As a four-decade Certified Travel Agent, international airline employee, researcher, writer, teacher, and photographer, travel, whether for pleasure or business purposes, has always been a significant and an integral part of my life. Some 400 trips to every portion of the globe, by means of road, rail, sea, and air, entailed destinations both mundane and exotic. This article focuses on those in Southeast Asia.
Thailand:
Although the land of the King of Siam was overcrowded and, at least in Bangkok, smeared with traffic-created smog, if offered enough vestiges to transport me back to its early history.
Its dazzling, awe-inspiring Grand Palace, built in 1782 and the home of the Thai King, the Royal Court, and the administrative seat of government for 150 years, served as the city’s very landmark.
Surrounded by walls, whose length measured 1,900 meters, it was built for the purpose of restoring order after the fall of Ayudhya, whose monarch lived in Dhenburi, on the other side of the Chao Phya River. But, as soon as Rama I ascended to the throne, he transferred its center of administration to the current site, constructing fortifications, monasteries, and a palace to serve as his offices and residence. That came to be known as the “Grand Palace,”
Its upper terrace sported four significant monuments: the Reliquary in the shape of a golden cedi; the Repository of the Cannon of Buddhism; the model of Angkor Wat; and the Royal Penthouse, in which statues of past sovereigns of the ruling dynasty have been enshrined.
Scattered around these monuments on the terrace were fanciful animals of mythology, which themselves originated in artist imagination because of their aesthetic value.
North of the Royal Residence of the Mahamopnitien was a connecting gate that opened to the grounds of the Chapel Royal of the Emerald Buddha. Because monks did not reside there, it lacked residential quarters, but retained all of the architectural features of a monastery.
The Assembly Hall served as the monarch’s private chapel, but its “Emerald Buddha” was actually a single-piece jade figure which sat on a gold altar designed to represent the traditional aerial chariot attributed to Hindu gods. It was here that crowds gathered to pay respect to his memory and teachings.
The Vimanmek, the world’s largest teak wood mansion, was the six-year residence of Chulalongkom, who was also known as Rama V and consequently the fifth monarch of Siam to have ruled under the House of Chakri. It marked the transitional period from the conservative “old” to the progressive “new” in Thailand’s history.
A leisurely glide along the Chao Phrya River brought insight into Bangkok’s canal life and the boat docked at Wat Arun. Locally known as Wat Chaeng, but nicknamed “Temple of Dawn,” it was colorfully decorated with spires.
I often threaded my way through the obstacle-course comprised streets in a three-wheel “Thai tuk-tuk” by day and consumed all varieties of Thai noodles by night-rice, egg, bean, and glass–in never-disappointing dishes.
Rising from the horizon during a subsequent day’s drive to Nakhon Pathom a city in central Thailand, was the 120-meter-high Phra Pathom Chedi, itself translating as the “Holy Chedi of the beginning,” whose roots were planted in the 3rd century BC when Buddhism was introduced to Thailand. Modeled after the Great Stupa of Sanchi in Central India, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it was the tallest such chedi in existence.
A visit to the Rose Garden to experience its Thai Village Cultural Show was another immersion into the country’s colorful pageantry. Amidst expansive gardens, elephants, reminiscent of the days when king and princes fought battles on their backs, roamed the area. But the actual show included such aspects as the ordination in monkhood, the fingernail dance, Thai-style boxing, northeastern dance, sword fighting, the full moon-associated bamboo dance, and a Thai wedding ceremony.
The colorful Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, about 100 kilometers southwest of Bangkok, was another immersion into local life. Its canal-thronged, long-tail boats floated almost within reach of the dizzying array of shore-based stalls that sold everything from local produce to toy elephants and tiger balm.
Malaysia:
Like so many “country coverage” trips, such as those to Argentina, Chile, the UK, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and French Polynesia, the one to Malaysia required multiple modes, hotels, flights, and airborne hours. I traveled half of its west coast, along with drives to some of its interior areas.
Sandwiched between Thailand and Singapore some seven degrees north of the equator in Southeast Asia, it consists of Peninsula Malaysia and the two states of Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo Island, most of which belongs to Indonesia. Because of its strategic position between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea, it attracted travelers and traders alike, and was continually influenced by foreign powers.
