Cheap Thrills

Malacca is so picturesque but if you think about it, old Portugese ruins, hill-top Dutch churches, generations-old Chinese graveyards and a snaking waterway through the old town sets a pretty spooky backdrop for unsettling angles, low light and shadowy corners for the imagination to fester.

I had so much fun doctoring these pictures too look a little spooky. This is ironic and not a true depiction of this little trip at all, which was cheerful, fun and full of colour. But what the heck, this is my small attempt to make Malacca look a little different. 



Window 1

 

Church on the hill

Staring at you





What do you see?



Through the window

 

The Band At India Gate

The afternoon sun was winding down after a hard day's work over the Indian subcontinent. India Gate was coming alive with couples holding hands, families with children and tourists like us.

We were lucky. A band was playing! Sorry to say I took more photographs of the people that I did of the glorious India Gate.

Lots of pomp for the circumstance

Wow we made the news

And so did lots of happy people

Bollywood turned up





How To Enjoy A Kebab

Look out for nice juicy bits of meat

Greasy chips a big plus  

Slather on the tasty tomato sauce, pickles, and what the heck, throw in a couple of chips too

Dip kebab in a pool of meat dripping before searing for a smokey flavour

Take large bite without looking

Ahh! Naughty kebab man slipped in some peppers without telling!

Just kidding! Ahem, of course I can eat spicy!

Marketing

For a good dose of culture shock, visit the local markets. The smell, the squelchy ground and the very strange looking merchandise. Pudu Market is particularly good at attacking the senses. It is way too... real. And real can be well, a tad scary!

It all starts off well...Bunga Kantan stalks - so pretty and pink

.

Then it gets a little hairy. No idea what this is but its uncanny resemblance to my unshaven legs was too much to resist

Purtee dried shrimp looking golden and pink at the same time

The long beans were selling particularly well that day.

"I'll have the vegetarian option please."

Ex monk?

I don't know if it's the energy or just my inner hopeless romantic. Often, when I get to a holy place, I feel the need to pledge my soul. Maybe I was a monk in my previous life?

Sigh, alarmingly beautiful

On my second visit to Yeni Camii in Eminonu I got really intrigued by these men and their ablutions. It's still one of my fav pics of Istanbul.

Abloush, bloush, bloush

Lions

The moment of realisation

Gloriously inebriated at the Kuching Rainforest Music Festival. "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" is blasting the right amount of cheesy reprieve from a night of 'global music'.

"Ee-e-e-um-um-a-weh
Wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh, wimoweh
In the jungle, the mighty jungle,
The lion sleeps tonight
In the jungle, the quiet jungle
The lion sleeps tonight"

We were 'dancing' in a group, or more like stumbling around in drunken stupor, giggling like schoolgirls high on a crush. A revelation dawns, as pure as the starry night sky.

There are no lions in the jungle.

They live in wide open African plains, not lush tropical rainforests!

Friggin' hilarious. I probably peed in my pants.

I guess you had to be there.

Sri Lankan Aubergines

Somewhere on that long windy road up to Kandy, we stopped to lunch at the edge of this amazing paddy field. We oohed and aahed, which is stupid seeing as we come from a land of paddy fields too. But it was peaceful and serene and green, so we continued to ooh and aah.



The food arrived in record Sri Lankan time; ie. 1 hour! But, it was unanimously declared worth the wait because God created aubergines to be cooked this way!



Sticky, salty, sour, fried goodness