Malaysia is Truly Asia!

After coming home to the Philippines from my postgrad study in the UK, it took a while before I traveled abroad again. Last October, I went to Putrajaya, Malaysia to present a paper in the 2010 International Conference on Agricultural Extension, popularly tagged as AGREX’10. I was excited because this was my very first travel to another Asian country and I am surely grateful to my agency for funding my participation in the said conference.

The conference was participated in by almost 200 participants, 25% of which were foreigners while the rest were from the host country, mainly students and faculty of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). It was a nurturing experience, as I was able to exchange ideas with other extension practitioners, researchers, and academicians.

Malaysia is fairly advanced in terms of transportation and other infrastructure. People are also generally conversant in English and so communication is not a problem. From the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, it took about 20 minutes of train ride (via KLIA Transit) and 10 minutes of taxi ride before I finally reached the IOI Resort in Putrajaya where I was billeted.

I was originally booked at the resort’s Palm Garden Hotel (the same venue for the conference) but upon my arrival, I found out that the hotel overbooked so I was re-billeted to the adjacent Marriott Hotel, at no extra cost. In effect, I was “upgraded” because by the looks of it, Marriott is a 5-star hotel. I was of course delighted especially when two Filipina receptionists at Marriott’s greeted me.

For the next couple of days, I endured the numerous parallel sessions including of course my own paper presentation. I even met a Filipino who is also from Los Baños, Laguna (my native town) but is now based in Northern Mariana islands. He is connected with the USDA as a livestock specialist for the Asia-Pacific region. There were only two of us from the Philippines. The rest were from Iran, India, Australia, Thailand, Japan, US, England and of course Malaysia.

After the formal sessions, I joined the field trip to some extension projects of UPM in Selangor. Along the way, oil palms, rubber trees, mosques, abound. The organizers from APEEC-UPM also treated us with traditional Malaysian food. I became an instant fan of “chicken satay” (skewered chicken paired with thick peanut sauce). On our way back to IOI resort, we passed by UPM, which I think is impressive in terms of area and infrastructure.

After the conference, I immediately went to Kuala Lumpur city centre (a short 30-minute train ride from Putrajaya). I stayed at Hotel Sentral, which is strategically located at the heart of Kuala Lumpur where all connecting trains are easily accessible. KL’s mass transport system (e.g., LRT, monorail, KLIA Express, KLIA Transit, KTM “komuter” train, etc.) is really remarkable and very light on the wallet.

As I have only a day to explore the city and adjacent places, I decided to visit just two of Malaysia’s famous tourist destinations, namely Batu Caves and of course the Petronas Twin Towers.

Batu Caves is an easy 30-minute ride on a KTM Komuter train from KL Sentral. It is located in Gombak District, Selangor, which is about 13 km north of Kuala Lumpur. It is actually a limestone hill, which consists of three major caves and smaller ones. The biggest (called Cathedral cave) houses Hindu shrines. To reach it, you need to climb 272 concrete steps. By the way, I met an Indian national (a male chemist) early on at the entrance to the Batu Caves, who was also visiting Malaysia for the first time. So we climbed the steep flight together.

At the foot of the steps, there is a huge golden statue of Lord Muruga (a Hindu deity) standing at 140 feet high, the tallest Muruga statue in the world. As I climbed the concrete steps, I saw a lot of macaque monkeys, which could get vicious if you are not alert. Many tourists are feeding these monkeys but I tried to avoid them. I’m not fond of monkeys, anyway. They always remind me of Charles Darwin's evolution theory.

Upon reaching the cave, I was amazed by the sight of huge stalactites and other rock formations. I was also expecting some bats but there was none. Instead, there were lots of doves. Also, there was this music being played over and over again by some Indian merchants. The fact is, the music still lingers in my head.

Some 40 minutes later, my Indian friend and I decided to descend from the cave. We then had a traditional Indian lunch in a restaurant at the Batu Caves compound. After taking some souvenir photos, we headed back to the city to see the famous Petronas Twin Towers.

Petronas Towers were of course formerly the word’s tallest buildings (from 1998 to 2003) at 1,483 feet until Taipei 101 of Taiwan (1,671 feet) surpassed it in 2004, which was subsequently surpassed by Borj Khalifa of Dubai (2,717 feet) in 2010. Nonetheless, Petronas Towers remain as the word’s tallest “twin” buildings. Unfortunately, we were not able to enter the Petronas Towers because tickets (sold at 10 ringgits each) for the day were limited and were easily disposed off as early as 7:00 a.m. So, we settled for some souvenir photos then visited Bukit Bintang (the shopping district of Malaysia) before heading back to our respective hotels.

I left for the Philippines the following day. While I was not able to visit other famous sites, I feel that my “limited” time in Malaysia was well spent.