oh Melaka, the land of old buildings.
Went to Melaka at the end of May due to an assignment our dearest lecturer forced upon us. I was quite reluctant to go, mainly because I have (yet again) spent all I had for the month and would have to borrow money for the trip.
anyhow, the entire purpose of the assignment was to bombard innocent backpackers from all over the world with irritating questions such as "how do you budget your travels?", "why travel?" and the like. naturally, being ambitious students such as ourselves, we decided we wanted to make a video of the backpackers themselves talking, instead of repeating what they said over some stupid pictures.
so not only were they irritated with questions, they also had to deal with the very intimidating video camera, and since everyone thinks of the camera as their no.1 most feared object ever, hilarity ensues.
we camped out at a guest house, which I previously used to associate with cockroaches, dirty, ugly people and strange owners. Ringo's Foyer turned out to be a pleasant surprise... (not that it wasn't a bit dirty, and the bathroom had no heater!!!! and no air-conditioner...) but one of the owners - Raymond - was so nice to us, bringing us around and making sure we got ALL the access we could to the backpackers staying there so we could complete our assignment... ahh... *love*
the highlight of the entire trip was obviously the backpackers themselves.
they were so different from all the other foreigners I've met, it's like their entire purpose in life is to travel.
and I want to be one of them.
to leave the world as I know it behind, and embark on a journey of marvelling at new things, discovering who you really are when there's no one there to judge, and realising how small you really are compared to the rest of the world.
however, sad to say, I won't be able to enter into this journey of amazement until I graduate, get a job and save up for a couple of years. (depressing, innit?)
well, moving on to brighter stuff,
turns out Melaka wasn't so bad if your travelling partners didn't include your parents or siblings, I actually had quite some fun, in contrast to previous excruciatingly boring visits to Melaka (or is it Malacca?) with the family.
of course, what is Melaka without cendol and nyonya food?
despite the downpour, we had a spectacular view of fireworks walking in an almost empty Jonker Street, which was good, because imagine if it didn't rain, it'll be packed with people, greatly reducing the enjoyment of watching the little sparks go off in the sky, since you'll have to stand amongst the crowd and stench, soaking in sweat.
everything seemed so laid back in this quaint little town, I would die if I lived there.
naturally we did some sight-seeing.
and got shocked to see how far marketing has stretched its evil claws. what will the tourists think!!!
and camwhored a bit here and there. (of course, not being a vain pot, I became the photographer)
but then, how can i NOT camwhore? here's one. feast your eyes.
and Melaka wasn't all fun and sightseeing, we actually had to do work! which involved talking to complete strangers! (oh the horror!!!)
Stranger No.1 was Brett from Canada.
he was the sweetest stranger ever, helping us ever so much on our assignment (and was also the only willing interviewee who is not camera-shy), unfortunately we forgot to get contacts from him, therefore he is lost from our lives forever.
Stranger No. 2 was David (pronounced Dah- Vid) from Czech Republic
I previously didn't know Prague was in Czech until I met him. ah, well, at least I've moved a step up from the bottom of that vast well of things I don't know.
David here works as a fiction translator, from English to Czech, and all he does on a daily basis is read fantastic books and translate them into his mother tongue, and the best thing is he could do this anywhere in the world. Sounds like the perfect job huh? We all hate him for having that job.
Incredibly camera-shy, he wins the coveted Worst Camera Interview award hands down.
Anyway, he later moved to KL and lived there for like 2930484020 days, and we spent those days cultivating him into a tiny little camwhore, but that will be another chapter on this blog.
Stranger No. 3 - Unlike stranger no.2, he was already the perfect camwhore when we met him, and he was also into taking lots and lots of pictures of everything and nothing. Meet Bera, the Hungarian Chef who went to work in the UK to save enough money to travel.
I spent my time in Melaka taking pictures of him taking pictures or listening to him talk incessantly about food, or recording him giving me crap answers for the interviews.
Here's proof.
