Timing is everything – On December 03, 2008, BANGKOK DANGEROUS was the featured story on the front cover of the New Straits Times, one of Malaysia’s most popular English dailies. This of course referred to the ongoing political unrest in Bangkok and the continued occupation of the two international airports by PAD, a group of concerned citizens – mostly from the educated middle and upper middle classes - who have been trying eradicate the cronyism and corruption that has plagued the Thai government over the last 10 years. Exiled former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra and his family have been PAD’s primary target.

As always, in the newspaper business, sensationalism sells papers. Wouldn’t you know it, come December 4, the political conflict in Bangkok dissipated after the courts declared the current regime as being illegal and the two opposing factions – the yellow shirted PAD and red shirted pro-government supporters - put aside their differences and a truce was put into the place. It was then that PAD ended their occupation of the airports - both airports reopened and the many stranded tourists were able to leave. It was business as usual. A day after the sensationalist headlines, Bangkok was no longer dangerous! Timing is everything…

Malaysia was a new experience for me. In a 13-day period, I barely scratched the surface as I traveled to Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Cameron Highlands and Langkawi Island. I met some very congenial people along the way – none more so than EDDIE, the airport Taxi driver. Eddie was my introduction to Malaysia - he drove me to my hotel in Kuala Lumpur from the KLIA airport upon arrival. Since his service was so outstanding, I made arrangements for Eddie to meet me at Starbucks near the Puduraya bus terminal in downtown Kuala Lumpur and take me to the KLIA airport at a later point in my trip.

Rendezvousing with Eddie the 2nd time around, I got to learn a little more about his life.
He has been living in Kuala Lumpur for almost 20 years now, having moved to Malaysia from his native Indonesia, where he lived in a small village by the name of Bukitbinegyi on the island of Sumatra. Eddie has been working as an airport taxi driver for only 6 months or so; prior to that he drove taxi in the city for 12 years. According to him, the city taxi drivers have a rough go of it as the taximeter system is antiquated and the government should institute set fares based upon the length of trip.

Eddie travels home every 3 months or so to be with his wife and three children - age 12, 8 and 4 months. He has the luxury of taking off from work so often, because he shares his taxi with a fellow Indonesian who drives taxi during the time that Eddie is away, and vice versa. The company he works for is happy as the car is in operation as a taxi 365 days a year. A very good arrangement, if you ask me. Even though, Eddie does not work the whole year, he says that he is making pretty good monies – it seems that driving an airport taxi is more financially rewarding than driving taxi in the Kuala Lumpur metro area.

Eddie has plans to retire in about 16 years or so and move back to Indonesia for good. As he says, there’s no place like home – especially when home is where your 3 children are.

If you’re in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and you need a trustworthy and reliable taxi driver to take care of your transfers and touring needs, you definitely cannot go wrong by hiring Eddie. Call 016-244768.

During my travels through Thailand and Malaysia, I have eaten at numerous inexpensive Indian Restaurants – primarily in Bangkok, Cameron Highlands, Melaka and Langkawi Island. I am referring to those casual cafeteria type or budget affairs which cater to a mix of locals and frugally minded tourists. At most of these restaurants/cafés, when the waiter serves your meal he usually does not provide you with any napkins. With Indian food in particular, when picking up my curries, vegetables and rice with the Naan bread, I find my hands getting very dirty.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the famous rhetorical question, Why does the chicken cross the road? Like the reason for why the chicken crosses the road, have you ever wondered why inexpensive Indian restaurants typically don’t provide napkins to their customers?

Well, on my last night in Tanah Ratah (Cameron Highlands) while eating at The Kumar Indian Restaurant located two doors down from STARBUCKS, I decided to ask the manager what is the rationale behind this practice. I knew what the answer was going to be, but I just wanted to hear it from the source. Without mincing any words, the affable manager told me it is really all about improving the bottom line (money) – as the meals are so cheap, the restaurant can cut down on their expenses by not providing napkins to their customers; after all napkins cost money! Upon hearing this, it confirmed what I already knew. But taking the stance as the devil’s advocate, I told him that while his local customers from the surrounding area may not squawk at this practice, many westerners will perceive this no napkin policy as poor service and may become irritated having to ask for napkins all the time. While this practice may reduce the bottom line, it will most likely have an adverse affect on the waiter’s tips as well.

