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Day 4 – Rajshahi division, Hello and Farewell in a Day

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 15:26:00 +0000

Date: 06 Feb 2011
Location: Hotel Victory, Dhaka

The plan for today was impromptu. The initial plan was to go back to Dhaka and spend two more days there, doing a day trip out to the Sonargon on day 5. But as usual, the travel lust in me sets in, and the daft adventurer in me decides on an elaborate plan to hit northwards towards Rajshahi by train, then taking a local bus from there to Bogra. And going out to Mahasthangarh, the oldest city in Bangladesh, ruins built in the 3rd century, before returning to spend the night in Bogra. On day 5, I would wake up at dawn and make my way by bus to Paharpur, the launch point to Sompuri Vihara, the 3rd and final UNESCO site here in Bangladesh. Then I would rush back to Bogra by lunch and take the 6 hour bus ride into Dhaka, ending a 5 day blitz through Bangladesh with a flurry of a finale.

But as usual, the best laid plains go awry. As i am writing this at the end of Day 4, I sit in a a hotel room in Dhaka, holed up and awaiting tomorrow's hartal. Hartal? What the heck is a hartal you say?! Ok, to explain further how I ended up here, we need to go back to the start of today.

The day started off reasonably uneventful. Early morning at 530am, I left my lodging and walked towards the train station, since there were no rickshaws out and about this early in the morning. The Khulna train station was crowded, and the Intercity train was parked by the platform, ready to set off around 7. Other than a smart-ass local who leeched a second cup of tea off me when I ordered mine, yes, somehow everywhere I go there's also these kinds of over-zealous idiots who tries to make friends with some hidden motive, it was a quiet morning.

At the platform, I met Halim Nazrul, who works in the pharmaceutical industry. Everyone here who speaks decent English, is a degree holder from one of the many universities in the country. Most I spoke to even had MBAs. But here, in a country of more than 150 million people with the highest population density in the world (excluding tiny city states like Singapore of course) and where poverty is widespread, a good education does not necessarily lead to a good job and high pay. Heck, even Karim, the Bangla cleaning guy in my office, has a general degree, yet he moved to Singapore to slog for a few years, earning much more than he would in the same time back home.

Ok back to Halim, I try to impress him with my 3 days worth of Bengali by pointing out the Bangla numbers printed above the carriages, and asking him which one corresponds to my ticket number. We speak, and he genuinely was excited at meeting a foreigner from Singapore, and a tourist at that. We board the train, and head towards my carriage. I find that instead of the private cabins on first class, where you have 4 to a cabin, my ticket leads me to sulob class, which is still in the 1st class carriage, but comprise two long cushioned benches facing each other. There was one other old guy whose name i did not catch, in the chair opposite me, and the next two hours were spent talking to Halim and the old guy. Well, more Halim because the old guy doesn't speak much English and Halim had to act as translator whenever the former asked me anything. Actually, I was quite thankful for the old guy, for he provided a respite when I needed a break. Earnest Halim would leave me alone for a while and talk to old guy instead.

The train ride was recommended by those exchange students at Grameen Bank i met yesterday, which influenced my decision to go north. By now, I had taken an impressive variety of tranport on this trip. There's the plane into Dhaka, the rickshaws, the CNG tuk-tuks, the shared tempos, cabs, a Rocket steamer, the Sundarbans boat, public buses, this inter-city train, and later on i would top up my list with the infinitely more comfortable bus coaches.

The intercity train stops at each town and city along the way, hence its name. At each stop, vendors would walk up and down selling their wares through the train windows. Halim and the old guy alighted two hours into the journey, leaving me with my posse of fans and hangers-on who had crowded around my seating area, eager to find out more about the foreigner. I am honoured from all the attention given, and continued to talk with them, but after a while, it can be exasperating trying to converse with my barely there Bangla and their barely there English, especially when all I wanted to do was take a nap. I shifted to the window seat and promptly fell asleep leaning against the window, only waking up when I reached Rajshahi, the last station.

Rajshahi is a university town, the Rajshahi university is one of the major landmarks in the city, and young university students flock the streets around campus. I did not spend any time there, preferring instead to get on the Bogra bus immediately. It was 1pm. I passed by the university though, and outside was a famous memorial statue commemorating the independence of 1971, from Pakistan. Here's an article i picked out from the local tabloid summarising the painful history of the country.

Another interesting fact is that 21st february is International Mother Language Day, which celebrates the mother tongues of each country. This day originated in Bangladesh where, in the struggle for independence, some protesters were killed when they refused to adopt Urdu as per Pakistan as the national language, instead keeping to Bangla. This day was later incorporated into the International Mother Language day we know today.

Hmmm. Conversation with Halim back on the train also led to languages, specifically, why despite both Singapore and Bangladesh being former British colonies, the usage of English is Singapore was so widespread but in Bangladesh, only a smattering of people spoke English fluently. Welll, according to Halim, the reason is because during the period of British rule, the Muslims in Bangladesh refused to learn or practise English, while the Hindus were the only ones who picked up the language.

Going on, the two hour Bogra bus actually took three hours. Packed, as usual I was shepherded to the front of the bus, where some university student types can be found, and invited to sit with a certain M.A.Matin, who from the sound of his name, as well as his features, would be a Hindu. Mr Matin is a teacher, and he is going back to Bogra carrying a brand new desktop bought in Rajshahi, tucked tightly on the floor between his legs, for his daughter. He is a pretty quiet man, (and for that I am thankful), but we do talk, and he shows me some black and white stills that he has just printed and bringing back to his school for an exhibition. The said photos show very disturbing shots of the previously mentioned 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War: bodies on the ground, gaunt corpses, soldiers with weapons, and the like.

It was on further conversation with Matin, however, that made me realise that I won't be able to complete my itinerary. Apparently, Feb 7, tomorrow is the day of a country-wide hartal, or strike. Organised by the opposition party BNP, it is to protest against the rising food prices, and the government plans to build a brand new airport near Dhaka. During this strike, he said, protesters would demonstrate peacefully in various cities and hotspots around Bangladesh (like universities!!). How he knew this? Apparently, hartals such as these were common, the last one being back in November. Such hartals cripple the country and economy, whether they actually achieved their purpose is questionable.

During one of these hartals, all shops will be closed, and all transport on the street will stop. It would probably be the only time when Dhaka's streets will be free of the daily jam, i thought to myself. Any cars or buses found on the street run the risk of getting stoned, vandalised and maybe even set alight by demonstrators. The rickshaws would obviously be the exception, for no one really bothers with them. What a fix to find myself in, i mean, what are the odds of me hitting a strike day during a 5 day visit (well, yeah, these strikes ARE commonplace here, but still!).

I looked in my local papers, and with a sigh, saw an article which confirmed what Matin said. There was no way I would be able to find a public bus into Dhaka tomorrow. It left me no choice, I will have to forego all other plans, and from Bogra, take the next bus out to Dhaka. If only they postponed the hartal by a day or something, then I could complete all the sights as planned. Well, time to adapt as necessary.It was 430pm, and the bus ride is 6 hours. I booked the 6pm coach, from the many coach companies that ply the Bogra-Dhaka route. Took my first proper meal for the day (i love the salt, it is the main condiment here, and i read somewhere they add something into the salt to make it very tasty, something like Ajinomoto or MSG), and proceeded to wait for coach to set off.

Actually, there is a bit of schadenfreude here, I am silently anticipating how the strike would turn out tomorrow. Reaching Dhaka at around 1am, I paid an exorbitant amount for a CNG to take me to Hotel Victory, located in the heart of Dhaka, Motijheel. Since I was going to be stuck the entire day in the hotel tomorrow, I decided to dispense with the 2 dollar hotels of the past few days, and splurge on a 30-40 USD room with aircon, cable tv, comfy beds and an internet connection. It was dark as I walked around the corner where the CNG dropped me off, to Hotel Victory. Little did I know that the nondescript building beside Hotel Victory was actually the main office and center of operations for BNP, the opposition party which instigated tomorrow's hartal.

Next entry: 7th Feb, hartal in Dhaka!

Day 3 – In search of Royal Bengal Tigers - The Sundarbans

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 17:20:00 +0000

Date: 05 Feb 2011
Location: Society Hotel, Khulna,

So everyone starts asking, why Bangladesh? Why not India or Sri Lanka or some other South Asian country? This entry's why. The Sundarbans. A complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove forests, the Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world, a UNESCO world heritage site, a finalist in the New 7 Wonders of Nature, in general it's a little piece of awesome within Bangladesh.

Actually, only part of it is included in Bangladesh, albeit the larger part. A smaller chunk of the forest lie within India's borders, where it is known as the Sundarbans National Park. The Bangladesh part though, is what we are interested in. Home to various flora and fauna, the beast that captures most visitors' imaginations would be the endangered royal bengal tiger, a native of the forests. The tiger, numbering around 300, is the single biggest bengal tiger concentration in the world. Here, as elsewhere, tiger poaching remains a problem, but the Sundarban tigers do pretty well in these freshwater swamps, tiger attacks account for 100-250 (source:Wikipedia) attacks per year. This number is unusually high, and the more aggressive behaviour of the tigers in this region has been attributed to several possible reasons. One of them is apparently due to them drinking the salty water, which makes them slightly crazy, and results in them attacking humans.

And thus, The Sundarbans would have to be one of the highlights of my Bangladesh trip, and prior to leaving Singapore, I arranged for a day tour of the Sundarbans.

