Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

If you have ever visited Kuala Lumpur, you have been to Bukit Bintang. Located in the heart of the city, sandwiched between Chinatown and the Central Business District, Bukit Bintang is diverse, eclectic, much loved, and visited day and night by locals and visitors alike. It hosts Sungai Wang Plaza, a myriad of small shops where tourist trinkets sit beside essentials like budget clothing and hairdressing supplies. The famous Low Yat Plaza offers bargains on mobile phones, computers and photographic equipment, but both are only a short walk away from the high-end boutiques of the world’s best designer brands. In the translation from Bahasa Malaysia to English, Bukit Bintang becomes ‘Star Hill’, and if you find the Starhill Gallery nearby, you will be able to enjoy its opulence and tranquillity before stepping back out into the hustle and bustle of Bukit Bintang on a busy shopping day.

Bukit Bintang has always been a market-place but it is also famous for its food in the well-known Jalan Alor, but in the spirit of diversity the Chinese food and Durian stalls are surrounded by restaurants and stalls from all over the world, such as Arabic, Western, Thai, Vietnamese; there is enough to satisfy any palate.

In the last couple of years, property owners and the local council have encouraged a blossoming of street art to brighten up the back-streets and alleyways around the centre of Bukit Bintang and on a lazy Sunday afternoon it is exciting to explore, and enjoy the quality and quirkiness of the murals which in some cases cover an entire block. One of my favourites in terms of historical interest is an alleyway opposite Hotel Comfort Inn on Changkat Bukit Bintang where a plaque on the wall explains how the name Jalan Alor is derived from ‘alur’ meaning a narrow stream or channel. This nearby alleyway follows the course of a dried-up stream which was last mapped in 1921. The street artists have brought it to life with cascades over angled steps, fish playing in the blue waters, and a kingfisher watching over it all from the back wall of a nearby restaurant.

As the light fades and the evening crowds arrive, few visitors venture into the back streets, or if they do they are more likely to be watching their backs than the walls. Their attention is more likely to be drawn to the Chinese lanterns of Jalan Alor and the flickering neon and loud music from Changkat Bukit Bintang. Tourists and many expats from around the world arrive in Bukit Bintang every evening to enjoy good food, meet friends, and maybe enjoy a few drinks in the many bars or even succumb to the charms of a young lady offering unbeatable deals on a massage. As the evening draws on, the restaurants on Jalan Alor begin to close up and live bands, and staff touting happy hour prices on beer towers at many of the bars on Changkat Bukit Bintang signal the shift from genteel tourist mingling to one of Kuala Lumpur’s most popular entertainment venues. Some consider it to be tame by South East Asian standards; perhaps the heavy tax on alcohol in this Muslim country curtails the excesses often seen elsewhere but most bars and clubs stay open until 3am after which the streets are virtually deserted, waiting for a new day to begin. 

Durian is a much-loved delicacy in many parts of South-East Asia. This is celebrated in the street art you can find in Bukit Bintang

Air conditioner condensers ready for harvest.

Cats seem to feature a lot, but without the characteristic kinked tail you will see on the real ones.

Real plants complement the art, helping you to imagine that you could almost anywhere but a bustling South-East Asian capital.

Imagination and interpretation

The whole side of one block has been transformed.

Ancient trees still stand in most parts of Bukit Bintang

True scale is not an issue; you have already suspended belief to see a building transformed into a garden.

A long lost stream is resurrected

With fish!

Cascading steps

He also sees the fish.

Not all streets lend themselves to street art but are photogenic nevertheless.

Jalan Alor. Many of the eateries have yet to open.

Night falls and the evening crowd begin to arrive for food and drink.

Changkat Bukit Bintang

The newly completed Exchange 106 Tower now joins the Petronas Twin Towers as a backdrop to Bukit Bintang.

Cheap bags, electrical goods, SIM cards; everything for the international traveller can be had in Bukit Bintang.

Jalan Alor in full flow.

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The Toul Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh is a former secondary school which was used by the Khmer Rouge as a prison (S-21) between 1975 and 1979. Around 20,000 people went through the prison during that time, most were tortured by different methods during interrogation and either died during torture or were murdered, except for less than 200 who are thought to have survived. Torture included, electrocution, beating, water-boarding, cutting with knives, and some women prisoners were raped. A Vietnamese photographer Hồ Văn Tây was one of the first people to enter the prison after the Khmer Rouge were overthrown in 1979 and he documented what was found, including many bodies still in the interrogation rooms. The rooms have been left as they were found and many have these first photographs displayed in the wall of the room.

