i'm in southeast asia with my 1913 bradshaw's handbook published at the height of european
imperialism my 100 year old guy book will leave me on a railway adventure
through archipelagos and peninsulas dotted with hills forests and paddy fields i'll tour
towering mega cities and magnificent mosques i'll encounter golden buddhas and jewelled temples
and experience some of the world's most spectacular and notorious railways as i travel
through the diverse nations of this vast region i'll learn how they asserted their independence
against the british french and dutch empires to become the economic tigers and dragons of today
i'm resuming my railway adventure in malaysia
i began in butterworth and traveled to the lush and fertile cameron highlands
before heading across country to the capital kuala lumpur
on this leg i'll continue southeast via pulau sebang to visit malacca once one of the world's
greatest trading ports i'll reach the tip of the malaysian peninsula as i finish in johor bahru
on my travels i'll taste the spicy mix of european
and asian food cultures my goodness that's good spicy for you wow it's great
now it's coming learn how the earliest railways were thwarted by their most determined opponents
the rail were made of timber and the the termites has attacked the timber and as
a result it just collapsed in home and savor the bounty of the fields they're so beautiful
i'm picking up my rail tour of malaysia from kuala lumpur
following by bradshaw's to the south of the peninsula
during the second world war japan overran southeast asia and the front line settled in burma
to supply its troops there japanese ships had to make the long voyage around the malay peninsula
passing through straits where they could be picked off by british submarines so japan built a railway
across thailand using asian civilians and british empire prisoners of war as labour
it became known as the death railway short of steel japan lifted tracks in malaya to relay
them in thailand and that explains why there's no longer a line to my next destination malacca
from the capital the closest that i can get by train to the historic port is pulau sebang
malacca was once one of the most strategic trading ports in the world it's at a midpoint of the
main sea route between the indian and pacific oceans linking europe and the middle east with
asia still today 40 percent of the world's trade passes down the streets of malacca which is why
over the centuries as my guidebook explains so many great powers have wanted to control this town
the portuguese held it till it came to the dutch in 1641 it has the remains of a portuguese church
it took a climb to get here but worth it the oldest church in southeast asia
it's a reminder that the british were far from the first europeans to leave their mark on what
is now malaysia portuguese ships first arrived in malacca's harbour in 1509. for the next 130
years it was from this town that catholicism was zealously carried to the inhabitants
and this is saint francis xavier xavier is my third name so i'm pleased to meet the founding
member of the jesuits who use this malacca as his base to launch missions all across southeast asia
along with their religion the portuguese brought to malacca their love of dance
it's a tradition continued by the christian community
who are the descendants of portuguese settlers and the malay women that they married
hey guys sarah nice to see you michael
guys that was such fun that was marvellous did you enjoy that as much as i did
and what was that song what was that dance the branu yeah it says here
portuguese settlement is it a portuguese dance yes it is traditional dance portraits
and where did you all learn the paranor where did you learn um from our descendants
yeah brought down from generation to generation what does the word
christian mean christian means christian yes yes and it's also the meaning of our language
is it quite like portuguese um similar if a portuguese person came here and
spoke portuguese would you understand them would they understand you he will be able
to understand us but we will not be able to understand him because of the pronunciation
now do we have one more song in us oh yes yeah what do you got bonita sierra series the very one
foreign
sarah tell me about the christian community how many are you we have about a thousand people
here about 200 families and how do you keep the language going you you teach the children yeah
i have a class which i have every saturday and i teach the portuguese dance i teach them singing
i teach them cooking it's all in in krista you mentioned cooking and i'm feeling
a little peckish what can we do about that all right when you come to my house i can teach you
the famous curry that we must have for every weddings every anniversaries birthdays
every in fact every function you must have this curry the devil curry or the table the table
it's known as devil because of the spiciness of the curry that's why it is called devil
devil curry is a blend of either pork or chicken with potatoes onions and
the various spices that indicate the diverse influences that make up the christian culture
sarah you have everything ready what have we got under here is this all portuguese influence do you
think or does it have lots of other influences too you see when the portuguese came to malacca
they did not come directly from portugal they would have stopped in goa and all that right so
these are the spices that would have collected from there since it's arrived in malaya did it
continue to evolve so does it have some malay in it as well yes there is some malay influence also
