Hello friends and family!
Finally I've found the time to catch you up again on our travels and adventures. When I last left off we were enjoying a New Year's Eve in the loving atmosphere of Giovanni's family. Now we find ourselves on Penang Island in Malaysia, celebrating the Chinese New Year. We only left icy Europe about 20 days ago, but it seems like so long. I guess the humid South East Asian feeling has already seeped into our pores. If in West Africa we found meal times a bit of a mission, looking for something vegetarian and not fried, here it is a pure delight! In South East Asia, fresh greens come in bundles with no limits ( as you'll see in the photos!) The food is always wonderful in Thailand, especially in the amazing vegetarian restaurants that have every type of soya product available cooked into traditional dishes with exquisite flavours! Everything is just lightly steamed or stir- fried so you get the full taste and nutrients. As you'll see in the photos we found another similar restaurant here in Malaysia, which we were very happy about ( as you can see in Giovanni's blissful gaze!) It seems so far in this journey, that food has been a reoccurring theme for us! I guess it's because it's always a bit of mission in a non-English speaking street stall to explain what we want ......but i think the true reason is, that Giovanni is Italian and his food-centred culture has had an effect on me!!
So, we arrived in Thailand to the complex Asian smell in the hot air, that is always so hard to describe, yet so familiar. We were happy to return to the same familiar back street guest house, which had housed us in all our comings and goings two years ago, buying and arranging Visa ect, last time in Bangkok. Vimol, the lovely 66 year old spinster, still sitting squatting mosquitoes recognised us and even pulled out some mail that had arrived for us in the last two years! She showed us to the same room and everything felt like a recycled memory. The same man selling pineapple on the street corner, the same street restaurant that we loved because they learnt exactly what we liked last time. Everyone that we had been in contact with recognised us and were still doing the same thing. Life hadn't changed much on Khao San Road.
The biggest shock in Thailand after Africa, was realising just how well the economy is going in this lush tropical fastly- westernising country, where so many tourists come every year. The modern dress style of the women, short shorts and tight t-shirts was a big change after the strict covering of the legs and the traditional dress of Mali and Guinea. Here the tradtional dress is almost lost in the big cities and I only saw one old lady wearing the batik sarong skirt that is used in the villages. Bangkok truly feels like a bustling consumerist hubbub, where the main thing to do is shopping and to visit temples on a famous three wheeler ( tuk-tuk).
And that's why we were there too, to reconnect with our suppliers and make new connections with other designers, fabric printers, tie-dyers. It was such a successful 10 days. We visited the enormous Chatuchuk Markets ( so big you need a map and loads of breaks, otherwise you feel overwhelmed by the hundreds and hundreds of rows of stalls in this undercover market.) We found some beautiful goods and made connections, later on visiting them where the clothes are sewed and dyed to check out the work environment. We were happy to see that in all the places where we buy and design clothes, the workers are in family-like environments, with a very relaxed work pace and importantly non-stressed bosses. The fact that it's our second time buying clothes, after selling in our market stall already for two years, we were much more professional in both our approach and what quality we wanted the clothes to be. We also found everything so relaxing because, let's just say after West Africa, South East Asia seems like a breeze. Even doing business in Bangkok didn't faze us, with the hours spent in traffic-choked roads on public buses, the crazy crowds of the markets, the waiting for food at the busy street restaurants.....i think we've learnt that life ( and especially travel) is easier if you accept and don't resist what comes. So, after a very productive time in Bangkok we wrapped up all our business chores and had the wonderful choice of where to go and live cheaply for the last month and a half of our trip. ( It seems like a joke but we tried to find a flight home, without paying more than double our fare to upgrade to Business class, but the flights were fully booked for all of January and all of February and so we booked the flight for the 1st of March.) With that crazy excuse we decided to head on down on a night train out of Bangkok towards the hot and humid and as of yet unexplored land of Malaysia. We had been told about Penang Island by another traveller and with the freedom that i love about travelling, decided to go there. We took the train to Butterworth and then a short 15 minute ferry ride across to Georgetown, which is an intriguing colonial city, with three strong cultures alive, Chinese, Indian and Malay. They live side by side and all identify themselves as Malaysian, while speaking their own language and keeping up old traditions. It's incredible to walk through Little India and smell the familiar spices from the land where Giovanni and I met. To hear the Indian music which we love so much playing loudly in the street and the waiters at the restaurants beckoning us in with temptations of nan bread and dahl. Yum! And so strange to think, the majority of these Malaysian- born Indians haven't even been to India themselves. Chinatown was fascinating for us as it's still a culture we haven't explored.To see the Chinese stalls, shopfronts and hotels was like getting a taste of that populated land, with a Malaysian twist. After a day or so, enjoying the Chinese vegetarian restaurant and the red lanterns strung around the streets in preparation of the Chinese New Year, we headed off. We took the local bus to the beach, not far from the city to find a room and settle down for a month, to keep to a small budget and soak up the beach life, for the first time in this trip so far.
