Kuala Lumpur and Melaka, Malaysia

The idea of maintaining a blog to record our travel adventures was conceived in the Departure Lounge of Melbourne Airport. After spells of waiting around playing Hang-man games on scraps of paper or the old roadtrip favourite 'I Spy'; we decided to exercise our creative talents towards journalising the things we did. Partly to be able to keep track of the memories; and more practically as an efficient means of updating  family and friends at home.

So on touchdown at the humidity choked city of Kuala Lumpur, we began to draft out the beginnings of our blog.

Focusing on a literary project that involves many hours pounding keys on a laptop can be quite difficult. Why? Because we were based in a nice warm tropical country and were distracted by endless offers of food. Malaysia's culinary attractions should be part of any visitor's 'Must Do' list - lucky for us, Mei had a small army of relatives that were local champions of where to find the best assam laksa or road-side satay.

So as we entered into 11 days of pre-London feasting, relaxing and overall loving Malaysian Hospitality, our blogging priorities were overruled by the whims of our stomachs.

Petronas Twin Towers, icons of KL

Hawker Food and Shopping

Kuala Lumpur is an excellent stop-over destination for long-haul flights to Europe and there are plenty of services and shops at the terminals. Commuting into the city is most convenient via the airport train to KL Sentral. This is where we met up with Mei's cousin and headed out for our first taste of Malaysian hawker food - wonton mee (a dumpling soup with egg noodles) and ice-coffee. We did have some reservations about ordering drinks with ice in a city where it is recommended not to drink tap water; however on this trip we were lucky to pass through with minimal stomach issues.

Our next stop was Mid Valley Arcade to pick up the all important local SIM card (Digi network) that included a tariff for international calls. Mei had used the network provider on a previous trip to Malaysia and found it quite easy to add additional phone credit. Walking around the shopping center was an enjoyable experience as it meant being inside with air-conditioning - we understand why Malaysians are obsessed with shopping!.

Kenko Fish Spa
After a few hours and a few purchases of Northern Hemisphere suitable clothing, we took a side trip to the Kenko Fish Spa. Overall this was an interesting experience - Olie enjoyed it whilst Mei dissolved into fits of laughter when the fish came nibbling. The sensation is similar to being tickled by a feather and also being rubbed by a vegetable grater as there are some pointy teeth on those fish. After the treatment our skin came out raw and pink from the scrapped off skin - an experience we would never do again.

Fish finding food on Olie's feet

Street Food in Jalan Alor
We ate dinner at a seafood and noodle restaurant in the heart of KL's foodie street - Jalan Alor. The restaurant was one of those authentic places that had built up a reputation with locals and tourists - finding fame in the Lonely Planet books being carried by our fellow patrons. It didn't disappoint either. Paper wrapped chicken was bathed in a lovely sticky sauce, fried river prawns the size of small crayfish washed down with a refreshing drink of lime juice with ice.

Melaka (Malacca)

A trip to Malaysia wouldn't be complete without touring the other regional cities for food and cultural experiences. Our first stop was Melaka, a rendezvous point with more of Mei's relatives whom we met at the local landmark of McDonalds. We travelled to Melaka by train where we got by with purchasing the tickets using forms of sign language as English was not spoken by the man behind the ticket desk.

Melaka is a small town on the west coast of Malaysia that has been on the who's who of world power's conquering list. Strategically placed on the route from Europe to the Spice Islands, it has been ruled by the Portugese, Dutch, British, Japanese and back to the British. We took a ride in a modified rickshaw (with neon lights and CD player) with a guide who said he was of Portugese-Indian-Malay heritage and had taken over the rickshaw business from his father, who had taken over from his father. Overall he was very good at giving us a tour of the fort and other historical places.

Nyonya Food
Being a colonial paradise, Melaka is also a melting pot of great food that has derived from the mixture of cultures, most well known being the Baba-Nyonya culture of Chinese immigrants that intermarried with local Malaya and Indonesian women.

We ate steamed chicken with round rice balls, milk crab (bit like seafood with a cream sauce), cheese bee-hoon and some sweet-savoury Nonya rice dumplings topped off with blue food colouring that Mei's aunt purchased from a little house in the suburbs where the chef had woken up at 4am to complete the order of 100+ dumplings to be delivered to relatives for the Ching Ming festival.

Chicken rice with rice balls - the local way

Most of our trip consisted of dashing to different places to sample local food specialties. A shop by the name 'Jonker 88' (number 88 on Jonker St) had some amazing Cendol (a Malaysian dessert) which was very refreshing after a day's worth of sight-seeing.

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