Selamat Hari Raya

In Malaysia, Hari Raya marks the end of fasting in the Muslim month of Ramadan. The end of Ramadan is a big occasion, much like Christmas or Easter in Australia, with a two public holidays given to mark the occasion (although sometimes local Malays are known to take a longer break)

Amongst the fireworks and other general celebrations which occur during this time, I was most interested by the “open house” concept. During Hari Raya, local Malay’s open up the doors to their houses and invite their friends an relatives to come and join in a feast. A large variety of local foods and cakes are offered at these open houses.

Over two days, I was lucky enough to attend six open houses (too much free food!). On the first day I was invited to visit the houses of three staff members of the university I attend. All were very friendly, and by visiting the houses of locals I was given a unique opportunity to experience what life is really like for the people in Malaysia.

On the second day I went with a group of international students to the open house of the Governor of Sarawak. The open house was held at his residence, the Astana, which is a palace located on bank of the Sarawak River. The house is open to the public, but only a few are allowed inside to meet the governor. Obviously being a group of international students, we were luckily chosen to enter the palace and meet with the governor. After shaking the Governor’s hand, and saying "Selamat Hari Raya" (which is the custom), we feasted on the large variety of food which was available, especially enjoying the local layer cakes.

When inside, we were interviewed and photographed by the local media. Apparently we were going to be on TV (although I never saw the news report). However, the next day while I was at an Indian restaurant, the owner of the restaurant recognised me from my picture in the newspaper. Looks like I’m turning into a minor Malaysian celebrity.

The Penang/Langkawi Weekend

Having missed out on flying anywhere the last long weekend, me and a friend decided the take Monday off and make our own long weekend so we could visit the two islands of Penang and Langkawi. The only problem was we underestimated the size of these islands, and the time it would take to fully explore them.

Langkawi first: It was completely not what I expected. I was expecting Langkawi to be something like Bali (or what I expect Bali to be). A commercialised town swarming with western tourists, and perfect white beaches. It was none of the above. The island was much larger than expected, with only a small amount occupied by touristy shops etc. There were quite a few westerners to be found but nowhere near as many as I had expected, and the beaches were underwhelming. We were even advised not to swim in some areas because of the risk of jellyfish.

The rest of the island was more interesting. Being driven through the centre of the island, I couldn’t help noticing the striking similarity between Langkawi and Sri Lanka. In Langkawi the roads are much better, and fewer people walk, but the landscape and buildings etc were remarkably similar.

To travel between Langkawi and Penang we hopped on the ferry, which is a choppy 2.5hr ride away. In hindsight, this was not the best idea. The ride was not a pleasant one. On the way about half the people on the boat threw up (luckily I was not one of them). 2.5hrs is too long to be on a boat. And to make it worse, it is quite expensive.

Now onto Penang: Penang is a very nice city. In fact, while I was there I kept feeling that I would enjoy myself more if I was based in Penang rather than Kuching. I thought Penang would be a small, relatively quiet island (similar to Kuching), but was surprised to find that it is more comparable to Singapore. It’s a large and busy city with lots to do. The city is famous for its food, and for good reason. It’s very different from the Kuching style though, much more spicy and far less sweet. I enjoyed the change – sampling some of the dishes at Gurney Drive.

Getting around is also quite easy thanks to the reliable bus service. The shopping in Penang also seems quite decent. The nightlife is fairly busy. Overall, the city has a lot going for it. However, the best beach in Penang, Batu Firinggi, proved to be slightly disappointing.

Unfortunately, we weren’t there long enough to fully appreciate the scenic/historical aspects of Penang (most of Georgetown is a world heritage site), but it seems the town, which is now a free trade zone and is set to become Malaysia’s first green city, would be a good place to live in the future.

Mt Santubong

Merdeka Day (Independence Day) long weekend arrived in Kuching, so a trip was in order. This time, in preparation for the climb of Mt Kinabalu (scheduled for a month’s time) I organised a trip with a group of students to climb Mt Santubong, the highest mountain in Sarawak.

Twelve of us in total took the trip, so a mini-bus was organised as transport. Being my third jungle trek since coming to Malaysia I was feeling quite enthusiastic at first - that was until the mountain came into sight. It looked big, very steep, and very difficult to climb. It was all of the above.

The ascent took about 3-4 hrs. It mainly consisted of walking through a jungle track. At some points you need to use ropes and climb ladders to get up the mountain, at other points tree roots and rocks act as natural ladders to help you up. Reaching the summit was somewhat disappointing. There was no view at all, completely blocked out by clouds. The only highlight was the sighting of a slightly cheeky monkey at the top while we took our short lunch break.

Instead of coming straight back down the mountain, we went the long way down, in search of a waterfall. The long way down proved to be a very long way down. In total we spent about 8 hrs walking. But the waterfall we found was quite nice. Cold, fresh water, good enough to jump into for a quick swim. There were lots of creatures around the waterfall area too, including a few frogs which looked dangerous.

Finally, after many hours of walking through jungle and feeling very exhausted we made it down the mountain, and continued on a short walk to Damai beach to cool off.

Although being extremely tired I headed into the city area later that night to watch the Merdka Day fireworks… they were more disappointing than the view from the top of Santubong.

Futsal

Last night I played in my first university futsal tournament. Completely organised and run by students, the night tournament was an impressive event to take part in. In fact, all participants and organisers came from the large number of international students. Apparently Malaysians aren’t very good at futsal, preferring to play badminton, table tennis, squash, basketball etc.

Groups of students make their own teams, segregated by nationality. In all there were seven teams: Zimbabwe, Keyna, Nigeria, the Arabs, Tanzania, Pakistan and team International. The notable exception is team Malaysia. Not really belonging to a particular nationality, myself and a group of friends formed “Team International” consisting of and Australian-Italian, a German, a Swede, an Iranian, a Mauritian a West Malaysian and myself – an Australia-Sri Lankan.

The skill level in the tournament was high and most matches were played in good spirit. However, there were some instances where some teams took things a bit too seriously, which did spoil part of the night.

Play got underway quite late – at 10pm, and the tournament eventually finished at about 4am the next day. It was very tiring, and we all felt it for the next few days. Although “Team International” put up a decent showing, Tanzania were the victors on the day beating the Kenyans in the final.