Singapura day 1

So I had to be fingerprinted at the Singapore Immigration just beyond Johor Bahru and as a result missed my bus from the border to Lavender Road.
The bridge across the Johor strait looks like so in the rain, though.

Pulled some Tamil out of the hat and convinced the next bus to take me to the aforementioned street.
Anyway having reached the city with dreaded thoughts of it being a lot like A Brave New World thanks to my cousin programming me so, I took a quick bus ride to China Town with MrD. I should have linked his blog in my sidebar but if not it's called the Other Side and pretty much a lot of fun to read. Had a quick bite at a local restaurant of sweet and sour pork and rice and proceeded to spend a little time exploring Chinatown.
Now one of the things I remember watching about Singapore on World Cafe Asia or some such was them interviewing this German sausage cart owner who had cheese stuffed sausages. In a cliched, yet very serendipitous moment while ambling through Chinatown, lamenting the fact that every toy store was closed, I find Erlich. Austrian, not German, he still sells those delectable wursts. And this is him.

And this is a temple of sorts.

Next was a trip to the highest point in Singapore with a 360 degree view of the city which is truly breathtaking. Again no camera but you could easily google 1 Altitute at the UOB building.
A nice walk along Clarke Quay next with the standard lineup of bars, very drunk expats and tourists and a really nice beer at Brewerkz. Both the India Pale Ale and the Oatmeal Stout are worth writing about and a trip to the joint. That was followed by a shot at Mulligan's the Irish bar and a good evening at Blue Jazz on Ophir Road. Which is opposite the interestingly titled Gotham Building.
Now we left Blue Jazz with it's very talented jazz band at 1AM and proceeded to China One (another bar on Clarke Quay). Nice little joint with some decent techno and electronica and the occasional hip hop track. However a Flaming Lamborghini later. It seemed they also had a nice alternative rock act doing a gig there. Amateur but very very tight. I have no idea what they're called though but they were great. And not just because of the alcohol.
And after that crazy night, punctuated with music alcohol and one very strange multiple martial art instructor from New York who insisted on teaching dance, martial art and finally walking till at 5 we ambled home to sleep.
Day two follows

The straits of Melaka

So my little sojourn in Kuala Lumpur came to end in a hungover morning. Hoegaarden, Guinness and Laphroiag being blamed sorely I proceeded to a temporary make shift bus terminal called Bukit Jalil. Temporary and makeshift is the primary impression the place makes in one’s mind with large sheds and tarpaulins covering some twenty odd buses.

And therefore a two hour bus ride later I was at Melaka.

As the British would say, it’s a charming little town. Quiet, largely bored with everything.

Things to do in Melaka – go to Jonker’s street. Visit the only joint to have featured in the lonely planet – the Geographer Café. Drink down another Hoegaarden with batter fried calamari. Hop down the road to this roadside Chinese joint and have a Tiger beer with pork. Proceed up the road to a chicken with rice ball joint and proceed to consume them with relish.

Settle in to a nice boat to take the river cruise – a 45 minute up and down through the river which is pretty as can be. Better at night since the graffiti on the walls of the buildings on either side is lit up as is Kumpung Morten, a riverside village.

Try to ignore the rain pelting down on you. I missed Portuguese street because of that rain.

I will have to come back here over a weekend sometime, there was a pub with an open mike night that I couldn’t visit due to companion constraints. Companion restraints rather…

I’m off to Singapore. Pictures will follow.

Update - I'm in Singapore. Happy joy!

Chamarajpet to China...

... or KLPD part 2

So the day began on a good note... bbq cheeseburger whist wistfully watching folks gorge on KFC at 8.30AM. Yeah the time when one hears the last fading notes of the suprabhatam and is hurrying to work. That time. Beef burgers and KFC. As the most important meal of the day. Need I really say any more. Things largely went downhill from thence, with mostly boring conference lectures barring one on stem cells (incidentally those little buggers are so big, folks have begun randomly injecting them around in the hope that they'll prove to be a Lazarus Pit). By evening once all was done I headed out the Central Market(Est circa 1888, much after Mangal Pandey refused beef and began it all) which is close to but not at KL Sentral. It's just off the Pasar Seni station and en route one finds this off the Pasar Seni station.

and for a better view...

Apparently Melaka, where I'm headed to next has bigger and better ones.

That apart, the central market is like Malaysia's partially regulated handicraft emporium, not unlike the Cauvery in home sweet home. So many, "I'm sorry I'm not looking for a batik sarong with a matching shirt", later I escaped and moved to Petaling Street. Where if you have a cycle you cannot be petaling because it's too crowded, la.
So this is Chinatown. What a trip that joint is. As usual fake china made goods at potentially rock-bottom prices if you have the time and energy to bargain. Street side restaurants with beer and pork. And the occasional accost from a commercial sex worker (I wanted to say whore but it's kinda politically incorrect).
Now if I'd only remembered to eat Haagen Dazs...
Anyway the day ended with Hoegaarden, Guinness, chicken and pork. And Laphroaig.
I could potentially die and go to heaven but I still have Melaka and Singapore to write about.

KL diary...

