Last Day in Malaysia

Friday – 9:00a pickup in the hotel lobby by my new best friend Faizal with Shajasa Travel. I settled into the comfortable newish SUV and enjoyed watching out the window as we headed across Kuala Lumpur (which means muddy river, by the way) and out Eastward away from the city.

First stop was the pewter factory. The area is notorious for its tin rush, similar to the gold rush that we had in California, It was early in the day and I was the only tourist – they have stations set up where people are doing their jobs and you get to walk by and watch. I got some pictures – and I even got to try a couple of things. Pewter is no longer made with lead, so it is safe to eat and drink from, now. I bought a tea canister with a traditional Malaysian carving. (Had to buy something.)

No fences - cattle everywhere

Then we headed further East into the mountains. I took a few pictures of the road – you could believe you were heading over the Grapevine on the 5. Modern freeway, orderly traffic. We arrived at our destination – a little aboriginal village. They farm cattle and goats milk and rubber trees and palm oil.

The government is buying them houses – so they build a new square concrete house next to their old traditional wood/log/branch structure.



Aboriginal home - new and old



We had lunch in this little village – then we went to play with the blow-spears. 

Lunch



The natives would poison the tips and then blow them at their prey. Faizal did one to show me how. He missed a couple of times but popped the balloon target. I picked it up and immediately popped the balloon first try. He said “no way, a fluke, do it again”. So I did.  He was suitably impressed. Says lots of people don’t ever pop the balloon and no one ever does it without trying a few times. Except me, of course. I told him Americans are all sharp shooters. I think he believed me.



We had a bit of a wait because it was Friday. There are special mid-day services in the Muslim religion on Friday. So they open the elephant sanctuary about 45 minutes later. But there is a film about how they translocate the elephants and some museum exhibits and facts about elephants so I entertained myself. Then Faizal and I wandered outside to where the elephant activities would take place. We patted the baby elephants and watched the others swaying and grazing out in the pasture. They do a funny swaying thing – side to side or back and forth. They’ll do it for a long time, but I’m not sure why.



Then we fed the elephants, rode the elephants and swam with the elephants. All of this is entered into photographic evidence on Facebook.

After the elephant adventure we headed back the way we came, then across KL again and off to the North to where the fireflies, for some reason, light up the river banks along a fishing village near the sea. The village itself fascinated me. We had dinner in a big open air restoran (restaurant) – sea food, of course. (Pictures on Facebook) Faizal helped me go into the little grocery and buy spices. Instructions are in English in small print on the back of the packets! 

Then it was off to the fireflies. They are tiny – like large ants. Glow like crazy and there were literally thousands and thousands of them hovering in the trees along the water’s edge. We went in a row boat – three of us in ours – and paddled up silently to get close to them. It looked like the whole river was dressed up for Xmas. Fantastic!



Then the hour and a half drive back to my hotel. I continued to pepper Faizal with questions about his religion, his family, his life. He says the Muslims in Malaysia don’t understand the Muslims in the Middle East any more than we do. He says everyone in the tourism industry hates April and May which they have dubbed “Middle East months” because that seems to be when they come. He says that’s when you see a lot of the black burkas – and that the people are awful, mainly because they have oil money and think they are better than everyone. I asked Faizal if he thought that regular, every day Muslims felt they should contribute to the Mosques to support the jihad. He was flabbergasted at the idea. Of course not! That’s crazy! Those people are crazy! They are not religious, they obviously do not understand what it means to be a Muslim! He sounded a lot like the Christians I know when they are asked about Westboro Baptist. I even asked him what he thought of bin Ladin. He said “He’s a big fraud – he’s not religious. He’s just got a lot of oil money and a big ego.” So, there you have it.