The small cells which held the prisoners were constructed hastily and crudely from timber, and brick walls. Doorways were hacked through the walls between the classrooms to form long cell blocks. The upper floors have barbed wire netting, installed to prevent inmates from jumping to commit suicide before interrogation, rather than to prevent escapes. The whole compound is ringed with high walls and three layers of coiled barbed wire.

The legacy of the Khmer Rouge regime affects Cambodia today and will probably do so for more generations to come. Almost 2 million people, a quarter of Cambodia's population were murdered and the violence focused on professionals, intellectuals, Buddhist monks and ethnic minorities. Stereotypes were also rampant and it was common for people to be arrested just for wearing spectacles or speaking more than one language because of the fear of such people being intelligent enough to resist the Khmer Rouge and try to overthrow them. The genocide was a significant purge of political opponents, military leaders, doctors, journalists, academics, business leaders, students, journalists and lawyers. Cambodia is still as a result, hugely dependent on foreign aid and NGO's in every sector. 

Despite this, visiting Cambodia one is struck by the overwhelming welcome and friendliness of Cambodians at all levels. It has a young and optimistic population and the country is gradually recovering. Cambodia is well worth a visit for its tourist attractions and landscape but if, like me, you want to try to understand and perhaps try to empathise with the people and get to know them better, then direct contact with their recent past through visiting memorials like the Tuol Sleng Museum is part of that process.

It is not a pleasant experience, it is sad, shocking, and raises more questions than it answers, and as I sit here trying to write something significant, I am lost for words as the experience of wandering through those now deserted rooms comes back to me and I again contemplate the horrors that took place there.

Prisoners were manacled to bed frames during torture

The prisoner and interrogator have gone but the scene only requires our imagination to recreate the horror. 

Rules for prisoners 

As found and documented 

The same room today 

 

Walls here hacked through to create long cell blocks with crudely built cells 

Cells are basic; a strict rule of silence, and chains and manacles completed the security regime

Barbed wire on the higher balconies prevented suicide, not escape.

A new generation learns history 

Thaipusam

Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Every year, the Tamil community in Kuala Lumpur celebrate Thaipusam, a religious festival which is said to originate from the occasion when the goddess Parvati gave Murugan (Kartikeya), her son, and “commander-in-chief” of the Gods, a spear with which to defeat the demon Soorapadman.

The festival is famous for the Kavadi Attam, or “burden dance” which is a ceremonial sacrifice performed by devotees who perform a pilgrimage over several kilometres leading to the temple at Batu Caves whilst enduring various types of physical stress. In its simplest form this could be by carrying an urn containing milk, or by carrying a decorated canopy. More extreme forms of devotion involve skin piercing on the back or by a spear through the cheeks. Some devotees strive to include all the above and even add tethers to the back piercings which are constantly in tension by an attendant following behind. Thousands of worshippers, joined by tourists from all over the world attend the festival and it is a public holiday in several states in Malaysia. It takes place every January or February depending on the appearance of the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai.

Yves Saint Laurent

Jardin Majorelle, Marrakesh, Morocco

The mention of Marrakesh evokes images of souks, snake charmers, and unrelenting sun. These are probably the lasting memories of many who visit this exotic city located near to the southern reaches of the Atlas Mountains. Morocco is within easy reach of Europe but in terms of ongoing wanderlust, it is a bit of a cul de sac. It is possible to travel through Morocco into the vast expanse of Africa but only in properly equipped overland vehicles or by the intrepid solo traveller who will accept any kind of transportation for the long journey south. Most travellers therefore visit Morocco as a one-off vacation and set out to visit the tourist hot spots using local guides.

When browsing the possible destinations, many may overlook the Jardin Majorelle. This is a beautiful oasis in the heart of Marrakesh, created by the French artist Jaques Majorelle over a span of forty years in the early part of the twentieth century. Long after Jaques Majorelle’s passing, the garden was purchased by Yves St Laurent and Pierre Bergé who had fallen in love with the garden on their first visit to Marrakesh in 1966. They restored and improved the garden, creating an awe-inspiring and beautiful space. Yves St Laurent died in Paris in 2008 and his ashes were scattered in the rose garden of Villa Oasis, which stands within the garden, and a memorial was erected in his honour.