Hello Malaysia, good to see you!

I was born in Australia and am proudly Australian. Like most Aussie's though my ancestry comes from different places; On my mother's side English mainly. A couple of my ancestors came here as convicts in the mid 1850's (so proud of them) and others as copper and tin miners from Cornwall around the same time almost a couple hundred years ago. My dad is from Malaysia, born to Indian parents. He immigrated in 1965 and became a citizen in 1967. He is a proud Aussie too, despite Malaysia being his country of birth. We were brought up in a very Australian home-environment in a small country town north of Adelaide and were not exposed to my dad's culture at all. I'm not sure why really, it's just how it was. To be honest I was not even curious about his culture, not in the least bit. That was until I had a chance to go to his country of birth and to date I'm the only one of my siblings to have done so.

My father was born in 1936 and as a child suffered along with the rest of his family throughout the Japanese occupation Malaya, as it was called back then. It was a terrible time and on many occasions their lives were in peril. They made it through though and through my dad's talent as an artist he found himself doing a national exhibition and keynote speaking tour of Australia which is where he met my mum in 1965. I recently wrote a few pieces about stories my dad told me from the war days. My poor words could never tell the story as it would have been for him but I tried. You can read them below.

• Piece one
• Piece two

I hope you read the stories above. They are true, based on events my father lived through. If you knew my dad you would not suspect he went through such tribulations. He would seem to you like the kind and generous man I know him to be. But I felt something was missing in my understanding of my dad and to be honest I felt the opportunity to go the Malaysia, and his home town of Malacca, may fill in some of the blanks. At the very least I would get to walk on some of the streets he himself did as a kid and have a holiday doing it.

These two images were taken in Malacca about 147km south of Kuala Lumpur. My apology for the poor quality images. When I went there I didn't have the best camera so this is as good as it gets. When I got home I showed these to my dad and he remembered this area. His father, my grandfather whom I never met, was the local Post Master for the British Postal service and his office was nearby here. We wandered around this area on foot including some of the back streets and residential areas. It's different from when my dad lived there as things change with time but it felt sort of nice knowing my dad as a small kid, teenager and young adult did his growing up here.

Below is a couple more from the area as well. In 1511 the Portuguese conquered Malacca and settled it and to this day remnants of the Portuguese settlement can be seen including some crumbled ruins as per the image at lower right. It was a fairly brutal time. After seizing Malacca Afonso de Albuquerque had all the Muslim inhabitants killed or sold as slaves. He spared the Hindu, Chinese and Burmese inhabitants though. I guess that's what life was like back then huh?

We stayed in the area for a few days and also had the chance to go to Bukit Melawati to see the monkeys. From the heights of Bukit Melawati one can look over the Straits of Malacca but the stars of the show are the silver leaf monkeys who get up to all sorts of hijinks with the tourists trying to get fed!

You can see my wife here struggling to get the bread out fast enough. I have a picture taken just before this one when the little scamp was climbing up her and had grabbed the front of her shirt...It had pulled down revealing a little too much for that image to be added here. The monkeys were funny though and it was worth the effort to get up to the top of the mountain to see them. There's a rain to get there also but we chose to walk.

We also spent some time near the Selangor river with two things sticking in my mind as really memorable. The first being a meal we had at a restaurant right on the banks of the river which you can see below. It was pretty rustic. We walked into what essentially was a wooden building on stilts with open sides. We ordered (somehow despite the language barrier) and then enjoyed a sumptuous feast of local foods, eaten mainly with our fingers, as we watched the sun set over the peaceful waters of the Selangor.

The meal was very tasty although eating was messy but not to worry, they had a basin right near the table for washing up after eating. It was certainly an experience and one I would repeat. I wondered at the time if my father ate at similar places when he lived there. My grandmother was a great cook though so I guess they ate at home mostly.

The other Selangor River experience was after dinner. We drove to a landing at the side of the river in a place called Kuala Selangor to wait for our boat. We were taking a ride on the river to see the fireflies. They are unique in that the males all synchronise their flashing. They congregate in the mangroves trees in the thousands and it's a pretty spectacular sight to behold. It had just poured with rain, in fact when I took this image of the boat had only just stopped. It was hammering down only moments earlier! Thunder roared and lightning flashed and they almost cancelled the tour but then it just stopped raining. It was so peaceful after the cacophony of the storm. We boarded, just the two of us and the boatman, and headed off. It was a small boat to be in on a river that held crocodiles but we went anyway. The boatman poled silently along and before too long we were greeted with the most amazing sight! Thousands and thousands of blinking lights in the trees. The fireflies. It was such a serene moment; Distant thunder rolling far behind us, the sky still heavy with cloud, the fresh humid air and the light show in the trees. Amazing.

Kuala Lumpur is a major city of around 1.8 million people and is one of best cities I've visited. I just felt comfortable there. We walked and walked seeing the sights and also spent some time shopping in some of the best shopping malls I've seen. One called KLCC at the base of the Petronas Towers was particularly good along with Parkson M Square Mall which was also an excellent spot for shopping of all kinds and of course foods from all over the world. I have a great picture of my wife eating a chocolate donut in there but she said she would kill me if I used it as she has chocolate all over her face. You can see her here though buying a silk sari from a little place we found out of the city CBD. The lady you see in the image above right spent so much time showing her how to wear it (she has her own top on underneath in this image) in a lot of different ways and she still has it, and wears it.

There's so many things about this trip to Malaysia I found memorable; Not only is it a beautiful place full of friendly and welcoming people it is where my father was born. I came home to discuss with him what I had seen and we matched up a few places, especially in Malacca, which he recalled and gave me stories about. My dad was a good kid, patient, generous and very intelligent but he raised some hell too, a little like me I guess. I found so much value in the stories from his youth having been there myself. I guess I could understand him better. I've recently been to Cornwall in the United Kingdom to trace back my history on my mum's side and I found the same thing. It's never been a thing for me before, retracing my ancestry, but I'm glad it's captured my interest now.

We're planning to get back to Malaysia shortly as there's a few things we want to do there, a few places we want to see and we're also planning to stay at Rawa Island Resort, Rawa Island, Johor as well. Not for sightseeing...More for relaxation and to get away from the world for a while.

I hope you've enjoyed this little view of Malaysia. If you get the chance to head to there yourself you need to get it done. You will not be disappointed.

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