Malaysia - Black and White Slideshow

I was at a local night market in Chiang Mai last night and I decided to convert the images to black and white. And suddenly it hit me, this is not a tourist journey, but a personal one. I went back to my Malaysian images and started converting more images to black and white and I think it portrays my journey better than the colour ones.

A first compromise

I thought that my tummy was better yesterday, but it woke me up this morning and I realised the situation is a little more serious than I took it to be initially. (This is definitely a Penang bug.) So I took a Tuk Tuk to the Chiang Mai Ram hospital and got checked up by a doctor. He gave me a course of anti-biotics, as well as Kaolin and oral rehydration salts. The anti-biotics course is for four days.

I actually feel fine and the doctor says that in general I am fine too. It is just that I have no control over my marathon tummy.

Well, I really cannot take a long bus ride or boat ride right now. The three day trip to Lao Prabang by bus and boat is simply fool hardy. I am staying a couple more days in Chiang Mai now and taking a flight to Lao Prabang on Wednesday. Fingers crossed all will be fine. Otherwise, I may take a flight home to sort this out. So unglam I cannot believe it! But I guess that this is not life threatening and in other respects I'm fine.

On the other hand, I found a really nice guest house closer to the river yesterday, and I hope to shift there for the extra two days in Chiang Mai. And the other thing is that I will be here for the first day of the Songkran Festival, the wet and wild one.

I had plan to take one flight while on tour in Mongolia. But it was not really a compromise because the trip from Singapore to London would have all been by land. This trip from Chiang Mai to Lao Prabang though would be the first compromise.

What to do? When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

RED means STOP

My initial plans for my travel through Asia was ambitious. After Chiang Mai, I intended to take a boat trip to Lao Prabang in Laos and there after a bus ride to Vientiane. Then I would go back to Bangkok, go through a relatively questionable trip through Cambodia so that I could arrive in Saigon in Vietnam. This is because I heard that the two day train journey from Saigon to Hanoi along the coast of Vietnam is beautiful. The snag here is that Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has just issued a warning against visiting Bangkok and other nearby regions because of protesting red-shirt supporters of Thakshin.

Hmmm… I am not a photojournalist, and this civil unrest does not attract me. I am sure that I have friends who are flying into Bangkok to cover this unrest, and I wish them the best.

So a week into my trip, I have to make a major change. Instead of going back South after Vientiane, I will be cutting across east to Vietnam instead. I can still can part of the train ride to Hanoi from Vinh. But this means that I will have quite a few days to spread around. Just as well, my tummy is still running faster than I am in Chiang Mai. So I will be taking a bit more time here in Chiang Mai, in Lao Prabang and in Sarpa. I guess the two day trip from Saigon to Hanoi can wait for another trip, another blog.

The distance I have traveled so far is 2113 km. I sure it is more because the tool I use has the direct distance between cities, but I guess this is not too far off.

Sleeper trains

It has taken me two days to get from Penang to Chiang Mai. I took a ferry from Penang to Butterworth and took the IE36 train to Bangkok. On the train were backpackers, Malays and Thais. The backpackers were the loudest bunch, talking about the places they have been to, the food they have eaten and the things they have done like diving and surfing. One British couple had a huge surf board with them. They were told that they could take it onto the train without any extra fee at Butterworth, but once we passed the Thai border, they were asked to place the surf board in an unsecured hole and pay an extra 150 baht fee for the board. They were issued a receipt for the money.

For most of the 22 hour trip from Butterworth to Bangkok, we sat on the train seats. But the seats were transformed into surprisingly comfortable beds by the train attendant. It was a whole load of fun, but bumps and rocking of the train, does make it more difficult to get a full nights rest.


Hualamphong Train Station

I got into Bangkok at 11.30 and went immediately to buy my train ticket for Chiang Mai. The train left at 6.10 pm and I had about 6 hours to kill. I went to an internet cafe next to the station to book my hotel in Chiang Mai and check up on email. The owner of the internet cafe asked me where I was from and when I said Singapore, he said it was a great city. And I smiled. And as he said, 'You want to live in Thailand?', two truck loads of red shirt protesters drove past the shop. 'No, I guess I would not want to be living in a place of civil unrest.'


Hualamphong Train Station

After squatting for a few hours more at the Black Canyon cafe in Hualamphong train station, I got onto the special express train 1 for Chiang Mai. This time I had a Thai artist sitting opposite me. His name is Meng Kai. He was furiously doodling on any surface that had space for him to draw on. He told me that he knows a Singaporean artist living in Bangkok, Joseph Ng. The world seems small. We talked about pop art, Japan and architecture. He does not like Frank Gehry but prefers the simple lines of Endo.

Next to us is traveling a family of a Thai woman with American accented son and daughter. Her traveling companion was a bald headed Sri Lankan gentleman that engaged in conversation with Meng Kai and I by calling us brother.



On these long train rides, the landscape changes, some times rice fields, sometimes palm trees, sometimes, coming close to Chiang Mai, a sparse forest reminding me of the title of a book I read years ago, the Stik of Stik. And whether in small towns or big cities, what is obvious is humanity, unglossed, stoic, living in spite of the circumstance.

