Blogs from Melaka, Malaysia, Asia - page 3

"Malesia", pochi altri nomi suonano cosi' esotici ed accattivanti alle orecchie di un viaggiatore: terra di foreste, mercanti ed ovviamente pirati, vestiti grondanti di sudore e freschi cocktail sorseggiati all'ombra di una veranda, e che altro?? Vengo paracadutato a K.L., Kuala Lumpur, la moderna capitale di questa giovane nazione, una metropoli che sembra ancora cercare il suo orientamento tra monorotaie sopraelevate, metropolitane sotterranee, treni urbani e cavalcavia a 4 corsie, dove tutto a prima vista appare privo di ogni minimo senso; per fortuna mi viene in soccorso l'ambiente familiare di una piccola, sporca e scura chinatown, dove ritrovo un poco di quel disordine sensato che caratterizza questi insediamenti sparsi ai quattro angoli del pianeta. Ripresomi dallo sbandamento iniziale, comincio a girare per la citta' alla ricerca di un qualcosa che riesca ad attirare la mia at ... read more

Sarah: Penultimate destination: Melaka (or Malacca, one is English one is Malay...potayto/potarto and all that, but also not quite penultimate if you count Princes Street as the final destination but I'm getting pedantic with myself and will continue with the blog). We arrived here on Tuesday afternoon and were soon installed in our latest guest house. Our host spent a good deal of time talking us through all of the local restaurants and cuisines that we should try, the focus being on the local Indian grub. He was keen to know if the curry here is tastier than the curry in the UK. Apparently a lot of our fellow countrymen prefer Malacca Indian curry to the curry in England. Being blessed with several good curry houses in Reading and making decent versions of the stuff ourselves, ... read more

Let me preface this entry by reiterating how much we love living in Kuala Lumpur. Truly, we do. Jeremy and I both dreamed of one day living (if only temporarily) in some beautiful high-rise in an exotic foreign city. And, well...here we are. Twenty-three floors above a big bustling metropolis, with a view of the world's tallest twin structures right outside our wall-of-glass bedroom window. Seriously, it's awesome. And yet... There's been a little something missing, too. Malaysia is pushing forward so hard these days, striving to attain official status as a developed first-world nation by the year 2020. And nowhere stronger do you feel that push than here in the capital city. There's so much new development! New train stations, new mega-malls, new cars on new highways. They're not quite there yet, but they're definitely ... read more

My Melaka bus left from KL's new intergrated transport terminal, Bersepadu Selatan, situated 30 minutes south of the city centre. It's connected to Bandar Tasik Selatan LRT station via a covered walkway, and was only three stops from the closest station to my accomodation. So it made perfect sense to me to use the train to get there, which I did. The trip to Melaka passed quickly in another comfortable coach. Two hours later I stepped out at the Bus Terminal and caught a taxi to my accomodation for the next 2 nights, Heeren House. This guesthouse is situated in the heart of the Old Town, in Heeren Street, a street of traditional shophouses beside the Melaka River. Melaka is the capital of the state of Malacca and is conveniently situated on the west coast of ... read more

In mid-February my friend Christiane from Germany came to visit me. Of course there was a lot to see and do for her in Singapore, but we decided to go on a one-week road trip in the Southwest of Malaysia. The week after Chinese New Year was the perfect time for this because there would not be a lot going on in the office. However, it also turned out to be very difficult to rent a car for the trip. I wanted to rent a car in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, and not in Singapore. Driving with a rental car from Singapore through Malaysia is not such a good idea, the risk of the car being stolen is too high. However, in JB most cars are available only upon request. I tried various websites, asked my travel ... read more