) that have been renovated and where hotels, galleries, shops and numerous restaurants are now located. In 2008 it was placed on the Unesco World Heritage List.
I am dropped off near my hotel and after dropping off my luggage, I have the whole afternoon to explore Malacca. Modern-day Malacca has half a million inhabitants. On the east bank of the Sungai Melaka, the Malacca River, lies the historic part of Dutch Malacca, on the appropriately named Dutch Square. Here you will find the Stadhuys, the old town hall dating from 1650. The red-pink building seems to have been designed after the example of the Hoorn town hall, but I don’t see the similarity. In the middle of Dutch Square is the Queen Victoria fountain (to be clear: Queen Victoria was British, not Dutch) and on the other side is the also red-pink Christ Church. It is busy with tourists on and around the square.
On the other side of the river is the Chinese district. The three main streets today have Chinese names, which have replaced the old Dutch names. The Heerenstraat is now called Jin Tun Tan Cheng Lok. You will find numerous old trading houses and a small Chinese temple here and there. At number 8 is a restored Dutch house from the eighteenth century. The touristy Jin Hang Jebat used to be called Jonker Street, a name that lives on in the Jonker Street Market that takes place every weekend. One street further is the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, a beautiful Chinese temple dating from 1673 that is a mix of Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian influences. In the same street you will also find the Masjid Kampung Kling, built in a mixture of Moorish and Hindu styles, and the Hindu temple Sri Poyatha Venegayar Moorthi.
Malacca is very touristy but nice for a short visit because of its historical character. The next morning I take a Grab (the Asian version of Uber) to Melaka Sentral, the bus station of Malacca. The bus station is a somewhat cheerless round hall. The bus leaves at half past eight sharp for the 2.5 hour journey to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.
Kuala Lumpur
In Kuala Lumpur I arrive at the Terminal Bersepadu Selatam (TBS) bus station on the south side of the city. From here I take the Light Rail Transit (LRT) to downtown. My hotel is right next to the station where I get off. “Tomorrow is your birthday,” the lady behind the reception notices when I check in. “Sssh, don’t tell anyone,” I respond. 🙂 After freshening up, I walk out into the warmth. It is over thirty degrees (the temperature in Malaysia always fluctuates around thirty degrees during the day) and the humidity is extremely high (always around eighty percent) which makes it feel even warmer.
Kuala Lumpur means ‘muddy confluence of rivers’; the city is located where the Klang and Gombak rivers meet. The two rivers are still mud brown and the city has not really made an effort to make the banks along the water attractive. Two hundred years ago there was nothing but jungle here, until tin was found in the ground. After the town that grew up around the tin mines burned down in 1881 during a conflict between local sultans, a new town was built that would also become the capital of the newly formed Federal Malay States in 1896. Kuala Lumpur has been a Federal Territory since 1974. The city now has almost two million inhabitants, with a diverse population consisting of Malay, Chinese and Indians.
My hotel is on the edge of Chinatown. The heart of this is formed by the Jin Petaling, or Petaling Street, a covered shopping street with countless sales stalls, interspersed with street food stalls where you can eat delicious local food for little money. After I have done that myself, I walk past the Sri Mahamariamman Temple, a brightly colored Hindu temple. It is one of the oldest Hindu temples in Malaysia, built in 1873. A little further on is the Sin Sze Si Ya Temple, the oldest Chinese temple in Kuala Lumpur, dating from 1864. The temple is located in a somewhat run-down neighborhood with many homeless people and next to a ugly parking garage, as if it ended up a bit lost in the wrong place. Inside there is the serene tranquility that characterizes Chinese temples.
This part of Kuala Lumpur is a lively, but also somewhat messy area, with old (and sometimes dilapidated) shophouses, ugly twentieth-century buildings, lots of traffic and lots of shops and eateries. In the middle of all this and towering above everything, stands the brand new, 679 meter high, black glass skyscraper Merdeka 118. The building (controversial, because it cost one billion euros) was completed in 2021 and, after the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world.
