"Malaysia...Truly Asia"
It's bit lengthy, plz bear with me๐๐ผ
When I thought of recording the wonder of Malaysian days in my words, mind said, Who's going to read all this, just go brief...but the heart said, Touch everything and elaborate thoroughly...Got confused for a few moment and then decided to go with the heart and started...✍๐ผ✍๐ผ
It was a whole new experience altogether while chanced to explore this part of the Globe called Malaysia. It is not only ahead from us in time, but also much more ahead in many other important aspects that irresistibly attract and profoundly compels the world audience to land there, have a look and indulge in appreciating it for rest of the life...Such is its nobility!! Such is its spirit!!
Exploring different places is not only about relaxing, having good time or for a change... it's rather tiresome, sometimes hectic too...but it fills the treasure of happiness bountifully, the satisfaction one gets is irreplaceable, it expands the horizon of knowledge, riches the outlook...An absolute wholesome package that insists to live life better and love it even more...๐
If I start in detail, I know it's going to be a never ending tale...I don't know whether I can justify the Malaysian beckon in my words or not...but can't stop myself any more to tell its story that my eyes observed...my heart experienced...
This much awaited journey had started with a hope to live the wonderful Malaysian life as much as we can except the non-vegetarian delicacies and that started from the flight itself, where we had no option left only but the Kabali veg biriyani.
After landing in KL, we headed for J Street, the traditional hob known as KL Sentral (it was interesting to read the spelling of English words not in the original English way, but in the style of names, ie. Central as Sentral, Taxi as Teksi, Police as Polis, Electric as Elektrik etc...) Our preference was to explore this area first, where lies the root of the city...๐
Just after entering the hotel room, we were amazed to see the beautiful river, popularly known as "The River of Life" flowing beside our window...Then started exploring the area on foot with the big square adjacent to our hotel full of attractive skyscrapers, well maintained heritage buildings, museums, monuments and parks lush with greenery, different landscapes and water decorations...
It was time for lunch then and we started looking for pure veg food and were fortunate enough to get a Restaurant named "Gorkha Restaurant" very fast and savour the scrumptious veg Gorkha meal platter named "Dal-Bhat-Tarkari". Then entered inside the "Central Market", the excellent destination to explore the local artistic talents in form of varient local souvenirs, arts, crafts And collectibles...Apart from all these the handpicked wide range of lesser known fresh vegetable and fruit bowls didn't let us come back without having them. On the open street of Central Market saw the inviting coconut ice cream glasses and just couldn't resist having scoops of it. And yes, the boiled big peanuts with salt and turmeric were also there in our savouring list...
Thus the day light got over and the place was lighted with different evening lamps and lights and the nightlife began. Now it was time to walk on the streets of the Old KL, known as Chinatown, a typical pioneer town just after getting down from the taxi in front of its entrance. After that it was the turn of Bukit Bintang, the heart of the golden Triangle of KL that is also known as 'Star Hill' synonymous with shopping and entertainment. And the Bintang Walk located along just came alive with its row of street-side food-joints, bars, pubs when the jazz music was played on different points and the whole place was beautifully lit-up...And then there was around a 20 minutes relaxed slow walk on the roads after having Indian dhaba dinner to reach the hotel area, that was filled with the rejuvenating spirit of traditional music concerts somewhere and solo western musicals somewhere...A superb experience indeed!!
Thank you Avenue J for your wonderful hospitality and provided us with every single facility beyond our expectation and made our stay an awesome one... And we should must appreciate your touching gesture, when you voluntarily asked us to download GRAB App, the App for cab bookings to make our travel pretty much easier and cheaper and hassle free, for which the scarcity of public transport didn't bother us even for a moment...๐
Then the next couple of days were dedicated to the heavenly Langkawi island and the island in island Langkawi - the blissful private island Rebak, by Vivanta, Taj... All heartfelt respect, all gratitude to Vivanta for its love, respect, pamper and care...It didn't make us feel unwanted even for a single second from picking up from Langkawi airport to drop us there...It was so heartening to see and experience the genuineness, sincerity, punctuality, humility, happiness in the whole area that our travel covered...As a country it is very small, but tremendously progressive in the right direction...Modernity is their positivity, it doesn't let the social values, family values or ethical values down unlike India, rather makes them exemplary...I had a misconception just thinking about the large number of head-cladding fairer sex of all age groups of the country, because somehow the clad on woman always makes me not feel good...but the feeling is purely personal and I should have no say on all this...Anyway, that's not the thing to focus on, the fact of the matter is the safety of women, that was very much there...They can freely move on their streets at anytime, that here in India we can not do...Elated to see the very young well behaved taxi drivers both man and woman, the very young parents spending family time happily with their small kids...etc made me feel very sorry, thinking about the Indian youth...They are much more responsible sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers...and most importantly trusted citizens of Malaysia...
Opps!! the emotion diverted to a different direction now...
Let's come back to Rebak island...It was a day spent wonderfully in the spectacular Rebak Island after crossing the sea by the cruise ship, checking in its specious fully wooden suite, exploring its amazing flora-fauna, birds, crabs, lizards etc and just be with and in the water for the whole day - whether it's crossing the sea in a cruise ship...being playful with the beautiful sea waves on the beach...getting drenched in the rain or lying in the pool under the sunny sky for quite a long time, and never to be forget the delicious delicacies served from breakfast to dinner...
