Back around 1990, the monsoon rains imposed a forceful reminder that to travel hopefully on the East Coast Railway, also known as the Jungle Railway, is more important than to arrive.  This time around, a more successful journey ensued, with some intriguing Australian connections along the way. 

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If the early morning cries of monkeys and calls of birds can somehow be ignored the continual splash of water most certainly can not.  At 7.30 every morning a switch is flipped and a manmade waterfall bubbles to life as a torrent of water begins to cascade into a crystal clear pool. 

For some this is literally a wake-up call.  Others chalk it up as just one of many interesting experiences on the green fields of Sarawak.

An illustrated feature on this mist touched golf haven can be written on assignment from 1000 to 2000 words depending upon editorial requirements.  A short ‘sidebar’ on the attractions of Kuching can also be provided. 

by Philip Game

Ride the Orient Express 1900 kilometres from Bangkok to Singapore.  Be waited on, hand and foot for 41 hours as the rice paddies, rubber trees and rainforests of glide past your window… or why not experience the real thing and chop a few zeros off the cost?

Make the same journey in air-conditioned comfort – or in colourful, chaotic squalor, the choice is yours – on the State Railway of Thailand and KTM, the Malayan Railway, a network spanning Thailand and reaching across the Malaysian border, right down to Singapore.

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There are hundreds of steps leading to this most ornate of temples combining Chinese, Thai and Burmese architecture. At the end of the climb is the magnificent temple of the 10,000 Buddhas, and a tortoise pond where hundreds of the creatures plod around in a swampy soup, tussling each other for strands of water weed. Crowned by a thirty-metre, seven-tier pagoda – Ban Po Thar – every Penang visitor writes this place on their must-see list.

Yet the approach to the temple is every bit as fascinating as the glittering red and gold and blue edifice at the top. The steps are lined with dozens of trader's stalls selling every possible temptation  – copy-watches, fake designer clothes, ersatz French perfume, makeup, shoes, fans, shell jewellery, souvenirs. You could (and I did) buy all your take-home presents right here and spend little more than 100 ringgit (A$50).

Opening couple of paragraphs.

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This article continues with details of things to do and see in Penang and  includes information on accommodation provided, local food and cuisine.

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Whatever you do, don't leave Penang without a trip to the Botanical Gardens, thirty hectares of flowers, jungle, and monkeys. Arm yourself with peanuts and tiny sugar bananas, but be prepared for conflict, for while the smaller hairy red rascals are irresistibly picture-cute, their daddies and grand-daddies are after as much food as their cheek-sacs will hold.

I can resist the baby monkeys. I can hold out against those bargains, and I can, in time, I reckon, even resist the urge to sample yet another new food in Penang. But the hardest thing to resist – I find – is the urge to return.

It makes sense. 'Allo is so much easier to say than Goodbye. 

©Sally Hammond 2006

Picture Credits: ©Gordon Hammond 2006

(Sally and Gordon Hammond travelled as guests of  Tourism Malaysia)

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Please contact Sally Hammond for a pricing schedule or to discuss purchase of this article.

• Currently the article runs to approximately 1000 words plus Factfile (fact-checked and updated free with the sale of this article).

• The length of the article may be changed according to editorial needs, and the Factfile may be expanded, however if substantial additional work is requested it will affect the final cost of the article.

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• This article has previously been published in Australia and first Australian print rights have been sold. Other rights are available.

When the Union Jack was lowered for the last time at Kuala Lumpur’s Merdeka Square on 15 August 1957, a nation began to coalesce from the bits and pieces of British Malaya.  Kuala Lumpur has grown into one of Asia’s major cities, yet despite scattered pockets of gleaming high-rise towers,  the Klang Valley conurbation remains a hotch-potch of towns and garden suburbs and even the occasional Malay kampung or village.

A walk through Chinatown reveals a vibrant street life which continues today. 

One of the city’s most endearing features is the legacy of Victorian architects entranced by the Islamic domes and spires of Mughal India.  The Masjid Jamek or Friday Mosque, conceived by A. B. Hubback in 1907, remained the city’s principal mosque until 1965.  I never tire of admiring its onion domes and its candy-striped colonnades and minarets, rising from a coconut grove inside the river fork at the very heart of Kuala Lumpur.     

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"Where's that Red Square?" gabbled the package tourist, realising that the coach had moved off without her.

I knew where she meant. Moscow was light years away from Malaysia, but a rich lateritic red is the overwhelming impression created by Malacca's Town Square. Dutch colonists constructed a massive brick red town hall here in the seventeenth century and a century later complemented their Stadthuys with the equally fiery Christ Church.

A relative backwater today, Malacca formed the crucible for much of the recorded history of this multiracial nation.  In the city called the heart of Malaysia, the nation’s independence was declared in 1957.

Once the capital of a mighty empire, Malacca (Melaka), the riverine trading port founded centuries ago by a Sumatran prince has absorbed the incursions of Portuguese, Dutch and British invaders and nurtured such distinctive cultural blends as the Straits Chinese Babas and Nyonyas.

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