Malaysia – Railways & Jungles

By Rough Guy'd

27th July 2009 - After leaving the bustle of Kuala Lumpur, I decided that it would be fun to take the Jungle railway.  Other than the exotic sounding nature of the trip, it seemed to take me to parts of the country that I had always wanted to visit.  However, trying to take the Jungle railway from KL proved to be a lot harder than I thought and I ended up taking a bus to Mentakab with hopes of taking the train to Jerantut.  Arriving in Mentakab, I found out that there was effectively no train leaving and so I took the bus the rest of the way to Jerantut.  This part of the trip also helped to highlight to me that even though travel guides are good, they do go out of date incredibly quickly at times (my guide was published in Nov 2008) and sometimes it is easier to go with the flow.

Jerantut itself proved to be not very interesting and the best that could be said is that it wasn’t KL.  One night there was plenty for me and meant that I was up bright and early the next day to take a combined bus and boat trip to Kuala Tahan, the park headquarters and also the most convenient way to get to Taman Negara National Park.


This is the biggest rainforest in Malaysia and one of the oldest in the world.  The boat ride was amazing as it gave you a taste of a more rustic Malaysia where electricity is not the norm and herds of wild ox graze and drink by the water’s edge and was a perfect introduction for what I would find and encounter in the jungle later.  By the time we arrived in Kuala Tahan, it was lunch time and chances for going deep into the jungle (which was only a one minute boat ride across the river from the village) were over for the day so instead I had a quick lunch, booked a night safari and with towel in hand, went through the jungle based on some advice to go to a good swimming spot.

Though I consider myself a person not easily spooked, walking through the jungle solo (even if it was on a wooden deck two feet above the floor) is an intimidating feeling.  At times it gets incredibly dark (even in the afternoon) and the absolute stillness and quietness is unsettling.  My mood was not helped by all the signs stating that panthers were known to be around but not to worry since they didn’t attack humans in groups (I was alone).  All of this, I had going through my head even though the distance to the swimming spot was only five minutes at the most.  The swimming spot itself was a disappointment. 


One thing that I failed to realise is that the majority of Malaysians can’t swim.  As a result, anything classed as a swimming spot has to be taken with a grain of salt as most are probably safe for non-swimmers and in this case, it was only knee-deep.  Still it was a good chance to cool off and relax for the night safari I had booked later that night and that turned out to be quite the experience...

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Malaysia – Climate, Souvenirs & More Illness

By Rough Guy'd

15th July 2009 - With the wedding and the food feasting over, my time travelling with family was coming to a close.  The very last part of this involved me travelling with my parents and some other family back to Kuala Lumpur.  What I had learned so far from my trip in Malaysia was that there are two distinct seasons in the peninsula part of the country; that of hot and dry or hot and wet. 


The advantage of a country such as Malaysia is that since it is a peninsula, there are two coasts so any time of the year you can happily visit either side while the other side suffers lots of rain and humidity.  Because of this, I found out that now was the best time to visit the east coast of peninsula Malaysia, an area that I knew little about, and the best way to reach there was through Taman Negara via Kuala Lumpur.

One of the most difficult things to think about when backpacking is souvenirs.  While souvenirs are a usual part of most holidays, it is a different story when you are backpacking.  Each additional piece that you decide to carry with you is invariably going to be carried by you.


Over a few months, this additional weight gets more and more bothersome not to mention the difficulties of varying levels of customs and the chances of breakages.  This is why travelling back to Kuala Lumpur with family that were heading home afterwards was a very convenient situation.  Any souvenirs that I wanted to buy I could just pass back to my family to take home with them and being such a great shopping mecca (even for a guy), I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Though I did manage to enjoy myself in the capital both with family and without, I was eager to move on and would have after a couple of days if not for my cousin wanting to meet up.  Unfortunately, he seemed a bit tired and after a few days, he was diagnosed with Dengue fever.  One of the most dangerous diseases that you can pick up while in the tropics, this potentially fatal disease is caused by mosquito bites and most annoyingly, has no vaccine.  Your best bet is mozzie spray and crossing your fingers.


Considering that this was the second case of Dengue that I had witnessed (and both victims being locals), I couldn’t really argue with the dangers.  Thankfully he didn’t require hospitalisation but it did mean I waited in KL a week longer than I would have liked and picked up a cold.  It is at this point that I came to really despise air conditioners.  Though they do keep you cool in an otherwise stiflingly hot environment, they seem to be too effective at times and not enough at other times and someone always seems to turn it down too low.  From this point on, I almost always chose a fan room instead.  After recovering for a bit, I was finally on my way to more adventure.

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Malaysia - Food Heaven

By Rough Guy'd

12th July 2009 - With the wedding over and done with, it was time for the most important part of my trip to Malaysia.  The food.  Since I had been to Singapore, all that I had heard (and experienced so far) is that the food at the current place is good, but the food at the next place is better.  And so it was that when I went to Singapore, they were raving about the food in Kuala Lumpur.


The people in KL were raving about the food in Ipoh, Ipoh about Penang and then finally Penang back to Kampar.  Kampar is in fact is a lovely little town where the wedding was held and my family grew up there.  While I still think that of all my travels, some of the best and cheapest food is to be found here, for the average tourist or traveller, there is absolutely nothing here. 


