Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
love and stars from my travels...
So I left Kota Bharu at 8pm, on the coldest sleeper bus EVER! Normally, a hoody and trousers suffice, but no! - The air-con was pumping out so much cold air, no joke, there was frost on the INSIDE of the windows! I barely slept all night... So i arrived at 6am, before daybreak and nothing was open. I was adamant not to get a taxi (public buses are normally a piece of cake + cheaper! Yes, even with a backpack the size of a small, ahem overweight child.) Except, i was to find public transport doesn't start running til about 8am... no bother, i ended up finding myself talking to some locals, primarily to a man who was returning home after working for some time in KL. I find that wherever i am it is always fascinating talking to locals, particularly finding out about their opinions on society and modern life and how it affects their culture... Here, there is a fabulous mix of traditions and cultures; particularly from the Indians and Chinese that came here for work and trade many years ago and ended up marrying Malays... Beautiful people, in a lovely town. A girl in my hostel was only supposed to be here for a day and a night and has only just teared herself away after an additional 3 days here! But that's what it's like, and it's really relaxing too... Even the hostel where i'm staying is lovely, the guy who runs it, Raymond - a Chinese Malay who has lived here all of his life is such a lovely man.. and this morning whilst we were sitting on our beds with our dorm door open, drinking our free-help-yourself-to-as-much-tea-and-coffee cups he came in to talk about the festivities we enjoyed in the town the night before [get to that shortly] and he sat down and the three of us were laughing away. It's not often you get that. So here, there's a positive clash of religions, a clash of foods; amazing foods at that! I need to get outta this place before i put on a half a stone! I discovered Mooncakes for the first time since China. Which i ate like they were going out of fashion; after finding my favourite kind in a little bakery in Chinatown. Afterall, no more mooncakes for me when i return home! I will try with all my might to smuggle some of these cakey-wonders out of the country! So there's archeological and foody mixes; influences from the British, Portugese, the Dutch.. to the Indian mosques and Chinese temples...
So what have i been busying myself with over the last few days? I've done all the touristy things and got my culture quota for the next couple of weeks in... There are 30 odd museums in this town and i have visited a handful of them. As intereting as they are, i don;t think i can see anymore museums for a while! Had some very interesting wandering abouts actually, it really isn;t that hard to get away from all of the families on holiday and the other backpackers; you just have to get lost on purpose! I found myself spending about 2 hours walking along the river amongst higgledy-piggledy, full of charm houses and businesses; i love observing the way families eat together... and i passed a father and son repairing their roof together, working like a team... In fact i was gutted i hadn't brought my sketch book with me, and instead drew into my journal as i sat along the peaceful river... i like to ponder about these buildingd here; some are obviously Portugese, british or Dutch in style, but others, some that are falling down, some that have fallen make me think about what era they are from. Who built them? Where did they come from? Europe? China?
One of the many places i've visited is the Muzium Rakyat Dan Kecantikan - The People's and Beauty Museum... It really makes you think about how the modern day is threatening the various traditions and cultures of the people here. There are Malays, Malay-Chinese, Indians, Chitti's (Indians that have adopted the Malay way of life) and also other veins of European influence... Other aspects of the exibition highlighted the past and present practises from all over the world - ranging from the scarring of flesh of tribes in Africa to the corsets worn by Visctorians in England, and also the rituals and old languages that are dying to make way for the 'convenience' of society now... A particular exibit; about the feet-binding of Chinese women was something i knew a little about but other than knowing it was a 'sign of beauty' didn;t really understand. Did you know they also used to bind the feet of some boys? Young boys who had their fortunes told and were seen as having an unlucky fate and were to bring this upon his family, were brought up as girls, dressed as girls and had their feet bound - in the hope that they would reverse his identity, thus reverse his doomed fate. Other boys also had their feet bound to play female roles on stage, and others merely endured the pain to fit into the 'beautiful' shoes which were all the fashion.