Today morning, I got up at 7am, had a quick cup of locally brewed fresh cha, (which came with free attention from the cha drinking locals) before making my way across the river back to Hotel Pashtur, where I was to meet my guide. There were two of them, and we proceed to get some packed lunch before loading onto the boat. Somewhere along the way, one of the guides went off to another boat, which apparently had more tourists, and I was left with the other. This chap, whose name I didn't clearly get, didn't speak the best English, and I only realised that after we set off.

The boat-man was actually a boat-kid, an overeager young boy named Al-Amin, and his job was to start the engine and steer the boat through the canals. The boat itself was a small seaworthy wooden structure, agile enough to weave around the narrow canals and rigged up enough to plow through the muddy waters of the Sundarbans, chugging away on its noisy engine. I was of course the only passenger on this boat, which would explain why the one day tour was so costly (by Bangladesh standards, 120 USD is a small fortune; for comparison, my hotel last night was 1.50 USD). Ok, most of the cost went to the park entrance fees, the hiring of an armed guard (to protect from tiger attacks, no less!) and other neccessities like the boat rental etc, "and of course the profit margin, which isn't much".

The boat would set off from Mongla port, toward the Karamjal camp, and then towards Habaria camp, and from there make the return trip back to Mongla. It was a serene boat ride, the first part was through a large channel, deep enough for large ships, anchored in the middle, just off Mongla port, ready to set off into the Bay of Bengal. Our little vessel hugged the river bank, and I was treated to the sight of mudflats and a thick expanse of mangrove, leading off from the bank and getting thicker and thicker the further inland you look. It looked a bit, for those of you Singaporeans, like the mangrove swamps you find in Pulau Ubin (Kampung Chek Jawa area), except you need to multiply that area by one billion ^^.

Going deeper into the Sundarbans, I perched myself on the roof of the boat, which resembled a sun-deck. I laid a cushion, and after about 20 minutes of admiring the natural surroundings, proceeded to read my book. I tried holding a conversation with Guide Whose Name I Didn't Catch, And Is Unpronounceable, but gave up since it was too tedious. We passed by several little settlements on the outskirts of the Sundarbans, there were a few thousand living within the Sundarbans, moving around, possibly becoming tiger food once in a while. More interestingly, I read about the honey hunters, men who braved the deadly Sundarbans bees to collect their honey and sell. And then I realised that was the bottled yellow stuff the guy behind the Hotel Pashtur counter was trying to show me. Orh.

We reached Karamjal camp within the hour, and disembarked. There were plenty of locals here, visitng the Sundarbans as part of a weekend day trip, since today (Saturday) is a non-working day. There was a zoo, or rather a wildlife conservation area, which is sadly, nothing much to get excited about. There were a couple of monkeys in cages, a spotted deer enclosure and many, many baby crocodiles. No tigers, unfortunately, lol. And anyway, I was a better exhibit than the animals. These Bangla tourists and their families were queuing up to take photos of/with me.

Also in Karamjal camp, there was a raised wooden boardwalk that meandered through the mangrove forest, giving the visitor a glimpse of the inland terrain. The boardwalk ended but the path continued. I followed my guide who kept stopping, and using my camera to take photographs of me. Now, for any of you who has traveled anywhere with me, you already know that I hardly take any photographs of myself. Other than one or two pictures for memories and to prove I've been there, I don't really see the point. So it is to my chagrin that the guide kept offering to take my picture. After a while, I just told him upfront that I'd rather take nature, without me inside the photo. He duly obliged, and I get off with a souvenir of 20+ shots of me in various poses modelling in the Sundarban wilds.

We set off on the boat again, I bade farewell to my legions of adoring Bangladesh fans in Karamjal (hey I can be delusional if I want to, it must the salty water the tigers drink, it gets in the air...) before setting off towards Habaria, the next destination and final stopover point. This was at least a two hour journey, and the initial awe of passing through these waterways had long since subsided. It was getting hot too, so I decided to take a nap. The scenery was similar all the way, and other than a few birds, whose fancy colours I was unable to distinguish since I did not carry binoculars, there weren't any other animals.

I was woken up by my guide. Still woozy and trying to orientate myself, I was told we had reached Habaria. With all the expectation that came along with a two hour trip, it ended up being a bit of a disappointment. From Habaria was where travelers set off towards their 4 day Sundarbans trip, and here was where you would need to pay for the armed guard and also the park fees. (I may be wrong, but I read somewhere while researching the Sundarbans that getting the boat up to Karamjal would not require any park fees or armed guard fees).

I spent a grand total of 15 minutes following my guide and the bored armed guard into the Habaria undergrowth. We had to stop and turn back when the guide pointed out dried blood on the ground just off the path. He said that the blood was less than 3 days old, and it was not safe to go further, unless I had a death-wish to get mauled by a Bengal tiger. And so, disappointed, but glad I won't be tiger fodder, I made my way back to the campsite, stopping by a gazebo, where I would find a group of other tourists. There were 5 of them, curious mix of 3 Germans, 1 Chinese, 1 Mexican, 1 Brazilian. I learnt that they were a group of students interning at the local Garmin Bank, and having met each other only a week ago, they had decided to go out on this Sundarbans trip together. They offered me some of their packed lunch, and we had some conversation, mainly me asking them about their backgrounds, and them asking me why in the world would a Singaporean go to Bangladesh for a solo holiday destination. It was probably the best part of the day, I realised I missed the friendly banter, and really wondered why I could not have been put on the same boat. After all, I found that my missing guide from earlier in the day was their guide!

After lunch, we retraced our steps back to the moored boat, and began the long journey back to Mongla. I would have loved to go deeper in, and dreamt of setting off from Habaria all the way south till I could see the Bay of Bengal, but that would require at least a 4 day trip. Thinking about it, i would probably die of boredom if I was out 4 days alone, with a guide who doesn't speak English and a boat-kid who's more interested in my flashpacking gear.

The trip itself was good, I expected to see the beautiful scenery and I did. An added plus was that during the return trip, we detoured a bit and went through some narrow canals near Karamjal. However, on the whole, I found the entire experience quite unprofessional, especially since it came from a proper tour company. It seemed that the standard basic service that was to be accorded to a tourist on a tour was not there. This is probably attributed to my tour guide with the unpronounceable name who doesn't speak good English, who seemed more eager to shepherd me through the entire trip during the trekking bits in Karamjal and Habaria. Also, Al Amin didnt leave me much privacy by sitting on my shoulder while I was typing these entries as well as checking my online maps, and when he started asking for freebies. I wondered how much of the share of what i paid these guys actually got, and how much went to the middlemen who did the liaising online. It seemed to me at least that with the way these two are behaving, they got pittance. Either that or they think im a Dubai prince with a bottomless bank account.

End of trip: It left me strangely unsatisfied, and I looked back and realised that a 1 day trip was simply too short to see anything. A 3 to 4 day trip through the Sundarbans would make more sense, with friends to enjoy time on the roof of the boat. With a 4 day trip, the journey would take you through the entire length of the Sundarbans, and culminate in a visit to the southeastern tip of the forest, aptly named Tiger Point. The day trip I took barely scratched the surface, Karamjal Camp to Habaria Camp was just the appetizer. And too little time was spent in Habaria, no thanks to the tiger blood trails.

From Mongla, I decided to make my way up north to Khulna. During the long boat ride, I had planned to go up north to Rajshahi, after a recommendation from one of the German exchange students to take the country train. The train sets off early morning from Khulna, and so I took the one hour bus ride that evening into Khulna. Khulna, described in Lonely Planet as a town with a frontier feel, would have been a problem because I reached the bus station at 8pm, with no orientation of the town whatsover. I do hate reaching towns (cities are worse) at night, because of the myriad of uncertainties. At best, I would be overcharged by the cab driver, or CNG over here, for a trip to my hotel. Worse case scenario, I would get mugged or robbed. Fortunately, I would come across more Bangladeshi hospitality. During the bus ride from Mongla to Khulna, I was seated at the front of the bus. As usual, a local youth, Talat Mahmud, came up to seat himself beside me and proceeded to Facebook on his phone. Curiousity eventually got the better of him, and he asked about me. I learnt that Talat is a student in the local college university in Khulna, and we talked a little. When I got off the bus, he accompanied me on a rickshaw to the train station, where I would buy a train ticket to Rajshahi (6.30am intercity train) before we went to the motel I found in LP, Hotel Society. I invited Talat to have dinner with me, but he declined. Between speaking Bengali to get my train ticket for me, and bargaining and even paying for my rickshaw, Talat probably saved me an hour of aimless wondering around Khulna.

I dumped my bag in my room, and went downstairs to get some dinner. Hotel Society was located in a colourful part of Khulna, with many jewelry shops, which made me feel safer walking alone in the street at night. I bought random food to try from the street vendors, packed them and went back to my room to relax. Tomorrow, I would head off to Rajshahi, and from there, make my way to Bogra, the launchpad to my third World Heritage Site, the Sompuri Vihara.

Day 2 – A warrior-saints legacy – The historic mosque city of Bagerhat

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 08:27:00 +0000

Date of log: 04 Feb 2011, 10pm
Location: In a room in the Hotel Singapore, Mongla, Bangladesh

Yes, the name of the hotel I'm spending the night in is Hotel Singapore, though the hotel itself doesn't do Singapore much justice. It is a simple affair, basic rooms with stained walls, and priced at 150 taka you cant really complain. Located in Mongla, the set-off point for my day long trip to the Sundarbans tomorrow.

