How you know you live in a suburb?

There are different ways in different countries how you decorate your balcony. This is how it would look like in a suburb to Stockholm.

In Asia on the other hand, the balcony decoration tend to be a little bit more colorful and of different shapes.

Sunway Lagoon

As any big city Kuala Lumpur also have its own theme park. The name is Sunway Lagoon and as the website tells you can find 5 different parks inside; Water park, Amusement park, Extreme park, Scream park and Wild life park. In my opinion a little overrated but the main reason for going was Lina and Sara's crazy idea they wanted to go bungy jumping, and so they did!

We spent the full day of Saturday in the amusement and water park and all of us turned into excited kids running between the coasters and rides. Each park is kind of small but the rides were great fun. I was not alone to not have brought any change of cloths and in Malaysia its absolutely normal to swim with your cloths on, and frankly we didn't really have any choice.. The rides in the Wild West part of the amusement park is not water proof to say the least so there was not really any point in changing into swimming wear when moving on to the water park.

Totally soaked from top till toe we passed through the Sunway mall in search for food and beer. We made a quick stop to buy a new DRY outfit for the night, 5 minutes efficient shopping and a quick make over in the toilet and i was ready for some Satey (Malaysian amazing BBQ sticks).

I love you I miss you I kiss you

MURNI is another restaurant in SS2 that attracts a lot of people. The restaurant itself is rather small but during the evening the pavement outside is turned into a 500 meter long dining table with hungry locals. Last night I found myself in the middle. The food served here is supposed to be special and looking at the number of people waiting while the staff is stressing to put up another table at the end makes it obvious. All of a sudden the dining stroll becomes 510 meter and it keeps on growing. When ordering Lina said to the waiter: I love you I miss you I kiss you. And NO it was not Lina expressing her love to this random waiter. It was the name of the drinks she ordered for us. All beverages are home made mixes and they tasted really nice. The best one was I kiss you with a base of apple juice.

I love you - I miss you - I kiss you

 

The dirtier the place, the tastier the food

Saturday night Ms Lina took me and our two neighbours for Chinese food at SS2 which is an area not far from Bangsar south, where I, for those who do not know live. Here they have a lively Chinese food court by locals called Wai Sek Gai. After parking the car and walking the 50 meters towards the stalls we managed to pass a mountain of smelling garbage and a dead rat on the side of the road. Lina has taken me to this place before in my earlier days in KL so thanks to that I was still sure I was going to have a nice meal. However, our two friends joining us didn't seem all that convinced (I don't blame them..) Lina and myself laughed it over and said "the dirtier the place, the tastier the food" which I have found to be so true. From my experience traveling in China and South East Asia you cannot find as good and tasty food as in the street stalls and in the whole in the wall kind of restaurants. You pay absolutely nothing and yet you get dishes delicious enough for a Michelin star. Maybe I am exaggerating a little bit here but considering what you get for the money I will continue finding my way in KL's dirty allies searching for food and I will be happy to share it with you.

We ended up having a really nice dinner with Japanese tofu, dried chili chicken, baby kai lan with butter and spicy sambal prawns.. yum yum..

Apollo launches Langkawi as destination

The Swedish tour operator Apollo is going to launch the Malaysian island Langkawi as a new destination next winter with a direct flight. This will probably happen even before Malaysian Airlines will reopen its non stop line KL-Stockholm. Hopefully this might be a start to open and widen the traditional Swedish tour traveling a bit.   

Langkawi is situated on the Malaysian west coast very close to the Thailand boarder and is famous for the number of water sports you can do here as well as the tax free shopping. 

http://www.travelnews.se/artiklar/nyheter/20120216/apollo-lanserar-direktflyg-till-langkawi

Mashed Potatoes @ George and the Dragon Legend

It is far from everyday I add a little extra luxury in my daily routine, considering my lunch most of the days is spent in the over crowded canteen. Last night however I met up with Ana and Nanditha at the English pub George and the Dragon Legend @ Bangsar Shopping Center. I surely enjoyed the traditional pub atmosphere and I had a huge plate of chicken and mushroom pie with beautiful fluffy mashed potatoes. I can very much recommend that! Thanks Ana for taken me!