There was a whole section on the mutialtion of the body; [again] for beauty. - About tribes and such. My ignorance makes me interested to learn about it. And i could deal with the detailed descriptions; reasons were to enhance a good body feature; if a woman had good legs she would have them scarred, to cover and 'ugly' part of the body or to protect from evil spirits - normally with patterns or pictures and there were some gruesome photographs - I am not one to go queezy easily... however there were photos of newborn babies being scarred and that made me feel quite funny.
The following is an entry from my blog:
"It's Saturday afternoon and i am sitting on the balcony of a quiet cafe, looking out onto the street below and a little further: a mosque and muslim cemetry. just to capture the moment, as i am a level above the street, very few people are noticing me up here; so i can people watch to my hearts content! So what can i see? Well, a backpacker-couple have just walked down the road for the second time; i think they are lost... he is briskly walking ahead and she looking pretty fed up, following behind, hopelessly clutching her guidebook - Oh the perks of travelling single and alone! Now, do i feel lonley? - Which is the question too many people ask. Ask pretty much any other 'solo' traveller - any of the ones i've talked to, and you'll find the answer is 'No'. just becaue you're never alone if you don't want to be. Like now, i am enjoying this moment in life, contemplating the world - by myself, but if i want to talk to people, the best bet is to head somewhere with either (delete one of the following) locals or backpackers- usually somewhere serving food or drink, or both. A young Chinese couple walking down the road hand-in-hand... Oh the comforting familiarity of hearing the Chinese language. - Even though i can understand even less than i could back in Wenchang... (the accent is very heavy here and the pronunciation is different). But still, it's quite fun randomly saying a couple of words in a shop, as you get a jaw-dropping reaction, haha!
I wish i had my camera right now. [it was charging back in my room] because it's moments like these that will get lost forever when i leave this cafe. ... When the children are riding their bicycles home from school, and a Chinese lady laughing with her friends... the people walking home for dinner or going to pray... A man is pushing his wares on a cart to the night market... A tall 20-something Malay scuffing his flipflops along the ground as he carries some shopping home... And to think the only record of this moment is right here in my journal! And in the video of my mind! ... There are so many different rooftops... so many aging buildings - with so much character ... The breeze is causing ripples in the banana leavea opposite me..."
And back to the blog... Last night: after bumping into Angela (this crazy Irish 36 yr old teacher who had me in stitches every few minutes) we ended up at the centre of town just around nightfall. It was buzzing; people everywhere! Some tourists, but mostly locals, and more people were pourin in around the main square... a massive TV screen had bee erected, as had many marquee - which were packed with people. Lots of police and security. Last night was the night UNESCO made Malacca a heritage town. And Angela and me were right there in that little moment of history! A what an amazing spectacle - one of the best nights of my entire trip! We ended up hanging around all night; a great atmosphere; with 30 or so groups performing, all the different cultures and a great input from all ages; really tiny kids to grandparents, and as many men as women; lots of dancing and traditional music, there were drums so big the guy drumming was sitting ontop of the drum with other people pulling him! And I was particularly impressed with a group of 6 Tamil girls, no older than about 7 - dancing their hearts away - all in time, brilliant, and had the biggest smiles! Another thing i loved was the Kung Fu, which started with little boys Kung-fuing to music and then older ones came on stage til you had the most skilled 20 somethings showing their talent. it was immense and my writing can't do it justice! And on that note i will leave you. This has been a mammoth entry! Goodnight!
One of the many places i've visited is the Muzium Rakyat Dan Kecantikan - The People's and Beauty Museum... It really makes you think about how the modern day is threatening the various traditions and cultures of the people here. There are Malays, Malay-Chinese, Indians, Chitti's (Indians that have adopted the Malay way of life) and also other veins of European influence... Other aspects of the exibition highlighted the past and present practises from all over the world - ranging from the scarring of flesh of tribes in Africa to the corsets worn by Visctorians in England, and also the rituals and old languages that are dying to make way for the 'convenience' of society now... A particular exibit; about the feet-binding of Chinese women was something i knew a little about but other than knowing it was a 'sign of beauty' didn;t really understand. Did you know they also used to bind the feet of some boys? Young boys who had their fortunes told and were seen as having an unlucky fate and were to bring this upon his family, were brought up as girls, dressed as girls and had their feet bound - in the hope that they would reverse his identity, thus reverse his doomed fate. Other boys also had their feet bound to play female roles on stage, and others merely endured the pain to fit into the 'beautiful' shoes which were all the fashion.