For me I am traveling in spite of myself. I had a mild cold just before I left Singapore and a remnant cough continued to follow me to Chiang Mai. More disturbing is that I must have eaten something bad in Penang, and my stomach has been gradually getting more upset. I thought that if I just let it be it would resolve itself. But it has not.

So I got into Chiang early this morning, at 7.45 am and checked into my hotel. I have spent the day in bed eating the medicine my father bought for me in Singapore. Fortunately, I took this opportunity to finish off the book, 'A Fortune-Teller Told Me' by Tiziano Terzani. I had already read 'The Great Train Bazaar' by Paul Theoroux before I left Singapore and although an easy read, I found it a little dry. Terzani's book was much more of a personal journey, insightful into the politics and nature of the places he visited.

I hope that I will be in shape to take the boat ride to Lao Prabang in three days time.

A tourist in Penang

I played tourist in Penang, and it was nice. I did not try very hard to search out hidden secrets, but went with the tourist flow, sitting on a rickshaw and being taken to famous temples and Peranakan homes. And yes, eating well all the way. You can see that the 'modern' world is encroaching on life, but there is still plenty of charm left in Penang.

It strikes me that the scale of George Town Penang, is small, but its aspirations are the same as people all over the world. So many people want to be healthy, wealthy and somehow avoid death. But if you cannot avoid death, let's home that the living relatives will send pleasures like cars and mansions and soft drinks to the other side by burning paper representations of them.

Are we all just searching for other things that we do not know? We are bound by our circumstances, and we try so hard to manipulate it. When our little human efforts have their limited little effects, we pray for higher intervention. We make offerings to figures, hoping that someone else or something else will perform a miracle for us.

I may not have the faith that many people have, I believe in living. This trip is a pilgrimage to life. Taking photos is part of my meditation. Perhaps this act is like that of circling a sacred monument, perhaps it will bring salvation. Or perhaps the moment is perfect, but I am simply too blind to see it.

The first stop on my long journey was very nice and I want to come back to visit Penang again. I do hope that this bodes well for the rest of my trip.


Kuan Yin Temple


Kuan Yin Temple


Altar in a tree outside Kuan Yin Temple


A Hindu altar outside the Kuan Yin Temple


Altar outside the Kuan Yin Temple


Khoo Kingsi Clan House - Part clan house, part religious temple


Khoo Kingsi Clan House


Khoo Kingsi Clan House - Ancestral tablets and a reminder of the inevitable


Hock Teik Cheng Sin Temple


Offerings for the dead,Lebuh Carnavon


Altar at the Chew Village by the sea


A relatively modern dream, already cast aside

Pigging out in Penang

I do not know anyone in Penang. I wanted to come to this town where I have heard so much about but have never really visited, but this is the town where Shin, who was my studio manager for a while, was born and raised. Shin is living in Chicago right now but she asked her sister to take me out and feed me. And what a day it has been. Shin's uncle has the most outstanding Hokkien Mee I have ever eaten. It is thick and full of pork lard. And the Penang Char Kway Teow was great too.

During breakfast I learnt that Shin's grandmother had a shop that sold noodles. Shin's parents ran a restaurant in Penang. And now Shin's mum owns stores selling food in Camden, London. And of course, it makes sense that Shin is married to a chef. It's all in the family.


This is the incredibly rich Hokkien Mee.


And this is Shin's uncle who loves his Hokkien Mee.

After this rich meal I visited a Buddhist temple that Shin's grandmother used to go to because Shin's mother was there. I guess that I will visit Shin's mum in Camden when I get to London. Something to look forward too.



I spent the afternoon exploring George Town. But in the evening, Shin's sister came and took be out for another treat! Nonya food. And before you say we have that in Singapore, we do not. I had inche kabin tonight, which I have not had in years! And there was Roti Barbi and Choon Peah which I have never ever eaten before. This wonderful food is really unique!! The otak is pretty good too.



What a day of eating. Penang is defintely worth an eating trip by itself.

Good Bye Singapore

Good morning Singapore. A taxi drive named Gua Chee Leong took me to the train station. The first thing he said when I got into the taxi was 'To the airport?'. I clarified that I wanted to go to the train station and he was saying that not many people go to the train station nowadays. A bit sad. It is a beautiful station.


Samantha came down to send me off. But it was very early, 6.30am and she had to have a cup of Teh Aliah to wake her up.


And Sam taking some photos of me. I guess this is good because there is no way I could take pictures of myself with my rucksack and back pack together. I will have to return to Singapore to see the pictures though. Thanks Sam, for the send off and pictures.


The journey beckons...


Frosted windows looking up at Singaporean flats.


The first thing I notice while traveling, the very first thing really, is how small Singapore is. Sometimes I think of Malaysia as Johor Bahru or Kuala Lumpur, but Malaysia is a huge country. And there is so much space, it just feels more open and reminds me of how small I am.



Kuala Lumpur Central Station


The comfortable clients of KTM.



Afternoon rain.

I am in Penang now. The trip has started and for those of you who were wondering, this is not an April Fool's joke.