That's Bera! With his trusty little camera (which he will lose in his KL escapade, also, in another chapter in this blog)
From the picture, you can see that this particular Melaka trip was obviously fun fun fun... and meeting new people is always interesting.
and due to shoddy memory and laziness to write more, here ends the post on Melaka.
anyhow, the entire purpose of the assignment was to bombard innocent backpackers from all over the world with irritating questions such as "how do you budget your travels?", "why travel?" and the like. naturally, being ambitious students such as ourselves, we decided we wanted to make a video of the backpackers themselves talking, instead of repeating what they said over some stupid pictures.
so not only were they irritated with questions, they also had to deal with the very intimidating video camera, and since everyone thinks of the camera as their no.1 most feared object ever, hilarity ensues.
we camped out at a guest house, which I previously used to associate with cockroaches, dirty, ugly people and strange owners. Ringo's Foyer turned out to be a pleasant surprise... (not that it wasn't a bit dirty, and the bathroom had no heater!!!! and no air-conditioner...) but one of the owners - Raymond - was so nice to us, bringing us around and making sure we got ALL the access we could to the backpackers staying there so we could complete our assignment... ahh... *love*
the highlight of the entire trip was obviously the backpackers themselves.
they were so different from all the other foreigners I've met, it's like their entire purpose in life is to travel.
and I want to be one of them.
to leave the world as I know it behind, and embark on a journey of marvelling at new things, discovering who you really are when there's no one there to judge, and realising how small you really are compared to the rest of the world.
however, sad to say, I won't be able to enter into this journey of amazement until I graduate, get a job and save up for a couple of years. (depressing, innit?)
well, moving on to brighter stuff,
turns out Melaka wasn't so bad if your travelling partners didn't include your parents or siblings, I actually had quite some fun, in contrast to previous excruciatingly boring visits to Melaka (or is it Malacca?) with the family.
of course, what is Melaka without cendol and nyonya food?
despite the downpour, we had a spectacular view of fireworks walking in an almost empty Jonker Street, which was good, because imagine if it didn't rain, it'll be packed with people, greatly reducing the enjoyment of watching the little sparks go off in the sky, since you'll have to stand amongst the crowd and stench, soaking in sweat.
everything seemed so laid back in this quaint little town, I would die if I lived there.
naturally we did some sight-seeing.
and got shocked to see how far marketing has stretched its evil claws. what will the tourists think!!!
and camwhored a bit here and there. (of course, not being a vain pot, I became the photographer)
but then, how can i NOT camwhore? here's one. feast your eyes.
and Melaka wasn't all fun and sightseeing, we actually had to do work! which involved talking to complete strangers! (oh the horror!!!)
Stranger No.1 was Brett from Canada.
he was the sweetest stranger ever, helping us ever so much on our assignment (and was also the only willing interviewee who is not camera-shy), unfortunately we forgot to get contacts from him, therefore he is lost from our lives forever.
Stranger No. 2 was David (pronounced Dah- Vid) from Czech Republic
I previously didn't know Prague was in Czech until I met him. ah, well, at least I've moved a step up from the bottom of that vast well of things I don't know.
David here works as a fiction translator, from English to Czech, and all he does on a daily basis is read fantastic books and translate them into his mother tongue, and the best thing is he could do this anywhere in the world. Sounds like the perfect job huh? We all hate him for having that job.
Incredibly camera-shy, he wins the coveted Worst Camera Interview award hands down.
Anyway, he later moved to KL and lived there for like 2930484020 days, and we spent those days cultivating him into a tiny little camwhore, but that will be another chapter on this blog.
Stranger No. 3 - Unlike stranger no.2, he was already the perfect camwhore when we met him, and he was also into taking lots and lots of pictures of everything and nothing. Meet Bera, the Hungarian Chef who went to work in the UK to save enough money to travel.
I spent my time in Melaka taking pictures of him taking pictures or listening to him talk incessantly about food, or recording him giving me crap answers for the interviews.
Here's proof.
That's Bera! With his trusty little camera (which he will lose in his KL escapade, also, in another chapter in this blog)
From the picture, you can see that this particular Melaka trip was obviously fun fun fun... and meeting new people is always interesting.
and due to shoddy memory and laziness to write more, here ends the post on Melaka.