Before Kris and I spent almost every waking moment in our apartment due to the viral threat, we were fortunate enough to do some travelling. We attended Bangkok Hat and ate our way around the city before exploring western Malaysia, a country that was new to us, but came highly recommended from friends. Between eating everything in sight, learning about the history of the region, and relaxing on a picturesque island, our adventures gave us memories to fuel us through the current isolation.
Bangkok
The inciting event for this trip was attending Bangkok Hat 2020, but we had some time before the tournament to see more of Bangkok itself. Last time around, we got scammed but still managed to get an overall picture of the city. This year, the highlight of our brief time in Bangkok was a food tour, organised by A Chef’s Tour. We were looking to sample as much Thai food as we possibly could in one half-day.
We were guided through the markets and streets of Oldtown, eating some of the most down-to-earth yet divine food. We ate known favourites like massaman curry and khao soi, and other local specialities that we ate and promptly forgot the names of. Our host, Ar, told us enough about the restaurants and surrounding areas to pique our interests and fill the time spent travelling between meals, but the focus was on the food, which was truly delightful. We were too busy enjoying our time to even take photos, but the tour will remain in our memories, and I highly recommend it to anyone who visits Bangkok.
Apart from the tour, most of our time was spent playing Ultimate and hunting for food in our area, topping off each night with a bowl of mango sticky rice. Walking the streets of Nana at night is certainly an experience. We were staying in a hotel on what turned out to be a bar street, complete with ladies of the night sitting provocatively in bars, calling out to men that walked past. It was intriguing for a few nights, but I’m glad that it’s not something that I have to see every day.
Kuala Lumpur
We then left Bangkok behind, bodies still aching from the Ultimate, and hearts still aching from leaving behind mango sticky rice. Our first stop in Malaysia was Kuala Lumpur. Sadly, one of our first two days there was completely rained out. While we trawled the shopping centres and even did an escape room, the rain dampened our initial impression of the city. Petronas Towers are a sight to behold, but the more we travel in Asia, the more we feel that most big cities are remarkably similar. We reserved judgement on KL though, as we would return for another short stint at the end of our trip.
Cameron Highlands
From Kuala Lumpur, we took a bus to the rural, mountainous Cameron Highlands. We thought that the quieter setting would help us settle down from the bustle of the big cities we’d been in up until this point. Middling misfortune meandered along with us, as Kris was struck down with a stomach bug for most of our first day there. We were disheartened, but we arranged a tour for the next morning and rested.
We rose early, and met our tour guide with as much energy as we could muster soon after sunrise. He was an incredibly charismatic man with an admirable moustache and an even more admirable knowledge of the area. He had lived in Cameron Highlands for over sixty years, and been a tour guide for over thirty of them. Whether we were basking in the early-morning beauty of the tea fields or simply visiting a local museum, our guide had a story to tell. Disappointingly, we found that most of the activities on the tour were easily accessible from our hotel. Only the tea fields and factory visit would have been a hassle for us. Luckily these two were the highlights of the day. Photographs can’t capture the serenity of the tea fields, and learning how leaves on bushes become the greatest hot beverage was a brief yet rewarding time. These two combined with spending time with our host were worth the rest of the tour being a bit of a let-down.
Georgetown
The next morning, we almost missed our bus from Cameron Highlands to Penang. There were almost no taxis (a commodity more common in Korea than coffee shops), and it took us far longer to arrange one than we had planned for. We were saved only by the most dedicated taxi driver and fortuitous traffic. After a frantic taxi ride, a less frantic bus trip, and a ferry from Penang to Georgetown itself, we settled into our hotel for the next two nights, which was a gorgeously well-preserved historic building. We could feel the history and meshing of Chinese, English, and Indian cultures around us.
This sense of history was given context and detail for us that evening, when we embarked on another food tour – Heritage on a Plate. Our guide, Danny, told us the history of the city of Georgetown while we walked the streets and sampled its food. Unlike our tour in Bangkok where the food was the focus, eating was an accent, exemplifying what we had learned about this fascinating city. We ate traditional Tamil snacks as we learned how local Hindus would put up Feng Shui mirrors to ward off bad luck, just in case. We were told about how Buddhists worshipped at shrines to Hindu god Ganesha after eating samosas and roti jala. We were told about how one of the local marketplaces was cursed in multiple different ways, before sitting down for some sublime, hand-made noodles. It was my personal highlight of the entire trip. Travelling can often make you feel disorientated or like you don’t know anything about where you are. Our time with Danny grounded us in Georgetown, and we could feel his love for this city that, sadly, may not be the same the next time we visit. Gentrification and global trends are shifting Georgetown away from its unique melding of cultures. We are glad that we managed to get a glimpse of it when we did.
We spent the majority of our other full day in the city visiting places and restaurants that Danny had mentioned, exploring the street art of the city, and just taking in the space. We walked the streets unguided, and got one last taste of Georgetown before moving on.
Langkawi
From the deep culture of Georgetown to the natural beauty of Langkawi. Everything that we did in our two days and change on this island was in service of its gorgeous landscape. We ate at restaurants that were well-positioned to enjoy its sunsets,as you can see above.
We hiked through its mountainous forests, learning about the local wildlife from a guide with a possibly unhealthy interest in snakes.
We kayaked through its mangrove forests, watching the eagles and kites dive for food thrown into the water by tourist boats.
We lounged on one of its pristine beaches.
I know when words don’t quite do justice to a location, and Langkawi is one such place. Georgetown may have touched on our love for the story behind a city, but we never felt more at peace than we did in Langkawi. From the first sunset to the last, it was a natural wonder that not even being a popular tourist destination could taint.
Kuala Lumpur 2.0
After an all-too-short stay, our time in Langkawi came to an end, and we returned to Kuala Lumpur for the last two days of our tour of Malaysia. While we still felt that it was just another big city, we found uniqueness in it. We visited a theme park that we couldn’t go to earlier because of the rain. We met up with a friend from Bangkok Hat and tried out some Malay food that we hadn’t heard of before. We spent our last evening enjoying the view from the pool on the roof of our hotel and sampling one last taste of local food at a food truck market. Our time in Malaysia was over, and our last days in KL gave us a chance to reflect and truly appreciate the special moments we’d had.
Good food, natural beauty, deep cultural experiences – we found it all in Bangkok and Malaysia. Kris and I always feel blessed that we have the opportunity to visit new countries and live in new places, even only for a while. From the bustle of Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, to the tea fields of the Cameron Highlands, to the melting pot of Georgetown, to the serene beauty of Langkawi, we managed to visit places that we will not soon forget.
