© Lonely Planet 429 MALAYSIA MALAYSIA Malaysia HIGHLIGHTS Pulau Perhentian (p481 ) Wake up; swim; lie on beach; nap; snorkel; eat; wander; snooze. Mt Kinabalu ( p497 ) Hoofing it over pitcher plants and moonscapes for the sunrise atop a looming granite spire. Semporna Archipelago (p505 ) Smiling in your scuba mask while backstroking past peaceful turtles, aloof sharks and technicolour coral. Pulau Tioman ( p473 ) Hopping from one perfect beach village to the next, diving reefs and wrecks and spotting monkeys in the jungle. Taman Negara ( p487 ) Getting wet, muddy and covered in leeches but loving every swash- buckling minute of it. Pulau Penang (p461 ) Gorging on the country’s best hawker food, breathing in sinus- tingling incense and exploring Georgetown’s rickety alleyways. Off the beaten track ( p523 & p523 ) Sipping wild teas and crunching pineapple at a wob- bly longhouse in Bario and the Kelabit Highlands, then climbing the limestone crags at Gunung Mulu’s Pinnacles. FAST FACTS Budget US$18 a day Capital Kuala Lumpur (KL) Costs dorm bed RM12, two beers RM18, four-hour bus ride RM26 Country code %60 Languages Bahasa Malaysia (official), Chinese (Hakka and Hokkien dialects), Tamil, English Money US$1 = RM3.46 (ringgit) Phrases selamat pagi (good morning), terima kasih (thank you) Population 25 million Time GMT + eight hours Visas people of most nationalities visiting Malaysia are presented with a 30- to 90-day visa on arrival TRAVEL HINTS Malaysia is a Muslim country so dress appropriately by covering everything to the knees and over the shoulders. Airfares can be so cheap around Borneo that flying is sometimes cheaper than bussing. OVERLAND ROUTES From Peninsular Malaysia, you can head into Thailand and Singapore. From Sarawak, you can enter Indonesia (Kalimantan) and Brunei. Brunei can also be entered from Sabah. 430 MALAYSIA •• Current Events lonelyplanet.com Malaysia is really like two countries in one, cleaved in half by the South China Sea. The peninsula is a multicultural buffet of Malay, Chinese and Indian flavours while Borneo hosts a wild jungle smorgasbord of orang-utans, granite peaks and remote tribes. Within and throughout these two very different regions are an impressive variety of microcosms ranging from the space-age MALAYSIA MALAYSIA high-rises of Kuala Lumpur to smiling longhouse villages of Sarawak and the calm, powdery beaches of the Perhentian Islands. And did we mention the food? Malaysia (particularly along the peninsular west coast) has one of the best assortments of delicious cuisines in the world. Start with Chinese–Malay ‘Nonya’ fare, move on to Indian banana leaf curries, Chinese buffets, spicy Malay food stalls and even some impressive Western food. Yet despite all the pockets of ethnicities, religions, landscapes and the sometimes-great distances between them, the beauty of Malaysia lies in the fusion of it all, into a country that is one of the safest, most stable and easiest to manage in Southeast Asia. CURRENT EVENTS the Orang Asli (see p432 ), began moving In 1970 a ‘New Economic Policy’ set a target down the peninsula from a probable starting whereby 30% of Malaysia’s corporate wealth point in southwestern China. had to be in the hands of indigenous Malays By the 2nd century AD, Europeans were (bumiputra) – as opposed to ethnic Indian familiar with Malaya, and Indian traders and Chinese – within 20 years. Malay com- had made regular visits in their search for panies were heavily favoured for government gold, tin and jungle woods. Within the next contracts; low-interest bumiputra loans were century Malaya was ruled by the Funan em- made easily available; and thousands of Malays pire, centred in what’s now Cambodia, but were sent abroad on government scholarships. more significant was the domination of the A coalition of the major political parties that Sumatra-based Srivijayan empire between the backed the bumiputra was renamed the Barisan 7th and 13th centuries. Nasional (BN; National Front), and this party In 1405 Chinese admiral Cheng Ho arrived continues to rule Malaysia to this day. in Melaka with promises to the locals of pro- As of 2009 the bumiputra laws still stand tection from the Siamese encroaching from but many Malaysians argue that they are un- the north. With Chinese support, the power of fair and racist. Early this year Datuk Nik Aziz Melaka extended to include most of the Malay Nik Mat, the Chief Minister of Kelantan and Peninsula. Islam arrived in Melaka around an Islamic scholar, was quoted as comparing this time and soon spread through Malaya. bumiputra to apartheid. Meanwhile, members of the Indian community have been increas- European Influence ingly vocal in demonstrating for Hindu rights Melaka’s wealth and prosperity attracted and made headlines throughout 2009. European interest and it was taken over by In reality, the position of ethnic Malays in the Portuguese in 1511, then the Dutch in 1641 