Wanderlust: Malacca - The Conclusion

Firstly, my apologies for delaying this post by more than a month. A lot of changes on the personal and professional fronts have had me occupied almost all the time. Hope you guys aren't too disappointed with the end result.

So here it is, the final chapter in the Wanderlust: Malacca series. Gosh, almost seems so theatrical (especially since I JUST watched the final Batman movie). As promised, this post is ALL about the shopping experience the heritage city has to offer. And boy is there a lot to experience.

The city of Malacca has something to offer to every kind of shopper there is. From colossal shopping malls offering the latest in big-retail brands to kitschy momento stalls. You'll probably find tourists in either location!

Instead of bombarding you with words, let me try something new. For this post, I'll let the pictures do the talking (with a little caption help!). So here we go - 

Street side retail stalls like this one are a common sight near almost every historical landmark in the city. Selling from anything from bottled water, caps, tees, umbrellas, postcards, kitchenware and even interior decor items, these shops are clearly targeted at the average tourist and do not disappoint. Although you should be prepared to bargain since most of the prices are not written in stone and are always marked higher than expected.

The colossal structure at the far right, the Mahkota Parade Shopping Center, and the oddly shaped circular one at the center, the Dataran Pahlawan,  are two of the largest (and relatively famous) shopping malls in Malacca. Apart from the regular global apparel brands, you'll find quite a few boutique outlets housing some quite cool casual wear. Be prepared to walk a lot, cause the two malls spread across a pretty large mass of land. And if you do get bogged down by the size, you'll have plenty of options for some delicious grub.

The most prominent and famous shopping destination Malacca has to offer has got to be Jonker Street. The street comes to life over weekends with innumerable stalls setup along the sidewalks. These stalls  have everything from tacky keychains to designer wear. The serpentine dragon is an unmistakable landmark marking the start of Jonker Walk. Be sure to take loads of pictures of this one cause it sure does look great!

The infamous Jonker Walk.

Street food like these candied fruits (they're strawberries dipped in delicious chocolate sauce) are a common sight throughout Jonker Walk. Other options include flavored popsicles, satays, popcorn and even spiral cut potato fires. They make the perfect on-the-go snack whilst you wander around bargain hunting. And  they don't even put a dent in your wallet. Most of the items I mentioned are available for less than 5 Ringgits! So chomp away!

Towards the other end of Jonker Walk is this community stage which is more or less like an open mic where locals and I suspect even tourists can showcase their vocal skills and even shake a leg. And even if you're not standing up on stage, take a break and enjoy the lively performance by the some of the elderly locals here. You're bound to be leaving with a smile on your face.

After all the walking (and shopping) you'll be spoilt for choices when it is time to dine. Hawker stalls are omnipresent and provide delicious meals for a very reasonable price. If you're more comfortable with a roof over your table, then head to one of the many lounges, restaurants and bars.

One of the more upmarket places to shop along Jonker Walk, the Jonker Gallery offers great fashion buys albeit not very cheap when compared to prices elsewhere, but still a decent bargain.

And that folks marks the end to the rather long series of posts in the Wanderlust section for Malacca. Till the next journey ciao!

Wanderlust Malacca: Part 2

Our second day in the heritage city, started with at a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. A word of caution, since Malacca is a family tourist spot, be prepared to be swamped with noisy children at ALL times at family hotels such as the Holiday Inn.

Old Portuguese Wall

Me taking a pic of the wall!

After the sumptuous breakfast buffet at the hotel, we set out to experience the sights and sounds of Malacca. Our first stop was the remnants of the old Portuguese wall, which isn't really as eye-catching as some other walls, but has it's significance in the history of the city nonetheless. What was noteworthy was the array of canons right across the new street from the remains of the old wall.  We found a number of tourists posing along side these magnificent war-canons and for good reason! Check out the grandeur of these babies!

Another attraction close to the wall and the cannons is the Malacca Ricer WaterMill. When I say attraction, I purely mean for photographic purposes cause you can get some really neat snaps with the watermill as a background.

