Jalan Petaling Market

Arriving in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon did not leave loads of time to explore on this first day of my stopover, after making my way to my AirBnB residence for the next two nights - but I was very keen to make my way to one of the night markets I had read so much about.

Taking the monorail, with the station attendant's suggestion, I alighted at a very quiet station, and followed the paper signs to Chinatown. Just when I was starting to doubt the girl's directions, and that of the signs, a street appeared with the Jalan Petaling Market all lit up.

The first section was rows and rows of stalls selling t-shirts and soccer guernseys, watches, handbags, and the usual assorted market wears. Again, I doubted the market, with such limited food smells...but kept making my way through.

With lanterns lit overhead, this market was bustling and full of life. Soon I reached a more open section with some food stops. But right at the end of the market is where the good stalls are, cooking up all sorts of things right there on the street.

There is the hot pot stall, with assorted things all cooking away in pots hanging around eye level to the street. There are stalls and stalls of fruit, some varieties I have never seen before, so colourful!

I ended up eating before I found the satay and assorted skewers stall - I think I know what I will have for dinner tomorrow night! He has everything available, threaded on sticks, ready to be thrown on the grill right there - octopus, satay covered meats, broccoli, corn cobs, yum!

The Maharajalela monorail station was the best option, bringing me through the market stalls, and easy to find from the elevated walkway from the station.

Beautiful Lengths: The Gift of Self Image

I just got all my hair cut off!

I have had the majority of the length chopped off, and am sending it to the Beautiful Lengths program, to be made into a wig for a women with cancer who has lost her hair.

I can't imagine the impact of losing your hair, through cancer treatment, stress, genetic conditions, or any of the other host of reasons it may happen.

The truth is that as a very low maintenance kind of girl, I don't do anything with mine. I usually tie it back, cos it annoys me. Which seem blasphemous to me when there are women out there struggling with the experience of losing her hair, her self image, her self confidence.

Of course, being so low maintenance and uncreative, my hair is uncoloured, and untreated with chemicals and heat treatments, the length cut off is a good candidate for this donation. Plus, the strawberry blonde has it's own unique natural highlights.

To donate, your hair length (cut off portion) needs to be at least 20cm, completely dry, and chopped off in a ponytail. I now send off my donation to the address on the website, and they will make a wig from it for a woman looking to retain her self image as she fights off cancer.

The ladies in Clever Cuts in Ballarat humoured me with the task, and took photos for me for this post.

I have been thinking of doing this for some time, and have been very worried about chickening out! But today was the day, ready for my travels, with light and ready-to-go hair with no fuss.

I am dedicating my donation to the memory of Jules, who lost her battle with cancer in November.

Train Travel In Cambodia

Discovering train travel in Battambang on a return trip in 2004, found two very different forms and experiences, and a very authentic-feeling experience in rural Cambodia.

The bamboo train was the most memorable, and most quirky, mode of transport I have ever taken. We rode it for a short distance, after taking some motos (motorbikes with a driver) for a tour around the countryside around Battambang. The bamboo train is essentially a platform on wheels that travel on the railway tracks, and powered by the smallest of motors.

Given that it is one of the rural resident’s usual modes of travel, we shared our two platforms with local farmers, chickens, and other locals moving in the area.

The bamboo train shared the single track with the regular train, but also travels in either direction. When traveling along encountering another bamboo train coming in the other direction is the norm, and the point of the most bizarre experience.

Upon meeting up with another bamboo train coming the other way, it is determined which is the heaviest of the two, and then both sets of travellers set about taking the lighter of the bamboo train platform and all it’s cargo off the track. The heavier bamboo train is then able to pass by, and the lighter bamboo train is lifted back onto the tracks, with all the things it was carrying, to continue on it’s way.

After recovering from the longest laughing session and that bamboo train experience, we caught an actual train to our next destination, in another very local experience. The hard wooden seats, and the very open carriages, it was an authentic way to take in the countryside going past. We were also offered all sorts of food and treats from the locals, and lost a couple of our seats at one point when a very large haul of pineapples were loaded on at one stop. The hammocks on board, however, more than made up for this!

These travels were part of an alternative trip from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, which included a boat across the Tonle Sap Lake, then overland and train travel through Pursat and Battambang - worth trying if you have the time, for a different view of the country.

This post is part of a series marking 10 years since I travelled to Cambodia to work as a volunteer. These photos, and memories, are actually from a return trip in 2004.

Project 52: Thursday Lunchtime

Today I ate at my desk at work so that at lunchtime I could duck across the road to the huge shopping centre and stock up the essentials for my trip. Here, I have an immodium equivalent  since I am going to India and SE Asia - hopefully since I am packing it I won't need it, right! I also have supplies to combat this new allergy experience that I have seemed to develop in the last year, again hopefully with this preparation I won't need all of that! Fingers crossed.

Of course, my all important clexane injections are the most crucial here, to stave off DVT for my flights and any extended bus or train travel.

This post is part of Project 52 with Jess from FuShMuSh.

FIDO, The Big Dog

I spotted The Big Dog when I was on the train, travelling into the city whilst I am housesitting in the North Eastern suburbs of Melbourne at the moment, and when I looked up what I thought I had seen, it was confirmed that this piece of art near the Fairfield train station is indeed what I thought it was!

FIDO, or the Fairfield Industrial Dog Object, as he is called, fits the bill - he is bigger than the real thing, alright! I didn't realise he was out here, in the outskirts of Melbourne. A bonus find!

Southbank Cuties

In December Carly and I stumbled upon these girls along the walls of the main Southbank complex, as we contemplated places for dinner. This little cutie caught my eye, and we followed her around the building for a little bit.

First, on the top floor, she fills her bucket with multi-coloured paint from the tap, right to the top.

Then at the next wall there are three frames of her, and different stages as she drips and then splashes the paint out everywhere! I love the effect of the running paint, sliding down the wall.

In the final spill, the name of the artist can be seen.

The artist is Be Free, and was commissioned to do these. I have come across this same Cutie in a laneway in the city too, and am certainly on the look out for more. She's so cute!

Downstairs in the foodcourt she is not causing mayhem, just hanging out under her parasol. She is the size of the wall down there!

And then in the middle floor of the complex, she sits on her swing, just near the elevators. Hanging up there, she is mischievously discarding what looks like pages about a variety of music artists. Shoelaces untied. So cute!

Laos' Golden Temple

South East Asia is dotted with temples at every place you go. It is pretty easy to feel like you are ''templed out" as you go from place to place - kinda like churches in Europe.

But arriving in a new country, the vision of the variation on the temple of worship can capture you nonetheless. The Golden Temple in Laos' Vientiane is no exception.

I took a tuk tuk tour around town when I arrived in the Laotian capital, and a visit to this temple was one of the main stops delivered by my local driver.

The Pha That Luang stupa is brilliant against the clear blue sky, with it's gold leaf coating. This temple has been destroyed a number of times, and rebuilt to it's glory, through wartimes, since it's original construction at the beginning of Vientiane as the captial in 1566.

The significance of the temple surrounds the content of the main stupa, reportedly a resting point for the holy relic of a breast bone of Lord Buddha. The Golden Temple remains a national symbol for this South East Asian nation, and will be an inclusion on any visit to Laos.


This post is part of a series marking 10 years since I travelled to Cambodia to work as a volunteer. Laos was one of my side-trips.