Part 2: Photo Walk in Kuah Focuses on Surprises

                               CONTINUED FROM LAST STORY

After we meet a woman who was getting a manicure on the only hand she has left after a crocodile ate the other one ( see previous post ), we walk down the street to an outdoor market.
A street in Kuah, Langkawi is suddenly transformed into a market. Peddlers set up tables with canvas roofs to sell their wares.
A Malaysian flag flies by a stall at the end of the street. It matches the building behind it. The exterior of the Baron Hotel is painted just like a Malaysian flag (top left photo).
We stroll down the street with pedestrian traffic only. It is lively with the colors of green beans, papayas, and bananas (top right photo).
We stop at a booth where a man is selling a remedy to alleviate aches. In small glass jars, dark herbs swim in red liquid.
On a bulletin board with Chinese characters, he displays photos of himself as a young trapeze artist in a circus. The man points to the photos, clenches his hand into a fist, punches himself softly, then rubs the medicine on the spot where he punched himself. I guess he is describing how the medicine cured him from injuries he suffered in the circus.
He offers me a whiff; it smells like Vicks. I buy the remedy; eventually I may have a use for it.
Next, we stop at a booth that displays JV whitening pearl cream, saffron sandal soap, and about 20 more products. Claims that they whiten the skin are written on their wrappers. I can read the English, but not the Malay, Arabic, or Thai on the wrappers. I ask the man selling the cosmetics if the products really whiten skin. He replies with a hearty laugh.
Some stalls offer ready-made Muslim-style hair coverings (photo above) and jewels to adorn hijabs for 1 ringgit ( 33 cents ); others display handmade straw purses, fez hats, fried chicken nuggets, and chicken curry.

Now we are determined to cool off for the day, so we head to the sea at the other end of Kuah. We pass billboards with photos of the sultan and sultana of Kedah (photo, right). We watch dozens of monkeys traipsing on electric wires.We carefully avoid open sewers that run next to some sidewalks (bottom photo). Sometimes, we step over sewers on cement slabs placed on top of them.
Finally we arrive at the Westin Resort & Spa. From the top of a hill, we see fountains, ponds, and pools cascading towards the sea (photo, right). We follow the water trail to the resort’s beach. Hotel employees offer us towels, mistaking us for guests because our skin is white.

After a dip in the sea, we swim in the pools. Then we lounge in the jacuzzi and sauna in the fitness center. We relish the balmy air, now that the temperature has cooled to about 75 degrees Fahrenheit. In the dark we trot home on a narrow, tile sidewalk, just wide enough for one person to walk at a time.
Suddenly, as I step on the sidewalk my entire body is jarred. For a few seconds, I don’t know what happened. Then I feel intense pain from banging my shins and a knee against cement. I realize I have fallen into a hole in the sidewalk, about two feet down into an open sewer. I feel the sewage covering my ankles. I notice that I splashed myself with sewage above the knees.
When I climb out of the hole, I am glad when I realize I am across the street from the ferry station. I walk to a bathroom in the station, dripping sewage and blood. I use a hose to wash my feet, legs, flip flops, and the deep cuts bleeding on my toes. The muezzin from the mosques chant the last prayers of the evening, broadcast clearly throughout the ferry station, “Allah ’u’ aqbar….”

I do not want to walk any more; now I am afraid of open sewers in Kuah. We go to the taxi stand at the ferry station and take a cab home.
The next day I review the sewer incident again and again in my mind. I am torn between feeling disgust at falling into sewage and laughing about the unexpected experience. I also find a use for the magic medicine from the market.
Story and photos by Carola C. Reuben, Earthy Reporter, copyright 2011

Parts 1 & 2 of “Photo Walk in Kuah Focuses on Surprises” are experiences fused together from different walks in Kuah.

Part 1: Photo Walk in Kuah Focuses on Surprises

 

 Let’s go for a walk in Kuah, the most developed part of Langkawi, Malaysia. As the camera focuses on characters and colors, we encounter the unexpected.