There is a local swimming hole, a small creek through the town, cheap tailored suits and that’s about it.
In saying that, it was a good time to catch up with family and eat durian.  Durian is a bit of an acquired taste and most people will either love it or hate it.  The easiest way to tell is to get within a hundred metres of some.  Probably the only fruit that is universally banned from most hotels and public transport, the only way to describe it is as a creamy rich fruit, not too sweet with a surprisingly mild taste considering the smell.  I recommend to everyone that reads this to get past the smell and try it at least once if you ever head this way and see if you can tell why this is called the king of fruits.

As well as fruits, Kampar has some of the best cooked food ever ranging from icy desserts such as cendol to char kway tau.  Cendol is made from the pandan plant (like a Chinese vanilla) and made into small jelly like pieces and swimming in a sweet broth made with cane sugar and coconut cream and lots of ice.  At one ringett (about 40 US cents), it was a bargain.  Char kway tau is a Chinese-malay delicacy with working man roots.  Back in the day when mining was a big industry, most people couldn’t afford to eat meat but still required the nutrients to work properly. 


Some bright spark came up with the idea of stir frying flat rice noodles and using eggs and fatty pork bones to improve the flavour and nutrients.  Nowadays they use regular pork meat and prawns but most of the flavour has been kept the same, resulting in a tasty, filling dish but a bit healthier than in the past and at about 4 ringett, still pretty cheap for a freshly cooked meal.

While the food mentioned is only the tip of the iceberg, there are many other fine delicacies to try such as chee chong fun and the ever popular roti and all of these and more can be found all over Malaysia, not just Kampar.  Half the fun of travelling is going around to different places and trying new foods.  While some people may be more adventurous than others, there are different levels of daredevilry involved.  


For those with a more delicate stomach, trying the local fruit is always a good option and the fruit in this tropical region is some of the best, even something as ordinary as a banana is full of surprises over here with many varieties, different tastes and ways to cook them.

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Malaysia – The Wedding

By Rough Guy'd

10th July 2009 - Amazing what a good night’s rest (and a fair few meds) can do for you.  By the next day I was, while not completely better, able to function pretty well with most of the pressure gone and my stomach feeling a lot better.  As such I managed to meet most people and provide pleasant company at the pre-wedding dinner when most people gathered to meet the day before the wedding.


As we had had a family reunion a few years ago, I recognised and remembered most of the people there (direct relations such as first cousins) and many relations had come over to see the wedding from as far afield as Manchester and Taiwan and even from New Zealand.  My own parents were due to arrive as well but unsurprisingly, didn’t arrive until 3am the day of the wedding.

As I was recovering from my illness, a 3am wakeup call from my parents was the last thing that I needed on the day of the wedding and while I managed to sit and chat with them for a while and then join everyone for breakfast, I only managed to sit through the first part of lunch before I had to leave and rest.  As it turned out, I missed the entire tea ceremony.  I had sat though a tea ceremony before at a previous wedding so I knew a little of what I had missed.


The newly-married couple had to present a small cup of tea to all of their relatives that are older than them as a sign of respect and tradition and then in turn, receive a cup of tea from all of their relatives that are younger than them and as a token of appreciation, give a red packet to them.  While I am sketchy on the specifics or the reasoning, I do know that a lot of it revolves around tradition and respect for your elders and is also a way of showing how the two families are now bonded together as family is an important component of our culture.  All of which I missed out on this time as I was busy gathering my strength for later in the night.

The wedding dinner itself was an altogether different affair, at times a lot more formal than the lunch and at other times a lot less.  The attire for the dinner was a lot more formal and most people were more reserved but with none of the formalities associated with the tea ceremony and more random photo sessions.  It made me glad that I had some nicer clothes as well as the rough backpacker stuff that I was getting used to.


Also, it made me realise that my family is a lot bigger than I know as with over one hundred guests, I barely knew a quarter of them and yet I was related to almost all of them!  I learned later that the norm in Malaysia is that if both sides of the family live far apart, they just have two weddings with invitations to attend one or both as you see fit.

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Malaysia – A Little More Penang

***Firstly I'd like to say thanks to Pandora for firstly getting me to start writing all this down and secondly for letting me put this up on her blog.

Secondly, I wanted to advise all my readers that these posts are not current. They have been written up recently by myself from my deciphered notes taken at the time. This is why recently, Pandora had put up posts for me while I was busy making new stories up and had no Internet connection. From now on, I have put dates with the posts of when these happened. Hopefully this clarifies things for everyone.

Thirdly, thanks for reading all this. The entire journey lasted two whole years for me and while I have finished travelling for now, I hope to do this again and I'd love for all of you to follow me.***

By Rough Guy’d

29th June 2009 - Come the Monday, I decided to go visit the big temple of Penang. Probably one of the biggest tourist attractions in Penang, it is visible from most of the island (due to the fact that it is on a hill). While I had seen my fair share of temples so far, this one did impress me and not just with the size of the place.

The basic design of the temple was aesthetically pleasing but it was the picture within the picture effect that I appreciated more. What this meant was that when you saw the temple or a part of it from afar, it looked impressive but then when you got close to it, the panels that you saw and thought were flat were in fact hand-carved with images and contained a level of detail that meant you could have spent all day looking at the story they were telling you. The only downside about the temple was the level of construction work that was going on as they were expanding the temple even more.

The next day the entire family and my auntie that came with us to Penang took me for a tour of the city. I was very appreciative of this, not only because they took me to places that my guidebook didn’t mention but also because I didn’t want to be a nuisance to them.

One thing that I learned is that while you may be traveling with no real time limit in place, the people that you stay with usually have to work or go to school. So at some point you may overstay your welcome and it is always a good idea to move on quickly before that happens. It is better to leave a day early when they didn’t quite get to do everything they wanted with you than it is to stay a day longer.