With our bellies full we jumped in a taxi and went to Bangsar Village where we got ourselves some DVDs for the weekend, the non original covered in plastic kind of DVD. Let's just hope the quality is somewhat good!

Weekend getaway Penang vs Melaka

The two last weekends I have spent outside of Kuala Lumpur. Two weeks ago my local friend Mun took me to his home state Penang. We spent 3 days staying with his very welcoming and friendly family. The weekend after my friend Becky invited me to join her for a weekend in Melaka. There we spent two intense days within the Chinatown area. Penang and Melaka are Malaysia's second and third smallest states but they have more in common than that. Both have been visited and colonized by the British, Dutch and Portuguese and the culture heritage is obvious when strolling around Georgetown in Penang and the streets of Chinatown in Melaka, both holding the UNESCO city heritage status.

Georgetown Penang impress with a number of buildings of historic importance and the closeness to the sea gives a beautiful view. Mun is very proud of his home town and he gave me a brief history lesson while we were walking around the Fort Cornwallis and driving through the city.

We also visited the Snake Temple where half wild snakes can be found everywhere inside the temple and in the garden outside. After my trip to Borneo earlier this month I am starting to get used to the sight of exotic animals but Mun didn't seem as confident..

One of the mornings at the breakfast table Mun's mother dusted off the old family photo album and showed me her wedding pictures and pictures of the children, Mun and his sisters. Digital photos in all glory but there is not much like it to watch old photographs with its special color and memory. Mun's mother also made home cooked Nasi Lemak for breakfast, just for me to enjoy while going through memory lane of the family's history.

The second day I was trusted to drive the car and we went to the Kok Lok Si Temple which is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. The temple is placed on a hill with a great view over the island.

Another thing Penang and Melaka have in common is food. The local traditional dishes are famous all over Malaysia but only as its original they taste the best I have been told. In Penang I tried different noodle dishes and the traditional Penang Laksa which is like a sour noodle soap with fish and vegetables. In the evening Mun took me for seafood and we had a wonderful meal with fish, crab, calamari and prawns for only RM52. A real bargain! 

The Malaysian dessert Cendol is a must try, however its not one of my favorites to say the least. I have tried the Cendol in KL, Penang and Melaka and I can honestly say that I have given it a fair chance but there will be no more Cendol for me. In Melaka you are supposed to get the best one but with the mix of flavored ice, fruit, sometimes ice cream, baked beans, corns and whatever they put in it it will still be a very memorable food experience for me despite my dislike.

Penang version of Cendol to the left and Melaka to the right.

In Melaka everything is about Chinatown and Jonker Street. A long Jonker street you can find plenty of antique, craft and cloths shops. It's a nice experience to walk here and do your souvenir shopping. During Friday and Saturday evenings the street is closed to traffic and it is transformed into a lively street market with all kinds of food and trinket stalls.

Another street of my taste was Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock. This used to be the former preferred address for wealthy "Babas", straight born Chinese. The architecture found here is Dutch inspired and walking looking upon the buildings its like being transferred to a small European village. You will keep admiring the different details of the doors and windows until a crazy colorful Trishaw (bicycle taxi) will pass by playing Lady Gaga on highest volume.

Me and Becky tried out our creative side in a small Chinese gallery where we were shown how to paint Malaysian Batik. We both chose to paint elephants and the teacher right away started to put a grey color on Becky's. When I asked if I could do mine in green he looked surprised at me with one eyebrow higher than the other. We enjoyed the time and the Chinese man was very interested in "our money" and "our language" and had lots of curious questions. The end result of the paintings we got to take with us home.