On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, Jonker Street in Melaka becomes a night market. There are hundreds of vendors, plus shops set up cats out on the street to sell stuff. It is so lively!And unlike in Kuala Lumpur's Alor Street, we didn't find white people asking for money to fund their travels around the world.Though we were tired, we walked up and down eating random things and just taking in the sights. I love watching people! It was lovely.And then, it was time to head back - back to Kuala Lumpur and then, back home. In KL, we had a strange experience with a couple who seemed to be would-be con-people, but we didn't quite understand how they worked. We were walking towards Chinatown and the couple were headed in the opposite direction. The man had a phone in his hand and he had Google Maps open."Excuse me, can you tell us where we are?" he began. "I can't understand … [Read more...]
The Contrasts of Kuala Lumpur
I come from India, a land of contrasts, I know. I might once have been presumptuous enough to say the land of contrasts. I see so many contradictions everywhere that I should be used to them.I remember shrugging at French friends who asked me who would go to South City Mall in Kolkata to drink tea for 150 rupees when it is 1.5 rupees across the road at the tea stall. How does one explain contradictions to a baffled tourist?Yet, in Kuala Lumpur, I was the baffled tourist. Glass-fronted MRT stations and a slightly dilapidated monorail. Huge screens with ads playing at road corners, and tramps asleep on the pavement in front of them. Hutong in Lot 10, where you get street food and street smells inside a mall. Where does one even begin?We landed in the posh airport of Kuala Lumpur determined to see as much as we could while also sticking to a budget. A monorail all the way to … [Read more...]