Malaysia 2008 | George Filev

Monkey Man

21 Feb 2008 19:30 Filed in: Malaysia 2008
Hello travelers!

Last time you saw me I was getting friendly with the locals and that continued with the rest of the tour. Went on another day trip and visited some monkeys who were very friendly.

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These monkeys were so cute and so gentle. Really had a strong connection with them.

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One big past-time in Malaysia, other than getting in touch with nature, is shopping. You can find almost anything here and most of it is on sale.

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mmmmm yum, dragon fruit drink! Malaysia's main exports are oil. The black gold in the ground type and the type that grown on trees, Palm oil. If you ever wondered what palm oil looked like, we visited a palm oil plantation.

Here is a bunch of palm oil kernels.

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If you cut the kernel in half you can see the yellow outer shell that contains the oil that is used in cosmetics, in place of diesel oil and other non edible products. The inner white seed contains the oil that is used in cooking.

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Malaysia is made up, in large part, of three cultures. Malay, Chinese and Indian.

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On a day off, some of us visited a historical port town called Melaka. It was a great place and displayed a rich history of this country with various conquests by the British, the Portuguese, the Dutch and Sultans from Arabia to mention a few.

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If you ever wondered what a Mouse Deer looked like I have a real one pictured below.

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Cute aren't they! I got to see one in person but unlike the one above that has an international modeling career, they are very shy creatures. Melaka had some wonderfully and diverse architecture.

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Melaka is famous for its Chicken Rice Balls.

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It's also famous for its Trishaws!

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Some of them were decorated quite elaborately and at night time they were lit up with LED lights and loud thumping music spewed out of them as the rode by. Bizarre to see some old Malays, tourists or Melakians in the back of a flower covered trishaw with black american rap pumping out of the stereo system.

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I decided to go for the modest model.

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In the social history museum they displayed different traditions with the use of mannequins and it was hilarious. This is an example of different weddings from different cultures that resided in Melaka from Malay to Chinese to Portuguese and even Chitty weddings!

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They had depictions of the people at the wedding having a fun time.

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Think these ones were playing a game of hide and seek.

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Whoo hoo! Kick up those heels girls!
They even had a Chitty band....

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Playing Chitty music on Chitty musical instruments.

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Boy that sure was a pretty Chitty drum!
Today the entertainment in Malaysia is much more high brow.

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Not to mention the Eye On Malaysia where we performed.

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On the last day we went to see the Firefly's.

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It was a magical way to finish off a fun tour and an opportunity to experience some more culinary delights in the way of a seafood lunch in a restaurant on stilts above the river.

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Would love to visit again some time. Had many new experiences which have enriched my life and I recommend it to everyone. On leaving I have a sad sense that time is running out for the environment. Maybe it is because I have bathed with elephants, hugged bears and held hands with monkeys. My connection to nature has increased and the more palm plantations causing loss of natural habitat means many of these creatures won't be around for long if this continues. I'm not convinced that Bio-fuels are the way to go when looking for alternatives to fossil fuels.

Home now and all that's left are fond memories and a remote control helicopter to torment the dogs with. Gee those things are fun!

All the best,

George.

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