Malaysia, 26 Sep 2006 --

Andris and I are now visiting the great city of Kuala Lumpur, which is about a four hour bus ride from the Cameron Highlands. It is smaller than Bangkok, with some of the same great chaos, but it also is much more Western in several respects. One explanation for this is that Malaysia was a British colony for a long time, which partially explains the English everywhere. However, that doesn’t explain the Starbucks, McDonalds, KFCs, the IKEA or the malls. The malls! There are so many malls here, and most of them feel like transplants from America. It’s very strange.

Anyway, Andris and I were in the National Museum here in Kuala Lumpur and there was a display about the push to get Malaysia classified as a “developed” country by 2020. This led me to think about what it means to be a “developed” country. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it mostly has to do with money, and neither Malaysia nor Thailand are on the list. If all it took was to have an incredibly nice mall (or seven), or to have building so beautiful and impressive it could belong in any first-world county (Petronas Towers), or to have handful of BMWs trapped in the daily gridlock, Kuala Lumpur would easily be considered “developed.” In gereral, Malaysia feels more “developed” than Thailand, but I don’t think it is because the malls are so fancy. I think it is the little things like the fact that people here wear helmets on their motorbikes, there are wheel-chair ramps (sometimes), there are garbage cans on the street, and everywhere you go there are signs telling you not to litter, smoke, or wear high heels or evening gowns on escalators. The government is there babysitting you - and protecting you from yourself and others. I suppose it gives you a little bit of a warm-fuzzy feeling, but it comes at the price of some freedom to do what you want, and 30% of your income in taxes (in America).

Anyway, I don’t really have a point, and I like Malaysia a lot, but  the freedom of Thailand was one of the things I liked about it, even if it was a little scary sometimes.

Categories Malaysia