Postcard from Penang, Malaysia

3/19

From Jim:

Karen went home for Lauren and Peter's wedding, and I am missing her very much.

Malaysia is a predominately Moslem country – It was granted independence by the British in 1963 – and, from the beginning experienced problems due to the fact that the ethnic Chinese were much wealthier than the people whose ancestors were born in Malaysia – the Malays. The Malays set up a government that grants them special benefits with the goal of improving their economic position – and the Chinese are not especially happy about this situation. As a result, Singapore broke off from Malaysia (or was booted out, in a way) and became a separate country in 1965. So, at present, Singapore is a country which is actually the city of Singapore.

Malaysia consists of about 62% Malays, 24% ethnic Chinese (Malaysians whose ancestors came from China), and 7% ethnic Indians (Malaysians whose ancestors came from India).

Singapore has different demographics: about 77% are ethnic Chinese, only 8% are Malays, and 8% are ethnic Indians. Singapore is much wealthier than Malaysia. But Malaysia has experienced an economic boom in recent years – and Penang has tall buildings and has far less poverty than our previous ports of India, South Africa, and Brazil.

Malays tend to be Moslem while the Chinese are a mix of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. Most Indians, as in India, are Hindu – and they tend to be the same type (Tamils) as we met in Chennai. Penang differs from the rest of Malaysia in that it has a slightly greater percentage of Indians compared to Malays. Malaysia just completed a major election and the Chinese in Penang voted not the support the party in power – it is not clear if the government will be able to continue its policies of extending help to people whose ancestors were born in Malaysia.

Penang is an island (about half the size of Singapore) but is connected to the mainland by a long, long bridge (How long? Very, very long – I don't know exactly how long).

Penang does not have a harbor that allows our ship to dock – so we must take a tender (a small boat) to the dock. We are using our lifeboats from the ship as tenders which seem quite adequate for the task – one runs back and forth to the dock every half hour.

Karen Goes Home

3/15

After the briefest of naps, we got up at midnight for the trip to Chennai Airport. This entailed being cleared by the customs official aboard ship, lugging two huge suitcases down 5 decks (thanks Jim!) and being driven by the customs official to the gate, where our taxi should have been waiting - but was not.

Luckily the customs official had his cell phone, and called back to the taxi company, finding out where the taxi-wala was waiting (about 3 miles away - we never would have found him) and handing us off. Jim had agreed to ride with me to the airport to make sure I got off okay - my anxiety level was running high...

Got to the airport (goodbye my love!) and took several wrong turns before finding the very long line for the flight to Doha, Qatar. I had arrived early - about 1:45 - for my 4:30 flight, and thought I'd have lots of sitting and waiting to do, but ended up standing on various lines for the whole night! It's bad enough that it takes two hours to check baggage, but Indians (and Asians in general) just don't believe in forming an orderly queue, and insist on shoving and pushing as a normal way of doing things (as if it would make the plane come any faster...).

So, you don't need to hear the minutiae of my three flights home (but tell Malcom to check out the artificial islands at Doha made for millionaire (billionaire?) mansions - they are very impressive from the air!) Here's the rundown:
Ship to takeoff at Chennai Airport = 5 hours
Chennai to Doha = 4 hours
Layover at Doha = 5 hours
Doha to Washington DC = 14 hours
Layover at DC = 3 hours
DC to Norfolk = 1 hour
Tired mom sees Peter and Lauren waiting in airport and bursts into grateful tears at 11:40 pm - I made it home in one 32 hour day - it's still the 15th! I had been unable to get any sleep on the plane, so intend to spend the next several days decompressing and getting my body back on Eastern Daylight Time...

From Jim: After dropping Karen off at the airport, the taxi was supposed to take me back to the ship, but I was due for another big adventure -- the cab-wala would not take me to gate 7! The cabbie dropped me back where he had been waiting at midnight -- about 3 miles from where he was supposed to be-- so I had to walk in the dark, in the rain, make a dangerous crossing of the railroad tracks - got lost - found my way to gate 8 -- and eventually gate 7. No sleep for me this night either - India wins again!!!