Started off the day on the Rocket, which reached Hularhat station, located in Pirojpur district at around 930 am in the morning. It was a good nights rest in the crew's cabin, despite being a little cold. The early morning mist obscured both banks of the river, but through the mist I still could see the fishermen out in their little sampan like boats for the days catch. The locals rate freshwater fish more highly than the sea-water variety.

So there's a local guy, Jasim on the boat, who's an aircraft engineer. He approaches me and strikes up a conversation. He's going back over the weekend to see his family, and invites me to visit him. I politely decline (remember i have 5 days to blitz through everything). He speaks good English, and asks me where I am going. We talk for a little while, during which time I learn a little bit more about Bangladesh, the poverty, the aspirations of a nation.He also tells me to avoid any food that anyone offers me.

In the course of the next few days, i would meet many a local who shows great interest in the foreigner. Most of them start to surround me and gawk, each time i stand around in any public place for a period of time. It's worse for the ang mohs, since I'm still Asian. A smile normally gets a return smile, and they leave me alone. There's a few of the educated types, who speak English, and would love nothing better than to get to know the foreigner, asking him which country he comes from, his job, his marital status and purpose of visit. They are genuinely interested and very helpful too, there is usually one who comes up to sit next to me in the bus, for example, and offers directions. Without their help, I would probably take much longer to find my way around. Most of them will offer their emails, phone numbers and one even offered me his passport photo. So Alim, Jassim, Talat Mahmud, Halim Nazrul and M.A.Matin, thank you for your help in advance, sorry i gave out my standard alternate email that I never bother to check, and if you're reading this, do drop me a comment or message. And as per what you say, "Wish you better future & God bless you. Thank you."

Getting off the Rocket to the Bangladesh countryside proved to be an experience in itself. Outside of the city, I was lost and it would be hard to find anyone who understood me. Luckily Jasim was there, we took a Tempo, which is something like a shared Tuk tuk, and while he got off halfway, he made sure that the driver brought me to the Pirojpur bus stop. Oh and he paid for my ride as well.

The country buses. Ran down yet functional, the idea is to squeeze in as many as possible. Women sit up front, near the driver, and foreign tourists like me get placed somewhere at the front, where it's "safer". There's always the driver, and then there's the conductor, who's job is to collect the fares from the passengers. His job is also to lean out the door and call out the destination. However, his third function is the most important. He acts as the side mirror for the bus driver. He goes "CLEAR! CLEAR!" or at least something like that, and makes sure the bus doesn't get into an accident. His function is even more critical on my bus, since the side mirror is busted!

So, buses travel on roads that are too narrow. There's only one lane for each direction, and scarcely any road shoulder. When a bus tries to overtake, it definitely needs to cut into the oncoming lane. And how they do it! With pompous horning, the driver will annoy the vehicle in front till they slow down, the driver will then swerve out and back in, all the while with heavy traffic coming from the opposite direction. It was like a case of "Chicken", with the buses always coming out tops because the oncoming CNGs won't stand a chance. Someone here really needs to consider wider roads, at least provide an additional half lane for vehicles to shift to the left to allow another to overtake.

I reached Bagerhat at noon, and took a moment to get my bearings. Lunch was rice, or "bhat" and fried egg curry, fish in curry. All good. Then one of the rickshaw wallahs pulled up near me and asked me my destination. I arranged a price with him to Bagerhat's ruins (50 taka). This fellow was to be the bane of my day. I initially wanted a one way trip, but he insisted on waiting for me, so I let him. The agreed return trip was 100 taka, but he argued for 200 taka at the end of the whole ride, citing waiting time and extras. I was pretty pissed and refused to give in, some other locals joined the commotion we create and went "give him the money, he's a poor man" etc. In the end I just gave him the money. No point spoiling the rest of my stay for 2 SGD. Moral of the story: Don't take the these rickshaw-wallahs, cab drivers, whatever, that come up to you. Always pick your own. Heck, actually, I already knew that, but I didn't do what i preached.

Ok. Let's go on to the main event for today, Bagerhat's historic mosque city is a group of 15th century structures with the same architecture, founded during the pre-Mughal period by a warrior-saint Khan Jahan. Also known as 'Khalifatabad', it is one of three in Bangladesh designated by UNESCO as a world heritage site. The main structures of note are the Shait Gumbad Mosque, also known as the 60 domed mosque, on account of the (actually more than) 60 domes found on the roof and the Khan Jahan's mausoleum. Along with these two structures are a score of various mosques in various states of (dis)repair. Tangled in the undergrowth, some are more well preserved than others, but the defining characteristic for me are the number of domes, ranging from 1 to the 60 on .Besides the Shait Gumbad Mosque, and it's surrounding smaller mosques, there is also the tomb of Khan Jahan, a single domed structure that serves as a pilgrimage site for locals to pay their respects to an important man in Bangladeshi history. More information about the Mosque City of Bagerhat can be found on http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/321

It was a friday afternoon, which here in Bangladesh meant that it was a public holiday. The more pious amongst the locals were doing their afternoon friday prayers at the Shait Gumbad mosque. The rest, and the Hindus, were there for a picnic. Besides the mosques and multi-domed structures, the heritage site was also known for its dighis or ponds, possibly for irrigation, created by the multi-talented Shah Jahan when he conquered this area. The atmosphere was very family friendly, walking around the edges of the pond (actually pond is an understatement, the dighis were huge, 200 to 300m long rectangular ponds. There's one section near the Khan Jahan tomb where people are washing in the pond to absolve themselves of sin. As usual, I was the subject of attention, with everyone "you are from Singapore? Can i take your picture?" being very interested in the foreign traveller who goes to Bangladesh as a tourist.

Some more shots of the interior of Shait Gumbad Mosque.

On the way back to Bagerhat town by rickshaw, we detoured to what seemed to me a temple. Since my rickshaw wallah spoke no English, and the temple was devoid of any signs that I could understand, I was left to guess as to the purpose and origin of the temple. It's pretty well kept and there's a boy (who again doesn't speak English) who i think is the groundskeeper or his son. He let me look around and take pictures. I think based on the symbols that I saw, it would seem that it is a combination of different faiths. In the middle is the Hindu Aum, then clockwise is the Muslim star and crescent, the Christian cross, the Jewish star of David, what I think looks like the Siokh Khanda symbol, the Buddhist Dharma wheel and the Swastika, which is probably Jainism. I initially thought that it could be a Baha'i temple, but then it is missing the nine pointed star, and I can't find Taoism and Shinto anywhere. Also, in the photo, the Aum is the central symbol, so that might mean something.

From Bagerhat, I took the bus to the port town of Mongla, which is barely 5km away from The Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, and my next destination. The bus to Mongla was a 3 hour bus ride which meant i arrived in Mongla late in the evening at around 8pm. I could not really fathom why the bus ride took 3 hours, since in my guide book it was supposed to be a 1hour plus ride.

Mongla. Met a Mr Ferdaus who is the front desk manager of the Government owned Pashtur hotel. Mahmud from back in Dhaka had linked us up and he would help me with the arrangements for tomorrows's Sundarban trip. Rooms at the Pashtur was 900 taka, but normal rooms were full, only A/C rooms (1600 taka) were available. I was already half-shivering and didn't need A/C so i did the 2 taka boat ride (will move when they get 20 people, or you can pay for the entire boat 40 taka to move you across, 40 taka is less than 1 SGD) across the river, to find, surprise surprise: Hotel Singapore.

Hotel Singapore is a 150 taka (i think) basic accomodations with stained walls, a simple bed and toilet set up. It is clean though, and quite sufficient for the traveler who just needs a place to plop down his bag and stay the night. I went out to look for some dinner, this Bangla freshwater fish curry dish is starting to grow on me, before going back to my room for an early night. Tomorrow: An entire day out on boat along the canals of the Sundarbans.

Original post: http://furiouspanda.blogspot.com
More photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/morphred/

Day 1 – An open assault on the senses in Dhaka --> sights, smells, and sounds.

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 20:23:00 +0000

Date of log: 03 Feb 2011, 8pm
Location: In the crew's cabin of the Rocket, obtained after much haggling, en route to Hularhat

I lie in my comfy white linen bed, rightly meant for a crew member aboard the 1950s paddle steamer "Mahsud", one of 4 owned by the Bangladesh Inland Waterway Transport Corporation (BIWTC), collectively known as the "Rocket" writing this entry. There were no more 1st class or 2nd class tickets for sale, which meant a free for all deck class rush for sleeping space with the locals. But as always, there was a way out. The common solution is to offer the foreign tourist the cabin crew's room, and charge him a handsome premium for it. By our standards though, the 800 taka i paid (excluding the 120 taka deck class ticket) for the privacy, clean sheets and most importantly, a power outlet to recharge all my flashpacking toys, was a very fair price.

The day started with me taking one of the overpriced airport taxis (700 taka to Gulshan 1). I was to meet Mahmud, the local contact I had been communicating with, prior to this trip. He is described in the Lonely Planet as the patron saint of travelers in Bangladesh, going out of his way to ensure first time budget travelers are able to find their way around when they step foot into Dhaka. So Mahmud told me to meet him in the lobby of Hotel Washington, located near Gulshan circle 1, the upscale suburb of Dhaka where all the embassies are located. He does this helping out travelers thing in his spare time, and for this instance with me, it was still a working day. And so, after breakfast (prata!), he led me to his office, where he has a very respectable day job as a manager. He went through roughly my itinerary and advised me to get a ticket at BIWTC's office in Motijheel area before doing any sightseeing in Dhaka, since I needed to be out on the Rocket to Hularhat on the same evening. Mahmud also helped me coordinate to meet a man from Entree Tours, with whom I made the advance payment for my daylong trip in the Sundarbans, planned for the 5th Feb. Oh, and I went from breakfast to Mahmud's office by way of a rickshaw, pulled by the rickshaw-wallah.