On my second day in Kuala Lumpur I take the LRT to KLCC, Kuala Lumpur City Center. Here you will find the most famous landmark of the Malaysian capital: the silver Petronas Towers. The iconic twin towers are 452 meters high and were the tallest building in the world from 1998 to 2004 (and the tallest building in Malaysia until 2019). The Malaysian energy company Petronas is only located in one of the towers. At the bottom of the building are the Suria KLCC shopping center and the Petronas Philharmonic Hall.
Behind the Petronas Towers is the KLCC Park, a green oasis around which new high-rise buildings are being built (and with a beautiful view of the Petronas Towers). After a walk through the park I walk towards the Menara Kuala Lumpur, or the Kuala Lumpur Tower. From the sky deck of this 421 meter high tower you have a great 360 degree panoramic view of the city. Lots of modern high-rise buildings, with of course the Petronas Towers and Merdeka 118 standing out above everything. But also green parks and neighborhoods outside the city center with only traditional low-rise buildings, as if they have not yet experienced the modern developments of KLCC. The Menara Kuala Lumpur is located next to the Kuala Lumpur Forest Eco Park, better known as Bukit Nanas (Pineapple Hill). Bukit Nanas is a small piece of tropical rainforest in the middle of the metropolis that is Kuala Lumpur. Here you hear birds chirping instead of the sound of traffic rushing by. The canopy trail leads you along the tops of the trees.
In the afternoon I walk past the Masjid Jamek Sultan Abdul Samad. Built in 1907, this mosque of white plaster and onion-shaped domes is located exactly where the Klang and the Gombak meet. Just like in so many places, the mosque also has street food stalls with all kinds of dishes, which are in great demand. I continue walking to Dataran Merdeka, or Merdeka Square. Merdeka means independence and it was on this enormous rectangular square (which once served as a cricket ground) that Malaysia’s independence was declared on August 31, 1957 and the British flag gave way to the new Malaysian flag. (At that time, independence only applied to the Malay Peninsula; Malay Borneo remained in British hands until 1963.) On the east side of the square is the impressive Sultan Abdul Samad Building. When Malaysia was a British colony, the British government offices were located here and the building was known simply as the Government Offices. Later it was the courthouse and now houses Malaysian ministries in the building dating from 1897.
At the end of the afternoon I walk to the Bukit Bintang district. This district is known for the street food street Jalan Alor. This street is one long series of street food stalls and restaurants. There are tables on the street with people eating everywhere. But first I walk through Jalan Rembia and its side alleys. Normally these would be gray back streets, if the facades were not decorated with brightly colored murals. One side street has been nicknamed ‘Color Street’, the facades here are painted from top to bottom. Fantastic to see how street art can revitalize a neighborhood.
On my third day in Kuala Lumpur I walk towards the old train station of the Malaysian capital. This white-plastered colonial building, with striking turrets, was built in 1910 and was Kuala Lumpur’s central station until 2001 (since then the modern KL Sentral). A stone’s throw away is the Masjid Negara, which literally means national mosque. The mosque was built in the 1960s, but looks much more modern with its sleek architecture. White marble, clean lines, a blue-tiled umbrella-shaped roof, a 74-meter-high minaret, blue-tiled ponds and a large prayer hall with colored glasswork in the windows. A beautiful building.
