Even in the early stages of planning this trip, when almost nothing was certain, we knew Malaysia would be one of our destinations. Nora’s good friend from college, David, lives here and we were really looking forward to visiting him. David lives in Taiping with his girlfriend Erin, in a big, four bedroom, two-story house. The size of the house is important because it happened that on the exact same day we landed in Kuala Lumpur, totally by coincidence, three other sets of David’s friends also arrived in Kuala Lumpur to visit him. Matt and Trina had flown from the Philippines for their honeymoon, Thunder was visiting from South Korea, and globe-trotters Kevin and Florence brought their son Tyler from Japan. We spent one late night on Changkat Bukit Bintang (a popular street packed with bars and restaurants) in Kuala Lumpur before heading to Taiping the next afternoon. It was a full house, but fortunately it was a really fun group and we enjoyed several days of home cooked meals, walks around the lake, and drinking Carlsberg beers. We even got up at early one morning to drink Bloody Marys and watch the Super Bowl.
We also spent a fascinating afternoon visiting a local Hindu temple for the holiday of Thaipusam. We weren’t always sure what was going on, but the locals happily invited us to watch and participate in the ceremony. They burned palm fronds and beat drums, and at one point invited us to join them as they poured milk over a Hindu shrine. Throughout, those that spoke some English tried to explain things or at least told us where to stand and what to do. They even invited us to eat with them at the end of the festivities. We were really touched by how welcoming everyone was to our big group of outsiders!
After the other guests left we spent two more nights in Taiping. While David and Erin worked, we borrowed their bicycles and explored Taiping. A quiet city of 200,000, Taiping was a 19th century tin mining center and then a seat of British colonialism. By bicycle we explored the colonial old town and its famous “Tamin Tasik Taiping” (lake gardens), 62 hectares of pretty lakes and green parks, set in an abandoned tin mine dating from 1880. We also visited the zoo here, which had a surprisingly good collection of animals (though we were a little suspicious about how secure the animals were in their enclosures). The food in Taiping was tasty too and we tried mee goring (fried noodles), umbra (umbra juice with sour plums), and cendol (sweet rice-flour noodles mixed with shaved ice, coconut milk, red beans, and brown sugar syrup). The highlight of these two days, though, was spending the evenings with David and Erin, cooking and catching up.
Unfortunately, Erin got sick and missed our last home cooked meal together. Fortunately, though, after visiting Penang and Langkawi, we passed through Taiping again (David and Erin were so kind as to come pick us up from the ferry), and we spent one more night here, capping our time in Taiping by lighting and releasing paper lanterns. The next day David drove us to Kuala Lumpur. Along the way, we stopped at Bethany Home, a center for disabled children in Teluk Intan, where Mr. Jayasingh gave us an informative tour and we learned about the life and tribulations of the disabled in Malaysia. It was uplifting to see such compassion from their local and foreign staff, but it is a major uphill battle in a place where disabilities are poorly understood and mental disability, in particular, often presents a great social stigma for an entire family.
Click on the photo below for our Taiping photo album.
We also spent a fascinating afternoon visiting a local Hindu temple for the holiday of Thaipusam. We weren’t always sure what was going on, but the locals happily invited us to watch and participate in the ceremony. They burned palm fronds and beat drums, and at one point invited us to join them as they poured milk over a Hindu shrine. Throughout, those that spoke some English tried to explain things or at least told us where to stand and what to do. They even invited us to eat with them at the end of the festivities. We were really touched by how welcoming everyone was to our big group of outsiders!
After the other guests left we spent two more nights in Taiping. While David and Erin worked, we borrowed their bicycles and explored Taiping. A quiet city of 200,000, Taiping was a 19th century tin mining center and then a seat of British colonialism. By bicycle we explored the colonial old town and its famous “Tamin Tasik Taiping” (lake gardens), 62 hectares of pretty lakes and green parks, set in an abandoned tin mine dating from 1880. We also visited the zoo here, which had a surprisingly good collection of animals (though we were a little suspicious about how secure the animals were in their enclosures). The food in Taiping was tasty too and we tried mee goring (fried noodles), umbra (umbra juice with sour plums), and cendol (sweet rice-flour noodles mixed with shaved ice, coconut milk, red beans, and brown sugar syrup). The highlight of these two days, though, was spending the evenings with David and Erin, cooking and catching up.
Unfortunately, Erin got sick and missed our last home cooked meal together. Fortunately, though, after visiting Penang and Langkawi, we passed through Taiping again (David and Erin were so kind as to come pick us up from the ferry), and we spent one more night here, capping our time in Taiping by lighting and releasing paper lanterns. The next day David drove us to Kuala Lumpur. Along the way, we stopped at Bethany Home, a center for disabled children in Teluk Intan, where Mr. Jayasingh gave us an informative tour and we learned about the life and tribulations of the disabled in Malaysia. It was uplifting to see such compassion from their local and foreign staff, but it is a major uphill battle in a place where disabilities are poorly understood and mental disability, in particular, often presents a great social stigma for an entire family.
Click on the photo below for our Taiping photo album.
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