mmm my goodness that's cooked nicely hasn't it yes and now that you can put in the chicken
just put it on it's okay just throw it in
put it in the devil okay now just let it simmer again
ready
sarah i have not seen much bread in malaysia is this also part of christian culture yes
it is it is part of wisdom culture because we either eat this curry with rice or bread
and how do you eat bread with curry you just have to get a bread you stay a little bit
and then you dip in dip it in and put into your mouth eat so no knives and forks
no even if we have rice people eat with your fingers okay also chris tang custard yes very
my goodness that's good is it spicy for you no it's great
now it's coming see it hits you at the back of your throat
hmm that's fantastic the devil has all the best dishes yes he does
i want to find out about the period of malacca's history
when it became known to europeans as an exotic center of wealth and trade
from about 1400 the freeport of malacca rivaled venice in
the west teeming with vessels attracting crowds of merchants from across the globe
some of whom not only worked for profit but lived by the prophet
professor mohammed nasri nasir of the national university of malaysia
is an expert on how islam rather than catholicism became the defining religion of the malays nasa
i'm michael hi michael nice to meet you great to see you and what a beautiful city the first king
of malacca became a muslim in the 15th century changed his name to muhammad shah and his title
to sultan why would the ruler here want to embrace islam well you know the according to history uh
the the history that we have rulers were mainly convinced with arguments of the islam brought
etc but i think there's another reason for it yes the the reason for it i think has a lot to do with
the number of merchants that were coming mainly from the muslim lands
thus it would make a lot of sense for him to embrace islam will enable him to enrich
his country and reach his dynasty yes i'm from malacca islam spreads through the peninsula yes
the third king basically had the idea of expanding malacca's borders so he went about uh taking
lands uh or having uh treaties assigned with the different uh states which were later to become his
vessel states these are also places where a lot of the spices came from so it would make a lot of
sense for him to have treatises with these places so while doing that he spread islam these places
became islam and became muslim the islam that was adopted here in malacca was it exactly the same
as that which might have come from india or the middle east well yes and no in a sense i think
the islam in malacca was implemented more uh you know flexible yeah in a more flexible
way in order to accommodate the different uh types of communities that were there in malacca
that in those days during the time of malacca in the 16th century there were at least 85
languages that were spoken here that shows a lot of multiculturalism multi-religiousism
under the malaysian constitution islam is the official religion of the nation but all other
faiths may be practiced alongside it the government promotes the welfare of muslims
and supports islamic institutions such as this beautiful malacca straits mosque paid
for by the state and completed in 2006. and yet only about 60 percent of malaysians are muslims
how does the other 40 the including the chinese and the indian ethnicities how do
they feel about this so you get uh various opinions being set against the government
so the non-muslims are criticizing government saying that not a lot of attention are giving to
given to our our social well-being and the muslims are also saying that government is
not being islamic enough you know even giving all these things you know having a beautiful mosque
such as this is still not enough government is really in a very difficult situation
in a sense to please everybody and as you know michael you can't please everyone
i'm back on track headed southeast to johor baru this line is being converted from single
to dual track and electrified once finished in 2022 it should almost halve the journey
time along the southern malaysian peninsula between kuala lumpur and
to johor baru a half hours i'm breaking my journey at kluang home to some of the largest fruit farms
in malaysia according to the old guy book there are about a hundred sorts of fruit grown in malaya
the pineapple originated in south america christopher columbus encountered it in guadalupe
it probably reached here with the portuguese in the 16th century with tin pouring out of the
layer and with the development of canning the whole world could enjoy a slice of the action
it was the arrival of the railway and this station in particular around the time of my bradshaws that
linked local agriculture to global markets and it's also home to a slightly more recent icon
is quite a small place but if there's one thing it's known for its clang rail coffee
which has hardly changed since it opened in 1938 here alongside the platform at the station it
specializes in coffee and bread which actually are not staples of the malaysian diet their leftovers
from the colonial era it's always crowded and people are going through the food today like a
hot knife through butter the bread is grilled over charcoal and it is the toast of the town
i've come south from kluang to meet mr ho bao is a third generation pineapple farmer
mr ho yep pineapples this this is like a sea of pineapples there are pineapples as far as i can
see in every direction yep what did this used to be before pineapples uh or jungle yeah jungle and
these trees how many pineapples do you get from each tree okay one tree one paste and how many
