[YEAR 7!] Quit our jobs, sold our home, gone riding...

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A little bit of culture: we visited a batik gallery in town

Batik is the traditional fabric art of Malaysia. It's cloth that's been patterned with a wax outline and then painted with dyes so the colours remain inside the waxed outline. When the wax is washed off, the borders reveal the bare fabric underneath giving it its distinct look.

Yellow outline is the wax. When you paint inside the lines, you can bleed the colours without worrying that the paint will run outside the lines

Batik can be made from cotton or silk, and the painted fabric is be primarily used for baju (clothing) like shirts, blouses, headscarves and sarongs. My mom had batik fabric covering her furniture, and you can make curtains or tablecloths from it as well.

The gallery had a workshop where you could make your own batik patterns. Neda signs up!

 

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The gallery doesn't want you take pictures of their products (they want you to buy them instead), but we were allowed to take pictures of other customers artwork:

These prints were still drying, so the wax outline is still intact

After the wax is washed away, this is what it looks like

Mass-produced batik utilizes a copper stencil called a "tjap" to apply the wax (inset), but the true artisans paint the pattern by hand using a tool called a "tjanting" or "chanting" like the label on this one says. It's a pen that uses a reservoir of hot wax to draw the outline. Very time-consuming though!

Neda really enjoyed her art project! Nice batik apron, by the way

While I've had the blog and photography to occupy my spare time, over the last few years, Neda has had very little creative outlet aside from her cross-stitching. She really took to batik painting and the results look fantastic!

We picked up her batik the next day after the wax was washed off. Awesome!

 

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To celebrate her batik, we went to Satay City, Malaysia...

Just like many regions are known for certain kinds of cuisine, like Assam Laksa in Penang, the city of Kajang just south of KL is known as Satay City. I remember as a kid, my dad would drive out to Kajang with my little brother and I for a satay lunch. My eyes would bulge seeing hundreds of skewers of meat cooking on the grills at the hawker centres. My dad would order something like a hundred skewers just for the three of us and we'd get well and stuffed on peanut sauce-drenched chicken, beef, pork and mutton.

I love satay!

Our last night in KL, dinner with my cousin Joo Khim and her husband Hanson

Joo Khim is my gateway to our family in Malaysia. She's been in constant contact with me over the Internet while we've been in SE Asia and she's organized all the family gatherings, as well as given me recommendations for the best places to eat in the city. We delayed leaving KL for a couple of days so we could spend some time with her and her husband and they took us out to Jalan Alor, a well known "food street" in Kuala Lumpur.

My family has been so kind and welcoming to us. It made us feel very loved and special. I get such a deep sense of belonging here that stretches back from before I was even born. I'm so glad I was able to share it with Neda.

 

[unkamonkey]

A good post as always and it's good for you to connect with your family

 

[profdlp]

Your cousin definitely shares the same smile you always seem to have, Gene. :coffeedrink:

And I do think Malaysia agrees with Neda. She looks very content in these recent posts.

 

[lightcycle]

Thanks guys, Malaysia was a very homey experience for us. A big change from traveling with just the two of us.

 

[lightcycle]

Hi everyone, we are going to be in London the week of August 8th (maybe arriving a day or two after) for a few days and then touring around the UK.

If you'd like to meet up that week for a pint let us know.

 

[profdlp]

If I could afford a plane ticket over I would do it. In a minute. :ylsmoke:

 

[rayra]

Gene, still very much enjoying your photo-journey all over the world and your sojourn in lotus land as it were.

I'd like to ask what your rough average has been in terms of cost, the economics of wanderings. roughly how much a week / month are your stays on the local economies. You are singing a fine siren song of international travel and I keep looking at my bank balance and wondering.

 

[lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/305.html

Malacca is a short two-hour ride south from Kuala Lumpur. We were already half-way here when we visited Sepang the other day.