The next day started with seeing beautiful sunrise standing in the water of the calm sea and then the nature walk around the island having handpicked raw tamerind, searching for different feathered species following their sound to have their look n capture them in camera lense, finally discovering the beautiful Oriental pied hornbill and the scary encounter with the huge wild lizard as big as an alligator on our way... The rest of the day was meant for Langkawi to explore the thrilling cable car ride, wondrous sky bridge walk along with many steps down and 3 top squares with many steps up...started after reaching the beautifully developed Oriental Village and standing on the serpentine queue for tickets as it was an extended weekend for the country with a public holiday along with weekend just after visiting the live Batik art designs and its lovely Galeries at "Batik Art Village" on the way. Then it was time to visit the huge Eagle on the Eagle square on the beach located in the main city. It was marvellous. Our friendly cab driver added more charm to our city visit, who dropped us in the jetty on time to proceed towards Rebak to see the attractive red sunset and then the bright crescent moon and uncountable shining stars on the clear sky...And left behind many good memories of peaceful and serene Langkawi, that may tempt us forever to live there...There was no public transport, the GRAB App was not properly functional, but the facilities of cruise and cars provided to us by Vivanta was superbly commendable...We can't ask for more except wishing to come to you many more times Vivanta!
Not only madly enjoyed your lap, but also expanded our vision, the horizon of our knowledge, when met many people from different parts of the globe, tried to exchange words through brief chats. While waiting for the cruise ship in the jetty before check in the resort, we met a lovely elderly couple originally from California, who is sailing in the boat since 1990 and keeps on exploring one after another coast of the world...It was really amazing knowing about such types of traveling experiences and hearing their travel stories from them...Chanced to meet another elderly American sailor in the next morning near the dockyard, who told us how this type of sailing started as a trend in America since 70s and getting immensely popular day by day, the story of his own boat and how his whole family is traveling since 2006 in the boat.
Then it was time to leave the pristine Rebak holding its sublime wonders in heart forever early in the next morning to catch the flight to KL.
It was lovely seeing the well organised, widespread palm fields all over the city at the time of landing in KL...Its cleanliness and greenery has a lot to do with its beauty and attraction. After a warm welcome at the reception of Pullman, it was time to proceed to the hotel room, its broad glass wall with the amazing view of the famous Petronas Twin Towers and KL Tower was more than enough to love it immensely and be grateful to Pullman.
It was time for us to explore the modern side of KL now. We walked down to the KLCC square through the fully air conditioned skywalk. Visited Park aquaria, a state-of-art oceanarium at the KL convention centre situated there. It was a wonderful experience seeing over 5,000 different exibits of aquatic and land-bounded creatures over a sprawling 60,000 square feet space. After that we started hunting for pure veg food for lunch which was quite challenging, but didn't get any in the whole area going from one mall to the other, one food court to the other, one restaurant to the other, one food joint to the other..Alas! we didn't get even a single pure veg item except but the green coconut water...But in search of food, we moved here and there so much that we discovered many beautiful places...Among them the place that took away the attention most profoundly was a public children's park...Had never seen such park before, where everything had been done in a very decent and attractive way keeping the children's need, care and interest in mind...where any parent could leave their children without any fear to explore everything on their own...It was really an amazing sight...๐
Then it was time to get ready for tour of the majestic Petronas Twin Towers, which were once the world's tallest buildings at a height of 452 metres having 88floors. The visitors are allowed to go up till 86 and the top two floors are used only for maintenance purpose. The Towers feature a sky bridge at the 41st and 42nd level, it is the highest two-storey bridge in the world.
It was a lifetime experience for us...On our way back somehow the starved we, saw a star bucks outlet, had some light snacks there and headed for the hotel. It was dinner time then.. Happily had veg dinner. Though the menu card had only 3 pure veg options and that also Indian delicacies, but were prepared awesomely by the Malaysian chef. Then the last day began with the elaborate buffet breakfast...Apart from many veg options, the new fruit yellow watermelon attracted me the most..Its flavour was just like the red ones and taste was even better than that...Simply loved it.
Then went to visit the magnificent Batu cave.
It is one of the most popular Tamil shrines outside India and is dedicated to Lord Murugan. Standing at 42.7 m high, the world's tallest statue of Murugan, Lord Vishnu, is located outside Batu Caves. The temple cave has a very high ceiling and the visitors must climb a steep flight of 272 steps to reach it. Below the Temple Cave is the Dark Cave, with rock formations and a number of animals found nowhere else. It is a two-kilometer network of relatively untouched caverns. Another cave, The Ramayana Cave is situated to the extreme left of the hill. There is a 15 m tall statue of Hanuman and a temple dedicated to him. The Batu cave is also the centre of rock climbing development in Malaysia for the past 10 years.
The whole area gave a feel of south India being dominated by Tamil mass and their cultural flavour. Anyway, Malaysia has a population of 20% migrated Chinese and Tamil each and the rest 60% is the original Malesiyans. But as a progressive nation, everyone can make you understand their feelings by talking to you in English. Tamil is considered as one of its official languages too. One can hear the announcement in Tamil in the domestic flights...
Somehow, loved this accommodative character of Malaysia...
Didn't see any beggar except one woman and one man in two different places sitting silently with placards written "Homeless and Hungry"
This is all what my heart was eager to tell before it's too late and the poor memory bug eats the portions of heartfelt feelings that I brought back from Malaysia...Truly Asia. Hence jotted down eagerly...๐
Thus ended the trip
And last but not the least, the expression is not complete unless thanking the man behind the trip, yes the one and only Srikrishna Bedbak, needless to say, he is a perfectionist, without whose detailed research, tireless effort and proper planning it would not be the same...Thank you Sri for everything !!
But both of us know it would be even better with the company of our dear son Shreyas Aatman. Hope, he'll accompany us in our next exploration๐๐๐
