Seasoned

We're like neighbours separated by a fence called the Titiwangsa Range. While most of the limelight has fallen on the west coast states of peninsular Malaysia, the east coast sails along, its culture growing confidently without the bulldozers of development.

Guys in shades and dive-gear probably remember it more for the great beaches and underwater world, and perhaps visions of a tanned babe in a bathing suit. All that is true. But there is indelibly more.

In reality, Pantai Timur has arguably a more layered history stretching back to the glory days of Langkasuka and even before that. As with sands shifting, so did local culture; and what is this culture today? What are its values? Forget politics and the newspapers. Go there. Go there and feel.

Any novice interested in local history will find this stretch of coast over 450km a refreshing template as to how people work together, play together. Observations on my other blog: http://straits-mongrel.blogspot.com/2006/05/mute-and-salted.html