Lewis the Lion’s trip to Singapore had been short but very sweet. After a bit of a wild goose chase to purchase his bus ticket, he had eventually found the Transnasional bus company. Here he bought his ticket into Malaysia to the coastal town of Mersing.
Lewis the Lion catches the Transnasional Bus from Singapore to Malaysia
After just an hour bus ride, he had already reached the Singapore-Malaysia border. He had to alight the coach which then met them on the other side, whilst he and Helen presented her passport to the Malaysian customs officer. His first impressions of Malaysia were positive as the words: ‘Smile, Greet, Welcome and Serve’ were displayed on the counter. After Helen had a fingerprint scan and then a bag scan, the pair headed for the toilets.
Lewis the Lion sees the Malaysian word for toilet
He saw the words Tandas with a picture and he realised how important visual clues were in a country where you don’t speak the language.
Lewis the Lion’s first trip to the toilet with Helen was a bit of a surprise though: it was a squat toilet with a hole in the ground and a shower head near by with which to wash yourself. Being in an Asian country, often people didn’t have toilet paper at all and so they would wash themselves instead. Helen made a mental note to carry toilet paper with her instead!
Lewis the Lion has his first experience of a Malaysian toilet!
As he got back on the bus and left the border control behind him, he noticed many flags lining the roads on the entrance into Malaysia.
Malaysian flags mark the entrance across the border
He noticed that there were two flags and wondered why?
‘Why are there two types of flags and so many of them?’ wonders Lewis.
He later learnt that one was the Malaysian national flag and the other was for the state of Jahor which he had just entered. On the flags he recognised the crescent moon symbol of the Muslim faith and he then understood that Malaysia was an Islamic country.
The Malaysian and the Jahor State flags
The large number of flags on display seemed to have something to do with the huge billboards of their leader who appeared to be an army general of sorts. Lewis the Lion later learnt that it had just been his birthday!
Lewis the Lion recognises that he is now in a Muslim country
Like Singapore there were many skyscrapers but these were interspersed with gold domes of the mosques and low lying green verges. Looking out onto the streets below, he could see many women wearing traditional Islamic dress with a veil.
Some of the buildings look run down
As Lewis the Lion kept his eyes peeled out the window, he thought that it looked like a country moving from being a developing to a developed country. Even though some of the buildings and roads looked a bit run down, there seemed to be lots of construction work going on.
Lewis the Lion keeps seeing the sign ‘Awas’ – ‘Watch out by the roadside
Like in Singapore, he also recognised the presence of some of the big American corporations: KFC, 7 Eleven and MacDonalds.
Lewis the Lion and the international 7-Eleven Store
However, he still passed markets and more traditional looking shops (which were generally two-storey buildings) and restaurants, including food markets that looked like the Hawker Centres he’d just been to in Singapore. Shop signs were written in a mixture of languages: English, Malay, Arabic and Chinese. He also noticed the use of many English words written in more phonetic form.
Phonetic spellings of English words are seen on shops
Can you guess what a ‘Farmasi’ is?
Similarly, he noticed a range of cuisines, particularly Malay, Indian and Chinese. Even the music on the radio on the bus was a real mixture between British and American artists mixed in with Malaysian and Chinese songs!
A ‘Petronas’ petrol station
Lewis the Lion noticed that Shell and Petronas were two of the most common petrol stations he saw en route. He knew that Shell was an international oil company and now in Malaysia the name Petronas struck a cord too. He then remembered that two very famous twin towers in Kuala Lumpa, Malaysia’s capital city, were named such. Maybe if he was lucky later on on his journey, he might even get to visit them?
Lewis the Lion passes fields and fields of palm tree plantations
More than anything the thing that made Lewis the Lion realise he was very definitely in a new foreign country were the abundance of palm trees all around him. It seemed very fitting in this tropical setting; after all, Malaysia is not far from the Equator and it kind of reminded him of the time he had spent in Ecuador, on the other side of the world in South America.
Lewis the Lion passes palm trees and banana trees of all types
He later discovered that palm trees were a very important asset to the Malaysian economy as one of their biggest exports is palm oil used in all sorts of products such as cosmetics.
Lewis the Lion enjoyed looking out the window as he passed by banana plantations, palm tree groves and lots of lush, dense forest. By the roadside, he could see people in makeshift stalls with wooden awnings selling a vast variety of fruits. There were coloured plastic bags hanging from the trees to indicate to passers-by that they were approaching one. Even though this too reminded Lewis the Lion of his time in Ecuador, there was a slight difference in that there were many people selling the spiky Dorian fruit. Lewis the Lion was glad to be sat on the bus rather than get too close to one of those stinky fruits! All of a sudden there was a torrential downpour of rain, fitting for a tropical landscape as it was quickly followed by the hot sun again.
After four hours or so, Lewis the Lion and Helen had arrived in the coastal , town of Mersing.
Lewis the Lion arrives in the Malaysian coastal town of Mersing
Being the only passengers on the coach who needed to alight there, they were hurried off the bus and as the bus pulled away, Helen suddenly realised that her phone must have fallen out of her pocket on the bus or the ‘bas’ as they called it in Malaysia. Oh no! What was she to do? The bus had already driven off so she quickly thought up a possible plan as the pair made their way to find a hotel to stay for the night. She was philosophical about the situation: if she was meant to get her phone back, then she would.
On their way, Lewis the Lion noticed many stray cats being fed at the bus station and then many colourful boats lining the riverside.
Boats line up along the jetty
A boat lies by the riverside in Mersing
There was also a Muslim prayer in the centre of the town blessing the Royal Highness.
A Malaysian prayer ‘Allah Bless his Royal Highness’ and a Malaysian saw
Lewis whispered a secret prayer of his own that Helen would be reunited with her mobile phone, otherwise they would struggle with their journey to their next location, Tioman, in the morning. Unbelievably, Lewis the Lion’s prayer seemed to be answered as when they arrived at the hotel, Helen calmly suggested that she called the bus company in Singapore to see if they could make contact with the bus they had travelled on. Low and behold they managed it and forty-five minutes later, Helen got her phone back. Lewis the Lion wasn’t the only lucky person on this worldwide adventure!
Have you ever lost something or left something behind in a place by mistake? How did you react? Did you manage to get it back in the end? What strategies did you use to try to resolve the problem?