Trip to the Engineering College

3/14/08

Today we accompanied a small group of students (16 were signed up to attend, but only 5 showed up - always a problem when trips are scheduled before noon..) to visit an Engineering College here in the city. Formerly a Women's Engineering College, it's recently gone coed. The college is clean and modern, but unfortunately, our first impression was of the steaming garbage dump (with scavenging cows) adjacent to the golden entrance gate.

We were greeted with flowers, sprinkled with rose water and received red dots and yellow stripes on our foreheads (the meaning of which was not explained to us, but we wore them proudly). We were ushered into a conference room that contained the deans and all the professors of the college, as well as the group of students who had been hand-picked to accompany us for the day.

As the only grownups in the group, Jim and I were handed a microphone and asked to address the assembly - something Jim does with ease, but, as my status these past few months has been "spouse only", I was not really prepared for. I did my best. We were given a tour of the laboratories and shown the engineering projects the students are working on. Each of us was flanked by two students who kept us informed of what we were seeing, and peppered us with questions. When asked what kind of professor I was, I said I was not a professor, but that when I was a student I had majored in marketing. Within minutes, the young lady who had been at my side was whisked away and replaced by a marketing student, who proceeded to ask me about marketing in America!

As we toured, my student asked if I would like to see their marketing department. Sure! said I. We left the group and walked into another building, where my student (I'm sorry that I did not capture his name) introduced me to his dean. Before I knew it, I was ushered into a large lecture hall, introduced as the Marketing Professor from the University of Virginia, handed a microphone and asked to address all the business students on my subject!

Well... I gave them about one minute of what I remember about marketing, and several more on how happy I was to be in Chennai (liar liar pants on fire). Luckily, a student then asked what I was doing in India, so I talked for a while about the Semester at Sea. Whew!

Then it was back to the main group for a demonstration of Indian singing and dancing, followed by a tradional lunch on a banana leaf (lucky I had practiced in Mauitius, remembering not to use my left hand...)

We were then taken to someone's house to see a "typical Indian home". A lovely, well furnished home, it was probably typical of the top 2% of residents in Chennai. The homeowner was very gracious, and showed us pictures of her daughter's wedding (if you don't know about lavish Indian weddings, rent one of the many movies that cover the subject, like Monsoon Wedding or The Namesake).

Then it was off to one more temple, a living Shiva temple in the heart of the city. This one had all its colorful painted figures (they repaint them every twelve years) and people lined up to offer flowers and candles to the gods and give thanks for their blessings. Our guide burned some jasmine flowers, and gave us the sacred ash to place on our foreheads and to take home to our home altar. It was an appropriate last act for the day, as I am traveling home tonight

India Wins Again!

3/13/08

Today is our free day, and we planned to take an auto rickshaw into the city and go to the market to shop for souvenirs. We were cautioned on the ship that many things that should be simple are difficult in India, and that it is best to not set your expectations very high. The saying here when things go wrong is, "India Wins Again!" Well, that's the kind of day we had today.

We had no trouble hiring an auto rickshaw, but we were absolutely unable to convince the driver to take us where we wanted to go (the market).

It was too far and cost too much money, he said, but he would take us to a better place! Luckily, we passed by the Basilica of St. Thomas the Apostle, so asked the driver to let us off there instead. "Okay," he said, "you flay". (We thought he wanted pay, but evidently he was encouraging us to PRAY.) He followed us into the tomb, helpfully pointing out all the relics, statues and other things he thought we might find interesting (in addition to a piece of Thomas and the arrowhead that did him in, there are relics of four or five other saints – pieces of saint that look just like dried apple slices…) As with all living temples in India, we had to take off our shoes before entering the sanctuary.

Even though I go to St. Thomas Church in Chesapeake, I hadn't known that Doubting Thomas had ended his ministry in Chennai (52 AD) preaching the Good News to the Indians until a native took his life with a spear. There is a lifesized diorama of this event in the tomb, also a lifesize image of Thomas reposing peacefully under a glass altar in the chapel. I'm glad we got to see it.

