Vacation Leg 1 - Melaka and Kuala Lumpur. Cities in contrast, bound by food.

Life's great when there are natural tensions. As a tourist, I always want good weather and clear skies. OTOH, every local dying of heat in a tropical country wants rain. If there's agriculture, people need rain. It's a healthy tension. Life's also great when you discover the truth behind modern day myths. When you have concrete evidence to bust an old-wives-tale you've heard for years, you feel good. I've felt all of this ever since I got into Malaysia on a cloudy rainy day. Sunday afternoon was depressing - I felt like a fool to have arrived into a tropical country during the onset of the monsoons, and for sure I wanted to go beat some of my friends who said I could come here any time of the year. So all I could do was whisper a silent prayer, hoping things would clear up. As it turned out, things did indeed clear up and we've had 3 days of almost clear, unblemished weather.

My greater discovery has been Malaysia. Malaysia is primarily an Islamic country and a model Islamic country at that. For ages since the emergence of modern day terrorism, the faith of Islam has gotten a bad name. Malaysia is an example of how an Islamic nation can be prosperous, peaceful and compassionate. For someone like me whose best friends have been Muslims, this is evidence to bust a modern  myth. Not that the jihadis do justice to their faith, but well every religion has it's villains and there's no reason to tarnish Islam for the work of some lunatics.

Anyways, l've had a great first couple of days in Malaysia, so let me tell you more about that.

Flying in - Our Hotel and Local Orientation
We booked ourselves into the Chinatown Inn hotel on Petaling street, a bustling street shopping extravaganza that doesn't let up till midnight. Getting here from the airport was no big deal. We were flying Air Asia, so we flew into the humble LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal). Getting transport from there was easy - we took a bus from the airport to KL Sentral (yes, that's how they spell it) and then we took the train to Pesar Seni (The Central Market) and then we just walked to the hotel.

I usually judge a city by the cost of what it takes to be a local. Transportation from the airport was cheap; just 8 RM ($2.50) as compared to Bangalore where a similar trip costs about $3.75. As soon as we got on the streets we were looking for food - our meal on the flight was measly, so we had to eat! So, we walked into a local joint serving Indian Malay food and we were done with a full meal for about 10 RM ($3.13). Cool, huh! Yeah, Malaysia seems to be easy on the pocket.

Location wise, we were in tourist haven. Chinatown boasts of great food options, cheap shopping at both Petaling street, the local wholesale emporium and the neighbouring Central Market and is a stone's throw from a lot of the tourist destinations. I strongly recommend that if you come to KL, you pick an accomodation in Chinatown to enjoy the real city. Our accomodation set us back by 300 RM (about $30/night) for three nights, which isn't bad at all.

We spent the first evening walking down Chinatown, trying to soak in the shopping atmosphere. I succeeded in making my wife avoid the temptation to splurge on the huge variety of garments, shoes, bags and jewellery on show. Chinatown's a truly Asian shopping experience, rivalled perhaps only by Bangkok's Lumpini Market/ Chatuchak Market and Delhi's Sarojini Bazaar. So if you're coming over, keep a few kilos of baggage allowance aside to take back some shopping.

I'd been craving to have some frog on my trip here, so we settled for an expensive-ish meal at one of the streetside eateries at Petaling street. When I say expensive, I mean expensive by Malaysian standards. Our meal at the restaurant, with two servings of steamed rice, two curried frogs and some stir fried shrimp, cost us about 40 RM ($12). Not to be deterred, I happily tucked into my meal and threw in some local mango ice cream as dessert. That was the evening for us; our next day was going to be long and exciting - Melaka!

Day 1 - Melaka
Melaka is one of Malaysia's most important, historic cities. A bustling medieval port, the center of European colonization for a few hundred years and subsequently the place of Malaysia's declaration of independence, Melaka has a prominent spot on most tourist journals as it does on mine. The little town is less than about 150 km from KL and buses leave every hour. If you travel to Melaka in the near future, you're likely to have to take the bus from Bukit Jalil, a make shift bus stand in the absence of the main Puduraya station which is currently under renovation. Anyways, it wasn't a stretch to get to Bukit Jalil. We got a bus from Puduraya, which incidentally is just a stone's throw from Chinatown. A 30 minute ride got us to the bus stand and we were on our way to Melaka.