I traveled to the BIWTC office on a CNG. So named for the fuel source they run on, the CNGs are actually tuk-tuks commonly found elsewhere in Asia. The Bangladeshi version however has the passenger fully enclosed in a cage. The trip price was intially agreed upon at 100 taka. The CNGs have meters, though the drivers loathe using them, often raising the ire of the local police in the process. Saying that, my driver had his meter running, possibly to fool any cop who checks on his ride. Hence began my first introduction to Dhaka road, and the jams. My 10 km ride took almost an hour, and I don't think my bearded driver expected the jam, by the end of the ride, my meter actually exceeded the 100 taka we agreed upon! I paid him the meter price and a tip (120 taka in all). Inside the cage, I looked out and took various photos, as well as shots of my driver doing his best impression of spiderman hanging on to the cage walls. Yes, we had that much time to kill while sitting in the jam.

I do ask myself however, how do traffic cultures in cities develop? For instance, here in Dhaka, everyone horns, and slots their vehicles into little nooks and each others lanes. Elsewhere, the former is absent, no one horns, even though they do the same dance on the roads. Vehicles here run the gamut: CNGs, rickshaws, cars, trucks, all. Yet on long stretches of road jams, only scores of rickshaws are seen lined in series, obidiently waiting for the one up front to move forward.

I finally hit the BIWTC office one full hour later. And to my dismay, the officer in charge says that the weekend is coming, so all the 1st and 2nd class tickets were full. He recommends that I go down the boat pier early, around 5pm to get a deck class ticket, and see if I can trade for a crew members' room, which is the arrangement they normally make for pesky foreigners (like me) who makes last minute bookings and who would probably wither and die should they be made to stay under deck class conditions.

I lamented my situation to P, a 60 year young englishman I met in the BIWTC. He is booking a Rocket ticket for the coming Monday (now why can't all foreigners be like this man, booking in advance). P tells me that he has been in Bangladesh for the past two weeks, mainly in the Chittagong region, and I am the first non Bangla or Indian he has met in two weeks. So i guess I shouldnt be expecting to meet any other travelers soon. I decided to accompany P, since we were both the doing Old Dhaka part of the city, for the rest of the day. Actually, I accompanied P because he had more of a plan than I did. P planned in detail where exactly he wanted to go and what he wanted to see, a full 8 months ago. Me, I only had a gist of where to go, thought of yesterday on the plane and was fully prepared to get lost in the streets. =)

And so, we took a rickshaw to the starting point of our Old Dhaka walk. This was the Sutrapur area, which passed through old colonial architecture of the early 1900s. It was an assault on the senses. Rickshaw wallahs calling on you to move off the road, the smell of dried chilli, ginger and onions making me tear and sneeze, colourful pieces of cloth neatly stacked atop each other, locals calling out to us, and eyeing us with curiosity as we stood admiring the architecture of buildings. My humble writing fails to elaborately describe the sights, sounds and smells that is Old Dhaka.

From the Sutrapur area, we headed down the the Sadarghat docks, from where we got a full view of the Buriganga River. The river teems with life. Boats of all shapes and sizes can be found. Small boats carrying passengers were being ferried across the large river to the other bank, huge Launches were moored on the banks. Everyday life goes on here, Goods are undocked, players gamble on the ground by the river, rickshaws drop their passengers at the pier. Here was also the embarkation point for the Rocket later this afternoon.

We carry on. There is just so much going on. Chapatis sizzle in the roadside shops, skull-capped old men in red beards greet you with a smile, the occasional kid eager to practise his English trails you. After a while, you get used to it and go with the flow. The sight of a jam, both vehicular and human on a four way junction doesnt bother you anymore. Even though all the vehicles are stationary, with seemingly no way to get out of the situation, the locals band together to direct each vehicle out. For us, we smile, step over bicycle front tires, swing around CNGs and hop across vehicle cargo, and make our way.

Down past Islampur Street, the roads widen slightly, meaning I don't have to fight with rickshaws for road space any longer. We were looking for the building known as Ahsan Manzil, also called the Pink Palace, so named for its pink outer facade. Built by a wealthy landowner and restored in the late 80s, it is one of the more interesting structures. It was closed on Thurdays though, so we didn't get a closer look, beyond the steel grated fence.

The next two sights were the Armenian Church, and the Sitara Mosque, both fascinating and a tranquil contrast to the bustling cacophony of sounds outside their grounds. The former, for the well preserved structure, maintained by the caretaker of an extinct community in Dhaka, and the latter, for the slightly tacky stars painted all over the dome and walls of the mosque.

We then decided to stop (for a 60 year old, P has impressive stamina, he could go on and on, and I was trying my best to keep up) at Haji Beriyani, an eatery around the Nazira Market area, recommended by P's Bradt guide. Between the two of us, and our LP and Bradt guides, we were able to navigate Old Dhaka pretty well, through a combination of asking locals for directions and reading the occasional shop sign whose address and road name is spelled out in English. However, we had trouble finding the Haji Beriyani eatery, going back through and fro, before realising from helpful locals that the shop was closed.Instead we headed to Al-Razzaque, crowded, so obviously a good place, with better hygiene levels than most of the roadside stalls we passed by. The chicken beriyani was excellent. Different from the usual fare back home, it is not yellow, more of the pilau type commonly found out of Singapore. The cost, a friendly 150 taka including drinks, barely 3 SGD.

I bade P farewell then, for I had to go down to Saderghat and get my Rocket ticket. Even though the river was not too far south, I headed there earlier, for the Dhaka road traffic jams were legendary, and between 4 to 7pm were the worst. I scampered on the sidewalks and slowly edged my way to the pier, roughly a half hour to travel less than 1 km. And that was fast. If I had taken a rickshaw it would probably take me till dark.

Expectedly, I could only get a deck class ticket for 120 taka. I got aboard and was promptly offered the crew's cabin for 800 taka for a trip up to Hularhat. This was roughly the price of a 1st class ticket, with two beds in a cabin. Mine was a simple 2x2m room with just a bed and not much else, but its luxury to me. I agreed without bargaining, and i think the guy felt that he should have asked for more, and upped the price to 900 taka. When traveling, negotiate with a smile and a firm no, that normally allows you to get your way. "900 taka, nahhhh, you said 800 earlier. I agreed. If you say 900 taka, then now I will bargain for 700 taka. Yes? It's ok? 800? Good man." Smiling all the way.

The Rocket is a paddle steamer, those kind you read about traveling down the Mississippi River, built in the 1950s. Old, run down yet having a certain charm about it, traveling down the river in a Rocket remains on of the quintisssential things to do for a traveler in Bangladesh. There are two levels to the steamer, the lower level is the deck class, where everyone stakes their place on the floor or bench and lays down a mat. Later on, I would see them eating their meals on the floor and asleep wrapped up in blankets. It gets very cold at night this time of year. My bunk is on this level, tucked in one unobtrusive corner. Upstairs is the 1st class and 2nd class area. The first class area, I took a peek, comprises nice comfy rooms opening out to the 1st class dining area. The 2nd class area was out in the back, but both have balconies so you can look out the either shoreline. There is an upstairs deck area, out of bounds to non-1st class passengers, which I'll probably explore tomorrow morning.

I had dinner in the 1st class dining area, got served by a waiter, 4 dishes, yellow rice, with cutlery arranged in western setting. The price, less than 4 SGD (180 taka). In the dining area, were the 1st class passengers, locals, too but well-dressed cultured types who talk about the news and politics and sports, switching between Bengali and English. It's in stark contrast to the deck below, where everyone else were huddled in blankets to keep warm. There is probably an income disparity here in Bangladesh, where more than 50% of the population lives below the poverty line, earning less than 50 taka (1 SGD) a day. Things are improving though, at least in Dhaka. Children go to school, the infant mortality rate is dropping, birth rates under control, gender equality is on the rise. Yet as the locals tell it, there is still much to be done. Me? I had my fill, tipped the waiter, and headed back downstairs to MY blanket to keep warm.

Day 0 – On Air India Express We Will Go

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 06:25:00 +0000

Date: 02 Feb 2011.
Location: Arrival Lounge, Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Dhaka, Bangladesh

I hesitate to use the word lounge to describe the passenger arrival waiting area. Instead, let's use a more apt term, arrival hall. Ok. So here I am in the arrival hall, of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Bangladesh's main air gateway to the rest of the world. It is 2am here, two hours (GMT+6) behind Singapore time and I am waiting for dawn to take a cab into the city.

I am mosquito fodder. Mosquitoes, of the long-legged slow variety, are eagerly feasting on me as I write this. I smack a few around, easily, yet they seem to be incessantly attracted to fresh exotic Singaporean blood. Or at 17 degrees celsius this early morning, and with each local swathed in a sweater or at least a jacket, I am the most exposed warm blooded living being around, a shining beacon attracting mosquitoes. I am mosquito fodder.

