Monthly Archives: May 2011

A Stranger at Home Travel Series – Melaka – Meet Bibik Kim Neo in Kenny’s Delight

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His complexion is darker in person, hair short, naturally, with no bun tied up. His vision is perfect without the gold-rim glasses he usually wears on the show. He is Kenny Chan, who plays Bibik Kim Neo in “Baba dan Nyonya” sitcom series in the 90s.

Bibik means auntie in Patuah, a Peranakan community language formed by an amalgamation of various languages including Bahasa Malaysia, Indonesian, Hokkien (a Chinese dialect), and during the colonial era, Portuguese and English.

A 7th Generation of his Peranakan ancestry, the animated actor recently moved from a food business partnership to become a cook for his own venture: Kenny’s Delight.

Sitting across from me, the chirpy comedian has white facial hair sprouts, sparsely, at his lower chin. Facial pores dot, systematically, across the face, looking like an over-pierced dartboard.

Despite feeling exhausted from his daily routine that starts from six in the morning, Kenny still puts on his best for everyone in his midst, a marked difference from his irreverent alter ego, Bibik Kim Neo.

We are sitting at the outdoor area of the restaurant and the wind joins me in making his acquaintance.

Prior to appearing on screen, Kenny used to perform in private functions (he still does on request) with his mouthy manner and the traditional nyonya costume. The show eventually caught the attention of a sitcom producer and talks pursued to shift the gig to household TVs.

Produced primarily for its comedic value, the actor did not expect the series to become a hit. Having entertained fans of all ages with 509 episodes, the series was awarded the longest-ran sitcom in the country by Malaysia Book of Record.

As we get acquainted, we talk about Peranakan heritage and how much is kept alive in the twenty-first century.

I used to be embarrassed being a Peranakan because our clan is neither Chinese nor Malay. But today, I am proud to have inherited such a rich tradition, which is a mix of both. That is my identity.” Kenny speaks with authority.

 

One of the old traditions he still keeps is performing Soja on the first day of Chinese New Year – a routine where the younger generation kneels before the parents, bow with both hands on the floor, and wish them good health, wealth and longevity. Only then the Ang Pow exchange hands.

His steadfast devotion is deemed fanatical by the less informed. To the 60-year old, he is determined to keep the tradition alive amid the rush of modernization.

“Chinese New Year is about remembering our ancestors, our parents and subsequently our family,” he adds.

 

Kenny’s Delight sits on the peaceful Jalan Laksamana Cheng Ho, open for breakfast and lunch. For a party of 10 or more, you may call in to order some rare and lost-in-transition Peranakan cuisine that is not in the menu.

Otak otak with fish paste inside

Mouth-watering cendol. You can never have enough of this in Melaka.

Peranakan food tops many Melaka visitors’ must-have list. Whether it is authentic or otherwise, a few knows for sure. Food choice is usually personal. If you are on the quest to taste as much Peranakan food as possible, do pay Kenny a visit. If you are lucky, you might catch him in his kebaya and gold rim glasses.

Kenny’s Delight

135, Jalan Laksamana Cheng Ho

75000 Melaka

012 – 612 8978

Big Bibik and little Nyonyas Series on YouTube

In 2009, Kenny puts on his signature costume again in the YouTube series Big Bibik Little Nyonyas. The production hopes to gain sufficient public attention to pave its way back to the TV screen soon.

Though little is left, the Peranakan culture is a rich heritage and it is worth keeping. It is part of what makes Malaysia unique. Feel free to catch more following series on YouTube. Enjoy.

This story is the second in the quest of A Stranger at Home Travel Series – Melaka. The author has previously stopped-by at The Baboon House at Heeren Street, now Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock.

Stay tuned for more.

A Stranger at Home Travel Series – Melaka – The Baboon House

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The glory of yesteryears, despite dim and subdued, still lingers at the front yards of the centuries old buildings in Heeren Street today.

It is now named after Tun Tan Cheng Lock, the founder of Malayan Chinese Association (MCA). Named by the Dutch during the latter’s colonial era. It meant Gentlemen Street or, with airs, the Millionaires Street.

As I browse through the ancient architecture at almost 38°C heat, I reach a 250-300 years old house, now called The Baboon House. It is a western café that is operated by a passionate art lover, Roger Soong, 31.

Formerly an industrial engineer, the Melaka-born Soong now devotes his time to reviving this antique house while honing his craft in art. The passion is, according to the 31-year old, a love for every living thing.

Judging by the money and energy involved, despite noble, the idea appears to others utterly ridiculous, which inspires its present name – The Baboon House.

In his knee-torn jeans and simple tee, the bespectacled Roger leads me to the backyard of The Baboon House called the Baboon Garden. Retaining as many original details as possible, Soong has transformed the backyard into a mother-earth-like garden, where mankind and nature coexist in harmony.