So we went out to visit a number of the museums, churches, temples, colonial buildings and even an old graveyard around Penang, picking up a lot of the history of the area both as a trading port and how the city flourished under British colonial rule to the present time. It was a really fun time as this was one of the few opportunities where I was looking at these types of places with other people that were local and just as enthusiastic as I was.

Following the full day yesterday, I ended up having a rest day today with the only time I went out being when we went out for dinner. We went out to a fancy restaurant and had a local Penang delicacy that I can’t even name but could roughly be translated to fatty pork rice.

Despite the name, it was pretty good and after dinner, we went out to the night market and tried a few different snacks. As I’ve said earlier, night markets are some of the best places to go to for trying some of the local foods and Penang was no exception.

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Malaysia – Unexpected Illness

By Rough Guy’d

As my cousin and her husband had only just arrived into Malaysia, her parents (who live in Ipoh) decided to take her to one of the most famous tourist sites, the Cameron Highlands... This meant that with nothing else to do, I ended up going back up into its heights for the second time in a week.

While this didn’t sound too interesting it ended up being quite different from my last trip. Unlike the more sedentary pace of the last trip, this trip was more about trying to fit more into a shorter amount of time. Also this trip didn’t see us stay a couple of nights up there but rather drive up and down in one day.

As a result of the different attitude, we managed to see a lot more including a big rose garden, a butterfly park, the famous big waterfall of Cameron Highlands and a second and longer trip to see the Boh tea farm. Probably the biggest tea farm up there, it was quite a sight to see acres upon acres of tea plants all covering the steep hillsides with workers carefully picking their way through them to pick at the tender young tea buds that are used for making the tea we drink.

However as far as good points about this trip were concerned, that was about it. The first bit of bad news for me was a blockage of ears, most likely due to a change in air pressure as I went up and down twice so soon and my inability to clear my ears saw me unable to stand up due to the pain and wasn’t cleared until a couple of days later with the help of some anti-inflammatory pills.

Unfortunately I could tell that even after that, my ears were still not 100% and fearful of doing further damage, I decided against diving in Malaysia a full month later...

The second bit of bad news came from I suspect, the Muslim restaurant where we all ate lunch. The curse of the traveler had hit me and while this wasn’t the first time, it was a particularly nasty case and combined with my head, didn’t do me any favours. Though we came down and met up with some more relations at the nearby town of Kampar where the wedding would be held, I wasn’t good company to say the least.

All this and the wedding was only two days away. Morale of the story, don’t eat anything that isn’t freshly cooked and piping hot regardless of how nice the restaurant looks unless you have some very good preparation beforehand.

Thankfully both of the problems, though not clearing up properly, did manage to clear up enough for me to be able to attend most of the wedding and chat and talk with most people because it turned out to be a pretty good wedding after all...

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Malaysia – Frustrations In Ipoh

By Rough Guy’d

One thing I learned as I stayed at my uncle’s house in Ipoh after having come back down from the Cameron Highlands was that even though I was their guest from overseas, they didn’t seem to know what to do with me. Of course, I wasn’t the only guest as we still had two carloads of people staying over as well, some coming from as far away as Singapore, but in particular I felt a bit left out.

Though I could converse with them, they really didn’t seem to know what to say and moreover they seemed to prefer conversing to each other in a dialect called Hakka. As I couldn’t understand a word of Hakka, I was sort of left out of the loop.

Even worse was the fact that the house was far away from the town centre and there was not a single computer or Internet cafe nearby nor anything that I could walk to. As it was, I ended up hiding in the air-con room to get avoid from the mosquitoes as much as for the comfort playing on my DSi.

My increasing frustration over my situation must have been noticed by some of my relatives because after three days of this, I was finally given an out. My cousin from New Zealand was coming over for the wedding and I was offered a place to stay with her and her family.

I’m sure all the talk of my (very) numerous relatives must be slightly confusing so to keep it simple, the wedding was for my cousin on my dad’s side of the family, different to the relatives from my mum’s side of the family that I had been staying with thus far.

As well as being able to catch up with my cousin again after three months of being away, it was a relief for me to be able to finally talk in English again at a normal speed. While I’m not suggesting that people in the Asian countries that I’ve been to thus far cannot speak English, their level of English is still not the same as a native English speaker and many times, even to my educated family, I was unable to speak at my normal speed without something getting lost in translation.

The best way to imagine it is to walk at your normal speed and then force yourself to move at half of that speed. After a while of doing this, go back to your normal speed and you will roughly get what I mean.

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Malaysia – Cameron Highlands

By Rough Guy’d

My last full day in Penang so I took the time to enjoy as much as I could. One bit of free advertising that I will do is for the famous Penang coconut jelly. This was introduced to me by my cousins and it was simply delicious. The basic product is a young coconut with plenty of coconut water inside. The water is poured out and pasteurised in some way without adding any additional ingredients.

This is then poured back into the coconut and chilled and in the process the liquid turns into a natural jelly. Once bought, it can be stored in a fridge and when you eat it, you need only a spoon to scoop out the jelly and flesh. It’s relatively healthy (as coconut water is very nourishing) and very refreshing, which is great for the hot weather.

With that my time in Penang was over and the next day, I was off to the Cameron Highlands with a large gaggle of my family, including some of the relations who came up from Singapore. With three carloads of us, we made our way up to the natural cool mountain ranges.