Having achieved its independence on August 31, 1957, it was initially known as the Federation of Malaysia, reduced, simply, to “Malaysia,” six years later in 1963. Today, it is subdivided into 13 states and two territories.
Its capital, Kuala Lumpur, is a mixture of old and new. Glimmering glass skyscrapers rise from wide, open, tree-line boulevards, but behind, tucked into its past, gracious Colonial-era edifices, copper domed roofs, and pre-war shop houses are only accessed by narrow lanes.
“The capital of Malaysia has grown tremendously from a small settlement of tin mines to a cosmopolitan city of 1.3 million people,” according to the KL City Experience tour description. “Still rapidly expanding, modern high-rise buildings intermingle with old structures featuring a wide range of influences: Moghul, Islamic, Tudor, and modern contemporary.”
My first hotel, the Kuala Lumpur Hilton International. rose from a hill in the city’s heart. Featuring 581 rooms and suites, it was entered through a marble lobby decorated with chandeliers and carved pillars. Its small Café Gourmet offered scones, snacks, and lunch; its Planters Inn Restaurant had a full-meal menu; and its shopping arcade displayed Royal Selangor pewter, among other items.
The actual KL City Experience tour drove past China Town, the Parliament House, the National Monument, and the Lake Gardens, before stopping at the Kanyaneka Handicraft Center; the Istana Negara Kings’ Place, which itself was surrounded by serenity in the form of formal gardens and lily ponds; and the National Museum. A palatial structure featuring Old Malay-style architecture and flanked by murals depicting the country’s history and culture, it was internally subdivided into traditions, arts and crafts, flora and fauna, currency, and weapons exhibitions. Outside displays included those of vintage cars and steam locomotives and a reconstructed Malay palace.
Kula Lumpur’s National Mosque, another tour-included attraction, sported a multiple-fold, umbrella-resembling roof that symbolized the nation’s aspirations, and a sleek, 73-meter-high minaret.
Merdaka Square commemorated the country’s independence and the Selangor Club’s marble plaque marked the location where the lowering of the union jack and the raising of the Malaysian flag took place in 1957.
An elevator ascent up the 421-meter Selemat Datong Tower, the world’s third such tallest tower inspired by the Islamic minarets from which calls to prayer are made five times per day, offered new city perspectives.
A Suburbs and Craft Tour eclipsed the boundaries of Kuala Lumpur to the surrounding state of Selangor. Located on the west coast of Peninsula Malaysia and considered the country’s most developed one, it sprouted natural vegetation that ranged from coastal mangroves to lush interior tropical rainforests, and its coastline was dotted with fishing villages. Yet it hardly lacked in infrastructure: it was the location of both the largest seaport and airport, and housed the highest concentration of higher learning institutions.
The tour provided exposure to Malaysia’s indigenous products in a batik factory, a pewter plant, a rubber tree farm, complete with a tapping demonstration, and a butterfly and scorpion farm. But its highlight was a visit to the Batu Caves.
Located 13 kilometers outside of Kuala Lumpur’s central business district, they were accessed by a 272 stone step staircase that led to the 100-year-old limestone Hindu temple inside, whose 100-meter-high ceiling featured statues and idols that were incorporated within the 400-million-year-old formations.
Aside from the Art Gallery and the Museum Caves, the Cathedral Cave, considered the main one, housed several Hindu shrines.
A rental car pick-up on the fourth day facilitated self-drive coverage beyond the congested capital with an initial, northern destination of the Malaysian state of Perak. Its name, meaning “silver” in Malay, was derived from its abundant silver tin ore natural resource.
“Perak has just about everything for everyone,” according to the Perak Guide (Perak Tourist Information Center, 1997); “places and graces that speak of genuine warmth and charming hospitality. It is rich in history, culture, folklore, and heritage. It is the state of ageless architectural splendors, island resorts that offer sun, sea, and sand, virgin tropical jungles, beautiful holiday hideaways, natural recreation parks, and a host of specialized museums.”
My first stop was the unassuming fishing village of Lumut. Although it was known for its shell and corral handicrafts, the attraction, paradoxically, was its huge parking lot across from the Pan Silver Ferry departure point for the 40-minute water crossing to Pangkor Island located off the West Coast of Peninsula Malaysia.