per year okay one one one tree one piece a chocolate place three year two beast my goodness
only two pineapples every three years yep and then when the tree has given you the pineapple
do you have to change it or does this tree last forever cut pen ten a new one three
wow yep and these these look as though they're ready to cut how do you cut them
i kind of use the knife with a knife well i suppose that was a bit of a silly question
okay mr hoff
thank you
whoa well done
but actually harvesting pineapples is a weighty business oh this is getting quite heavy how heavy
do these get uh some people 50 kg 60 70 see the people very stronger strong strong yeah
here it is
let me see your knife that's a beautiful knife what's that made of rain lower behind
spring very good land rover spring yep it works pretty well doesn't it it's here
you want it yeah let's have a look at one that'd be lovely
don't try this at home
that's amazing that is so full of juice oh
of course i've never eaten a pineapple that fresh before just cheers
mr ho yep do we need to be worried about snakes yep
my journey will take me to johor baru which bradshaw's remarks is 15 miles north of singapore
with many attractions for european visitors johor an independent state but since 1885
controlled in its foreign relations by great britain i will investigate the highly unusual
relationship between the british crown and this sultanate at the tip of the malay peninsula
close to johor beru's central station lies the grand palace of the sultan of johor
my guide to the palace and its creator sultan abu bakr is gemelion this is the day one
the decor shows the mutual regard between the sultan and his chinese subjects
jimmy what a wonderful hall isn't it
if you look around here you see quite a lot of chinese character this is a gift from the chinese
community to the sultan and those chinese characters are words of wisdom sent in the
hall you can see the royal in sigma and that's personally designed by the late sultan abubakar
it's very very beautiful if you look around here i want you to look at that marble bus over there
that's the late sultan abu bakr the father of modern jehovah yes yeah
abu bakr was not born to be sultan he inherited a lesser title giving him command of the police and
army but he used his education diplomatic skills and interest in western ways to increase his power
he visited britain six times gaining the friendship of queen victoria and it was she
who promoted him to sultan in 1885 pushing aside the incumbent dynasty every time when the sultan
visited queen victoria back in england they exchanged gifts yeah one of the gifts that the
sultan presented was the albert memorial in silver and we have also a special bust of queen victoria
which has been displayed in one of the showcase here and most memorable is a letter that was
signed off as your affectionate friend queen victoria so an unusually close relationship
between a monarch and a monarch in one of her colonies southern abu bakr also developed johar's
agriculture and economy using knowledge gained from trips to britain and other western countries
he used his connections to maintain johar's independence
this sultan who liked to impress and had been to britain i'm surprised he didn't build a railway no
uh that wasn't true in fact the first railway line to be constructed established in this country was
built by the late sultan abu bakr and that was in 1869 recorded of course in the country the first
railway was 1885 but to be very frank there was an experimental initiative to build that railway line
to a destination called gunompulai and gunung pulai is about 600 over meters above sea level
which is about 50 kilometers away from the town and the british wanted that place to be converted
into a sanatorium where the british can take their weak ends and recuperate on that island but that
railway went failure because there was quite a lot of termites and and the the rail uh that that time
of course they were made of timber and the the termites attacked the timber track and as a result
uh when the train was put on to run 16 kilometers away from here it just collapsed in hole and
that was the full stop off that railway oh my goodness beaten by termites yeah that's right
abu bakr had achieved great things before he died in london in 1895 but by the time of my
bradshaw's guidebook his successor could no longer resist british pressure johar
like the rest of malaya fell under the authority of the british crown
although christian missionaries arrived in malacca nearly five centuries ago
islam spread through the malay population undaunted
with the help of sir frank swetnam by the time of my guidebook the british had established
political control over the malay peninsula when it was lost to japan during the second world war
british prestige was shattered and the union flag was lowered over malaya for the last time
in 1957. i've been surprised that colonial relics are not despised here malaysia
accepts a british legacy as a foundation for institutions which are distinctive and homegrown
next time in singapore i'll soak up the street art of chinatown i took 10 weekends to paint this
mural while working as an accountant you were not a professional artist then yeah i wasn't
now i am i'll visit the birthplace of a world-famous cocktail
hello guess what i'm going to order a singapore swing a single falsely
and help to keep the nation's orchids in bloom
isn't that beautiful it's fun
the corner shop at the heart of british neighborhoods for more than a century
join yard and family back in time for the corner shop starts tuesday 8pm on bbc2
you