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Detailed travelogue on visiting the remotest inhabited islands in the world (Tristan da Cunha and St Helena), also South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia. Very interested read, and indexed.
Remotest Islands in the World St Helena, Tristan da Cunha + S. Africa, Malaysia, mor
Larry2006-05-27 03:20:07
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every Malay Tourism
official I encountered, and perhaps someone should remind them that if they
want to encourage tourism (as their brochures claim), they definitely need
to change their attitude.
This demeanor isn't just prevalant with Tourism Malaysia officials
though -- it seems to be the general attitude of most Muslim Malays in the
country. Thinking this first encounter was just an abbaration (as I never
felt such a cold shoulder in any other Muslim country), I didn't give it
much thought (except to wonder how they were given jobs in the tourism
sector) -- but I soon began to see that this cold disposition is typical of
the country's Malay population, and is in stark contrast to the much
friendlier attidute of Malaysia's Chinese and Indian population. Later in
the trip, I felt none of this coldness from Muslims in Singapore or
Indonesia, yet only once (on my very last night) did I ever feel anything
but coldness from Muslim Malays. In Febrary there was an article in a local
English-language paper about an organization boycotting American companies
due to the US' support of Israel, listing many of the boycotted companies
and giving out the boycotting organization's address and phone number as if
it was a paid advertisement instead of a news article -- so perhaps there is
a bit of anti-American sentiment in the country, but if I stop to politely
ask someone on the street for directions, how does that person know I'm
American and not German or Canadian? As much as I hate to write something
like this, I would be omitting an important observation if I didn't -- for
throughout my time in Malaysia there was a clear, consistant difference in
attitude between local Muslim Malays and their Chinese and Indian neighbors.
After picking up a tourist map, I withdrew some local money from an ATM
so I could buy
...
See photographs from:
Indonesia Gallery
,
Malaysia Gallery
,
Singapore Gallery
,
South Africa Gallery
