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

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