Ok, let's talk about pre-trip proper. First, why Air India Express. At 550 SGD return, it is hardly a bargain. The reason is threefold. First is the desire to try something new. Air India Express flies from Singapore to Dhaka via Calcutta. It is a chance to try something different from the usual budget fare from AirAsia. Secondly, after factoring the cost of booking an AirAsia ticket, it is not much cheaper, considering the inflated price of an SG-KL ticket during the festive lunar new year period. And then there is the hassle of clearing customs twice at KL LCCT airport. Air India Express also serves meals, and I relished the idea of having an Indian airplane meal.

I packed light. I removed anything that was restricted from the carry on luggage, and kept the weight down to a respectable 7.5 kg, or 6kg backpack without this netbook, which I hand carry anyway. This was the correct idea, as earlier tonight in the check-in queue, I saw everyone else on the plane carrying 3 or 4 more times the allowable luggage.

By everyone else, I meant the passengers. I was the only non-dark skinned passenger on the plane traveling to Dhaka. There was a lone Chinese girl carrying what seems to be an Indian passport who got off at Kolkata (now what's her story?) and another Chinese couple who got off at the same stop. Other than that, the only ones traveling on this Chinese New Year eve were the homebound Indians and a handful of Banglas.

The flight itself was an uneventful 3.5 hour flight to Kolkatta, with a 40 min stopover in which I stayed on board, watched the crew vacuum, clean and clear up the mess from the Singapore to Kolkata flight. The next part, a short 1 hr flight from Kolkata to Dhaka saw me seated to a Bangla who speaks fluent English, having spent 5 years in the Navy. He was on his way home after 6 months out in the sea, and was returning home from a posting in Kochi, India, where he attended a course.

Other essential things to note: The visa was done up at the Bangladeshi High Commission in Singapore, along Bencoolen Street. It took 3 working days and 25 SGD to process, with no problems at all. No letter of invitiation is needed for single trip tourist visas. There could be visa-on-arrival facilities, since the check in counter asked me whether I was getting my VOA, and also evident by the VOA booth at the Dhaka airport, but I was not going to take any chances. Secondly, I couldnt' find a money changer in Singapore handing out Taka, the Bangladeshi currency. The last guy gave me a funny look before chasing me away when I told him I wanted to buy Bangla Taka. I had to change to USD at the airport forex counter, and convert that upon reaching Dhaka to local currency. The current rate is 1 SGD to around 55 Taka.

I shall now end this entry and go buy another hot cup of tea (15 Taka). I am in a silly predicament because I only brought mosquito coils, yet I didn't pack a lighter in to avoid the need to check in luggage. And I couldn't light a coil in the arrival waiting area even if I did have a lighter, because there's a huge no smoking sign here. And I'm not going to go out and light one either, since it is too cold, and I did not bring any warm clothing. And so I sit here, freezing my ass off, trying to keep awake for the next 5 hours, feeding mosquitoes. I love this trip already. =)

Destination: Bangladesh

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:11:00 +0000

Day -x : Itinerary

Oh how I wish these jaunts could be longer. It is possible only to get glimpses of a country when you travel for short stints. Nevertheless, making the best of the situation, the itinerary below includes the UNESCO listed Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest, from which the Ganges and Brahmaputra exits into the sea, as well as the Bagerhat mosque city (also a world heritage site) with its 60 domes. Other highlights would be the capital, Dhaka itself, as well as a 15 hour trip downriver with the Rocket, a vintage paddle steamer reminiscent of colonial times.

Day 1 - Dhaka city tour, evening take Rocket to Hularhat
Day 2 - Hularhat to Bagerhat (60 domed Mosque) then to Mongla
Day 3 - Daylong trip to Sundarban
Day 4 - Mongla---Khulna----Return to Dhaka
Day 5 - Dhaka / Sonargaon Tour
Day 6 - Dhaka...take flight

Lima - Of Chocolate Hills and hiccuping tarsiers

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 13:41:00 +0000

13th Dec 2010, in Cebu City, Cebu, Philippines

Today was spent touring Bohol. We engaged through the hotel a driver and a car, for 2500 pesos, to take us to all the sights in a day. The standard package that all the tour companies offer will include the famed Chocolate Hills, a butterfly park, a man-made forest, the hanging bridges, a river cruise cum lunch in Loboc, tarsiers, the Bacylon church and the sandugo monument. Not bad for a full day tour, even though the main attractions were the Chocolate Hills and tarsiers, the rest were more or less filler.

When taking a car hire, everyone and their neighbour will offer to take you on the standard Bohol tour. It's better to go with the hotel or a proper tour agency, rather than the trishaw rider's brother/uncle/friend. There are some laws about having licenses to be a driver/guide, plus private vehicles have plates coloured differently. Only those with yellow plates or rainbow colourful ones can carry public passengers.

From Tagbilaran, we traveled inland towards the Chocolate Hills, a unique natural geological phenomenon here in Bohol, of over 1300 hillocks than dot the countryside. Formed centuries ago below the sea out of limestone, the hills were created when plate movements led to their formation. They get their name because during the dry season, the top of the hills dry and turn brown, hence Chocolate Hills. Sadly, we saw only the green hills.

A small buttefly conservation centre, a man-made forest (mahagony seeds planted over 40 years ago to prevent erosion) and a hanging bridge (initially made for some families on the other side of the river) become attractions for tourists.

Lunch was a kitsch affair, touted as a cruise on Loboc river on a boat where we would have a buffet lunch. At 400 pesos, I felt the food was sub-par, and the guitar strumming performer didn't help much to improve the environ either. Possibly a highlight would be a ukelele strumming local performance choral group that sat by the side of the river and put up a performance for us. Very packaged, and touristy, I ended up buying a 400 peso ukelele. Talk about tourist traps.

After lunch, we headed for a "Kingdom of Tarsier and Other Animals", to check out the other highlight of Bohol. The tarsier, one of the smallest mammals in the world, is found in the Philippines, and most easily spotted in Bohol. Cute little buggers, the tarsiers have gigantic eyes that take up half their face.

Their uniqueness means many tourists come to see them, and this inevitably leads to illegal tarsier poaching and the such. Hence, government regulations means places such as these are allowed to keep only 10 tarsiers. The enclosure is pretty big, allowing the tarsiers to jump from tree to tree, but visitors can come in and stand within centimeters of a tarsier. This particular establishment stops tourists from taking flash photography and tells them not to touch or startle the tarsiers, but the regular flow of tourists will mean that some of these little guys end up traumatised and as ominously pointed out by the handler, "they commit suicide", that is, they refuse to eat till they die. =(

After the tarsiers, we trooped to the next couple of attractions, both pretty anticlimatic actually. The Baclyon church was not bad, one of the oldest most well preserved churches in the Philippines, set up in early 17th century. We did a stop by the Blood Compact monument, to signify a treaty made by the Bohol chieftain and a Spanish explorer. I was more interested in the fact that blood compact here is the Sandugo, also the name of a footwear brand in Bohol. The slippers are good quality.

Car sent us back to the ferry terminal, where we took OceanJet this time. (Supercat has newer boats, but Oceanjet has wifi on board). Back on Cebu, we found a metered cab to take us to a rest house near Ayala Center, an impressive megamall. And that was all for Malapascua / Bohol. Until the next backpack trip to Bangladesh (now THAT should be an interesting one), bye.

Apat - Tagbilaran Beauty Queens

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:51:00 +0000

12th Dec 2010, Tagbilaran, Bohol, Philippines

Morning saw us getting more adventurous, eschewing the chartered ferry and van for public transport. We walked to the village where others were waiting for the public bangka to take them to Cebu mainland.

Yellow buses from Ceres Liner greeted us at the Cebu side, ready to bring passengers down south. I quite like the buses, even though they were non-aircon, the big windows allowed me to look out and take in the sights and smells. The bus driver's route meandering around town also lets me see more.

The big city (relatively) of Cebu City is completely different from Malapascua's laid back charm. We had a plan though, and skipped the city for later, instead heading straight to the port for our fast ferry to Bohol. Supercat's ticket office, and subsequent check-in and waiting area were comfortable, modern and sees many tourists, evident in the multiple nationalities sitting inside this ferry right now with me.

Reached Tagbilaran city, spent the rest of the day there. We took a 50 peso trishaw to Chriscentville Hotel, in the city centre for a 1200 peso room. Went to explore the surrounding malls, BQ Mall is a 5 storey mall which looks like the majordomo mall out here. That's where i had Halo-halo, ice shavings and sugar and toppings, very much like our local Ais Kachang. More charming is Tagbilaran City Square, adjacent to it. This mall looks older and more run down, but then I'm biaised, because TCS was the location of Miss Dunkin Donuts 2010! We were shopping and minding our own business when the commotion on the second floor atrium signalled the start of the pageant. We stayed 2.5 hours to watch the beauty pageant from start to finish. My favourite, contestant number 8, won top honours!

Here's the intro video, if you can't see it, go to http://furiouspanda.blogspot.com/search/label/tagbilaran

Practicalities:
It's a 10 minute walk from Exotic to the village where the public boat sets off, just ask anyone for directions. The ferry ticket is 50 pesos one way, and at low tide, you need to pay 10 pesos on each bank for the little boat (tundas) to take you from shore to the ferry. First ferry sets off at 630am, so it makes sense to be at the ferry station (which is nothing more than a covered tent) at around 615am. The ferry bangka itself is about 40 minutes.

