The Malaysian cross-cultural experience

It's been about a century and a half since I last posted ... forgive me but I couldn't find my blogs until Blogger implemented a better integration to gmail. I thought I'd kick off this round of posts with a comment on Malaysia. Through work, I've had to travel to Malaysia a few times over the years -- mainly Kuala Lumpur (KL).

Malaysia is truly one of those "crossroads" places. A unique mix of at least 4 dominant cultures: Malay (the indigenous), Chinese, Indian, and British. Furthermore, the predominant religion among the Malay people is Islam so that too adds a unique layer through the multicultural fabric.

I have 2 favorite activities when I visit Malaysia: shopping for DVDs in Chinatown and hanging out at the Sunway mall.

DVD shopping in Chinatown is, of course, buying pirated disks on the street ... but before you get your boxers in a knot, I do have some fundamental principles that I follow. The most important is that I will never buy a dupe of a released DVD. I work in the software industry and I have some sensitivity to IP issues. Really the only ones I buy are the new release, still in theater movies, that are generally shot with a hand held video camera in a cinema. I buy these disks as souvenirs and not so much to see the movie. In fact, I only buy the ones that I know I will pay to see in a cinema, cable pay-per-view, or purchase a legitimate disk later on. But I find that nothing is funnier than watching the movie bounce up and down as the bootlegger tries to hide the camera when the usher walks by. Althought the Malaysian government is trying the clamp down on this piracy the KL Chinatown still has a fair number of vendors (as of spring 2007).

The Sunway Shopping Centre is in the suburbs of KL. For the last few trips, I stayed at the Sunway Pyramid resort hotel which is attached to the shopping mall. There is also a giant water theme park called the Sunway Lagoon as part of this mega complex. Initially, I hung out at the mall as a matter of convenience. The hotel is far enough away from the main city that it was not very easy for me to get to the city. In the end though, I always enjoy my strolls through the mall. First, there is a large, full size skating rink in the middle of the mall. Being from Canada, I get a kick out of seeing people who live on the equator trying to ice skate. There is also a full range of Ancient Egypt inspired decoration including a giant sphynx-like lion statue. I have a favorite hair stylist that I go to where I get my hair washed and cut plus an intensive scalp massage for about $15. At Christmas, they have the most amazing lights depicting snowmen, sleighs, Santa, and snow flakes ... yes, those predominantly Moslem Malaysians do up Christmas quite well!

The main point with the above is to not shy away from the "modern" side of life at a travel destination. In fact, these malls are where most typical middle class Malaysians hang out ... and you truly get a genuine sense of their everyday culture ... as opposed to a cultural snapshot of life 150 years ago as endorsed by some travel guide book. So go ahead ... head to the mall, eat some KFC, and don't forget to ask about the latest mobile phone plans from the countless vendors screaming at you to switch plans.