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...]
Sungai Melaka and Kampung Morten
I originally thought that the name of the river in Melaka was Sungai. I looked it up later, though, and discovered that 'Sungai' means 'river', so Sungai Melaka is simply Malacca (as it is still sometimes spelt) River.Especially as sleepy Melaka shuts down early on non-market days, the river cruise is a charming thing to do in the evening. It costs MYR 18 per non-Malaysian adult, and at another time, I would perhaps feel that it isn't worth it. In the mood that I was, though, the cruise was quite lovely, just how I wanted to spend a calm evening in a laid-back town.There's such a huge culture around pubs and drinking, isn't there? Pubs and cafes are so romanticised that looking at people sitting by the river and drinking creates a kind of yearning that I cannot help being amused at.In college, I disliked coffee - the smell, the taste and the cost. But it was a taste I … [Read more...]
Colonial Hangover
Taman Negara was incredible, and my mind is still full of the wonder of the forest. Yet, we did have to say goodbye to it when it was time to move on to Melaka.And Melaka was incredible too. A world apart from Taman Negara, I think it was the first city outside India where I felt I would like to live, and I cannot quite lay my finger on why. I know part of what speaks is my colonial hangover.What makes the red buildings in the Dutch Square reach out to me? Why do I find a little windmill charming? Why do I like all those bridges over the Sungai Melaka?Whether I admit to my colonial hangover or not, Melaka won my heart.We stayed at a lovely place, too, which added to the charm of Melaka. An old building that is a minute's walk from the vibrant Jonker Street, Da Som Inn is the first hotel I've stayed at that offers free coffee, hot chocolate, orange juice, cereal and … [Read more...]
Of long walks in the jungle
For the most part, I dislike treks. I don't think I'm lazy, though I cannot really be sure. I just don't like pushing myself up a hill, or feeling undercurrents of sympathy when some people don't walk/climb as fast as others. Sure, everyone is nice. People help other people out. It's just that my body is not convinced that it is worth it.Walking, on the other hand, is a whole different thing. A walk in the jungle is incomparable. Sometimes, at rough patches that require a little climbing, I am a bit of a scaredy-cat, but once I take a few steps, I love it.And that is why, on our first morning at Taman Negara, despite my determination to sleep in, I could not stay in bed. I lazed till about 7:30 and then, I had to get up. We made our way first to Lubuk Simpon, a place we'd visited the previous day. It's a sweet spot by the river where people apparently go for a swim. We … [Read more...]
Night Walk at Taman Negara
We read a lot about the night walk at Taman Negara before we left India. Most people said that it was a waste of time and money and that all you could see were spiders and insects.That did not deter either of us. Honestly, I did not expect to see an elephant in the jungle at night, and I cannot imagine why anyone would. Isn't a walk through the rainforest at night thrilling in itself?At every forest we've visited, we've tried to spend time with the guides listening to their stories. Often, guides tell different versions of the same tale, embellishing it and adding drama that I love. I'm never on the hunt for "facts" there; I'm just in search of a good story!Taman Negara was no different, but I couldn't help smiling at the anecdotes our guide chose to retell - for me, they highlighted how rare a 'sighting' is during the night walk."In 2010," he said, "we saw an elephant … [Read more...]
Canopy Walkway – Taman Negara
I'm always amused by how the concept of distance depends so much on where people live."The canopy walkway is very close, just about half an hour or maybe a little more." That's what we were told when we bought our 5 ringgit tickets to the canopy walkway. For most people I know, 1.8 km does not quite fit with the phrase 'very close'.We walked through the jungle, marvelling at the fact that we were there, feeling privileged to be in a place that is so old and so wild. As we walked, we promised ourselves that we would take our time, strolling and taking photographs afterwards - our priority was to get to the walkway before it closed. It was a Monday afternoon, so it was not even a day that was unusually crowded. Even so, there were still so many people there that we waited for over an hour. We put our names down in the list of people in queue, and then settled down under the … [Read more...]
Taman Negara – Part I
I don’t know how people decide what they want to visit in a new country. India, I would think, is particularly difficult, if only because it is so large. Does one do history-things, or nature-things, or things other people have talked about? Or does one simply go visit people one knows?In Malaysia, we had no idea where to go. It was not a country we’d always longed to visit; it was just accessible from Singapore. But where were we to go?Minimal research drew us to Taman Negara. We love forests, and Taman Negara is the world’s oldest rainforest, said to be over a hundred million years old.I just threw that number in there, so take a minute to process that.We’re in the year 2018. That’s a little over 2,000 years.Look back at history. How far can you go? Maybe back to the 16th century BCE? Okay, so add 1600 to the 2000 years of the Common Era.Be generous. Add 3,000 … [Read more...]
Malaysia Visa
Travelling is all about the stories you make, isn't it? Our Malaysia visas formed yet another story.We chose to go to Malaysia practically on a whim. Though the Scholastic Asian Book Award shortlist was released just a few weeks before the Asian Festival of Children’s Content, we were determined not to visit just Singapore this time round, so we began to look up places that did not require Indians to have a visa.Cambodia was on one of the lists we found, but it was practically as expensive to go to Cambodia from Singapore as it was from India.Indonesia. But we visited Bali just five months ago.Malaysia, just next door to Singapore, seemed a good option, even though we needed visas to go. It was an online process, and the visa, apparently, would take 48 hours to be processed. That seemed nice and safe.Yet, Singapore was our priority, and until I got an official … [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...]
Travel Diaries: Malaysia
Part of the joy of travelling is writing about everything I see. My diary has pages and pages of random things that strike me. I remember something I wrote about in 2004 when I went to France on an exchange programme. When we were checking in, we were told at the counter to preserve our ticket counterfoils because we would not see tickets like that again. We did not quite believe that random prints would replace the 'proper' tickets issued by airline companies.That was, perhaps, the beginning of all the 'impossible' things in my travelling life. From e-tickets and web check-in to printing baggage tags and checking our suitcases in ourselves to automated immigration processes ... I cannot even imagine what lies ahead. This time, what made me stare was something so random that I feel that writing about it simply will not do it justice.At Changi airport, close to our departure … [Read more...]