While strawberries are quite a normal summertime fruit back home for me, over in tropical Malaysia, they are impossible to grow due to the heat, however the one exception is in the highlands where they grow all year round and many of the places up here grow and sell it all around the country. On our way up to my Uncle’s weekend holiday home/farm, we stopped off at a strawberry cafe.

Although I was happy to meet so many relatives and have free food and accommodation, having such a large group was not without its problems. With the ages of us varying from the teens up until the seventies, not everyone wanted to go out and do something and even though the following day saw us up very early, we didn’t get to leave until ages after lunch and by 3pm, most places were starting to close up. So while it was still a relatively fun trip, I missed most of the sights.

Another late the following day but for those of us with a more adventurous side (one carload of us), we learned our lesson from the previous day and we managed to see most of what we had intended to see including a strawberry farm, a cactus farm, what I described as Malaysia’s Lord of the Rings and we managed to climb a mountain in the car, going around crazy one lane roads around blind corners with a sheer drop facing those unlucky or unskilful enough.

Come Monday 6th of July, it was time to head down the mountain range and at this point, I parted with my relatives from Penang . Though there were plenty of other relatives with me, as I was to learn, it was going to be nowhere near as much fun.

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Malaysia – Penang

By Rough Guy’d

Come the Monday, I decided to go visit the big temple of Penang. Probably one of the biggest tourist attractions in Penang, it is visible from most of the island (due to the fact that it is on a hill). While I had seen my fair share of temples so far, this one did impress me and not just with the size of the place. The basic design of the temple was aesthetically pleasing but it was the picture within the picture effect that I appreciated more.

What this meant was that when you saw the temple or a part of it from afar, it looked impressive but then when you got close to it, the panels that you saw and thought were flat were in fact hand-carved with images and contained a level of detail that meant you could have spent all day looking at the story they were telling you. The only downside about the temple was the level of construction work that was going on as they were expanding the temple even more.

The next day the entire family and my auntie that came with us to Penang took me for a tour of the city. I was very appreciative of this, not only because they took me to places that my guidebook didn’t mention but also because I didn’t want to be a nuisance to them. One thing that I learned is that while you may be travelling with no real time limit in place, the people that you stay with usually have to work or go to school. So at some point you may overstay your welcome and it is always a good idea to move on quickly before that happens. It is better to leave a day early when they didn’t quite get to do everything they wanted with you than it is to stay a day longer.

So we went out to visit a number of the museums, churches, temples, colonial buildings and even an old graveyard around Penang, picking up a lot of the history of the area both as a trading port and how the city flourished under British colonial rule to the present time. It was a really fun time as this was one of the few opportunities where I was looking at these types of places with other people that were local and just as enthusiastic as I was.

Following the full day yesterday, I ended up having a rest day today with the only time I went out being when we went out for dinner. We went out to a fancy restaurant and had a local Penang delicacy that I can’t even name but could roughly be translated to fatty pork rice. Despite the name, it was pretty good and after dinner, we went out to the night market and tried a few different snacks. As I’ve said earlier, night markets are some of the best places to go to for trying some of the local foods and Penang was no exception.

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Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur to Penang

By Rough Guy’d

By Thursday I had decided to try to go to the twin towers again. Though I had seen them previously from the outside, I knew you could go inside and take a tour of the place and even go on the bridge that links the two towers together. To go inside them didn’t cost you any money but you had to get a ticket anyway due to limited numbers being allowed inside. By the time I managed to get to the city centre with my uncle, it was 10am and I was unfortunately too late to get a ticket. I spent the rest of the day visiting a travel expo as I planned for the next part of my trip after Malaysia.

Seeing as it was the school holidays and the Transformers movie had just recently been released, I went out and bought some tickets for me and my young cousins to see the movie for the next night. The movie turned out to be just what I expected and we all thoroughly enjoyed it, both my cousins, the maid and myself. One thing I learned about life in Malaysia is that a maid is not that uncommon. Many well-off families and even quite a few not so well-off have a maid.

They live in the same house as the family with a separate bathroom and bedroom for their use and they look after all the needs of the family, including cooking, cleaning and looking after the children. The cost of this is not prohibitive either and families are just as likely to have a car as they are to have a maid. After the movie, the kids decided on Tony Romas for dinner, a more western-type cuisine with ribs, pasta and burgers filling us up.

By Saturday, I went up north to Penang with my other uncle. He works a gruelling schedule with half his time spent in Kuala Lumpur living and working by himself and the rest of the time spent at home in Penang with his family. My auntie that came with me to the museum also came along and we stopped at Ipoh along the way for a delicious lunch of local Chinese delicacies. Of all my relatives in Malaysia, this family in Penang are the ones I’m most close to. My mum had always had a very strong relation to my uncle and the feeling was reciprocated by both him and his family. As well as this, all three of my cousins here were much closer to my age and I had always felt close to them and we spent a great deal of time catching up.

The next day was spent at the Queensbay shopping mall. Through a chance glance at the newspaper, I discovered there was an exhibition at the mall and other than the agreeable price (free), it was an opportunity to see something of cultural worth, pop culture that is...

It was an exhibition of Transformers through the ages and while not really the type of culture that I came all this way to see, it was still something that I was keen to look at having grown up playing with Transformer toys. It ended up being a lot more interesting than I first expected with lots of nostalgia but also lots of newer items such as the motorbikes from the movie.