Back at the station I buy a ticket for the ‘komuter’ train to the Batu Caves. It’s half an hour by train and the station is right next to this tourist attraction. The Batu Caves are known for the Hindu temples built inside them and for the 272 colored steps that lead up to the caves. Since 2006, a huge, almost 43-meter-tall golden statue of the Hindu god Lord Murugan has stood next to the stairs. Once at the top of the stairs you enter a high cave, where drops of water fall down and monkeys feed on visitors. This is where the main temple is located. Another staircase leads to another cave, which is open from above. Lots of monkeys here too and a smaller temple. I’m under the impression that the monkeys attract more attention from visitors than the temples. 🙂
Taman Negara
So far on this trip I have only visited cities: Singapore, Malacca and Kuala Lumpur. However, after a week it is time to exchange the hustle and bustle of these cities for a greener environment. With seven fellow travelers in a minivan that seats nine, I drive to Kuala Tembeling in just over three hours. The interior of Malaysia largely consists of dense jungle. However, in recent decades, large areas of tropical rainforest have been cleared and replaced by palm oil and rubber plantations. Palm oil has been produced in Malaysia since 1917 and the country has been the world leader for years: forty percent of all palm oil comes from Malaysia. On the way we drive past many palm oil plantations. Kilometer after kilometer of palm trees planted in neat rows. Good for the economy, not so good for biodiversity. Fortunately, in recent years there has been more attention to the consequences of deforestation, to the disadvantages of large-scale palm oil production and to the protection of vulnerable natural areas.
At half past twelve we arrive at Kuala Tembeling and transfer from the minibus to a longboat. In just under three hours we sail over the mud-brown Tembeling River, with densely vegetated banks on the left and right, to Kampung Kuala Tahan, about sixty kilometers away. Kuala Tahan is a very small village on the banks of the Tembeling River. The village consists of some houses, various accommodation options and a number of floating restaurants on the water, that’s all. On the other side of the river is the entrance to Taman Negara, which means National Park in Malaysian. Taman Negara is Malaysia’s oldest and largest national park, more than 4,300 square kilometers of protected tropical rainforest. It feels even warmer here than in Kuala Lumpur. The feeling temperature is around forty degrees.
After I start the next morning with breakfast by the water, I am taken to the other side of the river for one Malaysian ringgit. To visit Taman Negara you must first register and then pay one ringgit for entry and five ringgit to take photos. So the entrance fee to Taman Negara is actually six ringgit. 🙂 I walk into the rainforest. I hear nothing but the sound of birds and tree crickets. In addition to a trail over boardwalks, there is a five-hundred-meter-long Canopy Walk, where you walk over bridges between the treetops, about 45 meters above the ground. In total I walk through Taman Negara for about three hours. Although it is a nice walk, I don’t think it is a very special or impressive piece of rainforest.
Cameron Highlands
The next day is a travel day. First with a minibus back to Kuala Tembeling and then with another minibus on to Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. Many palm oil plantations along the way. As we drive into the highlands, a lot of rain falls. It’s a long drive, not only because of the distance, but also because the driver drives quite slowly. At half past three we arrive in Tanah Rata, a very touristy village: hotels, guesthouses, tour operators and restaurants dominate. In Tanah Rata it is dry, but cloudy and noticeably cooler than in Taman Negara, in fact cooler than this entire trip so far. 🙂
The Cameron Highlands are located in the state of Pahang, at an altitude of 1,300 to 1,800 meters. They are named after the British explorer William Cameron who mapped the area in 1885. The cooler climate made the highlands the perfect place for British colonial rulers to escape the heat. The climate is also very suitable for growing tea and this is done on a large scale in the Cameron Highlands. Well, not that large, Malaysia is a small player when it comes to tea production, especially compared to the top three China, India and Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, in the Camreon Highlands you will find beautiful green mountain slopes covered with tea plants.
For the next day I have booked a tour that takes me and some fellow travelers in an old Land Rover to a viewpoint where you have a view of the extensive plantations in the middle of the tea plants. The guide explains the plantation and tea production. A little further on, workers are at work. They are picking tea leaves by hand; on the steep slopes this is still manual work. Then we go to the Mossy Forest on Mount Gunung Brinchang. Here a two hundred meter long boardwalk leads through the indeed mossy rainforest. Finally, we visit the BOH Tea Factory, where you can not only drink tea and visit the small (somewhat primitive-looking) factory, but also enjoy the beautiful view over the tea plantations.
