Malaysia, Day 20: Kota Bharu

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Today I made a remarkable observation: The number of KFCs in Malaysia has the mosquitos outnumbered and it can only be a matter of time until Malaria is all but a faint memory. Yes, KFC as in Kentucky Fried Chicken. There are more KFCs in the whole of Malaysia than McDonald's, Starbucks', and mosquitos taken together. And in all of those KFCs you can see happily smiling Malaysians munching away on Super-Extra-Mega-Crispy Chicken.

In my opinion, it can only be a matter of time, maybe 1-2 generations, until Malaysia will have the same health problems as the United States. While this may not hold true for the lowest income classes, the more affluent middle classes certainly can be found in all those shopping paradises eating Western food like Pizza Hut's pizzas or KFC's crunchy chicken. In fact, the favorite food among Malaysia's youth is pizza, just like in the United States (1). One of the reasons why Germany has been able to withstand (to some extent) the consequences of the onslaught of fast food is that sport is widely practiced by the adult population. (In the U.S. despite a highly visible high-end, sport is much less wide-spread, with large parts of the population getting no exercise at all.) Here in Malaysia, I don't see any of that physical activity that might fight obesity.

On my walk around the city, I saw a guy selling a tiger claw (and other parts of the tiger). In fact, he had pictures next to the claw showing him with a dead tiger in the jungle. Actually, I'm not sure whether he was selling the claw or just the "Macho Man" condoms lying next to it. I couldn't figure out because he didn't speak English. While you can get along with English in Malaysia, it is way less frequently spoken than you might hope, and it takes patience to communicate and get what you want. In any case, Kota Bharu seems to be more rural than the other places I've been to. You can see live chicken ready to be killed for you (just like in Cambridge), or already dead and plucked chicken, or just their feet, if this is to your taste.

Yet another observation is that every second day in Malaysia must be a government-sponsored holiday. In strongly-islamic Kota Bharu, where the Muezzin woke me up at 6am or so (2), Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be regular workdays for banks and museums, but not today of course, because we have yet another holiday. This also meant that I didn't get a seat at the beaches where I wanted, so I delayed this until tomorrow, when Malaysian vacationeers return home.

The highlight of the day, however, was my first really tasty dinner. Until now, I had eaten mainly Chinese, and it was at best soso. Tonight I had Ayam Percik from the Yati stall at the Kota Bharu night market, and it was wonderful! Finally! I had been told so much about the great Malaysian cuisine, but somehow it had evaded me. Until now! What a delight.

(1) Taken from the New Straits Times, Friday June 7th, 2002. Which confused me, because I thought at least the Chinese lack a specific enzyme that is needed to be able to digest cheese. But maybe that doesn't hinder the taste?

(2) The volume with which the Muezzin's prayer singing is broadcast makes Swiss church bells sound laughable. Here is what to do if you don't want to hear it: Put in some earplugs, put over your ears some substantial headphones, put on some heavy techno, and put it on maximum volume. Any one measure alone won't do it, trust me. I think here is a lesson waiting about separating state from religion... In Switzerland, you could sue the church for ringing the church bells too early in the morning as some considered this unruly behavior in a residential neighborhood.

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