At Maya, its a 95 peso, 4.5 hour bus ride with stops down to Cebu city. The bus is the yellow Ceres Liner, non-airconditioned. The bus stops outside SM Plaza in Cebu City.

From there, I took a 5 minute taxi ride to the pier. Always metered, starting meter price is 30 peso. In total it was around 50 peso, excluding a 10 peso port entrance fee.

Pier 4, where Supercat and Weesam have services to Tagbilaran, on Bohol. Pier 1 is where Oceanjet's service start from. At Pier 4, I took Supercat, 535 pesos, a 1.5 hour fast ferry ride to Tagbilaran port. The ferry leaves at 1230pm, other timings also available on the bohol website.

tatio - Of Mandarinfish and seahorses that only come out at night

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:19:00 +0000

11th Dec 2010, Malapascua, Philippines

9am for the first dive. We headed towards Lighthouse, the site of hull of a Jap WWII wreck, just 10m deep. We didn't get a chance to do the dive sites at Gato Island, which was 45 minutes boat ride out. There needed to be at least 4 of us before they could take us there. Nevertheless, the next best alternative at the Lighthouse was a pretty good one. After all, we were getting one bangka boat to ourselves, with a 2 DM to 3 divers ratio.

Dive 4: Lighthouse. Hard corals, long dive since it was only 10m deep. Dive 5: Deep slope, which is a semi-wall dive, my favourite kind. The sheer amount of nudibranches spotted was enough to keep me happy all day. A moray roaming the slope was icing. Dive 6: Lighthouse (night). We returned back to Lighthouse for a dusk dive, ready to spot the elusive mandarinfish, a colourful fish that shies away under hard coral. They come out only at night, and since they fit into the palm of your hand, you can imagine how hard it is to find one in the water at night. Our DM Jojo was the hero, finding a mandarinfish almost immediately at the beginning of the dive. Additionally, he also found plenty of seahorses, a first for me in over 50 dives. Crabs, hermit crabs, cuttlefish and more boxer shrimps made up the night party.

Dinner was at one of the beachfront restaurants. Dishes were around the 150-300 range, fairly reasonable. There was an absence of local type eateries here in Malapascua, since most of the food is home cooked for the family. I had adobo, which is any mean cooked with vinegar and what seems like soy sauce.

Dalawa - Thresher shark spotting

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 14:33:00 +0000

10th Dec 2010, Malapascua, Philippines

At 430am, we were up and about, getting ready for the pre-dawn dive, in order to catch a thresher shark sighting. The dive location is Monad Shoal, a sunken island, on whose plateau the trhresher sharks regularly hang out. They come out from the depths to this plateau to get cleaned by the cleaner fish, before going back down. It's one of the few places to see threshers, characterised by their long dorsal tail fin that grows to almost half their entire body length.

We were hoping we'd get lucky. There's a 55% chance of seeing one this time of year, according to the Evolution Dive owners, Matt and David. Our DMs were Jojo and Julius, both born and bred on Malapascua island. The conditions that morning at 5am were unfavourable. Morning torrents and choppy waters. We'd be cursing if we don't see the threshers today; as it meant we'd have to go out again tomorrow morning in the cold rain to try again. We hear stories of divers who come here and dive for a week daily without ever spotting a thresher shark.

We weren't disappointed. A huge 2m plus thresher was in the vicinity and swam round in circles, at one time turning towards me and coming within a few meters away. Stupidly, i forgot to bring down the underwater camera, and only had it passed to me later, by which time I only got fleeting shots of the shark. Ok, I'm content. Mission accomplished. Thresher shark spotted.

The next couple of dives saw us spotting various local stuff like a frogfish, pairs of banded boxer shrimps, lots of lionfish. Dive 2: Lapus Lapus. Dive 3: Bantingi.

In the evening after the dives, did a loop around the village that sits behind all the dive resorts. It's my first Filipino village experience, and it delivers. Despite the resorts catering to the dive crowd, life in Malapascua remains simple. Children play in the sand, neighbours crowd outside a house, peeking in to watch the television in the household. Videokes abound too, you can hear the singing (wailing!) from the villagers belting local and foreign chart toppers. Malapascua's changing though. More resorts are popping up, structures are being built as I was there, no doubt to capture the increasing tourist dollar. Come to Malapascua now, before it's all gone in 10 years time =)

And the highlight, besides the sharks, here's a video of the Malapascuan village kids dancing away, the last shot in the vid sees one kid pulling the other's pants down =)

If you don't see the Youtube video, go to the original source : http://furiouspanda.blogspot.com

isa - Mactan to Malapascua

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 00:40:00 +0000

9th Dec 2010, Malapascua, Phillipines

AirPhile Express' A320 fleet flies out of Changi Terminal 2, Singapore, its first international destination to Manila and Cebu City. Armed with cheap promo tickets, off we go, T, ZJ and I to Cebu. The destination? Malapascua Island, off the northern tip of Cebu. The agenda? Thresher sharks.

As soon as we got out of the Cebu / Mactan international airport, we were whizzed into a van, to take us direct to Maya at the northern end, where we will take the pumpboat to Malapascua. It was a 3 hour van ride, which seemed longer because of the rain, and also due to the fact that it gets dark here much earlier, at around 6. The road hugs the eastern coastline.

Here's the view from the pumpboat. I suspect the cross-like mast is intentional, seeing that the majority of Filipinos are Roman catholics.

Dive outfit that we went with is Evolution Dive, one of the newer dive cos. on the malapascuan dive scene. And they put us up at The Purple Snapper, a 5 minutes walk inland from Evolution. Tomorrow morning, we will wake up at 4am, to go out to spot thresher sharks at Monad Shoal, since this is the only time when they come out.

Sacred City of Anuradhapura

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 09:11:00 +0000

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 9
5th Nov10, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
first published in http://furiouspanda.blogspot.com

Today was a morning tour around Anuradhapura. The ruins, and more temples were spread out further apart as compared to Polonnaruwa, many of which were gigantic stupas, probably the largest in Sri Lankas. The main complex around Abhayagiri Dagaba was where a large chunk of the ruins were situated, though there were many others stupas and monasteries scattered.

Truth be told, after 4 days of ruined cities, I was having a bit of an overdose. But to dismiss the sites entirely would be erroneous. There were a couple of highlights, Isurumuniya temple was where a 6th century carving depicting a man and a woman side by side; "The Lovers". A Samadhi statue depicts Buddha in the posture of his enlightenment. The Sri Maha Bodhi tree located in Anuradhapura, sacred as it is, was another sight.

Then comes the blitz down from Anuradhapura down south. As with all these rushed trips, it's a matter of squeezing in as much in a short space of time. A quick stop at Negombo later, we headed down to the airport, for the midnight flight out. And that was the Sri Lanka experience, short on serendipitous events, but a whole new set of experience to add.

Ancient City of Polonnaruwa

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 08:37:00 +0000

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 8
5th Nov10, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
first published in http://furiouspanda.blogspot.com

Ancient City of Polonnaruwa, that's the name inscribed on the World Heritage List, and the next stop in the Cultural Triangle for us. It's from a 1000 years ago, and built along the shore of the Sea of Parakrama, a huge man made reservoir (you cannot see the other bank).

The sights, ruins of temples, vatadages, palaces are spread out along the town. We go from one to another, marveling the architecture, the friezes along the walls. And it happened to be Diwali, and there were a couple of ruins of small Hindu temples in the mix. A sliver of devotees were present, paying respect at the temples.

After lunch, the van collected us and drove down to Anuradhapura, built several centuries before Polonnaruwa, and the original capital.

Sigiriya Rocks!

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 06:00:00 +0000

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 7

4^th Nov10, Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka

first published in http://furiouspanda.blogspot.com

Early morning saw us climbing the ancient rock fortress that is Sigiriya. Originally built into a city fortress in 5AD, it was expanded, used as a palace, monastery up till 14^th century, when it was abandoned. Probably my favourite historical site in Lanka, the sprawling city is made up of 3 levels, the garden terraces at ground level, a mid-level area halfway up the rock, and the topside, where the palace remnants are located.

At the base of the Sigiriya rock are the three terraced gardens, starting out from the water gardens, with pools located on either side of a walkway towards the rock, the pools being almost symmetrical. Then comes the boulder gardens, which looked like like part of the natural landscape, with step-like shapes cut into the boulder indicating that there must have been be some structures atop. The terraced gardens are basically steps leading up towards the top of the rock.

Midway through, we pass by the Fresco, where figures have been painted and preserved onto the side of the rock, and well as the Mirror Wall, running along the side of the rock, and polished so shiny it resembles a mirror, hence the name. On the wall are scribbled ancient graffiti, poems about how visitors to the rock marveled at the wonder.

Next, up to Lion's Mouth, the mid-level clearing, where steps leading to the top goes through what was previously a lion's mouth, (hence the Sigiriya name, Lion's Rock). All that remains now are the lion's paws.

Finally, at the top of the rock, the ruins of the palace /monastery. Nothing spectacular in itself, but the view of the surrounding area was great. From the places visited, seen so far, it seems that the locals, then and now, have an eye for setting up structures on high ground, overlooking everything, on a large scale. Like this rock, Buddha statues set atop hills like in Kandy, and Dambulla. The trend was to continue later when we went up to Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura.