Soong and his faithful companion, Roro, a 12-year old Golden Retriever

“We try to salvage as much as possible and to create an ambiance of nature. That is why there is only wood and no plastic,” he quips.

The expansive wall is patchy and moldy, the crack lines form wrinkles on its face. We sit by the wooden pavement as I venture deeper into Soong’s noble passion.

A rustic Baboon Garden, the sphere that connects present and the past

“The building has a lot to tell us. First, it starts from the wall. When a new generation takes over the house, a new layer of paint is applied to give it a fresher look. The most basic restoration method is to scrap the old paint off to the core, until the bricks surface. This should allow the wall to breathe,” Soong said.

“Each layer tells of changes and transformation of each generation. There are already almost five layers on the wall and you can imagine the heritage that the building inherits,” he added.

“The building has aged but it is now coming back to life and the building is growing with us,” Soong remarks fondly.

A wall of history. Left is original and right reveals layers underneath, after scrapping

A section of the balcony wall before the paint is removed.

After the top coat of paint is removed, it reveals a painting. According to a student from China, this is a classic single-stroke painting drawn on the wall just 30 minutes before the cement dries. The single-stroke technique tells a lot about the skill of the painter as there is no room for mistakes. The color of the paint, since its first application, is still fresh until today, despite being buried underneath layers of paint for so long.

Unlike his more business-minded counterparts that capitalize on its Unesco World Heritage Site status for monetary gain, Soong occupies this ancient house with an objective to restore its original façade and most importantly, reviving its vibes, thus creating a space for the present to connect with the past.

The Baboon House’s principle is not to be commercially bonded with any entity – a tough call for a new setup in the commercially competitive street.

Despite the challenges (mostly monetary), Roger stands by his call. His restoration activities are making promising progress, albeit slow. Funded by the café that occupies the front section of the approximately 200-feet long house, the café churns out sufficient profits to sustain a team and its dream.

“The owner is pleased with the restoration idea. Hence, our rent, as compared to the market rate, is much lower. The team members get by with a moderate income. The profit is put back into the restoration work such as buying paint, wax and working tools,” Soong explains.

Soong notes that The Baboon House emphasizes on its identity rather than its commercial offerings.

If you share Soong’s passion, do drop by The Baboon House and get acquainted with the past. The homemade beef burger is what would make you stay longer. For like-minded art lovers, sit with Soong over a cup of Hazelnut-fragrant Vietnamese Coffee, and explore art and history.

Homemade Beef Burger with wholemeal bread

Hazelnut-fragrant Vietnamese Coffee

Soong's sketch of his grandmother, a second generation Peranakan

The Baboon House

No.89, Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock, 75200, Melaka

+606 283 1635

Stay tuned for more posts in the quest of A Stranger at Home Travel Series in Melaka.

A Stranger at Home Travel Series

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I have been planning a series of road trips within Malaysia, just to get to know my country a little better. The usual tourist attractions seem a little stale; their charms are waning in the name of tourism. It is perhaps time to hit the less trodden byways in the country, and be a stranger, at home.

The planning took more than a month, longer than expected, and it had not been easy. What an irony for someone who claimed to be a Malaysian, born and raised in the country in the past three decades. One more irony for the record, I bought a copy of Lonely Planet – Malaysia, Singapore & Brunei – to get me started.

My first destination is Melaka. I will be meeting a long-time friend, and her family. Melaka is familiar enough for anyone to trot about on his own but for me, I would like to find a sense of place and get to know the intricacies of its history and heritage, its buried and hidden charms in the 21st century setting. I am due for a visit to the Baba Nyonya Museum too.

Then I will be checking in at a guesthouse in Jalan Kampung Pantai – Oriental Residence – which is run by a couple of non-oriental lineage. On Sunday, I will be moving to Apa Kaba Home&Stay for 2 days in Kampung Banda Kaba.

There is something about taking the less beaten path. The guesswork in finding your ways in an unknown place is a quest in its own right. It gets you talking with the locals, especially when you are asking for direction.

If you are chatty and readily open-minded enough, there is even space and time to exchange some stories over a cup of teh-tarik. These unique experience and encounters are not listed in the guidebook. In my trip that is to begin tomorrow will include the following itinerary: to explore places, to meet people and to write stories.

Over and above sights and activities,
traveling is an engagement of the mind and the heart.

I have not have anything planned out from Tuesday until Thursday. I will leave the days open for the locals to fill them up, as they say: the best usually comes unplanned.

