We were nearing the end of the trip, a bitter sweet moments of last couple of days of our trip. Given that we have been to Malaysia numerous times in the past, the exotic travel part waned. After about five hours of drive, we reached the Thai-Malaysia border and procured the vehicle insurance on Thai side to cross into Malaysia. We got the vehicle Carnet stamped. The officer was curious about our trip. By looking at my passport, he enquired whether I was a devout Muslim. Not sure whether I looked suspicious nor about the underlying premise of that question. This question popped up every time I crossed the Malaysian border over the course of next few days.
Soon after we crossed into Malaysia, I realized that I had forgotten my ATM card at the Thai border. It was too late to retrieve. Hence, we had to survive on the last bit of left over cash of $80 over the next three days. We checked into a hotel in a border town. The next day, June 4th, we headed off towards Kuala Lampur. The roads and directions were top notch but quite boring with straight stretches with similar surroundings of never ending palm trees (#2 producer of palm oil).
We checked into the hotel in Kuala Lampur and headed out to the twin Petronas towers. We got pulled over by the cops at the city center. About 4 cops showed up and they were intrigued by the Indian registered vehicle on the road with a number of probing questions. We weren’t convinced that the cops knew what documents to check. We showed a number of documents and in fact we didn’t have the licenses as we had forgotten at the hotel room. The cops must have assumed we had everything in order and just tried to read the body language.
The highlight of the rest of the evening was visiting the local food market at Bukit Bintang. Quite a vibrant market with varied food options. After scouting the street with food stalls, we settled in on one for sea food variety.
The next day, Friday June 5th, morning, we had arranged an Airbnb experience to hike the nearby mountain range. Amos, the guide, showed up promptly at 6:30 AM. Amos drove us to the outskirts and we parked the car by a neighborhood. He walked past a few plantations to get to the mountain base. The rest of the mountain hike was along two mountain tops which resemble the shape of a dragon’s back. Hence, the Airbnb experience was named as ‘Dragonback Trek’. A reasonably involved trek with a number of vantage points for photo ops. Basically the scenery was the view of the city on one side and rain forest on the other side. Amos, a mild-mannered gentleman, gave a bit of a run down of history during one of the breaks. His forefathers migrated from China for tin mining opportunities (while the Indians migrated for opportunities in plantations). He carefully crafted his words without exhibiting bitterness towards ‘Bhumiputra’, a long standing affirmative action favoring ethnic Malays.
After wrapping up the trip, we stopped by a local ‘Mamak’ stall for brunch. These ‘Mamak’ stalls are non-top open-air joints typically run by Indian origin Malay Muslims. Half of the staff were workers from India. We chit chat with a few workers. The language and behavior between Indians and Malay Muslims were almost indistinguishable. The food stall reminded me of road side stalls in my hometown Madurai, India which used to be a favorite late night stops for delicacies.
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