Our first stop was Singapore, which has become a bustling city-state with an economy based on finance and technology.  Arlon remembered that in the sixties you could smell the river that runs through the center of the city before you reached it.  Now that same river is clean, free of the house boats that used to fill it and bordered by a paved river walk, museums and tall skyscrapers.  We found a much reduced Chinatown, but many interesting Chinese and Indian shops.  Of course there is Orchard Street, whose shopping malls are packed with tourists looking for bargains in designer clothing and technological toys. 

There are essentially three cuisines in this part of the world—Chinese, Indian and Malay.  All of them are wonderful, whether you are eating on the street or in a revolving restaurant fifty stories in the air.  I polished up my chopstick skills and learned to eat Malay fashion with a large spoon and a fork for pushing curries with rice or noodles into the spoon.  One night we ate Chili Lobster with our hands at an open air restaurant, another night found us enjoying elegant food and service at Jaan, on the 70th floor of the Swisshotel.  And, of course, we had a Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel bar. 

We rented a car in Malaysia and drove north toward Malaka.  Oil palm plantations lined the modern tollway.  In Malaka we hired a persistent trishaw driver who pedaled us around the old city that once controlled much of the trade between Europe and the Orient because of its position on the Straits of Malaka. On Temple Street we saw Chinese and Buddhist temples and a mosque, not far from a Christian church.  Malaysia has an Islamic government, but freedom of religion for its multi-cultural population.   

Back in the car, we headed for Kuala Lumpur, with Arlon driving on the left side of the road and me trying to navigate.  Somehow, we found the Hotel Istana, luxurious, but quite different in feel from the elegant Raffles Plaza in Singapore.  The Malaysian government’s goal is to be a first world country by 2010, and no where is that effort more evident than from the top of the KL Tower, where we had lunch one day in the revolving restaurant.  The city is full of skyscrapers, including the Petronas Twin Towers.   

Back on the road again, we stopped at the Batu Caves, a huge limestone formation, filled with Hindu Temples, then continued north to the Cameron Highlands.  This area is mountainous high jungle with beautiful vistas, tea plantations and fruit growers.  In the moonlight that evening, from our cottage balcony we could hear the call to prayer from the mosque, punctuated with jungle sounds.  We definitely weren’t in Illinois.  The next day we took a two hour hike through the jungle over some pretty steep terrain and ended up miles away from our car on a tea plantation road.  We were saved from waiting for a bus to come along by a friendly Malay woman and her family who drove us back to our car. 

Our next stop was Penang, on an island on the western coast, where we shopped for Penang Pewter, among other wares, and had a “Steamboat” dinner, where you cook your own food in a boiling pot on your table, surrounded by big, Chinese families celebrating happy occasions.   

On the way to turn in our car in Alor Star, we stopped at Sunagi Pataini, the village where Arlon taught Physics for his two Peace Corps years.  It isn’t a village any more and we never found his school.  We barely made it to the last ferry for Langkawi, where we had two restful days at the Langkawi Village Resort on the Malaka Straits.   

From there we flew to Kuching in Sarawak on the Island of Borneo.  This was probably my favorite city of the trip.  From the visual delight of the outdoor Sunday Market to the river walk, it was fascinating, in spite of the heat and humidity and the haziness caused by the slash and burn agriculture on the Indonesian side of the island.  We then moved to the Damai Beach Resort overlooking the South China Sea.  One day we took a boat to the Baku National Forest and spent a full day hiking through the tropical jungle with a guide.  We were rewarded with a sighting of several proboscis monkeys, a wart hog and several mischievous macaques monkeys with their minds on filching food from travelers. 

After another overnight in Singapore, we were off to Hong Kong for the last few days of shopping and sightseeing.  Altogether, a wonderful three weeks in the Far East. 

Enjoy the Slide Show>>