Malaysia – A Hot, Humid, Havoc of a Holiday

A piece of travel writing that I had to write for school. :)

 

Walking down a typical Johor Bahru country road, a country tucked away in the southern region of Malaysia, all I could see was row after row of identical, detached, pink houses. Vigorously growing sugar cane resided in the plots of land outside the huge gates, belonging to the undersized mansions. It‘s like being in a different world.

            Just round the corner I was amazed to find such a contradicting place. Big open restaurants covered the place and stray dogs hung around occupied tables hoping to be fed. One would feed the dogs just to get them away from them, they looked like they had been run over in an accident by Lewis Hamilton and got caught up in the engine; missing patches of fur indicated this. The smell of fresh, herby food overwhelmed you. When I say fresh, I really do mean fresh. You can choose the fish, lobsters, prawns etc. You want out of a tank and it will turn up on your table as a meal. Personally I think this is brutal.

            Market stalls took over the place and you are hit by so many pungent smells, all at once. Customers arguing with stall holders, in the most foreign language you can imagine (sounding a bit like monkeys, oo-ing and aah-ing), trying to haggle prices down. The worst part of the market runs right through the middle...beggars who have lost and arm or a leg lay in the street on their stomachs holding cups to be filled with money, this made my stomach churn as the dressings that were applied to their missing arm or leg were filthy and covered in blood. It was obvious that they were placed there by people as they could not walk and lay themselves down, the locals also told me that the crook that made them do this would take all the beggars earnings and just give them one meal which would not suffice them for an hour let alone a day.

            The deserted roads off the main streets are useful for gangs of youths to ride their bikes on, well at least until the youngest one falls off his tricycle and wails about his barely scraped pink knee.

            This country not so fond of hygiene and you can always see a brown steaming pile where ever you go. The lovely, humid air is not enough to cover the horrifying stench of poop and sweat. Oh the smell of sweat! People say you get used to certain smells when you have been around them for a while but the sort of sweat that clings in the air in Johor after a “Night Market,” or as I learnt in the local lingo was “Pasar Malam,” tortured the nose burning.

             Another tourist attraction or should I say repulsion in Johor is the local zoo run by the Prince of Johor. The animals in this zoo are so skeletal and inactive that you would hardly know they were living creatures if you didn’t see the soft thumping near the chest. The lions just sit there and yawn in the baking sun and the gorillas bang on cages, probably for a chance to get some food if they are lucky from the already minute population that visit the zoo.

            When you think of beaches, you think of sunny clear skies and aqua blue oceans, well Johor beach is the exact opposite. Although it is in a hot country, it always rains whenever to leave for the beach. That doesn’t stop people from visiting the beach; over-sized families with children complaining that they were bored in the holidays cramp everyone into the car and unleash the kids when they reach the beach. The children happily go and play in the rain on the beach, completely oblivious to the fact that they will catch a cold. Within a few minutes, you are surrounded by snotty, red-eyed children wanting to play games.

            Malaysia has it beautiful areas too, like any other country, the city centre is amazing with it modern designer shops available. Also more globalised restaurant and fast food centres are situated in the city centre, how refreshing it was to have a taste of McDonald’s after being banished into the country for 2 weeks. Overall Malaysia being not such a bad place, as long as you get a hotel near the city centre, when you finally reach home you somewhat miss the smell of sweat and poop in the humid air. You miss the hot sunny and rainy weather, you miss what you thought was a terrible place to be so after all it’s not as bad as it seems.