Photo: http://picasaweb.com/lostconversation/Malaysia
http://picasaweb.com / lostconversation / Brunei
http://picasaweb.com/lostconversation/Singapore
last, but with all the necessary calm, I reached the end point of the Eurasian continent, Malllayyysia!
This world ranging from jungle to the wild and untouched CyberCity hyper centuries ago was the focus of maritime trade between East and West: a crossroads of merchants and navigators, sailing the seas of the Strait of Malacca, have joined with China, India importing (as well as Indian and Chinese) and the Islamic culture from the Middle East's proven logistics and British colonial strategy (in addition to a lot of Chinese, repetition intentional), creating a society 'historically among the most' multicultural world: perhaps globalization and 'began here 500 years ago!
It took me a few days to get over the shock of transition from hot pants and t-shirts wet to Thai Muslim veils covering their faces local Islam as state religion, but after a while 'this diverse but cohesive mix of Malay Muslims, Chinese Buddhists and Christians + + + spicy Indian headhunters from Borneo hit me and I felt at home speaking in Chinese, Malay eating and laughing in India!
Here everyone speaks English at large, and hitchhiking have evolved from conversations between deaf to genuine cultural symposia: on an average day I received the first steps to be educated Malay Muslims with which to deepen my knowledge on 'Islam, then by Hindu wondering which of Shiva, Vishnu, Kali and Ganesh, and finally by some Chinese who was giving pearls of mandarin NiHaoMa? Haaaaaao!
the end I always have to say I'm Christian, but even if the practical intellectual atheism are constantly fascinated by different religions and beliefs that fill the lives of a lot of people, basically the concept and 'always the same, but repeated in different slang, and while I lose myself to observe the various religious rituals in churches and funny interactions pagan Asian markets messed up my mind flies away, and I feel at home. In one month
emmezzo I have ranged from the rich to the wild Borneo Malay Peninsular Malaysia, with stops in Singapore and Brunei, two states now independent but culturally and historically linked to the Malay life.
Because of the oddity of the borders state in six weeks I have collected less than 16 stamps in the passport, drastically reducing the living space for future visas: I'll 'make false papers in Kathmandu?
Anyway, wandering around the west peninsula under the equatorial sun I went to Penang and Malacca, the two historical periods of the colonial port city-hour crammed with people, cars and shopping malls.
Beautiful and interesting 'to study the history of trade in past centuries, but trade today boring, so be quick like a saber-toothed tiger I am embarking on my airline AirAsia to Borneo.
Oh yes, let's get wild, again!
Malaysian Borneo of the last century was impenetrable jungle life and tribal headhunters tattooed up to his neck and drugs animist rites, but alas, 'even this island between the most' large and exotic world of the influence of modernity 'global, so the jungle remains, but the massive deforestation takes wood and leaves room for plantations of palm oil and rubber, killing, slowly but surely, the wild Borneo.
Indonesian Borneo, Kalimantan, remains a bit 'less developed and more' native (and not easy to explore), while the Malay and 'the most' civilized: tribal headhunters here are long since dead, and their descendants enjoy the fruits of modern life working, just like us.
Legend has it, however, 'that during the construction of bridges, roads and houses, at the end of the workers (mainly Filipinos and Indonesians) is lacking a few head for real! The spirits of the forest as the heads accept offers and protect the human magnet ', the age-old tradition continues and life goes on peaceful, down here!
Borneo I need, I need to test my thirst for adventure: I've had enough or I want more?
Well, fast but intense experience: 12 hours in a speedboat upriver Rajang, where roads do not exist, then a dip in the Niah Caves bloated, huge caves and dark plague, home to billions of bats waiting night nobly hung upside down '.
After these appetizers and ''s time to experience the real jungle (luckily it is still a lot) crazy hired a Malay with a machete so we took the road for a few hours in the thick ancient forest, jumping like Tarzan between a trunk and another, fording rivers up to the neck and meeting different types of genetically modified insects. After climbing Batu
Punggul bare hands as Manolo and enjoyed the beautiful sunset over the rainforest and I dropped my henchman and we realize that it 's late, and dark ... tantinello
The darkness comes and I'm in the middle of jungle, the verses of animals and insects become a concert sounding frenzied game, the atmosphere and 'full of tribal'. It 'nice to be part of this orchestra and screaming all my early enthusiasm but there is no' time to waste, every minute that passes the darkness takes over and the risk of spending a night together in a pack of howler monkeys eating larvae beetle is becoming more 'realistic!
