Thursday, March 31, 2005

Indian food in Malaysia

I took a nice air-conditioned bus from Singapore to Melaka, an old port on the west coast of Malaysia. Singapore is separated from Malaysia by a bridge, but once you go over it, you know you're not in Singapore anymore. Gone are the glass and steel structures. I'm back in jungle and rusty tin roofs. Okay, it's not that bad, but it's not Singapore. It's not Indonesia either. It's somewhere in between. Malaysia actually is quite modern.
Melaka is an old port, one of the wealthiest in the world a few hundred years ago. It was said that the Lord of Melaka had his hand on the throat of Venice, because it was the main trading port in southeast Asia. Melaka has an interesting mix of Portuguese, English, and Dutch architecture, reflecting the previous occupants. It also has a Chinatown and Little India.
On the bus to Melaka, I met up with a couple of backpackers from Canada and the UK. They had been eating Indian food since leaving Thailand a few days ago, so we went off in search of good Indian food. It's pretty wild to be eating curry and rice on a banana leaf with your fingers. That's how the past two days have been...one Indian meal after another.
We're in Kuala Lumpur now. It's the capital of Malaysia. It's big and modern, but not as clean and polished as Singapore. We went to the Petronas Towers, at 88-stories they were once the tallest buildings in the world until 1998.
Tomorrow I am headed to the Cameron Highlands to commune with nature. Well, it's supposed to be a lot cooler up in the mountains.
By the way, I haven't felt any of the earthquakes or seen an tsunamis.

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