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Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur City Centre

By Rough Guy’d

My first day in Kuala Lumpur by myself as my young cousins went to school and my uncle went to work so I took a ride with my uncle to the city centre and explored the KLCC. One thing that I noticed about the centre was the amount of dripping opulence that could be found here. While I look back fondly on my time in Malaysia with its tasty local food where a full meal costs less than a coffee at Starbucks, the area around KLCC was definitely not that.

Almost every large and over-priced brand from Dolce and Gabbana to Armani, this was not the type of place to be shopping for a young poor backpacker. On top of that, I was not particularly interested in buying things so it didn’t take me long to leave the area and go to the Chinatown area.

The Chinatown area I found much more interesting with interesting little stalls selling all manner of things and much more sights to see. I spent my time visiting the various mosques around the area and seeing some of the more famous landmarks such as Merdaka square.

The following day I decided to take it a bit more easier as following a thirteen hour walk in the hot tropical sun for most of it, I was a bit tired. As it was, I just took the time to walk to one of my auntie’s home who lived nearby.

On Wednesday, one of my aunties decided to join me and we went together to the Muzium Negara, or the national museum of Malaysia. While the museum was interesting, the thing I noticed the most was the distinct lean that the museum took on their history. This was something that I had picked up in Melaka as well and while I’m no historian, I could tell through their exhibits an underlying tone of racism or prejudice that extols the virtues of the native Malay to the exclusion of all others including Chinese and Indians and almost makes it seem like they are an unwelcome inclusion in this otherwise happy little slice of paradise.

This was not blatant in your face type of racism but from stories that I had heard from my own parents and their reasons for leaving Malaysian in the first place, I could tell what I was seeing. This is not to say that Malaysia is a terribly racist country or that it isn’t worth visiting, far from it, but this was something that I picked up. Going throughout Malaysia, I never had the sense of being an outsider (other than being a foreign tourist), with most of the prejudice aimed at their own people and mainly centred around their political freedom.

Coming back home early that day, we had hoped to go to the local night market. One thing I learned in Kuala Lumpur was that night markets were a nightly thing and massive but they moved around every night, with a big one in each area the same day every week.

This meant that if you lived nearby, you’d be able to plan to visit the local night market easily and if you lived really close to it and wanted to go out, then you’d be out of luck thanks to the heavy traffic. Unfortunately a heavy thunderstorm put paid to our plans and we ended up staying in instead.

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Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur Arrival

By Rough Guy’d

The journey from Melaka to Kuala Lumpur didn’t take too long and I arrived in the big city just after lunch. I quickly met up with my uncle who knew that I was arriving today as he was earlier informed when I was in Singapore. He took me around and showed me some of the sights including the Petronas towers, the twin towers of Malaysia that are connected together by a bridge so that they looked like a giant H.

We walked around a little bit before we headed back to his home to meet up with the rest of his family and my other uncle who came around to see me. After that we went to a hawker market for dinner. This style of market is different from other types of night markets that I had been to so far. The best way to imagine this type of a hawker market is to think of a food court in a shopping mall.

Every stall is selling something different and you walk between them to choose what you would like to eat before taking a seat at a table in the main area. The main difference between this type of food stalls and those found in a shopping mall is that the quality and variety is much better, there are no big massive lines and once cooked, they will deliver the food to the table you are at.

The next day, Sunday 21st of June saw us go to a shopping mall as I joined my uncle and his family on a family outing. While there, I discovered two of my cousins working and realised once again how little I really know about my extended family. On my father’s side of the family there are five brothers and three sisters, almost all with three children.

They are the side of the family that I am most familiar with as half of them live in New Zealand and there was a recent family reunion that saw me meeting up with most of them. On my mum’s side of the family I know much less with approximately eight sisters and two brothers. My youngest cousin is about ten and my oldest cousin has two kids of his own. Because of the vast differences in ages among other things, other than my mum and aunties, I am a lot more distant from this side of the family and I was looking forward to meeting them.

Lunch was at a fancy Japanese restaurant at the mall which for me was a tomato chicken and rice dish served in an omelette with bolognaise sauce. An odd combination but deliciously worth trying if you ever get the chance. Later that evening, I took the chance to meet up with an old friend, the girl that I had met in Bali earlier, and we took the time to catch up and have a good long chat.

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Malaysia – Melaka Hill

By Rough Guy’d

If there is only one noticeable landmark you see in Melaka, then that would be the hill. Clearly visible anywhere in the town, it is the home to Bukit St. Paul church and a must-see for anyone. As well as being the home to the church, the hill also has a collection of museums and other sights on its slope. This would keep me busy for the whole day as I walked from one to the next and by the end of the day, I still wasn’t done.

Personally I found these very interesting as they gave me a greater understanding into the history of Malaysia. As I mentioned in earlier posts, learning the history of a place is something that interests me. This is not because I’m a fan of dates and musty old places but because for me, learning the history of a place is an integral part of enjoying the place. Throughout my travels around South East Asia there was many times where I saw something that was comparable to something else in another country or place. After months of traveling around seeing things, you would quickly develop a sense of ho-hum like you were watching a movie again. It is at those times that learning about the history is what separates those places and allows you to really enjoy yourself.

The next day I woke up late and ended up having lunch with another guest I met at my guesthouse at a classic Chinese noodle shop. After this, I finished up my museum tour by visiting the maritime museum which is not too surprisingly, located right next to the river. The museum itself was broken down into different sections, with each section telling a different story from when Melaka was a trading port to the current military appliances that they use nowadays and part of the museum included an old sailing ship that you could walk into.