We enter the clothing section of Billion in Langkawi Fair shopping center where employees dress in department store uniforms, yellow t-shirts with emblems, their hair and necks covered with Muslim hijabs. Barely clad women in underwear advertisements surround them (photo, right). It is the only time during months in Langkawi that we see such a stark contrast to the Muslim ideal of feminine modesty.

Then we cannot help staring when we see 20 or so beds covering the main floor of the mall. People lie on the beds as shoppers walk around them to stores. The people on the beds are donors, giving their blood in a public place.

The white sheets on the beds contrast with the lime green tunics of teenage boys in school uniform swarming around them. Alongside the boys covered in shiny material, girls in red and black school uniforms, long skirts and hijabs, are also helping with the blood drive.
Earlier that day, the walk begins from our apartment building, Seri Lagenda Tower. We walk past the violet and crimson colors of bougainvillea. The flowers contrast with different shades of green; light green banana leaves blend with the darker green of palm fronds. With mountains as a backdrop, we head downtown.

As usual the lady at the fruit stand greets us, "You want banana?"

We pass a fruit stand, where we admire the rambutan fruits covered with fuzzy pink and green skins. The woman there greets us as usual, “Hello. You want banana ?”
Motorcycles whiz past us as we walk. So, be careful not to collide with them. Women wearing long skirts and hair coverings drive some of the motorcycles. Motorcycle helmets top their bright pink and turquoise Muslim outfits.
We are also careful to avoid stepping on garbage as we walk on the dirt next to the asphalt road. Mangled cans mix with dusty plastic bottles.



Charisse manicures the only hand a woman has left after feeding crocodiles

 A mile or so later, we reach Kuah Town, and we stop at Girls Beauty Fashion & Nail Centre, next to Bank Islam. There, Charrice greets customers in English, Malay, or Mandarin. Her grandparents fled to Malaysia during World War II when the Japanese occupied parts of China. She is a third generation Malaysian, but she calls herself “Chinese.” The country’s largest ethnic minority, 24%, is of Chinese origin.
Charrice wears a short print dress, blue contact lenses, and orange-tinted hair. She fills the small store with laughter as she attends her sister Ivy’s business. The store displays fishnet stockings, tops with plunging necklines, and bouncy, round mini-skirts, a clothing collection unique in Kuah.

Rows of motorcycles glisten in the sunshine in downtown Kuah

“Who buys these clothes ?” I ask. Charrice explains that some of her customers dress like Muslims by day, night clubbers by night. Some young women buy clothes from the store for a night on the town.  Our conversation stops when a customer enters to get a manicure on her only hand.
Earlier, Charrice had told me about her. About six years ago, just for fun, the woman decided to feed crocodiles a fish dinner at the Langkawi Crocodile Farm. However, an animal also ate one of her hands as well as part of her arm, just below the elbow. According to Charrice, the woman accepts her condition as her destiny. (For more about the crocodile farm, see story under older posts, “Langkawi Crocodiles no Longer under Curse.”)
As we leave the store, we take out our umbrellas to shade us from the sun. We are a mere 800 kilometers ( about 500 miles ) from the equator. It is about 86 degrees Fahrenheit and humid. Our light, cotton clothes stick to us. The women covered in garments from head to toe do not seem to perspiring as they walk past us. 

The statue of the Langkawi eagle towers over the Andaman Sea

Among the pink and green and mustard-colored buildings, rows of motorcycles shine in the sunlight. We feel hotter as we look at their sun-heated metal bodies so we consider heading to the other end of Kuah. Near the ferry station, we can enjoy breezes where the Langkawi Eagle, 12 meters long (about 39.3 feet), towers above the Andaman Sea.
Story & photos by Carola C. Reuben, Earthy Reporter, Copyright, 2011
KUAH PHOTO WALK TO BE CONTINUED FEB. 15

School girls volunteer for a blood drive in uniforms like those in this photo from Satun, Thailand