“The most popular island resort in Perak,” it billed itself, “Pangkor welcomes visitors with its serene, golden beaches, crystalline blue water, and cool, refreshing breezes.”
Once the refuge of seamen who sailed through the Strait of Malacca, it provided pause and peace for pirates, merchants, and soldiers with its idyllic bays.
The 240-room, -suite, and -chalet Pan Pacific Resort, located on a private, ten-kilometer-long golden beach, offered restaurants, watersports, swimming pools, tennis courts, and golf courses, and close proximity to jungle fishing villages. The island’s sights included Teluk Nipah, a sea park with a coral reef and marine life, and Kota Belanda, the 300-year-old Dutch fort that served as a stronghold against attacking pirates and local Malays until the Malays themselves drove the Dutch out.
A return ferry ride, which itself was crowded because of Malaysia’s National Day of Independence celebration, preceded a drive to another topographical region of the country in the state of Pahang, the Cameron Highlands. Reached after a progressive climb on a mountain-encircling road, it seemed as if I had been deposited into another world of undulating green hills and cool air 1,829 meters about sea level, where temperature and soil facilitated tea and subtemperate fruit and vegetable growing.
The Equatorial Hill Resort, the chosen accommodation for the night, was centrally located on Kea Farm at a 1,628-meter elevation with commanding views of the majestic mountains and valleys, often hugged by misty clouds.
Featuring Tudor-style architecture outside and leather couches and fireplaces inside in its lobby, it greeted guests with the following welcome.
“Welcome to the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia’s most idyllic mountain getaway. Rolling hills and lofty mountains are complemented by terraced tea estates and valleys showcasing vegetable gardens and flower farms.”
Comfort was not a lost concept here: 511 rooms, restaurants, lounges, an entertainment complex, and area activities, such as mountain trekking and old-fashioned bamboo pole fishing in Habu Lake.
A half-day, agriculturally-themed “Country Excursion” took in Rose Valley, Cactus Valley, the Butterfly Farm, wild orchids, and tea plantations for both tasting and purchasing.
Dinner in the Smokehouse Restaurant that evening was a must.
“The charm of the English countryside, English Tudor style,” it described itself. “Sixty kilometers of loops, switchbacks, and steady climbing takes you to this delightful resort. Here you will find the most famous building of Cameron Highlands. Standing alongside the golf course is the Smokehouse Hotel and Restaurant. The English Tudor style hotel, built in 1939, provides you with the ultimate in colonial ambiance.
“A three-hour drive from Kuala Lumpur, Cameron Highlands is quite literally at the frontier between the manmade world and the wild where one can venture out and taste the latter. The experience of the Smokehouse is something to be treasured.”
Traditional English tea with scones, clotted cream, and strawberry jams was served in its lush gardens. Dinner, requiring reservations, was preceded by a comfortable wait in the living room adorned with overstuffed chairs and couches, a fireplace, and a beamed ceiling, before invitation into the small, main dining room, and its menu featured appetizers such as smoked salmon, entrees like beef with Yorkshire pudding, and delectable desserts.
A mountain re-descent the following day entailed the almost obligatory stop at the Lota Iskondar waterfall and then the drive to my fourth hotel, the ultra-modern, 441-room Pan Pacific Kuala Lumpur International Airport, to which it was skybridge-connected.
Considering itself the country’s gateway, it advertised, “Experience the world of Malaysia and its modern airport-symbiotic relationships between technological and agricultural achievements, eastern and western cultures, modern and traditional lifestyles, and international and domestic connections.
“As the nation’s new transportation hub, Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s architectural and technological splendors rise above its beautifully landscaped rain forest.”
A two-and-a-half-hour drive to the southern part of the country past rubber and oil palm plantations, tropical rain forests, and valleys the following day led to the Malaysian state of Malacca, its unofficial historical capital and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Originally a simple fishing village, it was founded by a prince fleeing nearby Sumatra in the late 14th-century, who transformed it into a port for safe harboring during monsoons and resupplying ships that plied the Strait of Malacca. Because of its strategic, China-India intermediate location, it soon monopolized the trading routes in the region.
