Tatjana has been contacting our potential Servas hosts and has found it somewhat more difficult than in Europe. Also frustratingly the map does not coordinate with where the hosts are. Anyway we have ended up with several hosts in Kuala Lumpur which has meant we spent a great deal of time in one place. Neither of us like cities much but C’est la vie!
The up side of this has been we have an understanding of the political situation in Malaya. The idea through Servas is we have a cultural exchange and boy did we! Usually over vast varieties of food!
Our first overnight hosts KhaiTzer and YenYen ( I spelled her name wrong and have corrected it) are Chinese Malaysian, young and modern in their tastes and way of life. They live in a smart Condominium in the north of the city. A gated community (although everywhere is) with a park and shopping area nearby. The park was set up like a botanical garden with the plants named and a pond with fish and terrapins.
The shopping center was very Japanese according to Tatjana. The funniest thing for me was people taking cats and dogs for walks in push chairs or in harnesses like handbags, utterly peculiar! Apparently also very Japanese!4
As a couple KhaiTzer and YenYen they were very hard to give an age to, especially YenYen, if she had told me she was twenty I would have believed her but, she was almost double that! We so enjoyed our chats with Kaitzer, he could spare more time being his own boss (fish monger to restaurants).
We covered the subjects politeness would normally avoid, politics and religion and many many others it was quite fascinating.
We went out to dinner in various places and with a group of their friends. We enjoyed the environment of their home including a lovely pool and the gym. The latter we all went to, to do our exercise one evening. They were so lovely and when our plans didn’t quite work they allowed us to stay longer than the two usual nights.
After this we stayed with Mortthy of Tamil Indian decent, with his family in a bungalow in the suburbs south of the city at Semenyih. His two adult daughters cooked (their mother was at a wedding in India) but we helped a little with the preparation of vegetable greens Amaranthus which I have never had before. This was served with a rice and fish curry. Very Spicy!
This was a family home and had a traditional Indian feel about it. It was interesting talking to the girls, one wanted to travel but would not be allowed to do so alone. Marriage would be within their own community and so on. One was studying Psycology and the other Law.
Mortthy took us to the Chinese Sak Dato Temple. It’s a peculiar place part Temple and part theme park, boasting 15 meter Monkey God on a nearby hill. We saw lots of stray dogs, much like Nepal. We had to pick our way between them to get across a suspension bridge to get to the statue.
I loved it because I could hear birds here, one in particular appeared to be a nightjar churring but, it could have been a frog of course! There were all sorts of insect eating bats, flitting about. The down side of this though was that bats in those numbers indicates insects in big volumes and I was being munched around my wrists.
Mortthy is a telecommunications engineer and I think runs his own business. He was also a practicing healer part time. I’m afraid this was a bit lost on me.
He was keen for us have breakfast in his locality.
Our next hosts were Richard, Carol and Iggy the dog who lived in probably one of the earliest condominiums in Kuala Lumpur. Richard was originally from the US and Carol was Malay. They were in their 80’s and so generous, we virtually had a whole apartment to ourselves.
The place was like a town in itself. There were shops on one level and the community had garden clubs, a sort of Cat rescue and various other activities. Richard seemed to be very active in these.
Richard took us to the National Museum of Malaysia where he is a guide. He has an amazing knowledge of history so I got my pre history after all.
So just a quick update on how Kuala Lumpur became a place of industry. This was due to tin mining/dredging which was discovered by Chinese prospectors in the 1800’s. Malaya although under Brush rule had many local rulers. The influx of peoplefor the mining and later rubber plantations was managed by various people Malay and Chinese rulers who developed the modern day Kuala Lumpur.
And finally on our last night we met other Servas members for a meal. What a lovely bunch of people. Richard also managed to register a new member from one of his many groups with a little help from Tatjana.
Kuala Lumpur is certainly a melting pot!
Next Melacca….
The Travelling Bee 