Hindu Ben?

So I walk into Sri Mariamman Temple in Penang (near the Thai border on the Malaysian Peninsular) and this guy grabs me and takes me round the temple lighting candles and burning stuff, dabs some of the resulting ash/paste on my forehead and then extorts money off me. Am I to be Hindu now? I hope not. After all, the Christian/Muslim/Jewish concept of some kind of universal mind willing the existence of every single sub-atomic particle in the universe is difficult enough to swallow and anyone who does is a deluded fruit-cake in my opinion but it's positively rational compared to some of the guff that Hindus have to believe in. Still the temple was nice and colourful with surreal statues all over the place. The way in which they have been painted reminds me of Games Workshop role playing figures which wont mean anything to most people I'm sure.
This temple was in a Little India area. Most of Malaysia is Muslim and as such it is quite hard/very expensive to get a drink. Oh those silly Muslim types...when will they realise that alcohol is the cause of, and solution to, all life's problems? Still, pleased to see that schools in England won the right to ban veils.
I have to say that I haven't been too impressed with what I have seen of Malaysia so far. It is even more expensive than Southern Thailand and there is no corresponding rise in quality of accommodation/food/services (except coach services) to justify it. You are constantly hearing about Malaysia's pride in it's status as an emerging developed nation and it's drive to speed the process along and all I can say is that they will not achieve that goal until they have a radical overhaul of their toilet and plumbing facilities.
Singapore is next. That is going to be even more expensive again but I will only be there for three days and at least I'm ready for that.