Penang Island is also known as the Pearl of the Orient, Gateway to the East, and the Isle of Temples. Penang Island is less than an hour flight from Kuala Lumpur. Penang’s Georgetown and Melaka were designated by UNESCO as the Heritage Cities of the Straits of Melaka in ten years ago. Georgetown is not a pedestrian friendly city. The historical centre has narrow streets and often one has to walk on the streets with traffic zooming by—inches away. By…
My elementary/primary school friend (from Grade One/Primary One)—took us to an authentic Malay lunch and then drove us around Putrajaya to get a glimpse of this federal administrative capital which was purpose-built in the mid-1990s. Everything here is grand: government buildings, monuments, public spaces. The city is a showcase of urban planning and post modern architecture—wide boulevards, unique precincts, ostentatious bridges, man-made lakes, large green spaces. Next door is its twin, Cyberjaya, where high tech and ex-pats/foreigners resides. Here are…
Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia and its largest city (population: 7.3 million Greater KL area), can be both fascinating and frustrating at the same time, amplifying everything to a higher degree—crowds, noises, vehicles, traffic jams, smells, heat. Public transportation isn’t as coordinated as those in Taiwan and Singapore. More concrete and less green too. Signs for public transportation are lacking or confusing and it isn’t easy to go from one place to another. And traffic jams everywhere. Not much…
Melaka came with over 600 years of history, beginning with the Malay Sultanate in 1400, followed by the Portuguese occupation in 1511, then the Dutch occupation in 1641, British occupation in 1824, Japanese occupation in 1942, and finally under the British administration in 1946 before gaining independence in 1957 (part of Malaya) and part of Malaysia in 1963. Its history and interracial marriages gave the city (UNESCO world heritage site) a unique East and West blend in local lifestyle, historical…
My uncle took us to the Satok Market, a Kuching weekend indoor and outdoor farmers market where all kinds of food are sold. And the breadth and depth of scale is an eye-opener—nothing in Canada or US can compare to it. To look at everything, one would have to take at least half a day. We didn’t have time to see it all—we covered only a third. So here are the photos we took: Cleaning fish for a customer
The DBKU Orchid Garden is across the river, just opposite the Astana. It is a bit of a hike from the hotel in late morning heat. What a pleasant surprise! Sometimes a garden in this part of the world can be disappointing, but this 15.4 acre garden can rival most orchid gardens in the world for its breadth (over 75,000 plants of 82 genera). And free admission. Here are some photos from the visit.
Our uncle and aunt took us on a Sunday ride in the countryside, going through small towns and villages, coconut, banana, and palm oil plantations, pepper (as in white and black peppercorns) and rice fields, and longhouse communities to visit my cousin and his wife in their rural convenience shop. Here’s the river ferry Another rural roadside stalls—they are everywhere on rural roads It is good to see how people live, how simple their lives are, how little they have,…
Kuching is full of interesting local clothing and accessories for women and girls. And they are cheap. Here are some of the photos we took:
So many changes, so many new things. Western food chain eating places (KFC, Starbucks, McDonald, Subway, etc) are huge and popular now. Sad to say that they are every where. Tougher to find authentic Sarawak food at downtown mall food courts; they are still around at street coffee shops (kopitiam) and in the suburbs. Extremely cheap and flavourful. Again, we are spoiled by our hotel breakfast buffet here (Malay, Indian, Chinese and Western) so we are often too full to…
We can go back to our places of birth but not to the past. Things constantly change and sometimes memories are what we have left. Unlike Singapore, we really feel the heat and humidity in Kuching(Cat Town, population: about 850,000), the steamy rainforest of sweats. It feels like being in the sauna. Fortunately we have rain every day we are here. Downpours for half an hour or two and then it’s done. Quite constant in its timing—usually between 1…