I apologize for the length, but it was a busy weekend! :)
Our weekend started on Thursday this week; have to love the 4-day weekends! We left from UPSI at 9am and headed up the western coast of Malaysia en route to the island of Penang. On our way we stopped at Bukit Merah Orangutan Sanctuary. The cool thing about the sanctuary is that all visitors must take a short ferry ride to the island they live on. The entire island the orangutans live on is meant to be a natural habitat for them and they are free to roam anywhere on the small island. Of course, since the staff is trying to keep their habitat as natural as possible, there were 2 layers of cages we had to look through. Until we came to the young orangutans, it was hard to take pictures. The little ones were SO cute. I wanted to steal one and bring it home. Think one of those would fit in my suitcase? In addition to the sanctuary area, the island also houses a hospital and ICU. The ICU area had glass windows and we could see the babies inside. The trip was really cool but I also learned orangutans only bear 1 child every 8 years and in Southeast Asia, they are being killed when land developers come in and “slash and burn.” Slash and burn is a technique used to quickly cut trees and clear land regardless of wildlife.
(Look at the little ones play!)
From the orangutan adventure we drove the rest of the way to the ferry launch so we could continue onto the island of Penang. This island is also called Georgetown as the British once settled it. The ferry from the mainland to the island took only about 25 minutes but since the tour bus was too large to freight across on the ferry, we had to wait for the bus to come across the bridge. Interestingly I had just seen on the news that morning one lane was closed for construction. Apparently there is so much traffic flow across the bridge there are plans to widen the bridge by another lane.
Our hotel/apartment was called
Bayu Emas Resort and as we found out in the first 5 minutes of being there was home to live monkeys! A whole family was running along a fence by the pool and then climbing up the palm trees nearby. While the Malaysians took little notice of their existence, most of us were making a huge fuss and fumbling for our cameras. Unfortunately I miss the photo opp but it was cool to see them skittering around while we enjoyed the sunshine. After we arrived we had a few hours to relax and get unpacked before we headed out to dinner at a nice (an actual, with menus) Chinese restaurant. At dinner I had a chance to really get into a conversation about the 3 dominant cultures in Malaysia: the Malays, Indians, and Chinese. I was asked to
honestly give my observations about the mixed cultures at school and at home. People who know me understand when I am asked to
honestly share anything, I do not sugar coat any aspect. Flat out, I shared with Kurnia and Sri even though there seems to be an overall acceptance of each other certain differences make themselves apparent. In what I have seen, Malays (especially men and boys) dominate in school and are the most prevalent in Tanjung Malim. I feel that Chinese boys are picked on the post and either I cannot identify or there are few Indian boys that I have seen at school. I rarely see Indian girls included with Malay girls while the Chinese and Malay girls are friendly amongst each other. I also mentioned how often I noticed custodial staffs (both at school and at UPSI) are mostly Indian women. After sharing this, both Kurnia and Sri were able to put into perspective this type of separation. They explained that since Tanjung Malim is a smaller town, this separation can be more visible but in larger towns and cities (like Kuala Lumpur) it is rare to see racial and cultural divides. This seems similar to the US; certain places and cities are more likely to be more or less accepting of racial differences. Both seemed so proud of the advances that have been made in this direction since Malaysia’s independence just over 50 years ago. When Britain invaded Malaysia to take over the land, the Brits used a tactical method called “divide and conquer.” In this, Britain purposely pitted each of the 3 major ethnicities against each other.
From this conversation stemmed another topic that really made me think and again, reevaluate what it means to be a white American, the majority in my home. Sri and Kurnia both shared instances when they were verbally harassed and grouped into awful stereotype sometimes associated with Muslims. I was shocked at the things that were said to them, embarrassed for the ignorance that takes root in some Americans. I don’t know why I was so surprised though; am I just as ignorant to think such personal attacks are not made in East Lansing? This was not what really got to me though. Sri told us at the table about she has to have a conversation with her children about how to react when they are questioned or teased about being Muslim. Unfortunately, the suicide bombers, people like Osama bin Laden, and extremist have become the face of what many people believe Muslims to be. So Sri has to prepare her children to deal with this type of belief. I cannot imagine having to teach my children how to handle such thing; in actuality I probably will never have to. But this privilege comes with being white. Not thinking about such things comes with being white. It killed me to hear such a story but it really shed new light on how I think about my role as a future educator. White as I am, I pray that my learning will someday be shared with others and help even one more person consider the way they treat and think about others.
Friday we left the hotel at 9am to get breakfast and fulfill our long list of places to visit or the day. First we went to Kek Lok Si Temple. The roads to get to the temple were so narrow and clogged with street vendors we had to walk a bit to get there. The temple was built in 1890 and took 20 years to complete. It is said to be one of the largest and most beautiful Buddhist temple complex in South-east Asia. In order to reach the temple, we had to climb an endless number of steps.
A market-like canopy covered the entire path and there were vendors selling everything you can think of. It was a bit claustrophobic at time with so many tourists on such a narrow, closed path. About halfway up the climb we stopped to take a look at a huge turtle pond. There were tons of turtles all over the place, definitely the most turtles I’ve ever seen in one place. The temple itself really did resemble typical Chinese style and surprisingly there were swastikas all over the monuments, the walls, and even on the tile floors. It was a bit overwhelming to look at since we have been taught to associate the symbol with the Nazis and the horrible events that took place during World War II. I learned though, the symbol itself means strength and power. No wonder the Nazi’s decided to adopt it. But for the Chinese, the symbol is meant to be relationship to the soul and with a higher power.
