Archive for March 2016

Home Archive for March 2016

Since 2000 when I came back to Malaysia after my study and work attachment in Manchester, I always had the plan (dream) to go back to the UK and the Continent as a traveller. I did not have the means (money, basically) when I was a student there to travel all over the Continent, save for some short trips to Paris, Netherlands and Brussels. It took me 12 years to dream and plan the tour. I called it a grand tour mostly because of the time taken, money spent and effort poured in to make it happen. I know to some, without money you cannot dream big. But to me it was money well spent.

The tour took three weeks. There were four of us. Two of us including me touched down at London Heathrow while the other two joined me in Amsterdam a few days later. We used all sorts of transportation modes to get to places but the highlights of course the TGV, ICE, Thalys, Pendolino and Renfe high-speed trains that whizzed us through most parts of Western Europe. Eurail Pass really saved us a lot of money. Here is the Part I of the itinerary for your consumption.

There are several places or journeys that I wish I would have the chance to visit or enjoy. The top 5 in my bucket list at the moment are:

1. Trans-Siberia Railway journey from Beijing to Moscow with stop-overs at Ulan Bataar and Lake Baikal.

2. Casablanca - Granada - Madrid - Lisbon - Zagreb - Sarajevo - Bucharest - Sofia - Athens - Istanbul.

3. Vancouver to Toronto by train. I name it Pacific to Atlantic grand tour.

4. Iceland.

5. Machu Picchu in Peru.

I hope I will be granted the opportunities by Allah to fulfill my dreams. Amin.

I am always fascinated by the different cultures of people from different areas of the world. People of Tana Toraja, Sulawesi hold their customs and practices dearly to their heart. I was so lucky to be able to spend time with this community, a community that is well known all over the world for not burying their dead.

Death for them is an event to be celebrated and respected accordingly. I would strongly encourage you to visit this highland in the interior of Sulawesi, 8 hours by overnight bus from Makassar. You would be enlightened and amused all the same once you are there.

I went to this place in between my Indonesia multi-city tour covering Makassar, Tana Toraja and Jakarta between 20th and 27th December 2015. Here are some photos for you readers.

Tongkonan structure

Tongkonan under conservation

Cave burial

Old wooden coffin with human bones and skulls displayed

More human bones and skulls on the ground

Apart from being used to store rice, tongkonan is also used to store dead bodies

Figurines of the dead people whose bodies are inside this tongkonan are carved out from the trunk of jack fruit tree (pokok nangka). The features have to be as close as possible to features of the dead people when they were alive. You can tell that this tongkonan houses the bodies of an old couple since long ago. This practice is observed everywhere in Tana Toraja.

Human like figurines of dead people on display in a burial ground

I normally travel in a group of four people. The reasons:

1. Long journey trains or high speed trains always have 4-seats cubicle with table in the middle or 4-beds compartment.
2. Quadruple room is always cheaper than double or triple room. Beyond that is dormitory type already, I feel.
4. 1 is lonely; 2 is normally couple; 3 is odd combination; 4 is just nice; beyond 4 is too many.
5. Each person will have a buddy to look after or rely upon.
6. 2 people go to the toilets while the other 2 look after the bags.
7. 2 fall asleep, the other 2 look after safety while chit-chatting over coffee.

Many more reasons but those are the main ones.

There are several 'types' of travel that I have joined or initated all this while. The 'types' might not be correctly classified/identified and might not be of relevance to you but here they are:

Personal status:
1. My travels during study years
2. My travels during companies' holiday trips
3. My travels that are works-related
4. My travels with my architecture students
5. My travels as an avid traveller

Travel categories:
1. Backpacking
2. Guided tour
3. Hybrid (1+2)

Travel companions:
1. Family
2. Friends
3. Office colleagues
4. Students

Budget:
1. Shoestring (seldom anymore as I grow older)
2. 2 to 3 stars (often as I combine hostel stay with 3-star hotel booking)
3. Luxury (never! 😃)

Setting:
1. Inner cities (my favs especially the heritage zones)
2. Beach fronts (once in a while, mostly on beautiful islands of Malaysia)
3. Countryside (seldom as I am already a kampung boy through-and-through unless overseas)
4. Heritage attractions outside cities (often with tour guides)
5. Natural wonders (mountains, lakes, waterfalls, desserts - should do more but I am not the hiking type)

So there.

I love travelling by trains. The first train travel that I did was in 1997 - on an overnight train between Butterworth, Penang and Bangkok, Thailand.

The journey was memorable mostly because I fell ill the moment I was about to arrive in Hualampong Station in Bangkok. That what a 20-hour train journey would do to my body. But it was all priceless experience.

Since then I have been on countless train journeys all over the globe.

Scandinavian countryside from the train. Stockholm - Oslo. April 2014.

Inside the high-speed German ICE train that is carried inside a low-speed big ferry.
The irony. Copenhagen - Hamburg. April 2014.

The countryside of Germany - Czech Republic border from the train.
Berlin - Prague. April 2014

Inside the train from Vienna to Zurich. 130 km/h due to winding track crossing mountain range.

Austrian countryside beyond Innsbruck on Vienna - Zurich - Lausanne train journey. April 2014.

The beautiful Monaco underground train station. Monaco, Monte Carlo. June 2012.

I always enjoy planning a new trip to a new place, be it local, overseas, short-haul, long-haul, to be done alone or in group. This I do using excel spreadsheet. The dates, days, cities to visit with night stays, cities to visit on day trips, hostels/hotels to book, transportation arrangements, prices in RM and local currencies, total estimated budget - all I record to minute details for ease of mind before I board that plane at KLIA. Of course flexibility to the plan is always there but the main structure of the trip has to be in place. That works wonders for me.

The example is attached. This I did for my second Europe grand tour in April 2014.

My backpacking travel plan to Europe in April 2014

The trip to Tokyo, Japan broke a few first-time-ever records for me:

1. The first time ever I got a passport
2. The first time ever I ventured out of my beloved country, Malaysia
3. The first time ever I boarded a jet plane
4. The first time ever I saw foreign currency notes and coins
5. The first time ever I rode subway trains
6. The first time ever I ate foreign delicacies
7. The first time ever I visited Disneyland (I was very young of course).

And several more first-time-evers.

Of course, this very first trip overseas inspired me to travel more - backpacking, tour-guided, alone, in group, you name it, I am always ready to go (time and money permitted).

The young me, the 3rd from right. Ginza, Tokyo. August 1995.

As I am new to this, hello all!
Selamat siang / malam di mana jua anda berada.

I love travelling. It is an expensive hobby of mine.
But as the saying goes, experience is priceless. Meeting
new people, learning foreign cultures, visiting the nooks and
crannies of unfamiliar places, they all provide the tonics to my
brain and senses.

God willing, I will not stop exploring the world!

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