Khao Sarn Road

Khao Sarn Road (KSR), for those who haven't had the pleasure, is the ultimate backpacker's ghetto in Bangkok. By day it does brisk business in Thai tourist trinkets, bags, shirts, books, fake university degrees and such - but KSR exists for the night. The real excitement takes place under gaudy neon. Katoey (lady-boy) look for unknowing Johns straight off the plane, who haven't yet learned that Thai women never have deep voices and big hands. Pickpockets have a heyday with the drunkards. Taxi drivers loiter about searching for someone to "take for a ride". It's a concentration of the worst of Bangkok, but it's a brilliant spot for people watching.

KSR is not Bangkok at all, but a kind of vortex that pulls tourists in, and doesn't allow them to leave. Inconveniently located away from the city center, it takes great motivation and strength of mind for the average visitor to leave the road and see other parts of Bangkok, which is a great shame. I would assert that if all you've seen of it is KSR, you haven't actually been to Bangkok. It's like transiting in Istanbul and saying you've been to Turkey. You've just been in the waiting lounge.

The Many Faces of Kuala Lumpur

Walk down the street in Kuala Lumpur and the variety of Asian ethnicity really blows me away. Smiling, headscarf donning young Muslim women mix with Indian women in saris, Chinese in business suits, and so on. Refreshingly, caucasion faces are rather few. This is, after all, Asia. I've not been in a country before with such a variety of Asian ethnicities living together, and as a first time visitor it looks like a great model of different races with different beliefs living together in peace. After talking to friends I've come to realize the situation is not as perfect as it seems.

The primary racial groups are the ethnic Malays, and then the Chinese and Indian minorities. Malays are granted a certain amount of preferential treatment in university admission and government job placements, among other things, but the other side of the coin is that they have additional prohibitions placed on them by law, like being unable to eat pork, which the other ethnic groups are not subject to.

Things move along with relative peace, but there are deeper underlying problems with the current arrangement, which reached a bloody climax in 1969 when the ruling coalition was momentarily deprived of power in place a of a pro-chinese party, resulting in street violence with the Chinese being targeted specifically and suffering the worst as people were killed and business burned.

It's a complex subject that I have an admittedly basic Understanding of, and it's tempting to say that, well, today's Malaysia is among the most prosperous nation in South-East Asia, so why rock the political boat? But that is exactly the justification the goverment puts forth to stay in power. If you take us out of power, they say, you'll be inviting a repeat of the bloody events of '69. Malaysia is under pretty heavy surveilence by a sort of secret police, and the media doesn't enjoy nearly the freedom I'm seen in places like Thailand, the Philippines, or even Cambodia.

And on I go about a subject that I know little about. Any Malaysians care to comment?

All that said, I had a brilliant time in the country and met lots of interesting people, thanks to my gracious hosts, Sze and Spes. Thanks guys!