Taiping

Taiping Lake Gardens are a rarity in Malaysia’s bustling and increasingly congested towns and cities - a large, open, green space with picturesque lake, surrounded by majestic, overhanging rain trees. The gardens certainly merit Taiping’s English translation of Great Peace. We enjoy the morning cool and the low mist that partly shrouds the nearby hill station of Bukit Larut. We thrill to the distant whoops of white-handed gibbons in the higher rainforest so far immune from the spreading monoculture of oil palm. These are sounds calculated to tingle the backbone and set the heart racing.

White-handed Gibbon

Taiping Lake Gardens

Hanim, our guide, explains that a proposal to build a cable car to the top of the Bukit, known in British times as Maxwell Hill, has been rejected, largely on economic grounds. She worries that such a development would compromise the hill’s special qualities. The only way up is still by four-wheel drive, with some of the Land Rovers in use dating back to the colonial period. The winding one lane road requires walkie-talkie liaison to avoid collisions with descending vehicles. En route we pass many locals walking a short stretch of the 13 kilometre, 1376m high hill as part of their morning constitutional.

Hanim, Stella and me at the foot of Bukit Larut

The first British Resident of Perak, JWW Birch, had a bungalow built at the summit in 1884 to escape from the oppressive lowland heat and we are privileged to visit, as it is now used by the staff maintaining and protecting the adjacent telecommunications tower. To our amazement a technician tells us of a recent encounter with a tiger which appeared at the enclosure fence one afternoon when he was out collecting his washing. “What did you do?” we asked. “We stared at each other for a while until it lost interest and wandered off.” There could be as few as 250 tigers left in Peninsula Malaysia so such sightings are truly recounts for the grandchildren.

Hilltop residence of JWW Birch

Malayan tiger at Taiping Zoo

Back in the lowlands, Hanim takes us on visits to the hot springs as well as the traditional coffee factory but it is the charcoal kilns which intrigue most. The wood comes from nearby coastal mangroves which must be replanted in the exact numbers they are harvested. Taiping Zoo is also considered a leader in south-east Asian conservation policy through its breeding and education programmes. We are taken on one of the night safaris showcasing the many nocturnal animals hidden from sight during the day.

Charcoal kiln

Planting mangroves

Traditional coffee making

We also visit the Kampung Dew river fireflies which sparkle after dark like synchronous fairy lights on the berembang trees. Hanim mentions the riverine clearing and water pollutants which threaten the long term survival of these trees on which the little beetles depend.

Taiping is one of Malaysia’s most multiracial cities with a history of harmonious interaction between Malays, Chinese and Indians. We pass the town centre where old Chinese men reputedly gamble on when the first raindrop of the day will fall and return to the Lake Gardens where exercise enthusiasts are starting to perform their daily jogs and callisthenics in the relative cool of the evening.

Multicultural Malaysia on show

Time now for a roti canai, a piece of sticky dodol and a refreshing kopi ais.

Hari Raya feasting

(This article appeared in the Guardian Weekly of 16.10.15)

Then and Now

“As an expatriate teacher employed by the Malaysian government to help raise the level of English in rural schools, I taught for three years in a mixed community school of Malays, Chinese and Indians. There was never much mixing between the races as the proscriptions of Islam, which the majority Malays must adhere to, define the limits of inter-racial behaviour. Only a rare, westernised Malay would consider marrying a pig eating Chinese and very few Chinese would be prepared to consider relinquishing their cultural identities by converting to Islam which Malay inter-marriage requires. Some Indians do become Muslims and marry Malays – Dr Mahathir the (former) Malaysian Prime Minister is the product of a mixed Malay/Indian marriage - but Indian traditions are sufficiently strong for it still to be the exception.

