CultureShock! Malaysia

Heidi Munan

Description

CultureShock! Malaysia contains a wealth of information for anyone who wishes to stay in the country for any length of time. Peppered with personal anecdotes, the book provides practical tips on how to settle in with the least amount of fuss including what to bring from home and the steps to take if 'spirits' make an appearance. Be amazed by the immense variety of food as well as the array of local pastimes and places to visit. Most of all, understand the Malaysian psyche and culture so you are prepared for all eventualities such as what to do when invited for Hari Raya celebrations and how to conduct business there.

Sujets

• Malasia
• Malaysia
• Malaisie

Informations

• Publié par: MarshallCavendishM
• Date de parution: 01 août 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789814408950
• Langue: English

Extrait

Introduction



Malaysia offers many leisure attractions that includes the deluxe resort of Pulau Pangkor Laut

Contents First Impressions Fast Facts Resource Guide Culture Quiz Further Reading More Cultureshock! Apps

Malaysia is a cultural potpourri for the casual visitor. Malays, Chinese and Indians dominate in Peninsular Malaysia while in Sabah and Sarawak the Borneo states that make up the rest of the country Kadazans and Dayaks add to the variety.
Tour groups are given glimpses of the colour and richness of traditional dances, music and food, and they go away with photographs that capture the essence of their brief encounter with quaint alien cultures. The impression one gets is the greenery, the friendly people, the food, the nice hotels, the good roads and the relatively high standard of living. All very fleeting and very superficial.
But for the fairly large expatriate community that lives in the country, it means getting to really know the people and their culture. There is always a period of adjustments. The need to know and understand local customs in all its variety often gets driven home by trial and error. It is a learning process that takes time and depends on how well or how interested the expatriates are in wanting to blend into the local scene and not stand out, awkward and self-conscious.
Heidi Munan, the author, is well-placed to pick out the essentials, herself an expatriate, but who by marriage to a Sarawakian has made Malaysia her home. Her own personal experiences and the fact that hers was a case of learning by trial and error bring that insightful touch to this book spiced with humour that comes from pitfalls she herself may have encountered for want of being better informed.
There is the common story not in this book of the expatriate who was taken to a South Indian restaurant for lunch where he ate the banana leaf on which the food was placed, thinking it was the salad. That was his only grouse about the food the salad was tough!
There is plenty in CultureShock! Malaysia to arouse interest. For the casual visitor coming into brief contact with the country and its peoples or the expatriate settling down for a couple of years or more, the book should provide a useful starting point, at least, of understanding the place, and making a stay there pleasant and satisfying.
- Shiv Das, The New Straits Times, Malaysia

First Impressions

The Putra Mosque at Putrajaya, Selangor, cuts an imposing figure whether by day or night