Ipoh
On Wednesday morning at half past eight the bus leaves Tanah Rata and two hours later I am in Ipoh. Ipoh is the capital of the state of Perak, where tin was extracted for centuries in mines in the limestone mountains. Ipoh is located on the Sungai Kinta (the Kinta River), which divides the city into Old Town and New Town, and has over 700,000 inhabitants. In the old part of the city you can still see several old buildings from colonial times, such as the train station built in 1917, the old town hall (which was thoroughly renovated when I was there) and the courthouse. The Birch Memorial Clock also dates from the beginning of the last century.
Among all the newer buildings there are many shophouses from the early twentieth century, with classical facades and galleries. Chinese shops and restaurants dominate and in various places the facades are decorated with street art. Concubine Lane was once a narrow street nicknamed ‘second wife street’; the place where besides opium shops you would find prostitutes, the red light district of Ipoh so to say. Now there are tourist shops.
In the afternoon I take a Grab to the Perak Tong cave temple. In the limestone rocks around Ipoh there are many caves that have spiritual significance for Buddhists and Hindus. This has resulted in temple caves: temple complexes built in the caves. The Perak Tong is located seven kilometers north of the center of Ipoh. It is a Buddhist temple from 1926. You enter via a staircase that leads to an apparently ‘normal’ facade of a temple. However, once you walk through the gate, you find yourself in a large cave. In the center of the cave is a large golden Buddha statue of twelve meters high. To the left and right of the Buddha are golden statues of patron deities. Elsewhere in the cave there are other statues and the walls of the rocks have murals painted on them, some long ago, others more recently. A staircase at the back of the cave leads outside with a view of the surroundings.
Penang / George Town
The next morning at just before nine o’clock the bus leaves Ipoh for the two-hour journey to Penang Sentral. From here a ferry goes to the island (Pulau) Penang every half hour. This island is located off the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia in the Strait of Malacca. From the end of the eighteenth century, Penang was a British colony (called Prince of Wales Island by the British). In the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese kongsi on the island played an important role in the opium trade and ran casinos and brothels.
The capital of Penang is George Town (in contrast to the American Georgetown). When you arrive it seems like a city with ugly high-rise buildings, but once in the city the old part of the city turns out to be a fascinating mix of old and new, of colonial architecture and high-rise buildings, of old Chinese shophouses and modern shopping centers, countless restaurants and trendy coffee shops. The old part of the city has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2008.
After I have checked in at my guesthouse I will explore part of the city. It is very warm in George Town as well: over thirty degrees but, due to the high humidity, it feels like forty. I first walk past the Blue Mansion, said to be the most photographed house in George Town. Maybe because it is blue? The house was built in the 1880s on behalf of a wealthy Chinese trader. If you want, you can also view the inside of your house.
I continue walking towards the north side of George Town. Where the city borders the water of the Strait of Malacca, there are the stately buildings of the Supreme Court from 1903, the Town Hall from 1880 and the City Hall from 1903. Both the Town Hall and the City Hall were built by the British colonial rulers, with the City Hall replacing the Town Hall when it became too small. The City Hall is still the seat of Penang’s local government.
The next day I have the whole day to explore George Town. It’s sunny and sweltering. The historic center of George Town is full of streets with old Chinese shophouses. Many of them have been renovated and now serve as a restaurant, shop, café or ‘heritage hotel’. The shophouses all have approximately the same design: upstairs shutters for the windows, downstairs a retail space with a covered gallery in front of it (so you can walk dry during a tropical rain shower). The facades are painted in different colors, often discolored and peeling and with plasterwork that is peeling, which on the one hand looks a bit dilapidated, but at the same time contributes to the historic character of George Town.
You will also find various so-called ‘kongsi houses’ in George Town. Many Chinese immigrants came to Penang in the second half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. They formed a kind of association, kongsi, to welcome newcomers and to promote community ties between people who came from the same region and spoke the same dialect. The kongsi built kongsi houses, a kind of association buildings that, in addition to being a meeting place, also served as a religious center. The first kongsi house I pass is the Yap Kongsi, built in 1924. The most impressive kongsi house, however, is the Khoo Kongsi, both outside and inside. The Khoo Kongsi dates from 1906 and looks like a large temple, with enormous ornaments on the roof and literally every centimeter of the facade panels, pillars and ceilings is decorated. Carved wood, gold leaf, the wealth of the kongsi radiates from it.