There was a whole section on the mutialtion of the body; [again] for beauty. - About tribes and such. My ignorance makes me interested to learn about it. And i could deal with the detailed descriptions; reasons were to enhance a good body feature; if a woman had good legs she would have them scarred, to cover and 'ugly' part of the body or to protect from evil spirits - normally with patterns or pictures and there were some gruesome photographs - I am not one to go queezy easily... however there were photos of newborn babies being scarred and that made me feel quite funny.
The following is an entry from my blog:
"It's Saturday afternoon and i am sitting on the balcony of a quiet cafe, looking out onto the street below and a little further: a mosque and muslim cemetry. just to capture the moment, as i am a level above the street, very few people are noticing me up here; so i can people watch to my hearts content! So what can i see? Well, a backpacker-couple have just walked down the road for the second time; i think they are lost... he is briskly walking ahead and she looking pretty fed up, following behind, hopelessly clutching her guidebook - Oh the perks of travelling single and alone! Now, do i feel lonley? - Which is the question too many people ask. Ask pretty much any other 'solo' traveller - any of the ones i've talked to, and you'll find the answer is 'No'. just becaue you're never alone if you don't want to be. Like now, i am enjoying this moment in life, contemplating the world - by myself, but if i want to talk to people, the best bet is to head somewhere with either (delete one of the following) locals or backpackers- usually somewhere serving food or drink, or both. A young Chinese couple walking down the road hand-in-hand... Oh the comforting familiarity of hearing the Chinese language. - Even though i can understand even less than i could back in Wenchang... (the accent is very heavy here and the pronunciation is different). But still, it's quite fun randomly saying a couple of words in a shop, as you get a jaw-dropping reaction, haha!
I wish i had my camera right now. [it was charging back in my room] because it's moments like these that will get lost forever when i leave this cafe. ... When the children are riding their bicycles home from school, and a Chinese lady laughing with her friends... the people walking home for dinner or going to pray... A man is pushing his wares on a cart to the night market... A tall 20-something Malay scuffing his flipflops along the ground as he carries some shopping home... And to think the only record of this moment is right here in my journal! And in the video of my mind! ... There are so many different rooftops... so many aging buildings - with so much character ... The breeze is causing ripples in the banana leavea opposite me..."
And back to the blog... Last night: after bumping into Angela (this crazy Irish 36 yr old teacher who had me in stitches every few minutes) we ended up at the centre of town just around nightfall. It was buzzing; people everywhere! Some tourists, but mostly locals, and more people were pourin in around the main square... a massive TV screen had bee erected, as had many marquee - which were packed with people. Lots of police and security. Last night was the night UNESCO made Malacca a heritage town. And Angela and me were right there in that little moment of history! A what an amazing spectacle - one of the best nights of my entire trip! We ended up hanging around all night; a great atmosphere; with 30 or so groups performing, all the different cultures and a great input from all ages; really tiny kids to grandparents, and as many men as women; lots of dancing and traditional music, there were drums so big the guy drumming was sitting ontop of the drum with other people pulling him! And I was particularly impressed with a group of 6 Tamil girls, no older than about 7 - dancing their hearts away - all in time, brilliant, and had the biggest smiles! Another thing i loved was the Kung Fu, which started with little boys Kung-fuing to music and then older ones came on stage til you had the most skilled 20 somethings showing their talent. it was immense and my writing can't do it justice! And on that note i will leave you. This has been a mammoth entry! Goodnight!
- comments