Edmonton Canada, Meet Melaka Malaysia

Our eyes almost fell out of our skulls when we saw this shirt in a market in Chinatown here in Melaka, Malaysia. Apparently our little town is famous! It seems Canada is all over the place here.
These buildings saw somebody not following instructions.
Which is something a good Melakan never does.

Watch your step, this is a Malaysian sidewalk.
Ok, enough jokes. We love Melaka. If Kelsey were writing this post, she'd go on and on about the history, and about how Malaysia was ruled by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British before it gained it's independance in 1957. And then she'd tell you about how Melaka was a very important trading hub as it was favoured by the monsoon winds between the India and China trade routes and was therefore fought over for centuries. She'd go on to tell you that Melaka has the oldest Chinese community outside of China, and that the traditional shophouses are so charming. She'd describe the sight of burning offerings (usually cardboard cars, food, or money) at the Taoist temples mixing with the sound of the call to prayer from the local mosque. Finally, she would lament the transformation of this town from historic trading port to quiet fishing village and finally to a modernized, "sanitized" tourist megopolis with air conditioned malls.
Improving the temple
Between shophouses
But she probably would fail to adequately describe the food, and what is travelling really about if not the food? Kidding. But food here is great. The Chinese in this region have a special style of cooking called Nyonya. I can't tell you much about it other than that it is really tasty. I'll admit, we haven't tried a lot of the seafood here, which is probably great if you're not from Alberta. Our favourites are the streetside vendors selling fried noodles with veggies (mee goreng), coconut rice with curries (nasi lemak), and freshly brewed iced tea with lemon (ice lemon tea). A full meal for both of us with drinks is usually about 5 bucks.

We're headed to Singapore soon for our last Asian destination of the trip.

T.

TA & KA in KL

Welcome to Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. We were in a hotel that put us right in the middle of all the cool things: Chinatown, Little India and Victorian buildings on one side and impressive high rises and massive buildings on the other.
It is the rainy season right now in lovely KL and we got caught without our umbrella. However, with only one smallish umbrella for the two of us, we don't fare too well in the Malaysian torential downpours anyways. We were only about 6 blocks from home, but we were WET instantly and the roads were ankle deep in warm water within minutes. It was AWESOME!
KL, like most of Malaysia has a mixture of architecture representing the different cultures that live there. Here you see the British built train station in white, that has a very Islamic influence. The trademark of Malaysia, the Petronas Twin Towers. They are the tallest twin towers in the world and are really very impressive.
Go Malaysia Go!!
Tyrn and I have decided that we are much easier to please now that we have traveled for over 7 months. These are the things that we no longer need, but would look for in a GREAT place!

1.) They have sidewalks.

2.) There is no need to have any signs about spitting.

3.) There is no need to have any signs on public urination/defication.

4.) The western toilets don't need instructions, and there ARE western toilets.

5.) There are traffic laws.

6.) There is hot water.

7.) The toilet isn't directly underneath the shower head.

8.) There is a BATHTUB!!!! (we haven't even seen one since Paris!)

9.) There is no need to say "as long as the cockroaches aren't IN my stuff, they are okay".

10.) There are no critters of any kind sharing your bed with you.

We love that we don't need all the spoils of home anymore, but I think we will definitely APPRECIATE them when we get a chance.

K

Threats and Intimidation

Penang is a really interesting place. It is the only city we've discovered so far with a Little India, huge Chinatown, and plenty of mosques, all mixed together. But, it's more of a potpourri than a melting pot; they're all here, but they don't water down their cultures. It's really more of a stew: each ingredient adds to the flavour, but you still have your potatoes, carrots, beef, and so on. (confused yet?)

Apparently the public transit situation in Penang has gone WAY down hill since the last time I was here 4 years ago. There used to be a blaring loud mini bus everywhere you looked and the main terminal downtown was filled with buses and commuters, and honking/yelling bus drivers. But something has changed because we've had to chase buses around the city when we're lucky enough to spot one. After a very frustrating afternoon of bus chasing, (I took out my frustrations at the arcade. See above.) we walked to the edge of town to find a tourist info station, where we were told that the buses have had to move their stops "due to the threats and intimidation". The police here are notoriously corrupt and such things are very common here. Yesterday we were stranded at the Botanical Gardens for 3 hours, waiting for and eventually chasing down this bus. It's official, Penang has the worst public transport of any city we've been to so far.

Kek Lok Si Temple

This huge Buddhist temple is built up in stages covering a small mountain.
It's a blend of Chinese, Thai, and Malay architectural style.
Unfortunately, the GIANT bronze Goddess of Mercy statue at the top is currently having a million ornate pillars installed around it, so to us it was just a big scaffolding tower.

Penang Hill

After a long hot walk from the Kek Lok Si Temple, we arrived at the base of Penang Hill. We took the 1923 Swiss built tram up to the top, 800m above sea level, which you can see from the top. The hill station was created by the Brits (meaning that they payed the bill and watched the locals build it by hand for them) so they'd have a nice quiet place to escape the heat of the town below. We also went on this canopy walk while up there, which was a thrill. We don't know how they built this system of walkways 100 feet off the ground.

Back in Penang

The food here is DELICIOUS!! Here we often get what the restuarant workers tell us to get. This time, curry chicken, some kind of spicy cabbage, and vegetable korma, with a few other unknown tasty sauces over our rice. Mmmm! And, we're sorry to say, the Indian food here is better than any we had in India. Go figure. On the streets there are hundreds of hawkers selling all kinds of Chinese, Thai, Malay, Middle Eastern, and even good ol' hot dogs for those less adventurous or homesick travellers. There is also your standard global fare, such as KFC but with a twist: they proclaim that all their food is HALAL, even their nuggets.

Penang at Night

The adventures never cease,

T.