The Cheaah Kongsi, is the kongsi house of the oldest kongsi in Penang. This kongsi house looks more like a house, with a large lawn in front of it, a central meeting room and living areas around courtyards. After visiting the kongsi houses, I walk past the Masjid Kapitan Keling, built in 1901 by Indian immigrants, with its free-standing minaret, and past the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, a stately, green-colored city villa of a nineteenth-century Chinese trader and clan leader. The Hindu Mariamman Temple is pleasantly busy (with apparently only Indians), the inside of the temple is extremely colorful and is full of statues of Hindu gods. George Town is also a clear mix of Chinese, Indian and Malaysian culture.
In addition to the shophouses, kongsi houses and temples, George Town is also known for its many street art. In 2012, Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic was commissioned to create a number of murals in the old town. He combined these with objects such as a bicycle and a swing. These murals quickly became very famous and attracted many visitors. In the years that followed, much more street art was added and while walking through George Town you will come across murals everywhere.
On the water that separates the island of Penang from the mainland are a number of jetties, wooden piers with houses built on stilts above the water. The jetties were built by the Chinese Kongsi and are still inhabited. In addition to houses, Chew Jetty also has a temple, a meeting room, and nowadays also many souvenir shops and ice cream sellers. In contrast to the more touristy Chew Jetty, the Tan Jetty is an oasis of peace.
Pulau Perhentian
On Sunday morning at half past six I am picked up from my guesthouse by a Grab to go to Penang international airport. It’s raining, so it’s a good time to go. The flight from Penang to Kota Bharu takes less than an hour. Kota Bharu is located in the far northeast of Peninsular Malaysia. From here it is about a 45-minute drive to Kuala Besut, where I will transfer to a boat. This part of Malaysia is literally and figuratively far away from Kuala Lumpur. It is a rural area, with small villages, and there are hardly any Chinese or Indians living there, which makes the street scene very different from, for example, Kuala Lumpur or George Town.
A boat is ready in Kuala Besut to take me to Pulau Perhentian Besar in half an hour. The Perhentian Islands are located off the coast of northeastern Malaysia in the South China Sea. Next to Besar (the big island) is Kecil (the small island) and there are a few uninhabited islands nearby. Besar and Kecil are both not large, car-free, and the only thing you can do there is walking, snorkeling, diving, sailing and relaxing. I will stay there for two and a half days, a few relaxing days to end my trip through Malaysia.
Besides the aforementioned activities, there is also a hiking trail on Pulau Perhentian Besar. So the next morning after breakfast I walk from my resort along the beach towards the north. Along Teluk Pauh, a circular bay with white sand and remains of coral on a clear blue sea. At the last resort I exchange the views of the sea for a narrow path that leads into the jungle. The jungle is dense, the path is narrow and apart from the sound of some birds and my footsteps it is dead quiet. The trail runs more or less from north to south across the western part of Pulau Perhentian Besar. After about an hour of walking I arrive back at the coast, at Flora Bay to be precise. Here too, an elongated sandy beach with panoramic views over the clear blue South China Sea. Here I rest for a while and then I take a water taxi back to my resort, where I arrive again around lunchtime. A morning well spent.
After the relaxing days at Pulau Perhentian, Wednesday is a travel day. I take the boat back to the mainland, then a minibus takes me back to Kota Bharu airport for the flight to Kuala Lumpur. This flight of barely an hour has been delayed, making my connection very tight. At Kuala Lumpur International Airport I run from one pier to another. Because I am transferring to an international flight (to Singapore), I have to go through customs. There is a line, but luckily I can go first because otherwise I risk missing my flight. Then I also encounter a line at the baggage check, which I rudely pass by. Boarding has already started when I get to the gate, but I made it.
The flight to Singapore also takes about an hour. Then I take the MRT back into the city. I’m back where I started this three-week tour.