By the time we were topside, we're pretty much exhausted. Made our way down and took the long drive to Polonnaruwa. Did the Polonnaruwa museum for an hour or so, and a couple of ruins. The sights in the ancient city of Polo were spread all around, much like Angkor in Cambodia, and were easier to visit on wheels. Like our van. It started to drizzle a bit, and we took that as an excuse to find lodging and stop sightseeing. In actual fact, we were bloody tired.

Interlude: Here's a list of UNESCO sites in Sri Lanka (source: Wikipedia)

Eight sites of Sri Lanka have been inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage, namely, the ancient city of Polonnaruwa (1982), the ancient city of Sigiriya (1982), the Golden Temple of Dambulla (1991), the old town of Galle and its fortifications (1988), the sacred city of Anuradhapura (1982), the sacred city of Kandy (1988), Sinharaja Forest Reserve (1988) and the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka (2010).

Well, 7 out of 8 isn't too bad – minus Sinharaja.

Into the Cultural Triangle

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 14:45:00 +0000

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 6
3rd Nov10, Sigiriya, Sri Lanka

The morning saw us sleeping in, after the long drive into Kandy. That and for once we had an internet wifi connection in the room. Firstly, did the tour around Kandy, taking in the sights. The lake is the most visible landmark around Kandy central, and opposite the lake from where we were staying, was the Temple of the Tooth Relic. A did the temple tour, but the rest of us just did the Kandy museum, plus walked around the town for a bit, dropping by the big Buddha at the top of the hill overlooking Kandy. The tourist office in Kandy was where we bought the USD 50 Cultural Triangle ticket, which covers Kandy, Polonnaruwa, and Anuradhapura, Sigiriya and some other smaller sites.

From Kandy, it was a long drive up to Dambulla Rock Caves, a UNESCO heritage site made up of a series of 5 caves containing around 150 Buddhas. It's a separate ticket from the Cultural Triangle Ticket and costs 1200 Rp per entry. The caves were alright, but of more interest was the great view of the sunset from the top of the hill where the rock caves stood.

It was dark when we did the journey from Dambulla to Sigiriya. Stayed at a Globetrotter's Tourist Inn (1500 Rp), which, if you ignore the mosquitoes, is a great place to stay. Unlike most of the places which were located at the edge of the road (GCSE 'O' Geography: Linear population!), this one had a long driveway and the rooms were located further in, off the road. Its a popular place too, in the Nov Dec months expect the place to be prebooked.

Interlude: Rasai Sri Lanka!

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 16:03:00 +0000

So. 9 days and 2 kg later. Here's a blog post about food. Rasai means Delicious in Sinhalese =) I pinched the post title from a Sri Lankan food festival promotional ad.

Typical Sri lankan rice and curry meal. Spicy and bloody fantastic too.

This is how we wash our hands, with "tissue" made out of newspapers

Rotti. plain. with egg. or those triangular ones with vege.

Spiced chick peas. kacang puteh style

Breakfast buffer. made out of dhal. rotti, and string hoppers (extreme right flour like stringy things)

Kottu Rotti! It's like prata with meat, minced into tiny slices over a chopping board.

Waday. and Samosa. Street eats.

Plain rotti, samosas behind the counter.

Mobile bakery.

Hoppers. Plain and with egg.

Rice and curry spread

Tropical Sri Lankan fruits

Rice and Curry Hotels. Hotels here means restaurant.

Yoghurt. At 35 singapore cents for one, it's a steal

Rice and curry set - with chicken curry!

Rice and curry. With fish!

Deviled chicken and deviled fish

Sri Lankan highland tea. and oh so English setting

Home cooked Sri Lankan meal

Fried rice

Thosai with dhal and deviled chicken

Wattalapam - coconut custard

Cream soda - local diabetes inducing soft drink

Fried noodles.

Wood apple, with chilli powder

Chilli mango slices

Heck, just go to the wikipedia page to learn more. =)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisine_of_Sri_Lanka

Greetings from the World's End!

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 04:55:00 +0000

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 5
2nd Nov10, Kandy, Sri Lanka

At 7am in the morning, we made our way to Horton Plains National Park (2300 Rp x 4 for everything including entry, vehicle entry and other taxes). A plateau rising up to 4300m, the park is home to the Sambar deer, one of which we saw near the entrance. It is also Sri Lanka's only cloud forest, rising high sea level, and covered in mist for most of the day.

The objective here was to make our way on foot along the 9 km round trek. The route would take us to a point aptly called World's End. This is where the trek path suddenly opens out into a 880m vertical drop into the valley below, affording brilliant views of the surrounding area and on clear days, even the sea.

The trek was straightfoward, decent walking footwear is a must. And with stops at highlights such as Baker's Falls, Mini World's End (a less impressive version of the above) and the flora / fauna (not much here, we also saw birds). The highlight of course was World's End, and we spent a bit of time looking down below till vertigo set in. Well, now I can go back telling everyone I have been to World's End. (Cue REM's song, 'It's the End of the World as We Know It, And I Feel Fine')

From Horton's Plains, we descended and passed by the Ambiwela dairy farm, where cows are bred to graze on rolling hills for their milk. These are then made into yoghurt, cheese and other dairy products. We had our fill of fresh cow's milk, sold behind a booth set up in the parking area leading to the dairy farm. We would have been able to visit the farm too, unfortunately the factory people were out to lunch.

However, we had much better luck with Macwoods's tea factory. This tea making establishment has been around for the last century and owned more than a thousand acres of land. We were taken on a tour of the tea factory, including the tea picking process, and the different grades of tea (Broken Orange Pekoe Fannings!) available. A new experience, since I have been seeing tea plantations everywhere but never had the chance to actually learn how the tea was made.

Dinner was at our driver's house, near Kandy. A had joked that she would want to eat dinner at his place, and he duly invited us over. His mom prepared dishes beforehand and we very really embarrassed at having imposed ourselves at his place. The home cooked food was excellent though.

Reached Kandy late in the evening. Found a place at Sharon's Inn, 3000Rp for the room, with a wifi connection. Probably the best place we stayed by far, notwithstanding Nuwara Eliya's overnight stay in cool high altitude surroundings.

From the Coast to the Highlands

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 04:31:00 +0000

The Serendib Chronicles – Day 4
1st Nov10, Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka

So having decided to go ahead with a driver and van for the next 6 days, we planned our route to see the main sites in Sri Lanka. With a vehicle, we would be able to see more, and spend less time waiting for buses and public transport. In the end, it would add up to be cheaper to go ahead with this arrangement, especially since there were four of us. The downside would be less interaction with the populace.

So the driving route today was to follow the coast from Hikkaduwa all the way to the next big city Matara, before heading inland to Nuwara Eliya. Nuwara Eliya is 1880m above sea level, and it would be a major change from the sunny beach weather we had been having over the past few days.

Breakfast. In one of the restaurants just out of Hikkaduwa, serving a buffet of (140 Rp) of rotti, string hoppers (a noodle like dry flour staple), with some dhal and other side dishes. Basically, rice and curry, or a flour variant in this case.

During the journey inland, the altitude began to rise, and soon we were in cooler weather, passing by Rawana falls, which has a backstory that I cannot recall. Headed towards Ella, and the journey from Ella to Nuwara Eliya is punctuated with spectacular views of the hills below, the tea plantations spread across the hill slopes, and villages duly equipped with the obligatory resthouse for travelers.

Nuwara Eliya is Sri Lanka's hill station, set up by the Brits stationed here long ago. The architecture of the houses are unlike anything I have seen in Sri Lanka so far, and most of them would not look out of place in the English countryside. It is pretty surreal, since I was not expecting little pastry shop huts, golf courses side by side with temples and mosques. The weather was also much cooler than in the lowlands, and I had to put on 2 layers and a windbreaker to keep out the cold. The city centre where we went for dinner was pretty much like any other Sri Lankan town, albeit it was much cooler. The unusual dinner dish we had was kottu rotti, which is basically roti prata with some sort of meat, in this case chicken, chopped to small bits till they resembled noodles instead of roti prata. Oh, and we had hoppers, which is like the mee chiam kueh in Singapore, except its an unwrapped bowl shaped version.

After dinner, did some strolling in the local Nuwara Eliya bazaar where I made the best buy so far! I was hunting for a souvenir Sri Lankan tshirt, with an elephant print on the front, which I saw an angmoh wearing, when instead I came across a Sri Lankan national cricket team jersey. Blue and yellow, I look fantastic wearing it. (yes, I know, my skin is thick, but we all know that don't we already ;-) )Bargained it down to 1100Rp. The quality seems ok, I just hope it doesn't come apart after one or two washes.

CSC = 3 (what else, the cricket jersey!)

Daytripping Galle and Diving Hikkaduwa

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 01:02:00 +0000

The Serendib Chronicles - Day 3

31 Oct10, Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka

Early at 9am, made the way down to Blue Deep Dive. Hikkaduwa boasts at least 12 dive sites, with a few easily accessible wrecks. The tourist season is not yet in full swing, so there was only an Austrian couple diving that morning. Diving season on the western coast runs from November to April, so the waters were just clearing and hopefully visibility would be good.

Two dives in the day (rather dear at 25 euro each), the second dive with just me going out for the dive. The first was Goda Gala, current was strong, highlight was probably the barracudas and the squid. I couldn't really see because the mask took in water incessantly. Second dive at the Cave, an 8 to 15m depth dive, was much better, because it offered the opportunity to do some nudibranch spotting, a favourite of mine.

