Happy New Year! It's been a long time since I last posted on here, but it's time for a photo update of Malaysia where I went over Christmas/New Year. Malaysia was fantastic, I really enjoyed it. It was incredibly easy to travel around and do stuff because English is so widely spoken - I knew that English was a second language there, but didn't expect everyone to be able to use it, but people just switched between languages automatically. At the start, I found the accent a little tricky but then I tuned in. Although I'm used to traveling, talking to people and getting around in Japan, I'd forgotten how much easier everyday life is for me with English!
It's about a 7 hour flight from Tokyo to KL, and an overnight one with Air Asia, so I was in Malaysia 6 nights overall, with 2 nights in the middle staying in Melaka, an old colonial town. Melaka was fascinating because of the mix of Eastern and Western architecture in the same street, a combination of Malay, Indian, Chinese, Dutch and Portuguese buildings often jostling for space with each other. Mosques, temples and churches were within a hundred metres of each other, often much less.
It was similar but not so pronounced in Kuala Lumpur. From what I read, ethnic Malays (considered by the government to be Muslim) comprise about 65% of the population with the remaining 35% being predominantly Hindu, Buddhist or Christian. This also meant that the Christmas period was strongly celebrated there with beautiful Christmas decorations and lights. My impression as a tourist was Malaysia was quite a multi-cultural and inclusive society which had a nice atmosphere.
Kuala Lumpur had a great mixture of modern and futuristic architecture and traditional buildings, I really liked the city and the atmosphere. The shopping centres were fantastic and the food was absolutely delicious!
I flew with Air Asia, which is a budget airline that started serving Japan one or two years ago. I'd definitely fly with them again.
Anyway, photos again at the right-hand link under 'Holidays and Days Out'. Believe it or not, these are already cut down by about 1/3 - I took 391 photos!
じゃあ、明けましておめでとうございます！お久しぶりですね！このブログが去年ちょっと忘れたね。じつは多分ただ怠けていた。兎に角、マレーシアのアップデーです。
この冬休みマレーシアに行った。周りの移動することが楽しいで簡単だった。マレーシアに英語が広く話されていた。
クアラルンプールとマラッカに行った。クリスマスの日に出た、1月2日に帰った。まず、ＫＬに三泊、次にマラッカに二泊、最終の日がまたＫＬでした。美しく印象的な国です。大晦日にペトロナスツインタワーに花火を見た。それはすばらしかった！
写真が右のリンクにある。
