With perfect weather predicted for the day, some friends I met in Melaka and I decided to take a trip out to the Kek Lok Si Temple. It's a bit out of town but well worth the visit. It's a peaceful temple with monks living there, so it's still in use. Sadly, though, it's also been turned into a tourist attraction with gift shops galore--and you need to walk through all of them to get in and out of the temple. While I found the mass commercialization and selling of tourist trinkets (not at all related to a temple of any kind) to be rather disheartening, the temple itself was wonderful. We climbed lots and lots of stairs and saw beautiful architecture, paintings, and amazing views of the whole area. We'd been advised that this was ... read more

When I was preparing for my trip, I had a lot of choices for Pangkor Island. It's not big, but it's big enough that it's best to stay near what you're most interested in. I was interested in seeing the nightly hornbill feeding and planned accordingly. I arrived at my guest house, checked in as quickly as I could and raced down the road. I was cutting it close, it was already 625 and the feeding started at 630pm. (To be fair, my gps had failed twice, I'd gotten lost somewhere in rural Malaysia where there's no 3G service, and then it decided to pour. I was rather pleased with myself when I managed to make it to the ferry pier in spite of all of this.) I shouldn't have worried, though, since the hornbills were ... read more

The Baba Nyonya museum and the Straights Chinese Jewelry museum are located close to each other, just one block off of Jonker Street. Both are well worth a visit, though the jewelry museum will probably be less crowded. The Baba Nyonya museum is in 3 old houses that are still owned by the original family! Baba Nyonya refers to a specific group of people in Melaka. Over one hundred years ago, Melaka was a huge trade port and over 80 languages were spoken! During this time, many men came from China (Baba) and married local women (Nyonya), resulting in families that still maintain a special culture to this day. One of these families lived in these three houses/museum. The family still uses the house for big gatherings, so personal touches are throughout the; it feels more ... read more

Every weekend evening, Friday--Sunday, Jonker Street turns itself from a quaint, historic area into an area teeming with life. Every inch of space is used by hawkers, vendors, and shoppers. I tend to like night markets to I decided to check it out. This night market is unlike others I've been to. It's probably the only one I've been to that isn't selling the same scarves (that I bought in Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam--because they're "unique!"), jewelry, or decorative paper lamps. It does, however, have a wide variety of clothing, toys, and my favorite, FOOD. (Okay, food at a night market isn't unusual.) I wasn't looking to buy anything except dinner, so my friend and I went from table to table seeing what was available. Some of it I'd seen before, but most of it was ... read more

When my high school friend said he was coming to KL for a few days I knew I had to make the trip to see him. My original plan was that I'd be on a road trip and KL would be a stop. But since my passport was at immigration getting shiny, new visa stickers put into it, a day trip was all I could do--no hotels for me! I took the bus rather than drive. I wanted to have as much energy for time with my friend as possible. I didn't want to worry about getting tired, lost, or anything else. Plus, since I'd never been to KL, this actually allowed me to relax a bit more and just focus on the experience. We met up at KLCC, or the Petronas towers. They're probably the ... read more