Back in the auto rickshaw, we tried again for the market, but instead were delivered to a high priced government shop that sold oriental rugs and diamonds (a little out of our price range). We found put aferward that the rickshaw drivers receive a commission for every tourist they deliver to one of these shops. By this time we were grimy, short-tempered and more than ready for lunch, so we asked to be taken to a restaurant. At this, the driver said we were costing him too much gas, and he couldn't hang around anymore. He tried to get us to pay 400 rupees (we had originally agreed to 200 for the whole day), but he went away for 100. ($1 = 40 rupees) A relief!

After a lovely curry lunch, we walked back onto the street and were immediately assailed by several new rickshaw drivers, and we thought we'd have better luck. After choosing a promising one and agreeing on a price, we were taken to ANOTHER rug and diamond shop! At this point we gave up trying to get to the market, and asked to be taken back to the ship. At this, the driver pulled over and said he was out of gas! We flagged down another driver and tried again to get home. This guy took us to where we could see the ship several busy streets over, but would not take us any closer, and wanted full pay. We got out and started to walk on the grimy road, with him driving alongside demanding money. Eventually he got tired and tootled off as we marched grimly on.

We had more than 3 miles to get back to the port (not a long distance for the hiking Franza McClenons, but not in this environment) so we got into a fourth rickshaw and repeated our request. We got as far as the railroad tracks, but a train was coming so the driver said we could go no further. Luckily the train was a short one, so as we were arguing the gate lifted and he agreed to take us to our dock. Finally! Big Blue never looked so good!

As we trudged up the five flights to the gangway, the sky turned an ominous gray, and within minutes after we boarded ship the skies opened in a pelting rain. India Wins Again!

Tales of the Temples

3/12

Today we boarded a bus bright and early to visit Kancheepuram, about two hours west of the city, and one of the most sacred places of pilgrimage for Hindus. There are over 100 living shrines in the area, and we visited a Shiva temple and a Vishnu temple that dated from the 7^th century.

The Shiva temple was built of sandstone, so much of the detail and most of the colorful paint has eroded over time, but so much of the intricate detail remains that it is really amazing. At the Vishnu temple we encountered many families on pilgrimage who had shaved their heads (men, women and children) as a token that external beauty was not important. Our guide was excellent, and filled us so full of Hindu facts that I don't know what to include here.

Everywhere we went, children followed us and asked to have their pictures taken - they just loved seeing themselves on the camera screen!

A humorous aside: as our bus lumbered down the highway, a small tricycle truck cut in front of us, causing our driver to slam hard on the brakes. The driver jumped out of the bus and started yelling at the truck driver. Our guide, who was in the middle of explaining about India's history, saw what had happened, and excused herself, saying, "I've got to get into the fight with this guy." So the two of them are yelling in Tamil and gesturing at the busload of us, sitting with our mouths open, and then the busdriver hauled off and slapped the truckdriver full across the face! The guy made no effort to retaliate, and, fully chastened I guess, got back in his little truck and tootled away!

After a super lunch in a fancy resort (which looked so out of place from the rest of the city that I didn't even take a picture of it – manicured lawns and landscaping just isn't India…more like Las Vegas, but the ship spares no expense to assure we won't get sick!) we drove to Mamallapuram, which is right at the seashore, and has temples even older than the ones we saw in the morning. Several years ago a giant tsunami did much damage to southern India, but, as Indians don't build houses at the waterfront (they do not swim) the damage could have been much worse.

We got to see the biggest bas-relief in the world, called "Arjuna's Penance", which has hundreds of animal, human, god and angel images carved into one long piece of granite. The carvings had been covered by the sands of time, and were excavated by the British in the 1700s for all to see. Incredible!

Remember the $4 watch that Jim bought in Mauritius? Well, it stopped working, so when one of the hawkers outside the temple ("postcards, madam?" Elephant carving, sir?") offered to trade a picture of Ganesha (Shiva's son that has the head of an elephant) for the watch, Jim readily agreed – may the gods smile down on that deal!