Luckily we've found a light and airy room in a local style guest house, where we have a kitchen we can use and plenty of garden places to sit and read,draw or chat.It's perfect to have paid one month in advance and to get into a routine of total relax!! We are just minutes from the beach and apart from the overbearing loud-speaker from the mosque next door, we have found the perfect peaceful haven. It's actually scarily built up here with resorts and expensive restaurants for rich Arabs holidaying here, but we have managed to avoid spending too much so far. We're getting pretty good at living locally! We've both got a pile of second hand books in our own language, our instruments to practise, festivals and markets to plan in advance and basically a month stretching out ahead of us to soak up the sun and sand! There's no complaining!
All our love and light
Jess and Gioavnni
So, we arrived in Thailand to the complex Asian smell in the hot air, that is always so hard to describe, yet so familiar. We were happy to return to the same familiar back street guest house, which had housed us in all our comings and goings two years ago, buying and arranging Visa ect, last time in Bangkok. Vimol, the lovely 66 year old spinster, still sitting squatting mosquitoes recognised us and even pulled out some mail that had arrived for us in the last two years! She showed us to the same room and everything felt like a recycled memory. The same man selling pineapple on the street corner, the same street restaurant that we loved because they learnt exactly what we liked last time. Everyone that we had been in contact with recognised us and were still doing the same thing. Life hadn't changed much on Khao San Road.
The biggest shock in Thailand after Africa, was realising just how well the economy is going in this lush tropical fastly- westernising country, where so many tourists come every year. The modern dress style of the women, short shorts and tight t-shirts was a big change after the strict covering of the legs and the traditional dress of Mali and Guinea. Here the tradtional dress is almost lost in the big cities and I only saw one old lady wearing the batik sarong skirt that is used in the villages. Bangkok truly feels like a bustling consumerist hubbub, where the main thing to do is shopping and to visit temples on a famous three wheeler ( tuk-tuk).
And that's why we were there too, to reconnect with our suppliers and make new connections with other designers, fabric printers, tie-dyers. It was such a successful 10 days. We visited the enormous Chatuchuk Markets ( so big you need a map and loads of breaks, otherwise you feel overwhelmed by the hundreds and hundreds of rows of stalls in this undercover market.) We found some beautiful goods and made connections, later on visiting them where the clothes are sewed and dyed to check out the work environment. We were happy to see that in all the places where we buy and design clothes, the workers are in family-like environments, with a very relaxed work pace and importantly non-stressed bosses. The fact that it's our second time buying clothes, after selling in our market stall already for two years, we were much more professional in both our approach and what quality we wanted the clothes to be. We also found everything so relaxing because, let's just say after West Africa, South East Asia seems like a breeze. Even doing business in Bangkok didn't faze us, with the hours spent in traffic-choked roads on public buses, the crazy crowds of the markets, the waiting for food at the busy street restaurants.....i think we've learnt that life ( and especially travel) is easier if you accept and don't resist what comes. So, after a very productive time in Bangkok we wrapped up all our business chores and had the wonderful choice of where to go and live cheaply for the last month and a half of our trip. ( It seems like a joke but we tried to find a flight home, without paying more than double our fare to upgrade to Business class, but the flights were fully booked for all of January and all of February and so we booked the flight for the 1st of March.) With that crazy excuse we decided to head on down on a night train out of Bangkok towards the hot and humid and as of yet unexplored land of Malaysia. We had been told about Penang Island by another traveller and with the freedom that i love about travelling, decided to go there. We took the train to Butterworth and then a short 15 minute ferry ride across to Georgetown, which is an intriguing colonial city, with three strong cultures alive, Chinese, Indian and Malay. They live side by side and all identify themselves as Malaysian, while speaking their own language and keeping up old traditions. It's incredible to walk through Little India and smell the familiar spices from the land where Giovanni and I met. To hear the Indian music which we love so much playing loudly in the street and the waiters at the restaurants beckoning us in with temptations of nan bread and dahl. Yum! And so strange to think, the majority of these Malaysian- born Indians haven't even been to India themselves. Chinatown was fascinating for us as it's still a culture we haven't explored.To see the Chinese stalls, shopfronts and hotels was like getting a taste of that populated land, with a Malaysian twist. After a day or so, enjoying the Chinese vegetarian restaurant and the red lanterns strung around the streets in preparation of the Chinese New Year, we headed off. We took the local bus to the beach, not far from the city to find a room and settle down for a month, to keep to a small budget and soak up the beach life, for the first time in this trip so far.
Luckily we've found a light and airy room in a local style guest house, where we have a kitchen we can use and plenty of garden places to sit and read,draw or chat.It's perfect to have paid one month in advance and to get into a routine of total relax!! We are just minutes from the beach and apart from the overbearing loud-speaker from the mosque next door, we have found the perfect peaceful haven. It's actually scarily built up here with resorts and expensive restaurants for rich Arabs holidaying here, but we have managed to avoid spending too much so far. We're getting pretty good at living locally! We've both got a pile of second hand books in our own language, our instruments to practise, festivals and markets to plan in advance and basically a month stretching out ahead of us to soak up the sun and sand! There's no complaining!
All our love and light
Jess and Gioavnni
Malaysia
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