In the school environment of the early 1980s, however, nearly all children irrespective of race were allowed to be children, to study and play in the tropical heat with their faces free from ‘cloth clobber’. The Islamic revolution inspired by Khomeini’s Iran initially led to some female facial covering up. On return trips in 1986 and 1990 the Islamist influence had led to a more than 50% cover up rate. Now the job is complete. Only a brave and urbanised female Malay would dare to go out without her ‘tudong’, the tightly bound, shoulder-length headscarf which hides every last wisp of hair and emasculates her beauty. External expression of Malay female emancipation is crushed and the separateness of the Malaysian racial divide is further reinforced.

Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebrations

As long as economic growth continues - largely for the benefit of the powerful Chinese and Malay middle classes that control the economic and political spheres respectively – then the colossal social and political problems seen elsewhere in South East Asia will be avoided. A superficial racial harmony will be maintained through the wealth created by the intensive exploitation of Malaysia’s oil reserves as well as the continued massive harvesting of its own and others’ timber resources.”

I actually wrote the above in 2002 during a visit to Malaysia but, having just returned, it is striking how relevant it still is. Many of the things I said then about Dr Mahathir are equally pertinent to the current Prime Minister Najib who is embroiled in a massive corruption scandal associated with a Malay company (some would say slush fund) of the type Mahathir helped to establish while in government. The major irony is that the 90 year-old Mahathir is at the forefront of a large opposition now calling for Najib to step down.

Malacca (or is that Melaka?)

Driving in Malaysia is not what it used to be. An extensive motorway runs all the way from Johore Bharu to Penang. However, the brilliant motorway flatters to deceive. As in so many developing countries that build elaborate and costly freeways, precious little thought has gone into what happens when you exit them. Suddenly there is chaos, poor or non-existent signage and often a goat track with guesswork the only way of working out the directions. So it was when we left the Kuala Lumpur to JB motorway at the Malacca exit. We stopped and started and blundered our way into the outskirts of Bandaraya Melaka. A bloke at a petrol station rattled off some ‘rights’ and ‘lefts’ which led me in the general direction of the town central where we had booked a room in a small hotel in the hip part of the city. I saw a guy getting into a parked four-wheel drive, a sure sign that someone is well off and will probably speak English. And so it was – the Chinese driver also had a smart phone. I was quietly begging him to lead us to the hotel and when he offered I nearly let out a yelp. I would never have found the hotel in the mazy back streets of old town Malacca. Maybe I’ll have to renounce my aversion to GTSs and get with the program as they say, though what a GPS would say about the many alternate spellings and names of the streets I don’t know.

The popular Melaka River with boat tours, bars and jogging tracks

Cigarette and beer offerings in Chinese temple

The street we were on was the very essence of multicultural Malacca. A mosque, a Hindu temple and a Chinese temple all sat virtually side-by-side which is very reassuring in these troubled times. The mosque owes much to the Hindu tradition with a pagoda-shaped minaret. When I read this in English on the board outside I half expected the Malay version to have omitted the Hindu reference but it hadn’t. I hope that continues. Malacca has had World Heritage listing since 2008 and money is pouring into the old town. House values have skyrocketed and Chinese from Singapore and mainland China are buying up big creating the usual resentments from the locals. The ringgit has fallen badly against the Singapore dollar and where else do Singaporeans have to go for short get-aways but northwards.

Kite in local museum

Malacca, we were told, now has more hotel accommodation than KL. During the last public holiday for Hari Raya Puasa we were reliably informed that the chicken and rice take away queues were a mile long at one of the favoured eateries. Fortunately, we chose a non-holiday period but, in places, it was busy enough notably at the famous Red Square museum, the Stadthuys, the favourite spot for dressed up and often theme based trishaws each with their own powered music systems to jolly the punters along. The paraphernalia of the new Disney film ‘Frozen’ seemed to be newest edition to the trishaw extravaganza. A lot of the buildings in the old town are exquisite and it’s nice to know that there is still a place for pots and pans and basket sellers as well as the numerous antique shops flogging off the older generations' home remains - from massive vases and mother of pearl cabinets to old bicycles and clocks that the children who have inherited them can’t wait to be rid of. The new market for these products is from the recently rich and expanding overseas Chinese middle class.

Colourful trishaws in Stadthuys Square