At about 9 AM the bus (24 RM two-way ticket) trudged into Melaka Sentral, the city's main interstate bus station which isn't really close to the tourist hotspots. So, we took a connecting town bus, to get us to the Portugese Square hosting the historic Dutch Christ Church. From that point on, it was us hopping from one sight to another in Melaka including the Porta De Santiago, the Sultanate Palace, ruins of St. Paul's Church, the Maritime Museum, the Independence Memorial, St Francis' Church and of course the Menara Taming Sari (a.k.a the Melaka Tower). The tower surely was the icing on the cake as you'll see from this 360 degree panoramic photo I took from the top of the ride. The Menara ride is quite expensive by Malaysian standards though 40 RM ($12), is still cheaper than similar experiences in the west.

The food in Melaka was something to write about as well and not just when it came to the price. At 11 RM ($3.4) we ate all that you see on that tray above. Quite a lot for that price, huh? But as I said, the price wasn't all - the food was so tasty that it blew our minds. I strongly recommend the Jonkers 888 restaurant on Jalan Hang Jebat as the place to have lunch at Melaka. They are quick, and yet very crowded by locals which is always a sign of good, affordable food in a foreign land.

So, that pretty much ends the story of our first day in Malaysia, a visit to a heritage town, dotted by some amazing local food and lot of great photo ops.

Day 2 - Kuala Lumpur
Anyone who says there's nothing to see in KL is either out of their mind or has never bothered to step outside the tourist hot-spots. Kuala Lumpur is truly Asia's meeting ground in terms of culture. There's so much to see and do that a day just doesn't suffice. Let's just say we skimmed on the surface of this magnificent city. Now don't get me wrong - KL isn't huge. It's about a third of Bangalore's area and twice the size of San Francisco, so that should give you a notion of size. It packs a lot into that little area though -- food, entertainment, shopping and sightseeing put together. The fact that we were based out of Chinatown made a lot of the sights quite easily accessible on foot, so again that's a reason for you to stay there if you're in KL.

We had a packed day planned and I can't tell you what all we crammed in to get the most out of the day. The photos have got to tell the tale (when I manage to get them on Flickr). I will say though that I was disappointed by the Menara KL. 38 RM ($11) seemed to be a bit much for the very limited views from the observation deck atop the tower. Again, it isn't much when you compare it to the John Hancock Tower or a similar sight across the world, but by Asian standards it was too little to do for too much of a cost. Some of the places we saw/ visited in the day:

• KL Railway Station
• Central Market
• Meredeka Square
• Abdul Samad Building
• Masjid Jamek
• Masjid Negara
• KTM Building
• Museum of Islamic Arts
• KL Bird Park
• Menara KL
• KL Convention Center
• Petronas Towers

That's quite a bit to see in a day and by the end of it, we were craving some serious nutrition. So we made our way to Restoran Yousuf's opposite Central Market. Yousuf's is a popular nasi kandar establishment in the parts. The phrase nasi kandar, came about from a time when nasi (rice) hawkers would kandar (balance) a pole on the shoulder with two huge containers of rice meals. The natural evolution of that practice is the nasi kandar cuisine in Malaysia which gives root to delicacies such as Nasi Goreng, Nasi Ayam, Nasi Lemak, 'fish-head' curries, the breads and the various spicy sauces in Malaysian Indian cooking. A regular favourite happens to be the Nasi Roti - a light pancake tossed around and folded by hand before being shallow fried in a pan. Nasi rotis come in different varieties and I strongly recommend the Roti Pisang - a banana pancake. If you feel like something savoury, try the Roti Canai with some of the nasi curries. At Yousuf's a big meal for two can't set you back by more than 12 RM. Remember the name and if you need recommendations of what to eat, talk to me!

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I've thoroughly enjoyed my first two days in Malaysia, despite the rain. If the start is anything to go by, I can tell that Malaysia's a fairly complete Asian experience with all the influences it brings from Indian, Chinese, Indonesian and Thai cultures. I wish I'd planned more time in this country, though I do think I'm going to return here for my rejunevation leave next year. I still have a few days to go before I leave this country. Next stop - Penang and Georgetown!