Malaysia: The next leg of the journey..

Suddenly we were in Malaysia - one of those places, a bit like Indonesia, I knew absolutely nothing about. If you had asked me to point out Malyasia on a map of the world, I definitely could not be sure of where it is, and I knew nothing of the food, the cities, the culture -  but it did, somehow feel familiar. I'm not sure why. 

Maybe it goes back to my army-brat days, when other army kids talked about places with exotic-sounding names — Malaya, Malacca, Singapore. Places their fathers had been posted to, or where they had lived before arriving wherever we happened to be living at the time.

I don’t remember consciously thinking, one day I’m going there. But perhaps some of those names lodged themselves somewhere in the back of my mind and now, all these years later, here we were — sailing slowly up the Malacca straits! 

I went on to read loads of books about Malaysia - they have all been included in the 'books' section of this website, but i can particularly recommend these two - Both recommended to me by my new relative-by-proxy, the beautiful Daphne, who is from Kuala Lumpur and is the stepmum of my son’s gorgeous wife-to-be, May. We are therefore some sort of, almost-in-laws — how very, very exciting!!!

• The Garden of Evening Mists, by Tan Twan Eng - excellent excellent excellent ! - Set in the Cameron Highlands (I know - where even is that?) In brief, it follows the life of a Chinese/Malaysian woman called Yun Ling Teoh (these names take some getting used to...) She is a survivor of a Japanese wartime camp, moving between the Japanese occupation of Malaya, into the Malayan emergency and beyond - the book is fascinating, and beautifully written. Exploring memory, trauma, colonialism and the complicated relationship between Malaya, Britain and Japan it will stay with you long after you have read it. I obviously loved it, but if you read it, beware - you will want to go to the Cameron Highlands and Malaysia! The Cameron Highlands are famous for the rolling green tea plantations, misty mountains, mossy forests and strawberry farms. During British rule, the highlands developed as a hill station where colonial officials and planters could escape the tropical heat. That British influence is still visible in some of the old houses, gardens and houses - this place is definitely on my bucket list now, and actually not too far away from where we are now. I now just need to persuade my husband! 
• The House of Doors – Tan Twan Eng — another excellent, excellent, excellent read, and what I hadn’t realised until afterwards is that it is a mix of fiction and  historical events!  This time, the story is set in Penang (where the author, Tan Twan Eng, is from) in the early 1900s. It centres around an English woman living in Penang with her husband and two sons. Her seemingly conventional colonial housewife life is really much more complicated than first thought, and she hides secrets, including her involvement with a group of Chinese revolutionaries and a love affair with a Chinese doctor. One of those revolutionaries is Sun Yat-sen, who was a real person and really was in Penang at the time, raising support for the revolutionary movement that would go on to overthrow China’s imperial dynasty. I had absolutely no idea about any of this when I read the book! And, as with The Garden of Evening Mists, it left me wanting to know even more about Malaysia and its history 

 Throughout its history Malaysia has been ruled by many many different groups and this seems to shape the country (in particular the food) we see here today.

Back in the day, Malaysia was ruled by indigenous Malayans, known as Sultans-  forming the Sultanate of Malacca. 

Along with the local Malayans, and due to its strategic position on the spice route, it became a major centre for trade, attracting people from China, India and Arabia who, over the years have settled here.  

Later on - us Europeans had to poke our nose in, with control being taken by the Portuguese, Dutch then the Brits  from around the 1500s

During the Second World War, Japan came in and 'took over' from us Brits, and it was occupied until the end of the war when control was returned to Britain.

The years following the war, leading up to Malaysia’s independence in 1957, were marked by some of the most intense violence and conflict in the country’s history.

Known as the Malayan emergency, the fighting was primarily between communist pro-independence fighters of Malaya who wanted to establish a communist state and the Malayan Federation, who were against communism and wanted to protect British economic/colonial interests. Troops were supported from Great Britain, Australia, the Gurkhas, New Zealand, Kenya, Fiji and Rhodesia. 

In 1957, Malaysia gained independence and later merged with Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore.

Later on, n 1965, Singapore then gained its independence and parted ways with Malaysia. From then on, Singapore was a country in its own right.

Located just north of the equator in South East Asia, Malaya, now Malaysia, consists of two main regions—Peninsular Malaysia (Directly above Singapore ) and East Malaysia, also known as Malaysian Borneo — the two regions are separated by the South China Sea and have some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. 

I think we all know there is a huge amount of sea traffic coming from China, not only my rather extensive Temu delivery, but deep-sea tankers and cargo ships carrying, apparently, around 15 million barrels of oil per day. 

This photo below shows our AIS — Automatic Identification System — basically air traffic control for boats. Almost every vessel out there, from huge tankers to tiny fishing boats, transmits its position on one of these devices, and this is the picture you will get.

It means Port Authorities can see who is coming and going, and, more importantly for us anyway, we can see other boats — and they can see us.

Even when we’re miles offshore with nothing but horizon in every direction, the AIS will send an alarm to say there’s a ship within five miles. Before we can see it, we know exactly where it is, which way it’s heading, and whether we need to tweak our course. Here is a picture of us trying to cross the Singapore straits to get from Indonesia to Malaysia....We are the red boat, and all the little triangles are pretty huge tankers....

We entered Malaysia via a place called Johor Bahru (Or JB as the locals call it)

It is over the river, but just a few miles north of Singapore. To get here, there is no way of avoiding the Singapore Straits. One of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. It genuinely felt like the nautical version of the M25 at rush hour. I was wetting myself.

My husband switched into full pilot mode without missing a beat — glued to the VHF radio, calmly weaving us through the madness like it was a Sunday sail.

I decided my talents were not required and clearly better used elsewhere - I scurried off below and decided to make some fishcakes. Like you do. 

I did brave the deck once or twice, but the sight of those mahooooosive floating skyscrapers charging by sent me scuttling straight back to the  galley.