Quoting (Miguel Cruz) regarding Trip Report - Singapore / Malaysia in a message dated Mon, 06 Sep 2004 06:57:52
-0500:

mag3 wrote:
While you do see a great many women
wearing scarves, they're also likely wearing a t-shirt and jeans with it!
Little girls (ie. pre-adolecents) did not have to wear scarves at all but
just regular kid clothes. I did see some women in full burkas but not as
many as one would think. Most I saw were in the hotel restaurant at
breakfast time. They all sat in the far corner of the restaurant with
their children in tow (no male adults) seemingly segregating themselves.

Those women were probably tourists from the middle east. There are a LOT of
them in the summer; as it's cooler here than in the Gulf, and since Malaysia
is a majority-Muslim country, they may feel more comfortable being here and
telling their neighbors where they went.


Makes sense. The other place I saw them was in the big Petronas Shopping mall.
Have you ever tried to get into the glass elevator at the height of shopping time?
Talk about being a "needle in a haystack!"

One also sees the Islamic influence in the choices offered for breakfast
foods as well (ie. chicken" sausage, "turkey" ham) and "beef" bacon). The
"Other White Meat" definitely not permitted here!

Depends on where you are. In hotels - especially at the breakfast buffet -
they will usually avoid all pork products just to avoid any potential
misunderstanding (given language difficulties, etc.). But I just had some
delightful crispy pork for lunch at the Thai restaurant across the street.

That also makes sense. Perhaps I shouldn't have said "not permitted" but just
"not served." It certainly is appropriate to appeal to your more frequent customers
especially in the hotels. For those who wish to eat pork, the appropriate places
exist. Of course, not an issue in Singapore as Muslims are not their most frequent
customer.

At Chinese places, the first time I eat there, they will warn me if I have
ordered something that has pork in it (unless it's obvious from the name)
but after that it's business as usual - they seem to have very good memories
for pork tolerance. Sometimes there is a separation between the halal
(no-pork) and non-halal (yes-pork) vendors in food courts - opposite sides
of the aisle and so on. You can sometimes see that in Singapore too.


Well. if the hotels were going to the trouble of not offering pork, I would imagine
that the meats offered were at least halal or could be at least orderd as halal
upon request.

I still don't completely understand the alcohol thing. Far as I can tell, I
can walk into 7-Eleven and buy a beer any time I want (is there a cutoff
time here? I haven't run into it yet but I really don't know); far more
easily than in the USA where I'd have to deal with ID checks and complicated
blue laws. On the other hand there are a few "dry" states in Malaysia where
7-Eleven wouldn't sell beer at all.


The thing that got me was the "medication" thing. I went to those 7-11's (Watson's
actually) looking for some type of "Ny-Quil" for my cold. Nothing doing!!! I saw some
"Non-Alcoholic" Robitussin, but that's about it. In retrospect, I should have at least
gotten that, but no matter now. No alcohol in meds, and no pseudo-ephedrine
either!!! Sheez!!!

I have heard that they are not supposed to sell alcohol to Muslims but I
sure haven't seen anyone get turned away no matter how Malay they looked.
I am probably missing the subtleties of that rule (or it may not exist).

Do they "card" Muslims/Non Muslims as they do "underaged" looking
people elsewhere???

Anyway, it sure is nice to get a good old-fashioned trip report in this
newsgroup instead of off-topic political bickering (and I know I've been as
guilty as anyone in the past).

My pleasure. Altough, these days, *everything* is being politicized!! Even
Hurricanes (ie. Frances being "as big as Texas!") :-)



__________________________________

Regards,
Arnold.

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