21-day South-Asia trip (2007)

January 15/16th

Eva Airways took me across the Pacific Ocean, just in time for my scheduled landing in Singapore at High Noon. Dominic was waiting for me at the airport as promised.

The rapid rail in Singapore is called the MRT. A much cleaner, faster, and generally better commuter service exists in Sing. than Vancouver. I was impressed.

Lodging:
A Travellers Rest-Stop, Singapore, Singapore
5 Teck Lim Road, Singapore 088383
$20SING/night

Lunch:
Sri Kamala Vilas Restaurant
#01-16662 Buffalo Road, 210662
Tel: 62911164

Tekka Market:
Rojak
Mutton Soup

The next morning I met Dominic at the southern pier in Singapore to catch a ferry to Tanjung Balai, Indonesia. We took the Indo Falcon.

Three hours later, we landed at a developing-nation pier. Surrounded by a cast of characters including customs officials, hangers-on, taxi-drivers, touts, louts, children, business-men, money-changers etc.

We stayed at Holiday Karimun Hotel, a great value for money. This place was very clean, marble floors, beautiful wood paneling. It was also very empty. Dominic and I were about the only guests in probably a 40-room hotel. But then, Balai does not see many tourists, especially as Lonely Planet describes this place as "attracting shady characters".

Drive around town in the local bus: a minivan with a couple benches.

We spent a long time walking along the shopping district. Bought some Batik products. Dominic haggled for me and got me a good discount.

The main event: night market.

Food:

Authentic Indonesian satay
Pancakes
Char kwiteau

January 18th

Woke up 8am.

Breakfast: Ba Kut Teh
Pork rib soup w/rice
Indonesian coffee

Visited the markets

Wet market sells vegetables, meat and fish. Such a variety!

We bought several kilos of jackfruit, passion fruit, small bananas and snacked on some deep fried banana fritters

Fast ferry from Balai to Tanjung Pinang.

Booked a room at Paradis Hotel.

This was the best eating experience of the trip for me:
At night, around dinner time there is an area just down from the hotel that turns into an outdoor food court. There are probably 100 or so different stalls set up, with a seating area in the middle. Locals flock here to feast probably every night of the week.

Dinner:

Char Kwiteau
Gong Gong
Fried Fish
Satay
Roti Plata

January 19th

Woke up at 5am to Muslim prayers, about 15 minutes only.

Early walk before breakfast.
Breakfast of fried rice and egg complimentary of the hotel.

Dominic called this food 'junk food' and wanted to have a real breakfast. We walked over to a place across the way from the hotel to see where the locals eat. There is a place where customers choose take-out dishes and serve themselves rice and a variety of about 20-30 dishes. I was amazed. When you are done serving your portion, the checkout girl looks to see about how much to charge. After helping ourselves we snacked to our hearts content, satisfying ourselves with a cup each of warm soya milk.

After breakfast we toured the town for a bit. We headed for the pier, where Dominic has purchase some items before. There are roadside shops lining just about every street in this town. Small shops specializing in their own line of products, house-ware, clothing, spices, tools, etc.

At the harbour, we arrived in time to see a merchant ship unloading goods. To me it looked like a scene straight out of a Joseph Conrad novel. Dominic said they used the same system when he was a young boy living in Singapore.

Eating:

sugar and peanut pancake from street-stall: tasty
Another one or two, wrapped in banana leaf

Chinese char kwiteau 2 different kinds: wet and dry. $1/plate
An excellent lunch. If I ever go back there, I will go to this particular place again. I suggest trying both sorts of char back-to-back in order to test the difference between both kinds.

Boat to Singapore.

Dinner:
Bugis Food Court: 3 dishes and a dessert.

January 20th

Not bad sleeping at Changi Airport. There is a section on the 2nd floor, toward the MRT side which finds several people sleeping probably every night. The facilities even turn several lights off in the area for the comfort of those sleeping. Quite interesting.

Head to Lavender Station. Meet Dominic.

5 hours to Malacca.

Malacca is the historic Portugese colony, later taken over by the British. There are excellent examples of this history with a fort, various churches and even an old galleon, standing near the water, down toward the hotel district of the town.

Dominic and I hired a trishaw for an hour. Think rickshaw except pulled by bycycle. This is a famous thing to do in Malacca, and each driver decorates his ride with an array of flowers, blinking lights and a boom-box. We got to listen to BonyM the whole duration of our ride. Now that was a blast from the past!!

Later in the evening, Jonker street opened up as walk-about shopping and eating paradise. After all, this is the Saturday Market. We spent hours strolling around, snacking.

Later in the evening, we went to eat satay fondu. This place is packed, and the tables were full of minimum 6-8 people. It was the first time I have seen a place offering frozen meat and veggies, which are dipped by the customer into a boiling pot, recessed into the centre of each table. Once the meats or veggies are cooked, the food taken out by the stick they come on, and eaten. We had cold beer to go with this dinner, which turned out to be a good choice.