Associations are a crazy thing. Connections that the brain creates in a completely arbitrary way, often very subjective, secluded from logic. When travelled in the mind the brain almost always seems to come up with certain expectations, vague ideas or even sharp imagines about a country. Malaysia was a country, though, which was absolutely unencumbered with such things, both of us had neither bad, nor good associations with Malaysia, simply nothing at all. We did not decide to go to Malaysia because we had a specific place to visit in our minds, moreover we did not come here just to get to another country. In fact, what brought us to this country was the free permission to stay for three months that was promised to German citizens. We were blank slates when we arrived in Malaysia and that defined the way we absorbed the impressions we gathered in the next few weeks.
In a crowded mini-van we and a few Indonesian citizens wanted to cross the border to Malaysia. We were nervous, it was the first time we were about to enter a country overland and even though the Malaysian government wanted us to be able to present an onward journey ticket if asked for it we were traveling without one, also without a working internet connection to buy one, just in case. Because of the fact that we did not know what to expect, in consequence we never thought about a date to leave the country. Who would want to schedule a trip when you got so much time to explore a country? Moreover we didn’t even know yet if our travel would be continued to the south, onward to Indonesia or to the north, back to Thailand towards the other countries of the Mekong Delta. But as always, our worries were ungrounded. Without any further questions the border official stamped the permission into our passports, he did not even examine us particularly interested, even though we were the only European people in the immigration office. Crazy enough the procedure ran more smoothly than any visit to the authorities we did in Germany before.
Our first stop was Georgetown in the state Penang. An island again, like the ones we visited in Thailand so many times before, but this time it was a whole different world. The Muslim culture was incontrovertibly predominant in this country even though it appeared to be a melting pot of different asian cultures like Chinese and Indian influences. We felt deprecating stares on us more often, even though we tried to cover up ourselves in a proper manner. At the promenade where we used to sit in the evenings people tried to get close to us to gain photos with us by trickery, whereas their English skills were mostly perfect the avoided to talk to us or get into contact. When we found out later that Georgetown is also a fancied aim for cruise ship tourists and that on certain days the city is raided by tourists like a field by a locust swarm, we could understand the distance of the locals. Who would want to get close to the people who want to swallow up and digest your own valued culture like it was just a snack or some sort of fast food?
For my birthday I got a few valued days of holdup. We really enjoyed Georgetown`s interesting architectural urban image, the creative mural art and especially the tasty food. We even went to the cinema. But the highlight was a two-day stay in the vicinity of Batu Ferringhi Beach in a wonderful guesthouse in the middle of nowhere. When we were not roaming the nearby village or the proximal national park we sat in front of the guest house and listened to the countless birds, cicadas and geckos which were singing their evening songs. And while we were listening to this concert of the animals and enjoyed our beers we realised that most of the times you need nothing more than being surrounded by the peace and tranquility of nature. This was our reward for starting our journey, the cherry on the whipped cream topping that travel in itself already is.