Malaysia: Friends

Before this trip I only knew one friend currently living in Malaysia: Flic. However, mainly with the help of expat Malaysian Fiona, I met several new friends.


Eating dim sum with Kim. Kim looked after me brilliantly on my first day in Malaysia including a trip to the Batu Caves.


With Flic (3rd from left), Aaron (2nd from left), Flic's Canadian flatmate and her Malaysian colleagues at the Ramadhan markets in KL. Flic kindly hosted me in KL.


I enjoyed a truly memorable evening with Pek Yen and Yinli at Chinese Hawker centre in KL.


Carina and Li Ching generously took time off from work to meet me in Malacca (Melaka) and show me all around that historic city including the best food places :-)


Drinking cocktails with Aaron, Flic and Sharmini (who I had met before in Adelaide) at Pacific Regency's 34th floor Luna Bar.

Thank you all for helping make a fantastic trip!

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Labels: malaysia

Malaysia

The South-East Asian nation of Malaysia was my home from the morning of 7 October to the evening of 12 October.

My brief 6 days there were fabulous and sometime I'd like to go back for a longer period to explore more places and eat more foods. I will eventually upload many photos in differently-themed posts.


Malaysia takes religion very seriously and the government works hard not to offend their resident religions. One example of this is the above censored Malaysian Airlines magazine article. The censored words are "and meet God". Ethnic Malays are automatically Muslims and it is extremely difficult to renounce their religion should they want to. Chinese and Indians have greater religious choice.


2007 is the 50th anniversary of "Merdeka" or independence for Malaysia turned 50 this year. There were indications of this anniversary everywhere. The above celebratory banner contains portraits of the country's 5 prime ministers: Abdul Rahman, Abdul Razak, Hussein Onn, Mahathir Mohamad and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.


Aidilfitri, the end of Ramadan (Malay--Ramadhan; Turkish--Ramazan) holiday was about to take place and there were decorations in many areas. This display was at the entrance to KL Tower (also known as Menara Kuala Lumpur).


The Malaysian postal system is called "Pos Malaysia". POS can also refer to English-language acronyms Point Of Sale or Piece Of ....


This warning sign is attached to a fence on the walk from from Flic's place to KL Sentral. Public signs are usually only in Malay and English although this is also in Chinese and (I'm guessing) 2 Indian languages as it is near the Indian Brickfields area.

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Labels: malaysia