gaya travel magazine

Penang, Malaysia: Penang Camera Museum [SP]

Posted on February 4, 2014

The Camera Museum in George Town, Penang, Malaysia. Photo by www.timeout.com Photography enthusiasts will be delighted by the latest attraction in George Town’s historic quarter, the Penang Camera Museum, which opened only last October 2013. Housed in a restored pre-war shophouse, the museum traces three centuries of the development of the camera.Touted as “the first camera museum in Southeast Asia”, there are over 300 cameras on display. Among the cameras in the collection are daguerreotype, box camera, folding camera, largeRead More→

Penang, Malaysia: ESCAPE AdventurePlay Park [SP]

Posted on February 3, 2014

The Monkey Business rope course at ESCAPE AdventurePlay in Penang, Malaysia ESCAPE is a new eco-friendly adventure park in Penang, Malaysia that rallies the mantra of “low tech, high fun”, reintroducing outdoor play to visitors in a natural environment. Setting itself from other adventure parks, ESCAPE has employed eco-friendly practices to ensure environmental sustainability such as rainwater collection, filtration ponds, recycled construction materials and green roofing. As a matter of fact, the manmade buildings in the park are actually repurposedRead More→

Melaka, Malaysia: Indian Peranakan Heritage of Kampung Chetti (Chitty Village) [SP]

Posted on January 15, 2014

Most travelers to Melaka or Penang may be familiar with the predominant Baba Nyonya or Peranakan culture of the Straits Chinese who flourished in the trading settlements. However, the heritage city is also home to other creole cultures, which evolved from the intermarriage of foreign traders with the native people some 500 years ago.Besides the Kristangs or Eurasian Malays of the Portuguese Settlement, there are the Chetti (also spelled Chitty) people, who are descendants of Indians traders from Tamil Nadu,Read More→

Melaka, Malaysia: Kristang Heritage of the Portuguese Settlement [SP]

Posted on January 9, 2014

The Portuguese Heritage Museum at the Portuguese Settlement showcases Kristang history and traditions The Portuguese Settlement – sometimes called Mini Lisbon – is a Kristang community in Ujong Pasir, five kilometers from the city of Melaka, Malaysia. The Kristang creole people arose in Melaka between the 16th and 17th centuries when the city was a port and base of Portuguese colonial rule. Portuguese men married native Malay women. The Kristang stock was later enriched by intermarriages with Dutch, British, Chinese andRead More→

Perak, Malaysia: Tin Mining Town of Gopeng [SP]

Posted on December 6, 2013

The Gopeng Heritage House exhibits antiques from the tin mining heydays of Gopeng in Perak, Malaysia. Before the state capital of Ipoh grew in prominence in the late 19th century, the town of Gopeng, 20 km south, in the Kampar district of Perak, Malaysia was the premier tin mining town, where, as a result of the economic boom, people came to spend money on opium, gambling and women, among many pursuits. The town was populated by an eclectic group ofRead More→

Perak, Malaysia: The Royal Town of Kuala Kangsar [SP]

Posted on December 5, 2013

Baitul Anor – one of the royal mansions near Ubudiah Mosque in Kuala Kangsar, Perak, Malaysia While the city of Ipoh boasts of British colonial architecture and Chinese shophouses, the former capital of Kuala Kangsar, located 30 km north of Ipoh, impresses visitors with the Malay-Islamic architecture of its royal residences, mansions and mosques. Since the 18th century, this riverside town has been the official seat of the Sultanate of Perak. With its peaceful lanes and gardens, Kuala Kangsar makesRead More→