At night, I ended up going to the Chinatown portion of Melaka with my two Spanish friends and another new friend from the guesthouse. There was a big night market there with lots to see and so much great food and drinks available from the street stalls. As well as trying as many different things as we possibly could, we were also treated to a series of performances as various acts followed each other on a big stage ranging from dancing, magic shows and singing. It was all good fun and a great way for me to spend my last day in Melaka before I headed up to Kuala Lumpur and met up with more family.

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Malaysia - Melaka

By Rough Guy’d (*as Rough Guy'd braves the next chapter of his travels in China and Philippines, we wish him all the best!)

With my pleasant memories of Singapore behind me, I was looking forward to Malaysia. Though I’d enjoyed my trip so far, Malaysia is a country that I have fond memories of. Now, like I said at the start of my blog, I am from New Zealand and very proud of that fact. I was born and bred there but during my earliest formative years, I did live in Malaysia. This was because although I was a New Zealand citizen by birth, my parents were not and it took them some time before they were able to live in New Zealand long term. So as it stood, I lived in Malaysia for two or three years before going back to my country of birth. This meant that I had some memories of Malaysia. Most of them were of being hot all the time and the food which are some of the best in my mind. The rest of Malaysia, I was blissfully unaware of, and part of my reasoning for revisiting Malaysia was to learn more about it.

So it was that my first stop in Malaysia was Melaka. Two hours south of Kuala Lumpur, this town had a very rich history from the early days when it was a bigger trading port than Singapore to the many times it was captured by the Portuguese, Dutch and British to the signing of Malaysia’s independence from Britain in the twentieth century and I was keen to learn as much as I could. The whole journey from Singapore to Melaka took a fair while and I arrived after about nine hours and too tired to do much, especially since it was after 9pm when I arrived. One thing I did discover was that my choice of guesthouse was excellent and to all those interesting in visiting this town, I highly recommend the Traveller’s lodge. As well as being cheap and very cheerful, the friendliness of the other fellow travellers was very encouraging and there was a large communal area as well as cooking facilities.

Bright and early the next morning, I decided to walk to Villa Sentosa. This was as they called it, a living museum. To all intents and purposes, it was nothing more than a family home, just lovingly maintained in traditional style and filled with many things in it that made it a joy to visit. From the many artefacts that they have acquired over the years to the rich history of the family, you even get a personal tour guide from a member of the family to walk you through it and all for the cost of a voluntary donation. During the afternoon, on my way back, I ended up joining a Spanish couple that I had met the previous night and took a swim in the local swimming pool before walking around town soaking up the ambiance.

The interesting thing about the town was the combination of old and new that would not have been possible even ten years ago. From walking six plus kilometres from my guesthouse to the villa with no shade or even a footpath (you just walked on the road) to watching the latest Hollywood movie in an air-conditioned theatre in an eight storey shopping mall later that night, I was experiencing a side of Malaysia that saw two worlds collide and I was glad to be able to experience it all.

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Singapore, Round 2 – Pulau Ubin

By Rough Guy'd

So come the Saturday, we decided to go for another trip with a big group of people, being my cousin’s friends. This time the destination was a popular local island not far from the city but probably off most tourist’s itinerary. The island of Pulau Ubin is situated about two km northeast of the main island and has been referred to as what Singapore was like fifty years ago.

As always with a large group, we didn’t exactly make the greatest time and by the time we all managed to meet up and take the ferry across the water, it was already 230pm. The first thing we did when we reached the island (other than taking lots of photos) was to head to the tourist-catering village and rent ourselves a bunch of bikes. The best way to see the island is by bicycle and even the most unfit of us would find the cycling to be easy and we managed to see quite a lot of the island this way, including a short part where they built a thin cycling track over the water.

While cycling one of the many tracks on the island, we stopped off for some drinks and got the chance to meet the owner’s pet wild boar before we headed back to the main village to tuck into a nice seafood dinner. One thing that can never be underestimated is the Singaporean’s knowledge of how to prepare seafood.

The following week, I took the time to visit the science centre. While initially I wasn’t that interested to see it, I was told by my relatives that it was worth seeing. What I found when I went inside was that the place was big and very well thought out. What was most interesting was that the place was built not so much for academia in mind but the simple every day person and while this meant that you would never have the same amount of detail, what they sacrificed in detail they made up for by being user friendly and very hands on. Most of the exhibits spoke of cutting edge technology and many allowed you to try for yourself some of the ideas and theories. There was even some demonstrations put on so that you can see some of the bigger effects such as their working tesla coils.

Finally to round out the last of my time in Singapore, I went to an IT expo. The expo was held at Suntec city and was absolutely packed with people so that you couldn’t even walk easily. As well as seeing many big and impressive things for sale and demonstration, there was also a lot of smaller things and I bought for myself a very handy pair of noise-cancelling earphones that would more than pay for its cost down the line. Now that I had planned my time perfectly, I was free to move onto Malaysia without worrying about missing the wedding and still leaving me with time to do what I wanted to do the most, backpacking. Next stop, Melaka in Malaysia.

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Singapore, Round 2 – Changi Prison Museum

By Rough Guy’d

2^nd of June and I went to see something that I had heard a lot about. During the Second World War, the atrocities that were performed by the Nazis were well documented afterwards and many of us know how truly horrific those acts were but right up until now, I had heard nothing much about anything that happened in the Pacific area of the war. I had had a general idea how the war was fought but as to the atrocities committed, the only inkling I ever had was a simmering bitterness towards Japanese that I had experienced from my mum. Changi Prison Museum would soon change that.

