MALAYSIA (a short visit)                                            
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Only 4 hours with the speedboat separates 2 different worlds:the chaotic and few developed Sumatra, and the economically active  asiatic tiger Malaysia.

Our first impression in Malaysia was like arriving in Shangai as the island of Penang is the major chinese stronghold in the country.Every bussines , every shop, every hotel are in the hands of chinese families as it's  mainly happening in all the country.

Nevertheless Penang is not only chinese, as hindus and muslim malayans are also spread all over the island.Is just like tasting diferent asiatic cultures in a smalll surface.Really nice.
Just arriving in the Malayan Peninsula we were enveloped by modern plastic.Even the typical tropical palms look strangely colourfull.
Chinese characters in the market of Penang.
An example of the diversity in Penang. Hindus in Little India, and a group of malayan women.
The few kilometers biking from the island of Penang to the Thailand border were for us more than all just transportation.The landscape flat and boring, the road straight,wide and hot. But the difference  to the bumpy narrow road in Sumatra, where the driver has to switch continuosly from one side to the other, was very obvious.

There in Malaysia we were riding partly on a highway, partly on a big road with perfect asphalt and a big side space for the bikes.

Spending just 5 days in Malaysia wouldn' be fair to make any conclusion about anything, but the remaining impression that we got about the hospitality of the malayans was too obvious just to be an ocassion.
In Malaysia was the first time we were invited to sleep with a family, the country where we were invited to have a meal with a man that just saw us eating fruits in a market.

After all, is clear in our minds that we have a debt with Malaysia, a country we have to visite in the future.

And from there to Thailand, but this is another story.
ASA & JAVI
The Chang family, who invited us to sleep, to have a gorgeous dinner that happen to be just the aperitif. This family is also known as the carlsberg family.
Rubber plantation worker opening a wound to collect latex. Malaysia is one of the main rubber producers, because the amazonic rubber tree produce more in the moonsonical conditions of  south east Asia than in its original land.
Fresh collected latex.