Takraw

Young and energetic Malay men living in the kampungs often indulge themselves in a game called Takraw (a.k.a. foot-volleyball). It's a native Malay game. Familiar in almost all over south-east Asia, with different names in different countries though.

Malay Footbath

A tub of clear water sits at every entrance of a house in Malay kampung (village). The local culture requires everyone entering the house to take off their shoes (if any) and dip their feet in the water to wash off sand and debris. Tropical hot weather dries your feet quick, no need to worry about leaving wet marks on the wooden floor.

Ibn Battuta mentioned about similar practice in 14th century Maldives. Possibility of cultural exchange here.

Foot-bath might pose a problem if you have a small coral-cut on or under your foot. Which is quite likely if you have been in the ocean once or twice. Regular wetting of injuries slows down the healing process. Wearing adhesive bandage to keep sand/debris and water off the wound is suggested.

Politics and Malaysia

Majority of the Malaysians don't feel comfortable discussing politics. Neither with each other nor with foreigners. This was a set back for me. For me, getting hold of the history and politics of a country is important for understanding it. History can be learned from reading, but for politics I prefer to know from the people.

Can!

A couple of days before my flight to Malaysia I met Ruta Žukaitytė in a Couchsurfing meetup at Dhaka. She is from Lithuania (the real name is Lietuva) but lives and works in Singapore. She's been to Malaysia several times. She shared some important observations about Malaysia and it's culture with me, things that only a foreigner would notice. One such observation was "Can!".

Trishaw

The Malay version of rickshaw is called Trishaw. It has structural differences with the human powered vehicle we have in Bangladesh. Basically it's a bicycle with a steel rod and tin sheet structure welded to the cycle on the side. The appendage consists of a seat, shades for protection against sun and braces on the front for support. The Bangladeshi version is a highly modified bicycle complete with springs, retractable shades etc. where the carriage sits behind the driver and the overall structure is symmetrical about the line of action of driving force.

The Permies

In Malaysia I met a team of permaculturists. The team was headed by an energetic man named Andrew Tay. In the group were also Kiat, Derrick, two young guys both named Karthik, mother-daughter pair Faizah-Almirah and last but not least, Selene. All of them Singaporeans. They were the "Permies". We volunteered in a sea-turtle conservation project in Tioman Island.

Identity

An army of brown skinned people of medium to skinny build are sweating their asses off in construction sites, plantations, factories and city streets across Malaysia. These are the Indons (slang for Indonesians) and Banglas (slang for Bangladeshi). With them are also Nepalis and Tamils. Selling cheap labor for all the dirty and difficult jobs, these hardworking people help Malaysia run and throb as the big economic hub of Asia

I realized that South-Asians are no less hardworking than other people on earth. They are also quick to build connections with each other in foreign lands. To a Malaysian I was probably just an "orang lua" but I myself found countless “vai”, “dai” and “ayya” on the streets of KL. It also led me to realize how close we are. Back in Bangladesh, we think the other 6 south asian countries as foreign. But standing on yet more foreign land, entire south-asia felt like home. I started associating myself with entire south asia now. I was a south-asian, not just a Bangali.

This was my greatest lesson from traveling abroad for the first time.

Bahasa Melayu

Bahasa Melayu is the official language of Malaysia. This language, along with it's close relative Bahasa Indonesia, belongs to the Austronesian language family.

Someone who speaks Sanskrit or one of the languages evolved from it ( Bangla, Assamese, Hindi, Gujrati etc. ) should be able to pickup some Bahasa esily. Knowing Arabic would help even more. When the Indian settlers came to Malaysia during 1st century, they brought Sanskrit with them. Later, around 14th century, the Arab traders brought Arabic. The influence of Sanskrit and Arabic on Malaysian language is evident. The Chinese also came around the same time as the Indians, I believe their language has left it's signature too. Since I don't speak any dialect of Chinese, it was beyond my perception.