A stranger at home is a debut travel series on JoeyGan.com that documents the quest in discovering parts of Malaysia that are unknown to many. The destinations in the planning include:

  • Finding a sense of place in Melaka (May)
  • Trekking and getting lost in the wonders of nature in Pahang (June)
  • Celebrate the Anniversary of Declaration of Penang as a World Heritage in the food haven, Penang (July)
  • Tasting, and hopefully cooking, some of the greatest native buka puasa dishes in Kelantan and Terrenganu (August)
  • Hoping 64 islands and stamping foot prints on shy sandy beaches in Johor (September)
  • Embark on a jungle railway journey up north to Kedah and Perlis (October)
  • Getting back to the far-from-mind and far-from-sight places in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (November & December)

As often as possible, JoeyGan.com will recount encounters and stories of everyday during the trip in a 500-word journal. If you don’t want to miss out the odds, subscribe to our FEED now.

Our first post should be up either tomorrow evening or the morning of Friday.

Have a good day.

Airport – where imagination starts

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Flight announcements reverberate in the departure concourse in five different languages; each begins and ends with a monotonous chime. Walkie-talkies beep and sputter half-audible voices. Gleeful children run and chase each other around. Parents try, in vain, to keep the willful lot still.

With a destination in mind and boarding pass in hand, I am excited that my quest to Vancouver will begin shortly.

While lingering, a lot is going on in a space that I share with other travellers. On my far right, an executive is squawking on the mobile while pacing up and down. A business deal is on the edge, perhaps.

Outside Delifrance, a man hugs two toddlers while a woman, possibly the estranged wife, nonchalantly stands in front of the three as the emotion unfolds.

I started traveling overseas when I was 23. Since then, I have developed a peculiar fondness for airports. They are, to me, a no-boundary stage for free plays and an adventure waiting.

Behind the immigration counters, those who are leaving look back, swiping their hands back and forth above their heads, waving their final goodbyes at family members who wave back in quick succession.

The departure concourse in the Satellite Building and the boarding gates in the Main Building are connected by a people mover system – an Aerotrain. At 52 kmph, the train winds out of the tunnel, curves along the 1.2KM track.

It passes huge aircraft hangars that sit, dignified, on the left. The warm yellow lights in the hangars cast wistful glances on the idle airplanes to a point of exuding an ominous silence. The starry pole lights on both sides of the track only enhance the dreamy dark surrounding.

Two minutes later, the train gradually comes to a halt. My senses soon wake up to the default stimuli in the civilized surrounding: crowds, noises and concrete.

Radiating uninspiring white lights, the Main Building is a dull sight as compared to the dreamy ambience at the hangars, and less vibrant than that of the departure concourse.

Kuala Lumpur International Airport is Malaysia’s pride, and aches, if you are in the loop of its behind-the-scene stories. This monumental structure marks the beginning of my journey in discovering people and places beyond the country’s boundary. The airport has since been my favorite imaginative place. It will remain so for a long time, as long as I am the one who is traveling.

I join the crowd and stroll towards the gates. I never try to remember the layout. The crowd just makes it look different, somehow. I just follow the signs.

Answering Nature’s call – Cambodia

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Every incident, major or minor, casual or serious, if you live to tell the tale, it usually makes an interesting anecdote, which is what traveling is about.

Since I am not traveling lately, I choose to relive some memories from my first backpack trip in Cambodia.

Here it goes:

The act of urinating is supposed to be a natural, effortless task. However, when performed in places besides the latrine, in a moving bus for instance, it proved to be a new motor skill. If you mess it up, the aftermath could be frustrating and embarrassing, but hardly amusing.

I had no choice but to acquire this new motor skill when I boarded a bus in Phnom Penh bound for Sihanoukville with no lavatory on board. Suddenly, I was hit by a sudden urge to relieve myself but nobody could comprehend my need and urgency.

My usual sign language – both palms signaling ‘T’ for toilet break, squatting and pretending to pull my pants down – proved to be uncommon in that part of the world. Naturally, the bus driver kept on driving with no compassion.

My bladder was nudging with full force. I contemplated ways to answer the untimely nature’s call while the bus zipped through the uneven tarmac road. I finally resorted to stacking up my sized-up backpack to block curious eyes from peeking into my impending illicit private business.

My newly invented latrine was ready, which was essentially a zipper bag laid with layers of tissue paper. I will spare you the details, which are far from pleasant. In short, the content in the zipper bag, thereafter, leaked and the rest area was more than 2 hours away.

The blue color bus is where my bladder and my frustration leak

Finally reached the rest area to clean up.

At the time of the incident, this experience was less than amusing. But today, it has become a comical account in my collection of travel anecdotes.

Not that I look forward to such incidents to reoccur, but, when taken in stride, it becomes the essence of a travel journal, and never be embarrassed to share.