the economy remains more or less the same and the British in 1795. even after more than 30 years of bumiputra and In 1838 James Brooke, a British adventurer, the majority remain poor. After the BN was de- arrived to find the Brunei sultanate fending off feated in Penang in 2008, the state announced rebellion from inland tribes. Brooke quashed that it will no longer favour bumiputra in state the rebellion and in reward was granted power sector employment. Anwar Ibrahim, leader over part of Sarawak. Appointing himself Raja of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR; People’s Alliance) Brooke, he founded a dynasty that lasted 100 opposition coalition that made sweeping gains years. By 1881 Sabah was controlled by the against the BN in March 2008, is one of the British government, which eventually acquired few big-time politicians who openly advocates Sarawak after WWII when the third Raja scrapping bumiputra altogether. Brooke realised he couldn’t afford the area’s upkeep. In the early 20th century the British HISTORY brought in Chinese and Indians, which radi- Early Influences cally changed the country’s racial make-up. The earliest evidence of human life in the region is a 40,000-year-old skull found in Independence to the Current Day Sarawak’s Niah Caves. But it was only around Malaya achieved merdeka (independence) 10,000 years ago that the aboriginal Malays, in 1957, but it was followed by a period of lonelyplanet.com MALAYSIA 431 MALAYSIA MALAYSIA 0 100 km PENINSULAR MALAYSIA 0 60 miles Inset Pulau Langkawi Hat Yai Kuah Padang Kanger Besar Yala PERLIS Sadao THAILAND Kangar Bukit Kayu Hitam Kuala 1 Perlis Pengkalan Pulau 410 Kubor Tumpat KEDAH Perhentian Kota Bharu Kecil Alor Wakaf Baharu Setar Bachok Sungai Pulau Kolok Rantau Pasir Tok Bali Perhentian To Pulau Panjang Puteh Besar Langkawi S O U T H (see inset) Betong Pulau Kuala Redang C H I N A Keroh Jerteh Besut Sungai Petani Gunung Stong S E A 67 4 State Park Georgetown Kuala Krai Merang Tasik 3 Butterworth Gerik Temengor Kulim Dabong PENANG Tasik Kuala Terengganu Kenyir Pulau Pulau Pengkalan Kapas Penang 76 Gawi KELANTAN Marang 1 8 Taiping Gua Musang Rantau Abang TERENGGANU Kuala Kangsar Gunung Tahan (2187m) Kuala Dungun Batu Ipoh Taman Gajah Tanah Rata Negara Sungai 3 Dungun Cameron Kuala Tahan 73 Highlands 14 Kemasik PERAK ὈὈὈ(Park Headquarters) Pulau Kuala Lipis PAHANG Pangkor Lumut Tapah Kemaman Bidor Chukai 5 Kuala Cherating Tembeling Selim River Bukit Gua Charas Fraser Jerantut 64 Sungai Gambang Kuantan Bernam Maran 2 Kuala Kubu 8 Sungai Kuala Selangor Baharu 2 Pahang Pekan Mentakab Temerloh Tasik Chini SELANGOR Felda Triang Chini KUALA LUMPUR 12 Tasik Pelabuhan Shah 10 Bera (Port) Klang NEGERI Sungai Alam Rompin Pulau SEMBILAN 11 Tioman Selat Melaka Kuala (Straits of Melaka) Morib Banting Seremban Endau-Rompin Rompin Endau Sepang ὈNational Park Seribuat Port Dickson 1 Gemas Segamat Archipelago Cape Rachado Mersing Forest Reserve Labis MELAKA Pulau Jemaluang Tinggi Melaka 5 50 Keluang 3 Muar Yong JOHOR Peng Ayer Hitam Sungai ὈBatu Pahat Johor 1 Kota Tinggi Johor Bahru Desaru SINGAPORE SINGAPORE INDONESIA SUMATRA 432 MALAYSIA •• The Culture lonelyplanet.com instability due to an internal Communist uprising and an external confrontation with MUST SEE neighbouring Indonesia. In 1963 the north Anything starring P Ramlee who was the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, along MALAYSIA MALAYSIA king of Malaysian cinema in the 1950s and with Singapore, joined Malaya to create acted in some 70 films. He remains a national Malaysia. In 1969 violent interracial riots icon; a road is named after him in KL. broke out, particularly in Kuala Lumpur, and hundreds of people were killed. The govern- ment moved to dissipate the tensions, which more to the fore, particularly on the penin- existed mainly between the Malays and the sula’s east coast. In Malaysian Borneo you’ll Chinese. Present-day Malaysian society is be fascinated by the communal lifestyle of relatively peaceful and cooperative. the tribes who still live in jungle longhouses Led from 1981 by outspoken Prime (enormous wooden structures on stilts that Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia’s house tribal communities under one roof; see economy grew at a rate of over 8% per year also p518 ). In longhouses, hospitality is a key until mid-1997, when a currency crisis in part of the social framework. neighbouring Thailand plunged the whole of Southeast Asia into recession. After 22 Lifestyle momentous years, Dr Mahathir Mohamad The kampung (village) is at the heart of the retired on 31 October 2003. He handed Malay world and operates according to a sys- power to his anointed successor, Abdullah tem of adat (customary law) that emphasises bin Ahmad Badawi, who went on to con- collective rather than individual responsi- vincingly win a general election in March bility. Devout worship of Islam and older 2004.