Scores of talented food and travel bloggers are busy documenting Malaysia’s terrific cuisine, happening cities and natural beauty. Blogs report firsthand, so they are a great place to turn for inspiration and advice when travelling in a new country. Here are some of the best:
Rebecca Saw: “Wackybecky” is a Kuala Lumpur advertising consultant who is a mine of info on the latest hip and just plain fun things to do in KL. Want to navigate a maze of back-streets in the Malaysian town of Melaka to get to the legendary Nyonya chang glutinous rice dumplings made in a deceptively nondescript café? Want to know where to catch the latest performance of the hit chefs’ musical that performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Delicious Musical Bibap? Food, travel, cars, tech – if it’s new, zany or intriguing, it’s probably blogged by Rebecca.
Rasa Malaysia: Translating as Taste of Malaysia, this is one of the country’s best foodie blogs – and one of the top 25 food blogs in the world, according to one report! Penang-born Bee Yin Low serves up personal commentary along with 650+ recipes of Malaysian, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese and other Asian meals, all clearly photographed. Don’t worry if you have two left hands in the kitchen. Low aims to simplify Asian food so that anyone can cook it, and simplicity is what makes this arguably the top Asian food blog in the world. Low’s cookbook, Easy Chinese Recipes, is the best-selling Chinese cookbook on Amazon.
A Whiff of Lemongrass: Hmm, you can almost smell the soul-clearing aroma of lemongrass coming off the screen on Meena’s blog – and the chocolate cake, and the New Zealand mussels in garlic and white wine soup, and all the other fab meals she chronicles in her warm-hearted odyssey around the restaurants of the world. So immersed are her posts in food, just reading them is a meal in itself.
CCFoodTravel: Nick-naming themselves after two monkeys in a Malaysian children’s TV show from the 80s, Cumi and Ciki, Mei and her husband throw food, travel and adventure into a big blog-pot and boil it up. Whether it’s a photo-essay of Peru or a gourmand’s dissection of the joys of a burger, the result is a happy blend of culinary appreciation with a global travelogue.
MalaysiaAsia: Across such a big continent, travelling can be a bewildering process. Where to go? What to do? David and Janice bring the whole region into one manageable site with coverage of everything from ‘voluntouring’ to care for gibbons in Jakarta and the latest curfew update in Bangkok. An up-to-date content policy means you will be au fait with everything from upcoming events to the latest airline competition. Whether you are looking for a cheap jungle eco-villa or a brand new six-star hotel, you’ll find a relevant post on this tourism & travel multi-award winning site.
WalkFlyPinoy: Paul is a Filipino (or “Pinoy”) international backpacker who handily arranges his blog by searchable categories like ‘Thinking Aloud’, ‘Lists’ and ‘Events’. Although geared to backpackers, his ‘Itineraries’ category can guide any traveller looking for a rewarding way to spend a few spare days in Asia.
Five Foot Traveller is a thoughtful blog by Malaysian former journalist, Anis Ibrahim. Having left journalism two years ago, Anis writes not just about journeys across Asia and the world, but about travel writing and reading. If you think travel blogging could be for you, you may want to check her page out. She generously invites budding travel bloggers to get in touch with her.
For a focus on Malaysian travel, take a look at MYLOismyLife. Shloke is a KL local who is clearly passionate about his country. The blogosphere is swimming in great photos, but Shloke’s are in a league of their own. His images of devotees carrying milkpots at Thaipusam (Malaysia’s biggest Hindu festival), some with strings of limes hooked into the skin on their back, make you clutch at your heart. As a bonus for camera-hounds, every image comes with technical details like shutter speed, focal length and camera. These shots should be in a commercial gallery.