Heritage Textiles

Although our trip to Malaysia was not essentially a "textile" trip, I did some reading on classics or traditionals specific to this area - just in case we stumbled on something grand, or even unexpected. As one might!  Forewarned is forearmed so they say!!  

Batik Sarong

Batik is a wax resist process of decorating cloth.  Essentially, hot wax is either drawn directly onto a fabric length with a canting, or stamped on, and then the whole cloth is immersed in a bath of dye. This process is repeated to come up with a final, multi-coloured product. The wax can often crack, giving the resulting fabric a crazed appearance.

Batik is considered the national cloth of Malaysia.  If you fly Malaysian Airlines you may have noticed the stewards uniforms?  Otherwise, plenty of sarongs in imitation batik were about in stores for souvenir hunters.  (For interest, imitation fabrics are generally screened, and can be spotted easily as both sides of a true batik fabric are the same).  I did come across a factory in Penang a few years ago where demonstrations of this technique were conducted for interested visitors. 

Kain Songket is usually woven by hand on a frame loom.  Generally, a metallic weft thread is partnered with cotton or silk warp.  The result is a rich and boldly coloured fabric highlighted by an intricate traditional patterning of gold or silver threads.  Production of kain songket is a traditional craft practiced in Borneo, Kelantan and Terengganu.



Kain Songket

Generally designs on both types of cloth are based on traditional Muslim patterns, with geometric or floral being popular, fitting in with religious beliefs.

This review is a bit basic. This was unfortunately not the trip to launch out to find production centres.  However, the Craft Museum had some lovely examples but I settled myself with a few little mass produced souvenirs to satisfy a shopper's urge. If you want more something more specific on techniques then head to your local library, craft museum or surf the web for a bit. Try this one for kain songket and this one for batik.

Port Dickson. Another day...

Penawar looking a little sad

After another day spent in KL, we were able to hire a vehicle and headed South out of a somewhat surreal maze of intercity highways.  First stop was Putrajaya, a new and remarkable city-scape.  Its planned boulevards, spacious views and designer buildings loomed large out of surrounding rubber plantations; feature pages in a designer home magazine perhaps but where were all the people? 

Malacca Straits

We took the old road to Port Dickson at Seremban, now a major centre.  The road, yet another toll, had changed a great deal - now modern and part of an interconnected highway system across the country.  Have the drivers' abilities changed however??  I recognised the nursery where I bought my chinese egg pots - none in stock today!  A chinese cemetery entrance had been cut away, the hill now gone, and a new development, once the tiny village of Lubak, now spread almost down to PD.

The old town looked familiar but many of the shops were new - even the Colonel has invaded.  The old market building was still standing but in a state of disrepair (could that have been possible?).  PD seemed less prosperous despite the many grand apartment buildings.  

Our search for Penawar was realised with a little local help.  A shopkeeper who had lived in the area for many years was able to guide us around the government buildings to the house.  A shadow of its former self, the house seemed smaller than I remembered; it used to be one of the most modern houses in PD (indeed, with european toilets).

The Port Dickson Club was next on our list.  We were happily allowed to see the grounds, visit the Yacht Club and take lunch.  After chatting with a long-time member/resident expat we drove on to find the Ming Court Hotel, now disappointingly derelict and dwarfed by endless monster-sized beach resorts strung along the calm, warm waters of Malacca Straits.

Port Dickson Yacht Club

After a final tour of the town (where had our Oceanic Supermarket gone?) we headed back towards KLIA and our stay at a more upmarket over-nighter where the "group" was to gather.  The road trip was exceedingly memorable; not only for me - lunch at the club came back with an appalling vengeance !   

Let me tell you however, the toilet stops along the way were immaculate.  On to our last overnight stop in Malaysia before joining our fellow travellers for the next stage of our journey of memories - Vietnam.

Malaysia to the Max

We hardly recognised the growing metropolis of Kuala Lumpur.  Well, it has been some time!!  But whilst some nations languish, Malaysia has advanced full speed and dare I say it, Sydney could use some lessons, especially in the art of people moving. 

PETRONAS Twin Towers

We had planned two days in KL with maybe a side trip to my favourite destination, Malaka, and a day to visit Port Dickson, home of the original Penawar and base for our 2 year stay in the early 80's.  Clearly, things were vastly different and we could only hope that many of the places were still around.  It's nice to revisit with the past, especially happy memories and I had been simmering for a return to Malaysia, particularly after recently becoming engrossed in Peter Carey's "My Life as a Fake".

The Monorail passed by our hotel so on our first day we used that as a means to orientate ourselves to the brave new landscape of KL, alighting at Sentral to source some touristy information...but with limited success  Not too many freelance tourists I guessed? 

We noted the KLIA express makes travelling fast & easy, and how smart to load your baggage in KL at the airline check-in rather than carrying it all the way to the airport! 

KL is one big shopping mall - a bargain hunter's paradise, I'm sure.  We decided this wasn't for us and headed for the stainless steel twin towers, this time on the light rail.  So faaasssst!  At the towers, visitors were only allowed onto the walk bridge connecting the towers and the daily quota was up, so we took a few snaps from outside and hailed a cab for the craft museum. 

The Craft Museum itself was closed, leaving a village of shops to explore. There was some exquisite weaving, batiks and painted cloth in traditional styles, but it was all quite expensive, cloth was generally made up into something and so, it all had to stay in the shops!

Maternity Hospital still going strong

We moved on slowly, caught in KL's famous Friday gridlock, to the Chinese Maternity Hospital. Again a few snaps and heaps of memories - the tree monkey was born here 24 years ago....  We walked on to Bukit Bintang - the distances seemed so much further apart in those days - to our old shopping haunt and the hotel where we stayed before moving to PD. The hotel was very swish now and the mall - well, full of shops and people!  Clutching a few beers we headed back to the hotel to spruce up before heading out to find the Coliseum Cafe.

At least our favourite Cafe hadn't changed. One of the waiters said he had been working there for 30 years (quite possibly in the same white shirt....). Captain Morgan, head waiter, preempted our order - why waste time reading the menu, right?  Large steaks were quickly delivered to our table on a very old trolley, the sizzling was added with a flourish and a flood of mushroom gravy. The room was misted up from hissing steaks and the ambiance was certainly very old Chinese KL (established in 1921).  I forgot to mention the bibs - better than serviettes   The steak was very good, thus keeping the Coliseum popular with a nice mix of patrons from the tourist, local and  expat community. 

Globe Silk Store

After dinner we walked up Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman and unexpectedly passed Globe Silk Store.  I really had gotten my navigation wires crossed.  In our day, it was "the" department store in Chinatown, although now somewhat dwarfed by its space-age cousins.  They had some lovely fabrics back then and regretfully I wasn't as much into patchwork, so no stash builders!  However I do still have a chinese-style silk blouse that I bought there in the 80's....and sadly no, it doesn't fit me any more!