Our next stop was at the famous Stadthuys. The most prominent structures in this city square are the Melaka church, the administrative building, the fountain and of course the clock tower. If you're a photog like me, you could spend an entire afternoon here and still not be satisfied with the number of shots you would have taken on your camera. This place is THAT awesome!

The Stadthuys

There is also this one supposed war veteran sitting at the base of the clock tower with an array of war memorabilia who let's you take funky pics like this one for  nominal fee of 3 Ringgits. I am not sure how many he'll let you click but I was able to take about 3-4 before it got a little repetitive. The alley ways around the church are lined with shops aimed at the average tourist selling refreshments and memorabilia alike.

Next we made tracks to the other famous church in Malacca, The Church of St. Francis Xavier. Those of you who have been to Goa will instantly recognize that name because there's a church with the same name there as well. It so happens, that the two churches share more than just their names! The church looks absolutely stunning from the outside and is equally eloquent on the inside. We were even fortunate to witness a wedding in progress as we entered the church. 

By this time we were beginning to feel the heat of Malacca and boy was it HOT! And what better way to beat the heat than with a nice delicious cup of ice-cream. So we made a quick pit-stop to savor a local ice-cream favorite, icily. Icicy is quite conveniently located close to the city square and the St. Francis Xavier church. Using fresh fruits, a type of preserved low-fat cream base and quite a funky contraption that melds all of this together, the kind lady at icily concocted a delicious cream frozen dessert for us. The dessert was bursting with natural fruit flavors and it made the ice-cream simply irresistable!

 Before moving onto the next attraction that we went towards, let me share how we got there. So after coming out of the church and grabbing the dessert we decided to blindly explore the back alleys of the Stadthuys. Which turned out to be a bit of a bummer since we ended up in a kinda eerily empty spot of the city with stairs ascending to a crude structure on a hill. And to make matters a lot more interesting, the picture to the left was the view going up. Suffice to say, we were kinda spooked till we reached the top of the hill and discovered this - St. Paul's church.

Turns out we had taken an less frequented route to head uphill, cause the place was swamped with tourists. The church is essentially a ruin but still looks quite majestic. There is no roof but the outer walls and most of the inscriptions are intact, and even some tombstones. Again, you're bound to get some really great snaps for your collection. We sure did!

Descending from St. Paul's hill brings you smack in the middle of a long line of a variety of museums dedicated to philately (pertaining to stamp-collection and other postal for the uninitiated), the ruling political party, one on architecture and also another on the heritage of the city. Before you do walking towards the multitude of museums you'll notice another pretty photogenic landmark called A Famosa (which means in Portuguese), a fortress remnant from the Portuguese era. This structure earns the distinction of being one of the oldest surviving European architectures in Asia.

That's it for this blog post. I know I promised I'd talk about the shopping escapades in Malacca in this post. But the chronicles so far have taken up a LOT of the post space. So the next (and hopefully final!)  part in the series will focus a LOT on the shopping escapades at Jonker and other great places. Till then, happy reading!

Wanderlust - Amritsar

Recently I had the opportunity to visit the city of Amrtisar. Having only read about it in text books in a historical context (read the Jallinawallah Baug Massacre) and otherwise in movies, I was quite excited about the trip to this town-city. And sure enough I was not disappointed with my short trip. Although I was there to attend a wedding (of two of my dearest friends), I did manage to experience the major sights and sounds of the city. Here's my account of the said trip.

With no direct flight out of the domestic airport, the best way to get to this city by flight is to take a connecting one from the nation's capital. Flights out of Delhi to Amritsar are quite frequent and take only around 50 minutes of flying time.

Once you land at the airport, a taxi ride to the main city takes less than thirty minutes. The city itself isn't very huge, so getting from one end to the other would ideally not take a lot of time. But then, traffic is an element you need to factor into your travel plans in any city with a bustling automobile traffic, especially one with loads of two and three wheelers.

Since I was on a tight schedule (set forth by the groom and bride *wink*), the number of sights I could visit were limited. But the wedding couple were kind enough to arrange visits to the following prominent ones - 

The Golden Temple

Perhaps the most fabled and famous landmark in the city of Amritsar is the Golden Temple. Suffice to say, that a trip to this spot was on my checklist. Apart from the spiritual significance that the temple holds, the opportunity to capture the brilliance of this structure through my DSLR and brand new HTC One X was hard to pass up on.

