So at the end of our travels we have visited 4 busy capital cities, beached at remote palm-fringed islands, scrambled about on cloud-covered mountain tops and visited Nemo in his anemone home in the clear, azure Andaman sea.
So, which is the better city? Which is the best location?
Hong Kong is extraordinarily busy and extraordinarily expensive: if you can cope with either then you're fine. There are fantastic opportunities in this city for people with drive, ambition and energy. It has always been the gateway to China -and has the very best and worse of it. Good service, a (relatively-)free press, the rule of law and a high degree of governmental transparency still means it is a safe and secure place to get things started: the Chinese-Asian cultural mix has certainly made it an amazing home for the last 14 years. It's a fun place to live where the buses run on time!
Bangkok is a fantastic, exciting city. It feels either like the cultural crown of Thailand or a seething sink-hole of moral corruption. Glimmering riches and grinding poverty coincide on the same streets. Maximising their bahts and ensuring that there's graceful service behind every smiling bow, the Thais know which side their bread can be buttered (or rice can be fried). Containing nearly a quarter of Thailand's population, greater metropolitan Bangkok has all the problems this entails -sometimes it's impossible to get around, although public transport has mercifully improved much in the past few years. If it doesn't rain the heat and pollution is difficult to live with, the price for living in a city where you can get anything you want.
The remote islands of the Andaman Adang-Rawi archipelago are exactly how they sound, a mishmash of the beautifully exotic, the bizarrely strange, the tired, broken and ugly and the fresh-faced, sparkling new. They are wonderfully laid-back with only the occasional nighttime barking dog to rouse a soul from its slumbers. Once awake, however, all consciousness melted into the stunning impact of a stunning tropical sunrise.
Malaysian Langkawi is a much bigger, but still lovely, laid-back island. A relatively recent holiday destination, it has sought a way to cope with the demands of multi-cultural tourism, at times something tgat is at odds with a laid-back Muslim Malay lifestyle. And in the future things are set to get busier with a massive projection of an increase in numbers, many of these infidels spending their ringgits on pork ribs (halal, of course) and buckets of beer. Although the Malays hold the keys to the kingdom, and the Tamils drive the cabs, the local Chinese may be the busiest.
Penang, or Georgetown to be more precise, has an extraordinary enchantment about it. A difficult town to get some sleep in, it holds an archaic charm impossible to shrug off. Whether blasted to the point of deafness by Hindi-pop in the streets of Little India or being near-gassed to death in the gargantuan Chinese temples that seem to pop up in the middle of nearly every street, the city somehow holds together its mixed-up heritage and integrity. The sunset view from the lofty heights of Penang Hill made it feel uncannily like Hong Kong's Victoria Peak, but with a slightly kinder, more smiling human face.
Whatever road is taken, a drive up to the Cameron Highlands is long and not a little hairy in places. Once there, it's difficult to remember why it was on the check-list in the first pace. There are truly magnificent views of white waterfalls pouring down jungle slopes and massive, pointy hills encrowned by swirling mist, but beyond the views it seems filled with hydroponic vegetable farms and tea plantations. There's only so-many strawberries a tourist can look at. In fairness, the Wild West Frontier-type towns have a happy-go-lucky feel about them: in most cases, beyond the monolithic Swiss-style hotel complexes being built in the towns, there is an impenetrable jungle to be experienced -and it's not too hot up there!
Kuala Lumpur is a tropical city that tries so hard to be modern. Multi-lane freeways loop around new 30-40 storey blocks. Everybody eats out and the cosmopolitan and metropolitan atmosphere means that one can do pretty much anything one pleases without interference. It's also incredibly cheap. If living and working were enough, then life may not be better, but if one scratches the surface political, religious, press and legal freedoms could be problematic. It's just as well the Malaysians seem to be such an easy-going lot! Poverty is still an issue -many kids at international schools are real targets for kidnapping and have armed body guards.
At times Singapore has a refreshing breeze that blows in across the sea. The air-con is off and, despite the constant traffic, it feels like a very pleasant place to be. Although most speak a different language at home, the lingua franca is English making life easy. Some things are extremely cheap, such as public transport and utilities, others are painful, such as the cost of a car. Despite democratic appearances, this has always been a one-party state and will probably remain so in the foreseeable future. But the streets are clean and every restaurant is hiring. There's mucho-money to be made here and plenty of sparkly and interesting things to spend it on. Unlike Hong Kong, it appears one needs not spend out on visible symbols of acquisition in order to gain respect.
So which place visited on our travels is the best? It's hard to put a definite answer to that question. I suppose it takes a little while living in a location to get to truly know each place -Meself and the Memsahib don't know all of Hong Kong yet! And I suppose it takes a little while sorting out exactly what is wanted in one's life -a quiet, leafy, secluded location or the quickly-beating, sleepless heart of a city.
We return to Hong Kong to attend to important matters there. Traveling in this region is fun and need not be expensive. Hotels can be very cheap and the price of food next-to nothing. If this trip has taught me anything, it is that perhaps we hold too much value on keenly-held perceptions about ourselves, others, peoples and places. We're not all the same -vivre le différence! That we haven't joined the protests about silly and offensive films from America does not mean we are deliberately opposed to the values of those that have (even though it's hard to understand how such a film justifies such over-blown protests).
For years we have known that we are not and never will be building a business empire or striving for riches, even though it's been nice to have enough money to pay the rent and have enough over for dinner too. Many of the people we have met in these countries have shared those values: after all, if we are too busy working to enjoy life, then why are we doing it? We only get one shot at life and if we get to the finish line with an overflowing bank account, then only the bank manager and undertakers (and greedy relatives) are happy. Giving our life to work may please the boss, make our colleagues jealous and help pay for life's necessities and luxuries, but an hour away from family and friends can never be regained.
It's possible to live anywhere and have a contented life, but getting the priorities sorted may, perhaps, be the first and most important thing. The rest should follow.