A quiet day out turns into a night run to escape from the tentacles of the jungle ...
Eventually we will succeed, and will end 'the' Jungle Parade Night "mud, sweat dripping (I forgot to say that the rainforest and 'a little wet!), with a few scratches, a bump in front (Sturla against a baobab tree), insects around the body, torn right shoe (remember those bought in China?) and a leech hanging from the sock!
Apparently the good karma continues to follow me, but I hope you have not left my soul entangled in the branches of a tree!
After this experience any trekking tour gives me a spoiler, but I take part in an expedition in search of wildlife on the Kinabatangan River, near Sandakan (hence the famous Sandokan, the real tiger in Malaysia, written by Italian pen) .
Unfortunately, or fortunately, I've seen tigers, but in return I saw orangutans tango (in Malay language = Oran man Tang = forest), macaques, Nasice, various monkeys, crocodiles, big lizards, spiders, mega, mega bites, hornbills, owls and birds sit comfortably on a panoramic boat with tourists on Sunday with the r dull, disgusted that I ate insects in Thailand! To refresh
dampness 'unmanageable and a sun that burns more here on the equator' of the jungle fire hitchhikers to the coast, up to Semporna and Sipadan Island, giving me yet another diving, the last, but the final: risk of being monotonous in the description but I hope sooner or later in life, to have the opportunity to 'little ones to swim with sharks and giant turtles, with fleets of thousands of barracuda around you like a tornado twisted and ten feet from your fins forming a pack now a cloud, now a submarine, now a whale, like in the cartoons.
Entertainment. The diving and
'as a drug and' amazing, addictive, and it 'expensive, so for now I decide to hang on a nail fins, and as to technical constraints have not taken pictures, I let the pictures of those moments divers float through my temples, waiting for the echo of sirens call me back again under water. Yo!
Back on the mainland, unfortunately I have not seen it 'tigers will' Dayak tribe of natives with blowguns and spears for hunting, but I got the call at a ceremony Muslim Bugis Malay / Indonesian in honor of a newborn. The atmosphere here
Islamic and 'very different from the Khmer Buddhist wedding in Cambodia: no music and no alcohol.
The men chatter and spend their time smoking and eating the delicious cakes cooked by devoted wives, who wear colorful robes and lay down their veils to match colored pins. I
and revered by guests are served food, cake, fruit and water, sitting on carpets Arabic. In order not to create me enmities always try to turn my attention towards Mecca, but the subtle metaphor is not taken up by the friendly, but shy and sober, friendly.
finally comes the climax the ceremony, after careful prayer Imam is preparing to sacrifice a calf in honor, in fact, of the newborn. All
curious to observe the slaughtering and rendering of the beast, and some children still have some 'shocked to see the bloody head into the house while the body and' still 'in the meadow.
The ritual lasts about an hour, and when everything seems to be over the Imam grabs a cock and sacrifices in honor of the calf.
But how? What the fuck got to do the rooster? And who is sacrificed in place of the rooster? I? That's' cause you gave me something to eat eehh! I bet fattening!
L 'Ismail friend assures me that will not end' slain, indeed I will receive 'a royal treatment and will leave at the end of the initial shyness' space and wide smiles and souvenir photos Hello, I am also asked one of the best applications of the trip, in hesitant English, "In your country ... Do you have jungle?" !
After laughing my answer 'was diplomatic: "No, sorry, no jungle, but we have a lot of monkeys in parliament!"
In the midst of these wild adventures and social I spent a couple of days in Brunei: the goal was to say a "Beautiful Li!" to the sultan, but the guards prevented ... I have a strange country
the sultanate of Brunei, where I thought to see sheikhs and Rolls-Royce style arab-millionaire, and instead of 'one bundle!
Brunei once occupied the whole island of Borneo, then the British and Dutch settlers who bought land on land, leaving the poor but rich sultan with a strip of land petite small, but rich in oil. Ergo
thanks to the lavish gifts of gold and black settlers in the subsoil and the royal family 'among the most' rich of the planet, besides preserving the most '... uh-lived dictatorship monarchy in history.