Jus Gelas Besar

The Chinese Malaysian girls are great; the ones from Kuala Lumpur made me immune to the charm of exposed female legs. Many of them wear ridiculously short shorts or mini skirts. Being born and brought up in the country of sari clad ladies, the exposed legs were a novelty to me. Having seen so many legs throughout the day, I became immune by sunset.

But on a serious note, they are really great. The first two Malaysians I met were U-Jean Ch'ng and Adeline Lee, both Chinese Malaysians. U-Jean taught me some words from Bahasa Malayu. Adeline donated 1.00RM in my quest to Malaysia after I had got the visa. She also helped me out by providing directions to several places around KL over phone or text. Grateful to these ladies, "Terima Kasih".

On my fist day in KL, the first sign that I managed to read and interpret all by myself said "Jus Gelas Besar 2.00RM". Means "Big Glass of Juice for 2.00RM". Just a few weeks back in Dhaka while walking across a slum with U-jean, she had said "Besar is big, kecil is small". I passed this knowledge to Euzawa. Whether he has passed this to someone else remains unknown.

I went to that place later to check how besar was their gelas. It was quite besar!

Euzawa

Verbal language is just one channel of communication, humans have several others. Therefore, overcoming the language barrier is easier than it seems.

Euzawa was my room-mate in the hostel at KL for two days. He spoke little English and I knew only a few Japanese words. Somehow we still managed to communicate and have a good time hanging around in KL. We both learned things from each other. I shared my little vocabulary of Bahasa Malayu with him, he taught me some Japanese. At Jalan Petaing (China Town) he showed me how to use chopsticks.

Arigato gozaimas Euzawa!

Bangla signs in KL

After spending the night at LCCT, I took the first bus to KL. From KL Central took a subway train to Jalan Petaling a.k.a China Town. The guidebook said I could find cheap hotel/hostels in that area. I walked out of the subway station looking for a sign that says "Hotel", "Hostel" or "Guest house".

I found something better. I found a sign written in my language saying "Bangla market". As I neared it, I saw a big flag of my country on another sign, bigger than most of the ones we see back home. I walked towards the flag and found myself standing on a street full of shops with Bangla signs on them. I had found the Bangla Street in China Town of the Kuala Lumpur city.

I walked to the first shop in front of me. Asked the man working there to show me a hotel. The hotel he suggested had two more of my countrymen working in it. Soon I met some more. Before it was 24 hours in KL, I had started to feel at home. Thanks to all the immigrant Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia. Salute to all these hard working people; the remittance* from them keeps our feeble economy alive and the support from them makes newcomers feel at home in KL.

*Bangladesh received $11.7 billion as remittance in 2010

Haze

In June 2011 I went to Malaysia. That was my first time traveling abroad. Also, first flight in 18 years. It was three and half hour long flight from Dhaka to Kuala Lumpur.

The plane flew over a thunders storm near southern Thailand. It was dark by then and the sky was covered with cloud all around. With every thunder strike a chunk of clouds would light up, then the flash would propagate to adjacent chunks. Like a ripple wave of luminance on the cloud cover. Watching this thunder storm was my best memory of that flight. I could not get a good photo of it with my camera.

The second most beautiful thing I saw was the hazy horizon. It was an hour before sunset and we were flying over Myanmar. I could see the famous blue haze around the horizon which astronauts often see from earths orbit as a strikingly beautiful blue lining around the planet.

When I was 13 years old, I wanted to be an astronaut. I had memorized the entire chapter on our solar system from the school text book. I had seen photos and read about the blue haze against the pitch black darkness of outer space. I knew the scientific explanation of how diffraction of sunlight in our atmosphere causes that beautiful phenomena. I dreamed of being able to see that when I grow up. But I had decided to give up this dream soon after realizing the reality I was born into.

I was only a couple of weeks short of my 26th Birthday that day. While watching the blue haze I realized that although the dream of being and astronaut was given up, that which inspired dreams inside me have always been there acting as a major driving force in life.