From here we were supposed to go to Penang Hill, the highest point on the island only reachable by cable cars traveling up the steep mountain. Bummer though, the cable lift was broken and no visitors were being allowed up the hill until next week. Secretly, many of us were okay with not visiting this site. While the views would have been amazing, it was so hot and humid and most of us were pretty tired from the week. Instead our group headed to our last tourist destination of the day: Wat Chayamangkalaram. This was a Buddhist temple of Thai architecture that holds a 33-metre gold-plated reclining Buddha. It is said to be the third largest in the world. Visiting here really reminded me of the time I spent in Thailand as we spent a lot of time visiting Buddhist temples and learning about their beliefs. Behind the reclining Buddha were Buddha statues relating to the Chinese astrological symbols. With each sign (I was born the year of the ox) was a short description of the characteristics displayed by each sign.
(The Reclining Buddha - had to take it in 2 pieces!)
The rest of the afternoon was heavenly. We returned to the hotel after eating a quick lunch (I won’t lie, we stopped at McDonald’s) with the intent of spending the rest of the day at the beach. The day was perfectly beautiful for sunbathing. Everyone walked to the beach, just a few minutes form our room. The sand was SO hot and the water was really warm. After about an hour in the scorching sun on the beach, there was a unanimous vote to take the sunbathing back to our hotel pool where there was shade and cool water. This type of relaxation is what we all wished our weekend trips were. All of us were truly happy to have downtime in order to unwind and enjoy our summer vacation. For dinner we went back downtown to a strip along the water, Gurney Drive, which was filled with about a hundred different food stalls, drink stations, and fruit tables. I opted for satay, the kebob like meat sticks. I don’t think I could ever eat too much of the peanut sauce they put on the meat. And after dinner some of the others wanted to go back to the night market for more shopping but I, along with 2 other girls, headed back to the hotel to relax and watch one of the cheap movies I bought the previous night.
Saturday came early to me. I am getting used to waking up early for school so around 6am everyday I am rearing to go. I got up early and prepared all of my stuff to go to the fishing traditional fishing village, Pulau Aman.
Our bus had to take us to Butterworth in order to catch at short jetty ride across to the small island. We arrived at the fishing village around 12:30 and like most of this trip the surprises began to pop up. Firstly we were welcomed to the village by children holding traditional umbrella like objects. They led the way to their community center. Children playing drums followed the entire walk. When we arrived at their community center, we had to go through a semi-formal welcome ceremony where we were introduced to our, what, oh yes, host parent for the weekend!
While all of us were aware we were doing a home stay, we assumed it would be with another of the MSU students. Wrong. We were all separated into host homes around the small village. Want to hear the best part? As we were gathering our things to go to our houses, Kurnia says, “I guess you’ll just have to use sign language!” That’s right, none of the families spoke more than a few words of English. Despite all this the island was actually very beautiful and I could see the ocean from the kitchen window of my house. I had my own beautiful bedroom and the house was very much a traditional home, raised off the ground. Of course I was served an enormous lunch and I uncomfortably and unsuccessfully tried to communicate with my host mother for about an hour before we were supposed to meet back up with the group.
The rest of the afternoon was organized for us. The children of the village showed us some of their traditional games and toys. We were also taken on a long walk around the coast of about ½ the island. It was so hot and humid, I was becoming lethargic and a bit cranky. It was almost a tease to be so near the water and not be able to go swimming. The water near the homes was so dirty; here they often throw leftover food and unneeded items into the water. It was pretty filthy despite being a beautiful blue further out. Luckily we were given some time to shower (cold showers are fabulous at these times) and rest before dinner. The dinner was going to be held in the community center and this also turned out to be a bit of a surprise. Apparently it was more formal than we had known about because my host mother brought a baju karong into my room and through hand motions I figured out I was supposed to wear this to dinner instead of my light, airy t-shirt. To refuse would be completely disrespectful so I graciously accepted and began sweating profusely. In addition to wearing a used baju karong, I was also given a headscarf to put on. This was the first time I had been expected to wear the scarf and I at this point, was really not too happy. I cannot understand how women live in this climate and wear scarves everyday. It was unbearably hot being covered from head to toe.
To their benefit, the islanders know how to prepare meals and the dinner served to us was really tasty. The people of the town put on a dance and singing show for us while we were eating dinner. We finally went to bed around 11pm. I was so exhausted and overheated that I slept right away.
The following morning I was woken up by the sound of roosters crowing at 6am. There must have been more than one right outside the house because they were so loud and kept continuously crowing. Luckily I was able to fall back asleep until 8:30am (sleeping in, I know!) and then had breakfast prepared for me by my weekend host mother. After I had been stuffed to the brim, she said “Come” and motioned for me to follow her. She took me down the path along the water and then into a rocky part of the beach. She sat down and with a tool she had brought began digging in the sand, under the rocks. At first I was confused to what we were supposed to be doing, but when she dug out 2 or 3 greenish shells I realized we were gathering clams! It was so cool to see where they come from. She then gave me the scraping tool that resembles a garden hoe so I could also dig up the clams. The experience is something I could never get at home; I was really pleased to have seen and done something new and very traditional to their village life. Their ability to gather their own food makes me consider how much money we spend at home on groceries rather than self-sustaining ourselves. Really, their life is so much simpler and I loved that morning out by the ocean.
Our group met to leave at 10am in the community center. Of course, we couldn’t just leave; we had to have a closing ceremony where our host parents presented us with small gifts. I was given a beautiful sarong and a small hand-made basket. When we were ready to go, we found out that the boat to jetty us back was stranded in out in the water because the tide had not yet come in. While we were waiting, it began to downpour. It was the hardest, fastest rain I had ever seen. All of us were really glad for the rain though since it was so incredibly hot and humid. Finally, we ended up leaving the island around 12pm and headed back to our real host home in Tanjung Malim!
