Excursion to Bukit Malawati and Kuala Selangor

On Saturday (5/9/09), we joined a group of about 30 Embassy employees and took a bus about an hour and a half up the west coast of  peninsular Malaysia to  Kuala Selangor to visit a firefly habitat.  We boarded the bus at about 4pm and drove first west and then north along the coast.  At dinner time we stopped at a little fishing village and got on this "tram" to ride up the Bukit Malawati hill.  Bukit means hill in Bahasa.  At the top there was a beautiful vista overlooking the Straits of Malacca which are located between the Malay peninsula and the island of Sumatra.  We were greeted by a large number of Silverleaf Monkeys.  I don't think the monkeys were really friendly, they just appeared to be so in order to get their hands on the green beans we had to feed them.  I learned from watching others that if you don't hold the beans up high, they'll steal them from your hands while you're not looking.  One extra "friendly" monkey climbed up me and took a seat on my camera and waited patiently while I gave him a nice green bean.

The tram is really just an old tractor pulling a couple of wagons with seats.  About half way up the hill he pulled off the road into a parking area and made two full circles around the lot while building up speed, then it was back onto the road with added impetus and up to the top of the hill.

We had a great seafood dinner of about 6 courses.  Clams, fish, shrimp, squid, crab, all done in a delectable manner.  Here in Malaysia it seems they don't believe in shelling anything.  The shrimp, clams, and crabs were all still in their shells and cooked in a delicious sauce so it was quite a messy endeavor, especially the crabs.  You had to place a crab (fist sized and very hard shells) between some napkins, hit it with the supplied mallet, then remove the shells and then you can enjoy a bite or two.

At about 7pm we arrived at Kuala Selangor and boarded boats to go up the river to see the firefly habitat.  The boats had small electric motors to keep the sound down.  By this time it was quite dark and we were asked not to use flash cameras so we didn't get any pictures.  We crossed the river and floated along the opposite side which was covered with bushes and trees.  What we saw was quite a spectacular display.  Thousands and thousands of little tiny fireflies were sitting on the branches and leaves of each bush and emitting flashes of light from their abdominal light bulbs.

Those of you who have spent any time in Kansas City or other humid climes will remember the fireflies (lightning bugs) we used to have there.  They were much bigger and their lights would remain on for 1-2 seconds at a time and then go off for a few seconds more.  These were small and emitted very quick flashes of light in rapid succession.  The effect, along a mile or so of riverbank, was such a display of  lights as you might expect on a residential drive at Christmas time.  It was a black night, lit by a full moon, and millions of tiny flickering lights.  It was a remarkable sight!  What a memorable night it was!

A little Malaysian history is called for here.  Early in the 20th century an entrepreneurial spirit brought 9 seeds of the rubber tree from Brazil to Malaysia and planted them.  Within 50 years, Malaysia became the leading exporter of rubber in the world.  Under the governance of the British Empire, Malaysia became very important economically, particularly when war broke out.  Malaya, as it was called then, became a pawn in the game of world dominance, as Japan occupied the peninsula and exploited the rubber for use in the war.   The exigencies of war and the enormous demand for rubber brought about the development of synthetic rubber.  Very good for the allied effort in the war, very bad for post-war Malaya.

The bottom dropped out of the natural rubber industry.  Over the years, palm-oil has supplanted rubber as the #1 industry of Malaysia.  On our trip we drove past hundreds and hundreds of square miles of oil palms.  Malaysia also has a large petroleum industry and is an exporter of oil and natural gas.

I guess I took that little history lesson a little too far.  Tobi will be exasperated with me.

The more time we spend here, the more we come to love this country and its people.