Jessica’s Silly Blog

Malaysia

April 11, 2007 at 2:40 pm (Uncategorized)

“I love monkeys!!” I exclaimed, talking to my friend’s video camera at the

Batu Caves. Just a couple of days later my fondness of monkeys had decreased drastically. At the botanical gardens in Penang, instead of being overwhelmed with the cuteness of the small furry creatures, I was constantly backing away in fear from them. I found out that they are in fact ferocious, scary little monsters. Ok perhaps that is a little harsh, but I had quite the encounter one day on Penang Hill.

            I stopped along my hike to take a couple quick pictures of these monkeys in a tree right off the path. They seemed harmless enough, and I wasn’t trying to feed them or interact with them. I wasn’t even stopping for long. But after I took a picture of the one closest to me, two of them at the top of a tree had a little scuffle with each other and fell down to the ground. This startled me, and I guess I made a motion or started moving. This apparently signaled to the rest of the monkeys around that I was a threat, so they all came down from the trees. About 10 or 15 of them bolted down, screeching and showing their teeth, ready to attack me. Since I didn’t have a great deal of knowledge about monkey behavior and interactions with humans, I didn’t even have to think about my plan of action. My fight or flight instinct kicked in fast and I was suddenly sprinting up the path, powered by a rush of adrenaline. I could not even look back at the monkeys that were chasing me. Eventually they stopped running and I was able to catch my breath. I was shaking for at least 10 minutes after that.

            Yes, I realize that it sounds ridiculous that I was so scared of these adorable little monkeys. But honestly, it was the scariest thing that has happened to me on this trip. I was hiking alone up the trail, which wasn’t the safest thing in the world to do anyway. During my sprint away from the monkeys, I was thinking about how I was just going to be laying in the middle of the trail getting scratched and bitten by these little silly beasts and no one would find me for hours, I wouldn’t be able to get down from the mountain, I was going to get a disease, etc. Yeah, yeah, it’s just hilarious, right? Sure it’s a funny story to look back on, but at the time there was no humor in it at all. So now I seem to have developed an absurd but understandable fear of monkeys. I guess at least it’s more exciting than being in class in
Tennessee.

            Speaking of being home, I’m not sure where all this talk of
Malaysia being such a cultural shock came from. Perhaps a few years ago it was a bit different, but to me Malaysia was far from shocking and culturally different. In fact, it seemed pretty similar to the United States. Of course there are temples to see and different food to eat, and there are more Chinese, Malay, and Indian people than in the U.S. But really, it was not what I was expecting. If it really did change that much within 20 years or so, then I guess big corporations are doing their job pretty well of making every place the same. With any luck, 30 years from now the only cultural difference between Malaysia and the U.S. will be a slightly different menu in McDonalds and Starbucks.

            One thing that I noticed about
Kuala Lumpur that made it different from most other big cities was that a lot of the sidewalks were made of tile. That seems like a pretty insignificant detail, but when you are trying to run in the rain it is hard not to notice. I don’t know who thought that was a good idea. Tiles are slippery when they are wet. My friends and I had to run to the bus station to get to our tour of the worlds tallest buildings, the

Petronas Towers. Of course right when we had to go outside a huge storm hit and water was just pouring from the sky. After running, hopping, and slipping our way to the bus station, my entire body was soaked. This of course included the light colored shirt I was wearing. We were told to be modest in this mostly Muslim country, but instead I decided to start up my own wet t-shirt contest. It wasn’t the best situation in the world, but made for a funny time. I had to give in and buy a random (black) shirt in the mall.

            I noticed that there were a lot of European and Australian tourists and backpackers in both Kuala Lumpur and Penang. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t expecting that. I guess I just hadn’t thought much about Malaysia before this trip as a place to travel to. In our hostel in KL, we made friends with some boys from the UK, a boy from Australia, and a girl from Amsterdam name Linda. Linda went around with us the whole second day we were there. She is just traveling around by herself. It seems like it would be so exciting to just go someplace and do whatever you feel like doing, while meeting people along the way. I would love to do that, and hopefully I will sometime in my life. However, with our travels in Semester at Sea I have become much more aware of what it means to be a 20 something female in other countries. I hate that it is so unsafe for women to travel around wherever they want to by themselves.

            When the monkeys made me run for my life on Penang Hill, I was by myself. Everyone I encountered on the hill seemed to think I was insane for hiking by myself. I actually didn’t even see any other women the whole time until I got to the very top. Maybe it was foolish of me to just go hiking up a trail that I don’t know much about. I had a few comments like, “Oh, that’s pretty adventurous,” and “You alone-only one woman??” Followed by surprised laughs and dialogue in a language I couldn’t understand. Adventure and “exploration” (if that even exists at all anymore) should not be reserved for men only. Of course I can’t change the safety for women in the world by going up a hill and nearly getting attacked by monkeys. It’s just so maddening that nothing is considered safe anymore and no one can be trusted. It seems like such a horrible way to go through life, scared and suspicious. Not that going through life trusting everyone is a good idea either. Oh, the frustrating things we get to think about on this voyage of discovery just don’t stop coming, do they? On the other hand, the great and exciting things we get to experience don’t stop coming either, so I suppose I can deal with a little bit of frustration along the way.