Before finishing our conversation, I was tempted to ask him, “Can I wipe my dirty hands on your shirt”. Of course, common sense got the better of me as I timidly asked him, “Can you bring me some more napkins?”

Still wondering what is the correct answer to “Why does the chicken cross the road?” The answer is - To get to the other side.

One of the best introductions to a country is the airport taxi driver, and I consider myself as being fortunate to get into a taxi at the Kuala Lumpur Airport that was driven by one of the most congenial and friendliest drivers that I have ever encountered. After purchasing a prepaid transfer for 62RM (17.50USD) at the taxi counter inside the airport, I proceeded outside the airport terminal into the taxi-loading zone. Jumping into first taxi in the line, I automatically established a good rapport with the young driver whose name was Eddie.

A transplanted Indonesian who had lived in Malaysia for the last 20 years, Eddie had a pretty good command of the English language, although he was hard to understand at time because his accent was relatively thick. Eddie and I discussed a variety of subjects including the recent US elections, Malaysian politics and government and the current global recession. Eddie explained to me the affinities between Indonesia and Malaysia in terms of language and culture, as the dominant ethnic group in both countries is people of Malay descent. Eddie also gave me the lowdown on the city taxis – it seems that most taxi drivers in Kuala Lumpur refuse to turn on their meters and try to gouge their passengers by charging exorbitant fares.

After dropping me off at the Ancasa Hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur – the journey took roughly an hour - I asked Eddie if it would be all right to leave him a tip of 8.00RM (approximately 2.30USD) for providing such excellent service. He laughed, and said Ok, Sir. Before leaving, I told Eddie that I would call him for a return trip to the airport on December 5. Nice guy, very insightful and fun to talk with.

Eddie the taxi driver and Kamarozaman, the gentleman who manned the Currency Exchange counter (of whom I discussed in an earlier post) are true Goodwill Ambassadors of Malaysia, and are to be commended for making the tourists first impression of Malaysia a positive one.

Arriving in a foreign country can be somewhat of daunting experience as one is often confronted by a culture, way of life and language that is very foreign and different than one is accustomed to. To many travelers, including yours truly, our attitude about a new destination is often shaped by the first several encounters we have with some of the native people.

Case in point - I arrived in Malaysia with no real advance preparation for my visit, other than planning my itinerary and booking my hotels for the duration of my 13-day stay. I admit that I really didn’t know much Malaysia other than it was a Islamic State and former British crown colony in addition to being considerably more tropical and biodiverse than Thailand, Malaysia’s well-known neighbor to the north. I was also familiar with the story of the legendary Jim Thompson, a legend of sorts in Thailand and former WW2 pilot, who mysteriously disappeared in Malaysia’s Cameron highlands in 1967.

Getting back to my story - shortly after landing in KLIA, the international airport located just outside of Kuala Lumpur, I proceeded to the currency exchange booth to change some monies. The gentleman who worked behind the counter, Mr. Kamarozaman B Abdul Rahim, was tremendously helpful and informative about the ins and outs of currency exchange. At the airport he explained, there is a small service fee of $4.00USD for cashing traveler’s checks up to $500, however at any of the currency exchange outlets in town, the rate of exchange would be more or less the same, but there would be no service fee. I went ahead and cashed $300USD in travelers checks anyhow (the rate of exchange being 3.55RM for 1.00USD). He volunteered this information freely without me having to extract it from him. I commended the young man for being so honest and forthright. Thanks to this goodwill ambassador, my initial impression about Malaysia was a good one - he definitely made this traveler feel at ease.

Next up is a story about Eddie, the best airport taxi driver in Kuala Lumpur and another fine ambassador for Malaysia.