Malaysia

‘It rains a great deal in Malaya, but dark and dismal days are unknown. Rain lasts an hour or two, then the edge of the veil is lifted and reveals an angry sun. Malaya is content with its almost daily bath, and for the rest of the time takes a sun cure.’
Henri Fauconnier in The Soul of Malaya
Your first forays into the streets will be crowded with a bewildering tumble of impressions this place is foreign all right! To start with, you are a stranger in town, whether you came here as a tourist or to settle for a few years.
Weather
For one thing, it is hot. If you live in air-conditioned premises and normally use an air-conditioned car, it seems even hotter. But the heat is real. It’s here to stay. You will have to learn to adapt to it.
Malaysian heat isn’t of the killing, heat-stroke kind. It’s seldom above 35 C and fairly humid. In big towns like Kuala Lumpur, the heat is overlaid by a haze of exhaust and industrial smoke. This is unpleasant but not life-threatening; sola topis went out with Somerset Maugham though sunglasses can help to keep the glare out.
Quite a few local people carry umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun. Hats, strangely, are seldom worn except by labourers or farmers. Visitors from overseas who are used to seeing hats as part of the school uniform often comment on the crowds of schoolgirls patiently sweltering in the heat at bus stops and pedestrian crossings. If ever there was a climate for straw hats, Malaysia has it except that a panama hat wouldn’t shelter its wearer from the very frequent showers!
Don’t shy away from using either a hat or an umbrella if you want to. The locals you see on the road are walking from A to B on the shortest possible route. You, on the other hand, are strolling around town, possibly for hours sunblock lotion and/or a sunshade may preserve you from getting a nasty sunburn.
This warning doesn’t only apply to the fair Caucasian skin but to anybody who is not used to the sun in generous quantities. Korean and Japanese visitors to the tropics do well to start off with protection; their children are very susceptible to burns, too! Start off with care, and get used to the sun slowly. There’s plenty of it in Malaysia!
Getting Around
For walking in town, wear comfortable clothes, preferably of cotton or linen. Synthetics can make you feel very hot and sticky in a short time, but natural fibres absorb perspiration instead. It is a good idea to wear sleeves, and not only for reasons of modesty. Clothing actually protects the wearer from the sun. Think about it: who would prefer a bikini-sized sunburn to a shirt-and-jeans one?
Kuala Lumpur (or KL as it is fondly called) and Penang take foreign ladies in shorts and halter tops calmly. However, in a country town, this type of outfit may provoke comment. The conservative population will consider such shameless attire as yet another proof of the wicked Western decadence they’ve been admiring on TV.
Besides the heat, there’s another danger in town the traffic. Kuala Lumpur may not be a huge town by world standards but there’s quite enough traffic to get run over by. Use the pedestrian crossings and overhead bridges; they’re there for your own good! In the busy city centre areas, stout metal rails separate the road from the pavement. Do not be tempted to stroll on the road margin or dodge through the traffic lanes to cross the road. Besides a never-ending stream of cars studded with motorbikes, there are public buses.
Public bus services ply town and suburbs. Some of these don’t have a conductor so it is essential to have the right fare ready. There is such a thing as a KL bus timetable and no home should be without one not even if you own a car or generally use taxis. The timetable will give only the vaguest information as to when the bus will come, but it contains information about whence it cometh and whither it goeth after it has vanished around Chow Kit corner.
One word of warning: do not use buses during the rush hours! Rush hours affect the otherwise friendly Malaysian who tends to get impatient, especially in a jam-packed bus. Everybody seems to be wearing rubber slippers or tennis shoes in KL, except at 5:15 pm on a bus or the LRT. That’s when they’re all shod in hob-nailed boots! The danger of having one’s toes trampled is very real.
The LRT (Light Rail Transit) is an overhead and underground railway that connects some of the town’s busiest points and gives passengers a nice overview of the town’s general layout. The LRT, the Monorail and a complementary suburban train service are designed to entice even the car owner to leave his vehicle at home and come into town by train, hopefully relieving inner-city traffic congestion.
In a small Malaysian town, a foreigner gets stared at if he’s out for a quiet little walk. As this applies to small towns the world over, I don’t feel obliged to apologise. In Malaysia’s big towns, a person would have to look very remarkable indeed to get more than a passing glance. Of course it will be fairly obvious that he is a ‘stranger in town’, and people will try to answer his questions and give directions. Carry a map! Many passers-by, people waiting at a bus stop for instance, will be happy to help you put it the right way up and tell you where you are.
The language problem may come into this. If there are senior schoolchildren around, approach them. They do, theoretically, know English. A group will be less shy than one boy on his own; one girl on her own may turn up her nose in the air, or even take to her heels, if she’s asked questions by a male stranger. Not many are as shy as all that, but it can happen.
Policemen in town areas should speak English. In the ‘tourist preserve’ of Kuala Lumpur, a special ‘tourist police’ is deployed and all members of this force speak good English. If you have any enquiries, you can call them at tel: [phone]. In an emergency, the combination of a map and some acting talent, plus slow careful enunciation of the place you are looking for, should work.
If all else fails, take a taxi. Malaysian cabs are vibrantly coloured saloon cars. They are hailed by a Hitler salute from the kerb if there is no taxi stand nearby. Be sure the driver understands you before he puts his vehicle into motion. Even in KL, there are a few taxi drivers who don’t understand English, particularly if they are asked to use the meter instead of simply quoting some exorbitant fare!
Stray Animals
People from countries where dog licensing laws are enforced will find the sight of stray dogs strange, not to say unpleasant. There is such a thing as an SPCA in Malaysia, but strays continue to flourish, if that is the right word to describe the sometimes miserably skinny, mangy creatures.
Of course your heart will be wrenched by the sight of poor little puppies and kittens crawling about in the gutters near open-air foodstalls. So will your children’s hearts. Have a good excuse ready unless you want them to collect animals to bring home! Such charity is not recommended. Most of these strays carry many different kinds of diseases and are vermin-infested. Try to ignore them, and leave them alone.
In rural areas, the nocturnal driver may find that the local cow and buffalo population has chosen the road for its sleeping accommodation. There may be a yello