(photograph © Kiwidutch)
We’ve entered Malaysia at “JB” (Johor Bahru) and the coach takes the motorway that quickly brings us out of the city and into a ribbon-like built up area where I suspect various little villages are in the processing of merging together.
Sometimes there are patches of palm trees: not the tall lanky palms of some other tropical places I’ve visited but rather the thick stocky forms of oil palms with their super sized palm fronds and dense foliage.
Within a space of maybe twenty kilometres I see everything from ultra modern high rise buildings to traditional buildings on the edges of plantations on stilts, some look like work areas and others like living quarters , and the contrast of age and styles is an eye opener.
Other buildings bridge the gap between these two extremes, and slowly I build a picture of a country in transition where there are stark contrasts between rich and poor, rural and urban living, the upward socio-economic curve, modern and traditional.
We travel for a while but then, coming into what looks like an industrial area, the bus slows, makes a few turns down some rather run down streets and we find ourselves at our first stop…
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Does this sign mean “Give Way” or indicate that we have Priority? …or something else? like “watch out, nine holes in the road ahead!” Any ideas?
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
After playing games on their phones it appears that most of the passengers have curled up and are sleeping… Mmm the modern generation (Ha! how old do I sound now LOL!!!) don’t seem to count looking out the window and drinking in the sights of a new country as entertainment. I really would like to have a courage to yell out loud “Come on people! you are on an adventure! Keep Up!!!!”
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
I think it’s a drag watching this type of sprawl take over a rural place; we see it all over when we drive around the U.S. I always equate it with spreading mold. In some areas of Texas & California you can drive for hours and hours and see nothing but the most repetitive development — the same big box retail stores, the same type of outsized townhouse developments, the same fast-food chains, so that what was unique about a place gets ruined or, if it’s “allowed” to remain, becomes increasingly difficult for the locals to maintain.
arrgh — i better stop before I go off on a rant!
Comment by Luddy's Lens — October 21, 2012 @ 6:49 pm |
Luddy, Even in my home city of Christchurch I’ve seen new subdivisions springing up over the years, in fact if you only visit once every few years it’s a shock to see some green views gone and filled with houses.
The Netherlands has the same problem even more so, years ago we visited friends outside Neijmegen and sat listening to birds on their terrace overlooking paddocks as far as you could see.
Ten years later we sat in the same place to the sound of a motorway in the distance and a view of multiple apartment tower blocks on the horizon. Urban sprawl at it’s worst, but we also need affordable housing and places for people to live and work in our ever growing cities.
Comment by kiwidutch — October 22, 2012 @ 5:23 am |
Did you go to KL?
Comment by rsmacaalay — October 22, 2012 @ 7:18 am |
Sadly not Raymund,
But KL is on my wish list for a future trip. We were already 3 hours one way on the coach to get here, KL was another one and a half hours from Melaka and we figured that 9 hours on a coach in one day was just a stretch too far…we will look at flying there if we can on a future trip.
Comment by kiwidutch — October 31, 2012 @ 11:58 pm |