Arriving at the museum, you could feel the solemnity of the place. While there were no signs that said to be quiet or to not take photos like at other museums, the mood of the place stopped you from doing either of those and for once, every fell in line and obeyed. 

The museum was very good at doing what it was trying to do and I could feel my heart being pulled out of my chest as I looked at more and more of the exhibits. The number of atrocities that they committed here shocked me as they explicitly said many things but also left much unsaid and hinted that Singapore might not have been the worst hit of the captured countries. It took me some time to fully understand why the Japanese behaved as they did and while I can’t look at Japan of the modern times as being the culprits as my mother is prone to do at times (she was from Malaysia so she experienced firsthand the occupation by Japan though she’s never told me anything), I can’t fully forgive them either as they try vehemently to forget about the past and what they did to other people, even going so far as to say that they didn’t do anything wrong.

From what I could tell, and this is only this humble author’s opinion, is that the main reason why the Japanese behaved as they did is the same thing that many people look up to them for, Bushido. The ideals of Bushido is not something I will go into depth in here but one of the main things about it is the ideal of honour and this is something that they take very seriously including in many instances the act of Seppuku. Seppuku is an act of voluntary suicide in which soldiers did this rather than be taken captive by their enemies. 

While not all soldiers did this, the idea of being taken captive alive and well was still seen by many as a grave loss of faith and they considered themselves to be no more than walking dead, which is exactly how they treated prisoners and countries that they captured. If you fell to the enemy, you were no better than a shamed honourless person, worse in fact because you didn’t commit Seppuku, never mind that you don’t follow the Japanese way of thinking. This invariably led to much unnecessarily rough treatment by the Japanese and is still a sore point between them and the rest of Asia due to their continued stance of saying they did nothing wrong.

At the museum, it highlighted many of the things that the Japanese did here in Singapore and how they converted the prison to a POW camp and while not one of my happy memories, was still a very important part of my trip. Sadly as I was to learn later, this barely scratched the surface of the ice...

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Singapore, Round 2 – Board Games & Borders

By Rough Guy’d

Thursday, 28^th of May and I was to learn a little more about the differences between Singapore and home. I went with my cousin today to buy some classic board games. Though these games are normal for many of the people here, I had barely even heard of them back home, so I took a keen interest in learning more about the games and then having a go at trying them out.

The first of these games was known as Chinese Chess. Though many of us in the western world are familiar with the game of chess, Chinese chess is played just as vigorously here. The game is similar enough to normal chess for a beginner to pick up and learn but there are various differences that make it an interesting alternative and is something that I hope to learn in greater detail at a later stage. The biggest difference that I noticed is the use of the cannon, a piece that captures by leapfrogging over another piece and capturing the second piece in the path. The piece that was jumped is not removed and as such can be either a friendly piece or an enemy piece.

The second game is known as Go and though we didn’t have enough time to play (the game apparently takes hours and is a lot deeper than at first glance), it is similar to Othello but on a much larger scale. As well, when you place pieces you don’t have to flip pieces with every move, making the strategy more about setting up your pieces. The other major difference is that not every spot on the board need be filled and that most games are already decided before the board is close to full.

By Sunday, I had decided to visit Johor Bahru (commonly referred to as JB) in Malaysia. Though my visa for staying in Singapore was not due to expire for quite some time, I had to stay in Singapore for a while longer to avoid running out of time when in Malaysia. Also it was a chance to join my cousin and his friends for another long-time Singapore tradition. The trip to JB is one that many Singaporeans take. It is conveniently close to Singapore, has a very good bus system servicing it and is another shopping option. As I quickly learned about Singaporeans, most of their leisure activities seem to revolve around eating and shopping (each stop on their MTR is supported by an impressive shopping mall nearby and there are additional shopping malls everywhere else catering to all sorts of budgets).

Unfortunately, as with almost anytime with a largish group, there were delays as one of our number forgot their passport and by the time we crossed the border, there was only enough time to muck around a bit, do a bit of light shopping and then head back, though the bus service proved more than adequate to do the job and meant the cost of crossing the border was the same as crossing to the other side of the island.

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Singapore, Round 2 – Parks, Bikes & Birds

By Rough Guy’d

With the weekend upon me again, I ended up doing another thing that very few non-Singaporeans would do. One thing I will point out now is that I ended up spending a lot of time in Singapore. While you might find this a bit strange like many of my friends that I made during my travels later, there is a certain charm to the city that I really enjoyed. 

Having family to stay with meant that I didn’t have to worry about the primary reason why most travellers don’t stay this long, namely the cost of accommodation, and because of this, I was able to stay as long as I want and I managed to see many different sides of the city not normally seen. In this case, it was the Singapore park connector.

Singapore has been trying to sell itself as the garden city for quite some time. As most people on the island live in massive apartment complexes with little chance of ever owning their own lawn, the government made it a priority to make sure that everyone has access to public parks. 

While this has been a success, the parks are invariably scattered all over the city and it was the government’s intention that there be a way to move from park to park without having to worry about vehicles and as a result, they came up with the idea of the park connector. Upon completion, this would give a place for people to cycle or walk all over Singapore, connecting the various parks around the place in a vehicle-free environment.

The concept was interesting as the idea of a safe area all over the city for everyone to ride or jog was appealing. So my cousin and I went riding a pair of bikes late at night (less traffic, less heat) and we met up with some other friends for a midnight bike ride. While the ride was overall quite enjoyable, the one thing I discovered about a midnight bike ride and especially on a park connector that wasn’t completed everywhere, is that it is very easy to miss something, such as a tree root. 

