Résumé

Studying abroad is one of the best examples how time flies. We had the feeling that our time in Asia was finished before we could realize it. The time in Malaysia was one of the greatest times during our studies. We got a very warm welcome at the UiTM and we got the best “care takers” for any problems. During the semester we had a lot of sharing sessions, discussions, presentations, assignments and productive periods of time. We got a lot of experience and we also shared our experience to the lectures and students. Studying was not doing anything and often associated with a lot of work and enormous amount of time. As a reward for the tasks we travelled around Malaysia and the adjoining countries and we saw beautiful places, spots and sights. Travelling was equally with learning and a great welcome change in our daily life. Additionally to get confronted with new, cultures, people and religions was the best possibility to develop our knowledge of human nature and we experienced values and beliefs of people around the world. We got a lot of new friends in Asia and we are still very welcome in Malaysia. All people gave us the feeling of being home while we were thousand of kilometer away from Germany.

On the whole we would say that we had – the time of our life – and we look back with one's head held high. This experience can take us nobody away and it is one of our milestones in our personal development and education. We can recommend such a semester abroad in Malaysia to everybody who has the possibility to do it. Don’t think about it – just do it!

Thank you to everybody who gave us the possibility for spending half a year in Kuala Lumpur.

Thank you to all our new friends in Malaysia and spending time with us.

Thank you to all lectures from SRH and UiTM for the great exchange program.

THANK YOU – TERIMA KASIH

Cameron Highlands-entering the real Malaysia

Malaysia is a developing country and comparing with the whole of south-Asia, Malaysia is one of the countries with the highest economic growth. But beside the modern, western orientated development and the urgency to reach the status of an industrialized country, Malaysia has a wonderful and manifold nature. Nearly 60 percentage of Malaysia is covered by the rainforest and therefore can offer a lot of holiday places to escape from the hectic city life.

 

Another outstanding characteristic of the Asian tradition is the passion to celebrate drinking tea. The Cameron Highlands is one of the most important tea plantations in Malaysia and is a well-known holiday destination.

 

Cameron Highlands was on top of our list of places to visit as a way to explore Malaysia bit by bit.  We decided to spend an extended Weekend there and leaving the metropolitan home, the humidity and high temperatures behind us to enter a totally different side of Malaysia.

The first step was to find a way to get to the Cameron Highlands. For us as Students with a certain amount of money we tried out the possibility to go by bus. Its really cheap (around RM35) and depending on the bus organisation the busses are absolutely comfortable and the few hours to reach the point of your destination wasn’t a big deal.

After a few hours and a quite interesting driving style by the bus driver, we have to say that we feared for our life. Finally, we reached the city were our hostel is placed, called Tanah Rata.

 

It was a big pleasant surprise when we stepped out of the bus, because the climate is cooler as compared to Germany on a warm spring day. Tanah Rata is a small touristic “settlement” with a lot of restaurants and souvenir shops and one of many little towns in the valley.

During our visit at the Cameron Highlands we had so much experiences due to the variety of the sightseeing trips.

For us we decided to organize a jungle trip by ourselves and additionally to make sure that we don't miss any important places, we booked a standard route with a tour guide. The environment and the jungle itself was quite organized for tourists, so that anyone can easily find their through the impressive rainforest.

 

This was our choice and we went, without a specific way, just following a so called “jungle walk” with some coloured dots on the trees showing us our “route”. Sadly this decision and the fact, that we started quite late and it started to get dark during our search for those important way-dots, we almost got lost. So, do make sure that you prepare your route precisely.

In the evening, you can choose from a big cultural variety of restaurants like Indian food, Chinese food, Malay food and a lot more. As well some drinks are available to round off the day.

We thought that the jungle was quite impressive already, but the tour we booked really changed our mind further! Early in the morning the Tour guide picked us up with an old but exciting and durable Land Rover Defender and drove us to places of unthinkable beauty. We walked through the impressive tea plantations, ate fresh strawberries from a huge strawberry farm, and tasted honey out of raw honeycombs, getting in touch with butterflies bigger than our hands and stood on the highest point in this area overlooking the whole jungle.

The trip was an unforgettable experience as we saw the rainforest, learnt how tea was made and saw the beautiful sites Malaysia has to offer. We were completely impressed and lucky to have gone on this trip. We would definitely recommend you to visit Cameron Highlands if you are around Malaysia. 

Indonesia – Bali

After two months settling in Kuala Lumpur and one month studying at the UITM, we decided to do our first trip out of Malaysia. We decided to visit Bali in Indonesia – the island of gods. During our one week semester break, we started our incredible adventure to the island. We were very excited to see the island with its beautiful landscapes and beaches and thankfully we were not disappointed.

Our holiday was definitely more of an adventure trip rather than a relaxing beach holiday because of the transportation issue which was one of the only form of transport, known as the moped. Almost everyone on the island owns one of these mopeds and all the roads were crowded by people who transports and use the moped for everything you could ever imagine.  After realizing this, we rented some mopeds and this was our means of transportation for the rest of the week. 

We used our mobility and freedom on our mopeds to explore the whole island. Our accommodation was not located on the beach and so every day we selected a new destination for the day. We crossed the whole island with our bikes and we saw Bali from all its beauties and sceneries. We saw the cities, farms, rice field, beaches, mountains, villages and met a lot of friendly people around the island.

On the one hand we were really impressed by the beautiful countryside and landscapes and on the other, we met and talked to people who live and work in these places mostly under bad conditions.

We spent hours on the wonderful beaches, and relaxed for hours under the sun. We also enjoyed the ocean and had a lot of fun on the beach. Mostly in the evenings, we went back to our hostel with our mopeds and relaxed in our rustic-style pool with some food and drinks.

We also explored a really nice town of Ubud in the centre of the island. We walked through the monkey forest which was full of wild monkeys running freely around. We had a lot of fun in the beautiful forest because the monkeys were everywhere and they tried to get food and other stuff from us. We were confronted with some monkey “attacks” but all of us survived and nothing happened.

Additionally, we had another really special experience with water, but it was not the ocean. We would say, it was not only an experience – it was a really really wet experience. We were confronted on our mopeds with a really heavy monsoon for hours. Driving a moped through water in the dark was a challenge for everyone. Thank God nothing happened to anyone of us. Raining in Germany is nothing compared to a monsoon in Asia.

On the next day, we visited a cock fight competition in the backyard of a monastery. This was an event visited only by men and they compete with their trained cocks.

 

After a beautiful day on our mopeds we relaxed in the pool before we had our dinner. Here are all the Bali Adventure Crew Members after an eventful day.

Unfortunately every trip has to come to an end. One week after our arrival in Bali we had to leave Indonesia and got back to Kuala Lumpur to our daily life. We really enjoyed our week in Bali and we had great experiences on the Island of Gods.

BYE BYE BALI!!!