Curiosities of Malaysia

As Europeans, some daily routines in Malaysia are quite unusual for us. Here are some of the funny and strange things we have stumbled upon (sometimes literally).

Malaysia, land of little steps

Malaysia, or at least the area around KL, seems to be full of small, irregular and unexpected steps. You walk on an even surface, and suddenly there is a heightened floor. Or an uneven kerb. Or some loose cobblestones. Or some water drainage which actually is a mantrap. The Malaysians seem to be very fond of steps and very often build some without any obvious necessity. Another topic are stairs: they tend to be uneven. The first step is often huger than the others, which really can make you stumble.

Shampoo and "excessive scalp oil"

Then there is the issue of shampoo. We had to buy new shampoo, and the supermarket has a whole row of shelves to offer. We didn't find one that promises to give more volume to the hair, but thousands against dandruff. (Seems to be a massive problem here. ;-) ) We chose one called "Clear", which promises "refreshing with cooling sensation". After all, it contains vitamins A, C and E. And what is good for our bodies might be good for our hair as well, we thought. The effect of the shampoo is an excellent distribution, yet not removal of the scalp oil with every wash. No dandruff. (We didn't expect dandruff anyway, but let's give the shampoo at least some credit. Although we think that the essence of being a shampoo is the removal of scalp oil. Maybe we are wrong.) Not quite satisfied with "Clear", we started a second attempt to find a suitable shampoo. After many minutes of browsing thoroughly through the shampoo shelves we found a promising product. "Sunsilk clean and fresh". "Remove excess scalp oil build-up in one wash" it says on the bottle. We will keep you posted. :-)

No-nos

When using the commuter trains to KL, you will soon find out that a lot of things are prohibited. Whereas we are well used to the no smoking and no eating or drinking sings, the imagination of the Malaysian Komuter [sic!] train authorities goes much further. In every carriage you will find 7 prohibition signs in a row which forbid the following actions: smoking, eating & drinking, littering, chewing gums, indecent behaviour, carrying dangerous & flammable materials (no cigarette lighters are allowed, but you wouldn't need them anyway because you are not allowed to smoke, so what) and bringing animals. Our favourite, of course, is the indecent behaviour sign. Encircled in red you find the heads of a woman and a man, maybe kissing. We can't really tell if they are kissing, because the heads are crossed with a red line. Our interpretation after all: in the train the very dangerous behaviour of kissing is not allowed. Some rebels, usually young couple still very much in love, dare to hold hands. Don't let the morale police see this, fellow friends. (Yes, there is a morale police in Malaysia, we think they are only in charge of the Muslims here, but we don't know exactly.) Anyway, we think Malaysia is not really suitable for honeymooners. Boy, have we been indecent in the past...

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Another very strange thing is that 95% of the women and men in advertisments in this South-East Asian country are Westerners. How strange is this? Even with plenty of whitening creams, a Malay or Indian or Chinese woman will never look like Gwyneth Paltrow or Kate Moss or Avril Lavigne, who are all very popular here. (Our desperate attempt to find a night cream WITHOUT skin whitener finally succeeded.) Moreover, there are not only actresses or other stars posing in ads, but also many unknown Western models, women and men. As if they would not have plenty of pretty people here. Just think of the beauties of Singapore Airlines... The Malaysian men, at least, partly succeed in imitating David Beckham's hairstyles.