While this wasn’t a particularly vicious fall (or my last one during this trip), it was still none too pleasant but luckily the only thing that was hurt from me was my pride. The bike didn’t fare as well with the chain constantly coming off and cutting our trip short.

By Wednesday, I had decided to go to the Jurong Bird Park and I have to say, it was much more impressive than I expected. While you think that a zoo that only focuses on birds might have too limited a scope, it didn’t prove to be the case. The entire park was broken down into different areas such as rainforest and temperate lake, but the true highlight of the park is the feeding times when the keepers make it into a show, teaching you many facts about the birds and in some cases, letting you feed the birds yourself. 

As well as this, they also had shows as well so that you can see falcons hunting. The rainforest that was mentioned was also a walk-in one so that you can see the birds in a more natural environment. All of this went a lot way to making this park the most enjoyable of the three that I had been to.

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Singapore, Round 2 – Night Markets, Zoos & Cameras

By Rough Guy’d

Arriving back on Friday morning meant that I managed to spend the weekend with my cousin. It was almost like I had planned it that way... Anyway, so the weekend ended up being a nice relaxing one with the two of us getting to know each other better and basically spending some time together. It was just the two of us on Saturday but on Sunday we ended up meeting some of his friends and eating a local delicacy for dinner, claypot rice. After that we went out for a couple of drinks and I vowed to try the infamous Singapore Sling, a drink so popular even the locals didn’t know it existed. When the drink arrived, I felt almost embarrassed to drink it, being so fruity with a little umbrella served with the sweet alcoholic beverage.

After that we had a quick stroll through one of the local night markets. Now, if you ever get the chance to go, local night markets are where it is the most interesting. I’m not talking about the big gaudy night markets that are around that cater to tourists, where haggling is prerequisite to buying. No, what I’m talking about are the various night markets all over Asia that cater to the local populace, that sell inexpensive treats and little knick-knacks as well as fresh meat and produce (some of the meat so fresh, it’s still breathing). The main difference between the two different types of markets is that the local markets don’t try to push stuff onto you. You either want it or you don’t and as a result there is no hard sell and the prices are usually not worth haggling over (though it can be fun to try anyway).

After a boring (and wet) Monday, I went out to the zoo the next day. Even though I woke up early enough, by the time I arrived at the gates, it was already 11am (public transport may be cheap and convenient but it sure isn’t fast) and so my trip around the zoo was based around the three shows that they do at the zoo and overall I have to say it was a more than pleasant way to spend the day.

The rest of the weekdays were spent doing travel maintenance and clearing my camera of all the photos I took as well as making sure I had copies. I had heard from a cousin back home that most of her holiday photos were lost when she had her laptop stolen. To prevent that happening to me as well, I vowed to make two copies of all my photos (on DVD). One copy I would keep with me in my hand luggage bag and the other would be sent back home with an assortment of presents, letters and other things so that I don’t have to carry so much all the time and so that there would always be a second copy of all my photos.

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Bali – Dolphins, Airports, iPods & Lots Of Waiting

By Rough Guy’d

Woke up bright and early today as I had scheduled a trip to go dolphin watching. I had heard that it was one of the things to do in Lovina and is the most famous or infamous attraction depending on who you talk to and what day you went out. Still, as it wasn’t the main draw card for me to come here and a trip including breakfast only cost $7, I didn’t really care too much.

As it turned out, we struck out early getting to see yet another stunning sunrise as we sat in these little canoes, waiting for the dolphins to come in and start feeding. As the light progressively got clearer, we were treated to a sight of dolphins breaking the surf. Though we did get to see quite a few dolphins and I heard it was a good day, I had to say it was hard to very much as there was a fleet of canoes chasing after each sighting and you never got to see them too much unless they broke the surface.

The rest of the day I spent relaxing before I spent one more night drinking with my new friends before I headed back to Singapore the next day. My new friends took me back to the town of Kuta again where I could get a quick taxi ride back to the airport when. It was here that I lost my first piece of gear and one that I missed for quite a while. Somewhere between the hotel, my friend’s car, the bus office (not the public area) and the airport (under my feet), my Ipod went missing. To this day, I still have no idea how it went missing and my biggest regret involving this is that I haven’t been able to replace most of my music (it’s still on my computer at home).

The flight was scheduled to leave late at night and saw me arrive back in Singapore bright and early but not too early to catch an early train before the work morning madness. Arriving back at my cousin’s house, I was expecting everyone to be asleep as they were all night owls by nature but I was prepared as I was given a set of keys to let myself in. Unfortunately the set of keys did not include one that opened the chain on the inside and not wanting to wake anyone, I thought my aunt and uncle would be up momentarily to let me in.

So there I was, just back from Bali not having slept really for 24hrs or so, wondering why no one was waking up, getting more than a couple of curious looks from the neighbours. Eventually the next door neighbour who had seen me there on her way to do some shopping still saw me there on her way back invited me into her place to rest a bit better. By the time I got the nerve to knock loudly and wake someone up, I realised two things. The first was that my aunt and uncle were not in the house (they were staying elsewhere that day) and the second was that my cousin who normally didn’t finish work and go to bed until 4-5am was not too worried about me waking him up and was able to fall asleep faster than me, even after waking up. Suffice to say, I didn’t get up to much for the rest of the day.

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