Its spices attracted colonial powers. In 1511, for instance, it fell to the Portuguese, in 1641 to the Dutch, and in 1815 to the British.
Although it ultimately faded into history, it gained its independence in the 21st century and began to attract tourists. Today, it resembles a compact living museum, whose Malay, Chinese, Indian, Straits-born Chinese, and Portuguese descendant left a wealth of cultural influences, as reflected in its Medieval charm, narrow streets, and quaint architecture.
Some of it was sampled in Taman Mini Malaysia, a cultural park comprised of traditional home replicas from the country’s 13 states, along with a model of an Orang Asi village.
Other city attractions included St. Peters Church, the salmon-pink Stadhuys, Sultan’s Well, the Queen Victoria Fountain, and the Portuguese settlement.
The book on this travel-rich trip ended no differently than it began-namely, with a dual-sector, 21-hour intercontinental flight from Kuala Lumpur to Newark that made an intermediate stop in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
Singapore:
Spotlessly clean, modern, efficiently-run, and small in size, but the result of its multi-racial roots, Singapore offered a taste of its diversity in the pockets of ethnicity that continued to thrive.
Little India, for instance, was an enclave of saris, curries, goldsmiths, and Hindu temples.
Merlion Park not only offered views of its Colonial buildings, such as the City Hall, the Supreme Court, and the General Post Office, but displayed the city’s very symbol, the lion. A Hindu prince, descending from Alexander the Great, ruled large areas of the Asian coastline and sought a new site to establish a population center on the pirate-infested island during the 14th century. It was here that he encountered a strange animal with a red body, a black head, and a white breast-that is, a lion-prompting him to name his new location “Singapura” or “the City of the Lion.”
Shenton Way constituted Singapore’s financial district.
Chinatown consisted of two such sections-the Hokkien District, with its 150-year-old Thian Hock Keng Temple, and the Cantonese District, with its own signature Sri Mariamman Temple.
Expansive views of the city and the Port of Singapore were enjoyed on the top of Mt. Faber.
And the Botanical Garden, another Colonial Heritage area, was ablaze with orchid color and was the location where the first rubber tree was planted in Asian.
The Tang Dynasty, reached after a walk to the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) subway station from my hotel on Orchard Road and then a 15-minute ride, was a 12-hectare, miniature recreation of Chang’an, the capital of the dynasty some 1,300 years ago during its Golden Age. Cornerstone, perhaps, was its seven-story Wild Goose Pagoda, beneath which was the Underground Palace, which displayed terra cotta warriors, horses, and wagons.
Considerable authenticity had been incorporated into the restoration. Almost 2,000 bricks had been manufactured by an ancient factory in Guangzhou and all of the wooden doors and windows had been hand carved by Chinese craftsmen.
Its house- and shop-lined streets said much about life during the era. Its pleasure houses, for instance, were locations where Japanese geisha girl equivalents, who were taught to dance, sing, and write, entertained men. The Court House represented the formal jurisdiction system devised by the first emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Tang Ganzo. The replica of a rich man’s house featured a high threshold lying across its entrance to both prevent flooding and ward off evil spirits. A temple for worshippers was the location where prayer was offered up to Kuan Yin, the God of Mercy, whom they believed could cure illnesses. And the House of Li Bai, set next to the village’s lake, represented the one where the dynasty’s greatest poets lived and the setting which inspired their works.
Shops demonstrated and sold herbs, wine, pottery, and tea, and re-enactments in the city’s square and along its streets ranged from marital arts to wedding parades.
Sentosa, translated as “Isle of Tranquility” in Malay, was another educational and entertainment venue, which was transformed from its British fortress and military base origins.
Its extensive, multifaceted offerings included those pertaining to history (the Lost Civilization, Fort Siloso, and the Pioneers of Singapore Wax Museum), nature (the Coralarium and Nature Ramble, a butterfly park, and fountain gardens); recreation (golf, cycling, sunning, and swimming on its beach, and nighttime entertainment (lighted, music-accompanied fountains and periodic shows).
It also featured its own hotel, the 459-room Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa Resort.
Transportation to and within the complex included a causeway, a cable car, and a monorail.