KL Journal #4

6/23/2006 2:31 PM
Somewhere over the Malaysian sea coast

Our trip to Malaysia is finally coming to an end. We are now on a flight to Mumbai, via Singapore, Colombo and God knows where else! Budget travelers cannot be choosers. I told you about our trip to Melaka. Last Friday, we managed to visit another Malaysian destination. We went to Penang.

Yes that famous British colony of the ‘Penang lawyer' fame. We did manage to get ourselves to a good introduction to delectable Penang Chinese cuisine. Dimsums, prawn mees, claypot rice, murtabaks (not Chinese, Indian)…we went on a gourmet overdrive in Penang.

Penang is a little island off the coast of North east Malaysia that is now connected to the mainland by a bridge. It was a very famous British settlement that fell to the Japanese in 1942. I suppose that’s why Georgetown – the old town part of Penang – still wears that Colonial charm.

A very important aside. Just like India, Malaysia was a British colony. But a friend tells me that unlike the Indian freedom struggle, the Malaysian freedom movement was pretty intrepid. In fact, compared to the Indian movement, there was no Malaysian freedom struggle at all. Self-reliance was handed to the locals on a platter sometime in the 50s. The relations are amiable, needless to mention. Malaysia is a proud member of the Commonwealth. And most importantly, the British phase here is not something the Malays want to phase out. That’s why Georgetown is still called Georgetown and not TAR Negara or something like that… And most importantly it looks a lot like the way old Georgetown looked, I suppose.

We are landing in Singapore. More later.


6/23/2006 6:52 PM
Colombo International Airport

The last few hours have been extremely tiring. For a good part of the last two hours, we are waiting at Colombo Airport. Our flight was supposed to take off at 6.20 Colombo time. But we are still waiting at a no-smoking airport lounge with a gaggle of Pakistanis. The flight is a Colombo-Mumbai-Karachi flight.

The Singapore-Colombo leg was quite forgettable. Another gaggle of Tamils got on at Changi. Started drinking. One couldn’t handle his whiskey. Ending up puking and chewing his cutlery packet. I have seen worse. The thought of another human being throwing up in an enclosed space was too much for us. We had to change seats.

Met another Tamil. This one was quite decent and one of those temporary friendships were struck in the middle of this fiasco. He said he was traveling from PNG. Penang, I supposed and was about to impress him with my newly earned knowledge.

Papua New Guinea, he said.

Papua New Guinea of the South Seas, Gauguin paintings, the Mutiny on the Bounty. This is actually the first time I have met someone who has been to Papua New Guinea. Clearly thrilling.

Looks like there was a bomb scare in Colombo. So the crew was not able to reach the airport. Our flight has just started boarding.

Over and out.