The past few years have seen Malacca evolve from a sleepy Malaysian coastal town into a bustling, world-class UNESCO World Heritage site. Someone who strolls by the Malacca River will find its banks lined with 17th century shophouses painted with trendy colourful murals — an example of the city’s perfect blend of the old and new. Along with its evolution comes a thriving café and bar scene. While Malacca has always been known for its delicious cuisine, where the visitor will find a mix of Peranakan, Kristang and Malaysian food, the scene has really taken off over the past few years — with themed cafés, hip bars and stylish restaurants sprouting up all over the seaside city.
We can choose to throw stones, to stumble on them, to climb over them, or to build with them - William Arthur Ward. Country life offers so much beauty that people always tend to forget about the hardships and problems that hide beneath that beauty. Country life is simple, but not always easy. The rose-colored glasses might make us forget that, once we want to embrace the beauty of country life, we also must embrace its roughness.
Had Ta Prohm been diligently maintained from its construction in 1186 to the present day, it would be just a footnote to the larger Angkor Wat temple. But while Ta Prohm lay forgotten and neglected by men, the Cambodian jungle wasted no time in devouring it. Silk-cotton and strangler fig trees took root in the loosened stones of the temple, which was built entirely without mortar. Their roots wound through the structure, creating an astonishing merger of nature and architecture. Though Ta Prohm may look like nature unfettered, the appearance of neglect is in fact fastidiously maintained.