The normal turn and 'victim of blackmail by the beloved (on paper) Dictator (puppet army in turn): peace, adequate wealth, almost zero tax, free school, health', etc., a system Social and infallible 'insured, provided the populace to accept the non-freedom' of expression, non-democracy, strong Islam, and especially the ban on drinking alcohol! Oh yes
in Brunei can not find even a good old beer, but gasoline costs 20 cents a liter!
's capital Bandar Seri Begawan contains two great mosques, a couple of good museums (though a bit of propaganda), a village on stilts and little else, and two days are enough for this funny Brunei Darussalam, which however 'has provided considerable food for thought about the dichotomy of dictatorship / freedom', in his smallness, and this was' a great case study certain social and political mechanisms. There
'who compares the sultanate to the military government in Burma but in a "good" and no one complains' cause everybody has a medium-high standard of living, but I'm sure that after all these people dying of boredom ...
Another story than Singapore, where I landed after the wild Borneo: a city 'was rich, crisp, clean, cheap world market for advanced technology and business, where the blasts of air conditioning than the doors of a thousand shopping malls and reach the urban roads, giving a few seconds of breath on the Inaccessible Equatorial sauna. Theoretically
Singapore (Lion City from Sanskrit) would be the prototype of the modern city 'perfect, where the slogan "Produce consumed crack" is applied to the letter, everything works perfectly, sometimes not even seem to be in Asia ...
Well if what we want from the future' "produce consumed crack "I would say that we have, but frankly I think we can concentrate more 'on top, targets a bit' more 'noble, but often (even more' frankly) I wonder," Where are we going? "There is no 'response , everyone here seems to be going his way, but I feel the same warm plate of rice!
Anyway, good social life, especially in the concert of electronic DjKentaro (Japan continues to call this ...) and other various meetings Chinese, Filipino and Indian, as well as a bit 'of street action photography.
The Chinese in Singapore (large majority) are very different from Chinese in China, no pressures and no spitting, but hypochondriacs to the extreme and almost more 'Western on me!
A lot of people from all over the world is moving here for business / shopping / city life, but thousands of prohibitions in the name of your security, psychological terrorism law, fines and a salty attitude "slightly" consumerist make for me a bit dull, gray and android that future.
But I can not hide from the human shopping mania (or Singapore Syndrome) hit me and I have invested in stock, living near this world of sharks killers sellers Saving Silverman, help!
After a week are plenty escaped from Singapore to protect my wallet from unnecessary spending, throwing trash in the shopping craze, just like plastic. And nothing
recycling. From Singapore
look south through binoculars and see Indonesia, that fascinates me with its islands, culture, and dark complexion, I hear the drums and bells tropical
call me ... I meditate a bit ', then a beautiful monkey ( indeed a bell'Orango) decides to turn his back on his shoulders and back; Indonesia deserves the time and dedication, and since turning in my head at least 16 different projects refer to the future exploration of the archipelago, where the Buddha and Allah will take.
But do not worry, the dream is not 'done! Back in
Malllayyysia, in a brief stop on the east coast (much more than 'similar to that in the rich west coast of Borneo), I almost become a prince of the Sultanate (!), And after he escaped from scrapes gifts are landed, finally , a Kuala Lumpur, capital city.
Beautiful City ', were it not for the withering heat we'd think ...
giants Petronas Tower, glass buildings, skyscrapers arabeggiantele style, the classic Little India and Chinatown, a beautiful Islamic art museum, breakfast with Roti Canai, Nasi Lemak and Nasi Goreng, a nice re-meeting dated Mongolia and puff ... time's up!
And here I am sitting on a sofa, a fan pointed at him, to draw breath for a moment.
6 moons have passed through the skies of my South-East Asia, 6 months in thongs and shorts tasting tropical treats, I recall with a smile to Laos, Cambodia, Burma and Thai, and happy as one who has just got his license, I and say 'Now it's time for a change.
Tomorrow we set sail, it changes course, the wind in their sails Captain!
But where? H ... I ...
Ho Chi Min?
Hokinawa?
Honululu?
Hösli?
Haaa .. with a little 'predictability' She loosed the chain to Hong Kong, Yo!
Yong Kong!
accept advice and above all economic contributions for the next steps, as long as I stay not hung like King Kong a few skyscrapers in Kowloon)
Yo!
Photo: http://picasaweb.com/lostconversation/Malaysia
http://picasaweb.com/lostconversation/Brunei
http://picasaweb.com/lostconversation/Singapore
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