Visiting a foreign country for the first time, there is definitely an adjustment period – it takes a while to get a feel for the culture, the lifestyle, the cuisine and the idiosyncrasies of the people. Overall I have visited 26 countries in my lifetime, and each country has been quite unique in its own way. I am sure you’ve heard the expressions no two people are alike, well no two countries are alike!

MALAYSIA , a predominantly Muslim country, is quite different than other countries that I have visited in the Southeast Asia – Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos – in terms of its history, culture and people. I guess you could say that my reference point is THAILAND in Southeast Asia, as I have traveled extensively in the Kingdom of Siam during my eight excursions to this geographical region.

My learning curve for Malaysia started with my flight on Air Asia from Chiang Mai to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s bustling capital city. Observing some of the Malaysian children on the plane, I came to the conclusion that they are a somewhat more animated/wilder than their Thai counterparts. Now I’m not saying that this is good or bad thing – it could be that Thai and Malaysian children have a different temperament. The children sitting across from me were part of a Malaysian school group, and they all were wearing a rather spiffy t-shirt with a very stylistic elephant design that they purchased in Chiang Mai; the children sitting in back of me were fidgeting all over the place as I felt my them constantly kicking the back of my seat.

Compared to Suvarnabhumi, Thailand’s gleaming new age international airport just outside of Bangkok, the international airport serving Kuala Lumpur is a rather drab affair, but it is considerably larger than the airport in Vientiane, Laos or Chiang Mai, Thailand. Curiously enough after deplaning from Air Asia, all passengers have to walk across the street, clearing two lanes of traffic before entering the airport terminal for immigration. That struck me as being a little unusual.

After clearing immigration, the next step is to pick up your luggage from the baggage carousel. As in most airports, there are small baggage carts available to all passengers. Watching the other passengers (mostly Malaysian Nationals) take a baggage cart, one thing struck me as being most peculiar - in the most forward cart, there were a number of empty plastic water bottles in the upper compartment. As each passenger selected a cart, they carefully transferred the empty bottles to the next cart in line, and so on and so forth. You’d think that at some point, one of the passengers or somebody who worked inside the airport terminal would throw the empty plastic bottles in the trashcan. After watching the empty bottles transferred at least 5 times, I almost couldn’t stop myself from laughing. I guess this must be a uniquely Malaysian custom as I have never (ever) seen anything like this at any airport during my many years of traveling. Talk about passing the buck…

Round about 12:00 midnight tonight, I will be flying to Bangkok, Thailand for the start of my 30 day Adventure to Southeast Asia – 18 nights in Thailand and 12 nights in Malaysia. This will be my eighth trip to the Kingdom of Siam (Thailand) and my very first time to Malaysia.

As usual I will spend the first 5 nights in Bangkok before I travel upcountry to explore some new places off the beaten track – this time around I will visit Nan and Phayao provinces in Northern Thailand’s Golden Triangle. The tourism infrastructure in these two provinces is fairly rudimentary and the volume of oversea tourists is a drop in the bucket right now; however in 10 years time, this relatively obscure region of rural Thailand will probably become a legitimate tourist trap as more and more tourists discover the area. From what I understand, the countryside is very beautiful here and there are a number of national parks in the general vicinity. I’m really looking forward to some R & R and some thoughtful introspection during my one week in the boonies of Nan and Phayao. Needless to say, I’m bringing lots of reading material.

Malaysia will be quite a unique experience for me as the culture in this Moslem state is 180 degrees different than other countries in this region. During my 12 days there, I will stay briefly in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia’s modern capital city before venturing out to the old colonial town of Melaka >(Malacca) about 2 hours south. From there I will head to the popular mountain resort of Cameron Highlands which is known for its miles of tea plantations and nearby woodland forests. as well as being the area where the legendary Jim Thompson vanished in thin air - this former World War II pilot from the United States resettled in Thailand shortly after the war and is credited as reviving Thai’s failing silk industry before his mysterious disappearance in the Cameron highlands. My last stop in Malaysia is the popular beach resort of Langkawi “The Cancun of Malaysia”. I understand that it is considerably less busy than Phuket, Thailand’s most popular resort area and the nightlife is quite limited, but I always create my own fun, so “No Worries!”