... or KLPD part 1

Yeah ok sue me, my phone's camera sucks and I'm too cheap to buy a real camera. The 5800 is a waste of a phone if you're looking for any kind of picture quality. Actually it's a waste of a phone if you're looking for anything.
That apart I'm in KL, Kuala Lumpur for the uninitiated, the capital of Malaysia for the geographically challenged and for the few who've tried to call, I'm not at home and am a proud user of Maxis 3G.
I'm in KL on work (would you believe that) and today work is almost done so I shall begin to wax eloquent about the joint.
At first sight, it's deceptively like home. Hot and humid, a mess of an immigration counter, positively scary looking cab drivers, Indian restaurants and of course Tamil.
Then the drive from the airport changes everything. Gas stations with attached 7-11 type stores open all night, an awesome road system, well planned city and all that. It's been a good two days. For brevity and due to a fast failing memory (remember my bad phone camera? it's why I prefer to write) here are some of the salient points that I'd like to remember...
- 2.30 AM day 1. Drive with cab driver who says the following,
Teksi driver - you from India? Bengalore? where is that? north India?
Me - no south, near Chennai (much as it pains my heart)
Teksi driver - but you're not dark?
Me - I was but I haven't seen too much sunlight in the last 3 years...
Teksi driver - Aaaaah! ok. So you know Priyanka Chopra?
Me - we used to play hide and seek as kids but now that she's a big actress and all that we've lost touch...
Teksi driver - Really? I read in the news paper that she's looking for husband. Maybe you get lucky la... hahahahahaha
Me - facepalm.

Then did some cool d-i-y travel from Kl Sentral to KLCC, and gaped astonished at the subway entrance and exit gates that swallowed up my ticket and let me in and out and felt like it was the whole town mouse, country mouse deal all over again. Anyway KLCC is a beast of a convention center and beautifully done up.

The conference goes on for another day and honestly barring some strange names and stranger people who would effectively be in abundance at a November (as opposed to august) gathering of brain surgeons nothing spectacularly interesting's been happening except for meeting the who's who and all that.

But then again discovered that Starbucks in 10RM a cappuccino and Carlsberg's 7RM. Do the math.
8.30 AM Day 2 KLCC - saw people licking their fingers at KFC.

Agar firdous...

The food's of course fabulous.
The conference  banquet featured octopi. Chicken kebab and the the most amazing red snapper, steamed Cantonese style. I'm threatening to like fish...

More in the next update - Melaka

C&H

So, here goes today's funny of the day...

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

He has a point I think... though i'm not sure what to do with the layout.

In other things that move and shake and all that I'm back to my one flu over the cuckoo's nest state of mind. And the immortal words of Ace Ventura ring painfully in my head - It is the mucus that binds us.
But we'll have to do something about the frequent viral infections. Get out of the cesspit of infection you work in, you'd say. However that is not a consummation that will eventualize.
Yes that is MY word. Eventualize, verb, To become an eventuality.
Other options include cod liver oil (yuck), general green leafy vegetables (cysticercosis, here I come) and my top favorite immunity enhancing concoction - Waterbury's Compound. Which turns out has an I love Waterbury's compound page on Facebook.
I'm sure I've mentioned Waterbury's before, 40% alcohol and and eary morning buzz... It's there somewhere.
Anyway me off the get me some of that or brandy.
And for those of you who live in Bangalore, there's a nice little place tucked away behind Richmond Road called Under the Mango Tree. It's good. Go eat there.

and here's to 2010

It's 1.30AM I'm having the first of possibly many insomniac spells and I'm writing my first post on a mac book air. It's a nice machine. They keys are responsive and make me honestly believe that I can type faster, longer and perhaps funnier than I could on my Dell Latitude. Which I must admit is the hardiest laptop I've ever seen. Barring the stuff that they sell to children nowadays.
This blog's been dormant for over a year. With possibly good reason. I recently became a licensed neurosurgeon and the better part of that year of ignoring this little space was dedicated almost solely to the pursuit of this lofty ideal.
Now that I realise that my current situation is not lofty and hardly ideal, I do suppose this is a good time to get back to writing.
What do we write about? My last wish list was a hopeless failure. I didn't get any of them. Thank you gentle readers.
There's the deteriorating traffic but that's now so much a part of our lives in Bengaluru (or I could just launch about how terrible a name that is) that the average 7 minute drive is 7 minutes because of a minimum of two snarls.
There's the metro, who offered a hundred thousand in cash for a cool 4 second jingle, in mp3 format preferably. mp3? Seriously?
There's the new ink pen from Flair. Called Inky. Which I quite like actually, not withstanding the fact that it's less than 1/20th the cost of the Sheaffer Valor which I so completely lust after it's borderline pathological.
There's the Hidden Orchestra, if you can find them, they're a very good listen.
And perhaps work and it's skullduggery it involves. In every way possible.
There's a conference in Malaysia, a host of new TV shows that I came across - old ones with new seasons and new ones.
There's Android phones and the N8 with Symbian 3 (Symbian 3? Why?) and the Chiphone, Chokia and Blackcherry that crack me up every time I see them. And the Micromax with a universal remote.
And perhaps the intense masochistic joy in soaking chili flakes in vodka for a month and then gingerly tasting one drop.
As Bill Waterson said, it's a magical world.
Time to go grab it.
Watch this space. I just might be back.