Malacca is one of the popular tourist destinations for both locals and foreigners. When we used to live here, my parents would come out here on day trips for shopping or eating.

The Dutch Square in the old town of Malacca

All the buildings in the old town and some of the roads are painted terra cotta by the British after they took possession of Malacca from the Dutch in the 1800s. The locals now call it "Red Square" for obvious reasons.

When people ask me what my nationality is, I tell them I'm Malay-Gene.
And then they tell me that I'm stupid

 

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We walked up the hill above the Red Square to St John's Fort built by the Dutch

The fort used to be a Catholic church

Catholic church built by a French priest in 1859. So many different influences here in Mallaca!

Kids walking back from school.

 

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Bomba Melaka

Malacca was an important trading port and strategic centre in Asia and was under Portuguese rule from 1541 until the war with the Netherlands in the mid 1600s. We saw the sign on the firetruck above and it reminded us of the Spanish word for fire fighter, "Bombero", which is very similar to the Portuguese word "Bombeiro". It turns out that some Malay words are also influenced from the time that Portuguese occupied this part of the country.

Did you know Jamaica also invaded Malacca? Well, maybe not the entire city, just this one store. Irie Mon.

We visited this museum to escape the heat, and inadvertently learned a lot about Malaccan history and culture

I had to take a picture of this furniture in one of the rooms in the museum depicting Chinese culture in Malacca. This looks *EXACTLY* like our living room did when we used to live in Malaysia. My mom still has some of these pieces that she brought over to Toronto. I think she may have bought them here.

It's very funny seeing your childhood preserved in a museum. Makes you feel kind of old.

 

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The Red Square is a popular place for rickshaws to pick up customers for a tour of the old city

Brightly decorated rickshaws in Malacca has become a thing now. Hello Kitty! was popular, and we saw a Frozen-themed rickshaw as well

Lot of local tourists enjoying Malacca

In Malay, it's called Melaka. We love it!

 

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Malacca River is also a popular tourist attraction. You can hop on a short cruise for a couple of kms to see different sites along the river

Vendors selling watermelons along the shores of the river

Malacca River

Jonker Street is the epicentre for shopping in Malacca

Shopping and eating are the two most popular activities here in the city. We broke our no restaurant rule and sat down in a place that served Nyonya cuisine, cooked with traditional Malaysian spices. Delicious. We didn't do any shopping because, well... no money and no space on the bikes...

Line of stores and shoppers on Jonker St.

 

[lightcycle]

I'd like to ask what your rough average has been in terms of cost, the economics of wanderings. roughly how much a week / month are your stays on the local economies.

We didn't keep track of our expenses to the dollar, but I estimate over the whole trip, we're averaging about $30/day per person.

The numbers below are for two large-size displacement motorcycles traveling an average of 200 km/day. Lots of grocery shopping, tenting and staying with people who have contacted us through the blog to offer us accommodations.

Canada: $50/day per person
Arctic Canada/Northern Alaska: $80/day per person
Continental US: $40/day per person
Mexico: $30/day per person
Guatemala: $20/day per person
El Salvador: $15/day per person
Nicaragua/Costa Rica/Panama: $25/day per person
Cuba: $15/day per person
South America: $30/day per person
Morocco: $35/day per person
Thailand: $10/day per person
Malaysia/Laos: $20/day per person

Europe is very variable. Costs can range from $100/day per person in places like Switzerland to $30/day per person in the former Eastern Bloc countries.

The only places we camped were North America and Europe, and those were the places where people offered us accommodations as well, so the numbers are very skewed. For example, we stayed for a total of five months in Croatia with relatives and friends.

I think our costs will be lower compared to someone doing more mileage a day. You save a lot of money staying longer in each place: you're able to negotiate a lower price if you're staying in a room or apartment for a month rather than a day. Also you can buy groceries in bulk instead of food per meal. And obviously the gas expenses are lower as well.

And we like discovering and savouring each new place instead of just blowing through it.