One personal highlight was the Rotti joint which I came across in between dives. Just across the dive shop, off the main street in a little nook, lies the tastiest vegetable rotti. Rotti, resembles the Singaporean roti prata, except the Sri Lankan version is way spicier and hence a real treat if one can take the spiciness. I ordered 2 at first, but finished by lunch with 4 after repeated orders. It was that good.

Galle, a 30 min bus ride from Hikkaduwa, is a UNESCO heritage site, a former dutch fort built in the 17th century. Walking along the circumference of the fort, overlooking the Indian Ocean, was pretty surreal. It was also a Sunday evening, so throngs of locals and their families were having picnics, evening strolls, with kids dreaming to be the next Sanath Jayasuriya playing the odd cricket game, a national obsession here.

CS Count = 2 (finding that rotti shop, and the chance introduction to the local rotti!)

Ayurvedic Massages and No. 3 haircuts

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:12:00 +0000

The Serendib Chronicles – D2
30th Oct10, Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka

Left for brunch at 10am, walking northwards along busy Galle Road, which cuts through Hikkaduwa, towards the administrative end of the town. Found ourselves in the local rice and curry joint, where we had our dish (130 Rp) of rice, dhal, black pepper fish, potato spicy curry and a spicy sweet grated coconut mix. First taste of Sri Lankan rice and curry. Each side dish leaves a different taste in the mouth, which blends together to create an irresistible mix.

Back down, finally caught up with W and a friend she met, Shane. These two came up from Mirissa after a few days of relaxation there. Visited a local barber, to add to my collection of haircuts from unlikely places. It was a pretty decent cut too.

Went back for a nap (Why Not?) before being woken up by W to view the local lad fishing out on the stilts just in front of our guesthouse. The sight of these men on stilts is unique to the southern coastline of Sri Lanka, and I was earlier bemoaning the fact that I didn't have a chance to get to see these guys. And there right in front of me was one. Granted, he was bare-bodied and in three-quarter khakis. But he was the real deal, doing actual fishing. And not those who dress up and pose atop the stilts for tourist dollars from pictures. Serendipity =)

Also, tried out the ayurvedic full body massage (1500 Rp, A came a day later an had one for 100 Rp elsewhere, but ours told us he “was the real deal”) 1 hour, 3 types of body oil, 1 type of facial oil, and a sprinkling of sandalwood oil on the face later, I was done.

Dinner was buttered prawns (600 Rp) after which I told myself that for the rest of my stay in Lanka, I would only have local cuisine, which I find delicious!.
CSC = 1 (stilt fisherman found outside my guesthouse)

Introducing Sri Lanka

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:40:00 +0000

The Serendib Chronicles - Day 1
29th Oct 10, Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka

The Cathay Pacific flight arrived into Colombo airport at 10.40pm. After deliberating for a bit, I decided not to overnight in Colombo. Instead, we will take the public bus down to Hikkaduwa through the night, where W will meet us from Mirissa.

The free shuttle service goes 2km to the airport bus station, from which service 187 takes you to Bastian Mwatha station in Colombo. The only problem is at 12.30am, the bus (which normally waits till full before moving off) doesn't look like its going anywhere anytime soon. So, not wanting to wait 2 hours at the deserted bus station, we decided to take a three-wheeler (henceforth called tuk-tuk for simplicity's sake) after some bargaining(1200 Rp) to Colombo. The Sri Lankans are a nice lot. Not too pushy. Yes they will ask you for a tuktuk or propose some other offer for you, but if you decline firmly, they won't persist. And they always have a smile for you no matter what the outcome.

Tuk tuk ride. Braving the nightime draft, along the coastal road. Of particular interest are the local policemen standing guard in the middle and at the roadside every 500 meters or so. At 1am in the night!

Bastian Mwatha by night. The only late night service in operation seems to be the Colombo – Matara line. We would need to drop off at Hikkaduwa along the way (160 Rp on the tix, we paid 350 Rp for two, don't ask me why). The bus interchange itself must have been very busy in the day. In the night however, the sundry shops and eateries by the wayside are open, yes. But that's about it. The other bus service queues were empty. Only at the Colombo – Matara service was there a queue. We waited in the queue for 2 buses to load up before our turn to board. The bus stopped whenever there were passengers, and even though we left Colombo all seated, by the time we exited Colombo City, it was a “sardines in a can” situation. How I managed to sleep under the circumstances, during the 2 to 3 hour bus ride, in a crowded bus with Sri Lankan music blaring through the speakers, is beyond me. Also, I realised much later that clergy, meaning the monks, get the front seats in the bus reserved for them.

Reached Hikkaduwa around 4am, walked south along the coastal Galle Road to the budget place “Why Not? Guesthouse” which stood out, because the name just screams out “Pick me!”. 1200 Rp for the cheaper rooms on the ground level.

The Serendib Chronicles - Day 0

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:17:00 +0000

Serendipity - a propensity for making fortunate discoveries while looking for something unrelated.

Call it Ceylon, Serendib, Taprobane or The Pearl of the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka is a teardrop-shaped gem of an island. Compact with good transport links, it offers something for each and every intrepid traveler out there. Ancient cities? Check. White sandy beaches? Check. Safaris, tea plantations, bustling cities, highlands, waterfalls, white water rafting? Check.

Too bad I only have slightly more than a week there. Let's see how much we can cover =)

And since I've decided that the theme is Serendib (an old name for Sri Lanka, from which the word serendipity originated), let's just see how many serendipitious discoveries I'll accidentally come across. Current Serendipity Count (CSC) = 0

Gastronomy: Penang

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 17:32:00 +0000

PA020616, originally uploaded by morphred.

Penang, Malaysia - 01-03 Oct 2010
The Straits Settlements series – Part 2 (Penang)

So here are brief snippets of the highlights of Penang

- The journey there was on the overnight snoozer Konsortium bus (55 SGD), which picks up at Golden Mile tower. It was a 10 hour night ride, ending at the Sungei Nibong long distance bus station on Penang island. By snoozer, it means that the seats recline to about 30 degrees, with plenty of leg space, and your own entertainment unit. I had How to Train Your Dragon on mine. The air conditioning was way too cold.

- Lodging for the day was on the New Banana Guesthouse, clean and at the back of the New Banana travel agency (70 RM for d/room), located at the junction of Lebuh Chulia and Penang Rd. The backpacker places around Chulia charge anything around 30 to 50 RM for a room. New Banana has aircon, tv and free Wifi. =)

- The Penang Hill fiasco. Penang Hill is closed till 2011. The train transport to the top of the hill is under renovation. We took the bus up to Penang hill, and ended up taking the next bus back.

- The public bus service (Rapid) is excellent, with destinations clearly displayed and easy to use. Traveling by bus is cheap and convenient.

- Gurney drive hawker centre has a great vibe, with its open air by the beach concept. Gurney Plaza next door is exactly like an Sg mall, down to its layout (cinema on top floor, supermarket on basement) and its tenants. No surprise, seeing as its under Capitaland’s retail arm.

- Food. Had everything from Nonya chicken curry, Mee goreng sotong, assam laksa, parsembur and retro egg toast in the many quaint coffeeshops littered throughout Georgetown. KW in addition had Char Kway Teow and Hokkien Mee. The initial reason for going to Penang is to have authentic Nasi Kandar, but that was never going to happen. I was waiting to have enough of an empty stomach before ordering Nasi Kandar, but the way I was snacking and eating everything else, that was never going to happen.

- The highlight would have to be the parsembur hawker, who stands beside his stall and to the beat of techno (I’m a Barbie girl, anyone?) sings an infectious “rojak, rojak, rojak…” ad nauseum, with his chopper on the chopping board. He drums up business that way, im sure. =)

- Penang Times Square is still halfway under construction, with the main shopping complex completed and only half-filled by tenants. It’s the next big thing though; shiny, located in the central town area, just beside current big time shopping draws, Prangin Mall and Komtar. Watch for it.

- Georgetown itself is a mixture of Chinese temples, Indian temples, mosques, and colonial buildings, depending on which part you go to. Fort Cornwallis isn’t much to look at, but it does give an insight to Penang’s history. I can understand why Penang and its smorgarsbord of sights, smells and sounds would fascinate the western traveler.

- Flight back home. Penang to Senai airport in JB. Senai airport’s been renovated since I was last here, and it’s pretty convenient to get to the Kotaraya terminal and then to Singapore from the airport.

To summarise, went there, ate, walked, ate, sat down, ate, slept, ate, ate, walked, ate, went home. Did not get to savour my Nasi Kandar. Meaning I'll just have to return here another time! =)

Papa Loves Mambo at Jonker 88

noreply@blogger.com (Red) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:12:00 +0000

Papa Loves Mambo at Jonker 88, originally uploaded by morphred.

21-22Aug, Malacca, Malaysia
The Straits Settlements Series - Part I

Despite not wanting to go anywhere over the weekend, I ended up joining KW, WQ, YQ and Al in driving up to Malacca. On a Sat night, while fasting. For less than 24hrs.

Driving with a GPS is a no-brainer. Just follow instructions blindly. And Malacca looks the same. A World Heritage site, plenty of peranakan-ness. Basically, i wilted in the heat, and watched everyone eat lovely chendol ice kachang in gula melaka. The company's great though, and the 500km drive was worth it. :-)

Visit: Jonker Street, Formosa, Mahkota Parade
Sleep: Kings Hotel Apartments
Eat: Nasi Kandar / McDonalds

Photoset can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/morphred/sets/72157624680516203/show/