The temple compound is colosal and houses multiple facilities apart from the main temple. These include free filtered drinking water, a library of Sikh religious texts and a free kitchen for all devotees. The main tempe building  I have to admit for someone who isn't too easily impressed with temples, the Golden temple did offer something unique. 

A Panoramic view of the temple complex

The Wagah Border

The other major tourist attraction that tops the charts is the India-Pakistan Wagah Border. More specifically, the border ceremony that takes place every evening at 5:30 pm. The entire objective of the ceremony, in my view, was to one up the Pakistanis with louder and more vehement patriotic chants. I'll admit, i quite enjoyed the whole mexican wavesque manner in which we kept chanting and raising our hands in pride to shout out Bharat Mata Ki Jai (Praise the motherland).

One of the most memorable aspects of the ceremony is the manner in which the leader of the squad (pardon my lack of knowledge of official army terms in these matters) shouted out the orders to his troops. Its a testament to the lung power that these men posses.
Here's a sample -  

But all the cacophony and histrionics and patriotic chants take a backseat when the ceremony comes to a close with the ceremonial flag de-hoisting. It is a sombre moment where both nations  show a sense of camaraderie with a simple salute. 

The flags of the two bordering nations - India and Pakistan as seen from the Indian side of the Wagah Border.

The Food Joints

Of course no trip to the heartland of Punjab can be complete without a visit to one of the many famous dhabas. 

The first stop was at a place aptly called Kulcha Land. The location is very unassuming and so is the ambience. But don't let the simplicity of this place fool you. The food was absolutely delish! I am not joking when I say that there was more butter on the kulcha than there was chole next to it! The Punjabis sure do LOVE their food. But I must admit, the extra fat gives the food that delicious flavor.

Our second (and most delicious) stop was at the famous Kesar Da Dhaba renowned for preparing its food in pure desi ghee (clarified butter). Although our stomachs weren't trained for the pure richness and heaviness of the food, the authentic taste and tantalizing flavors ensured that we gorged on the food till our belts needed unbuckling! I am quite sure we gained a good five pounds after the meal.

The city of Amritsar is an absolutely delightful place to visit and should be on every shutterbug's list of places to visit (Not to mention on every foodie's list as well!) Apart from the various photog opportunities, the small town charm of the city will leave you with a very warm feeling that you will cherish for years to come. 

You can check out these other shots I was able to capture during my short stay in the city  of Amritsar,

Picasa Album

Flickr stream

Project Petronas

I made my first trip to the Malaysian capital over a recent long weekend. Although the trip was primarily supposed to be a getaway of sorts to help relax my nerves (along with my wife's), it turned out to be a great opportunity for me to take some really good clicks. 


Although my passion truly lies in street photography, I couldn't help but marvel at the splendor and grandeur of the Petronas Twin towers. As a result I ended up with a great number of shots of the twin wonders. This prompted me to embark on a mini project with the aforementioned title. 


The concept, very basic and simple - capture images of the twins from a variety of vantage points, great or otherwise. The end result is a collection of approximately over thirty clicks as seen from different spots in the city. Although I do not remember clearly all the locations, I have managed to mention most of the prominent ones. So here goes -  

The towers as seen from the scenic view of our hotel room. 

A Panoramic shot taken from our hotel room. The twins are flanked
by the "other iconic" tower, the Menara KL tower.

As seen from the Luna bar. The view of the tower is a major 

reason for patrons, tourists and locals alike,  frequenting this rooftop bar  

A glimpse of the towers from a street

alley near the hotel. It is almost 

impossible to miss them if you 

are in the Golden triangle area

The view from the Menara KL towers. Although not as famous the twin towers, the KL tower arguably offers a better view of the city. Well at least you get to see the iconic Petronas towers.

 The towers as shot from different angles from the tower base, the Suria KLCC Mall and KLCC park and the KL Convention Center.

Random Shots From Streets All over the City

 

  

So there you go. The Petronas Twin Towers as clicked from a myriad of vantage points throughout the Malaysian capital by yours truly.