An elderly Malay man sits behind a small wooden desk: backmarker of three in an outdoor typing pool. He’s on autopilot, typing furiously while glancing at the handwritten sheet; when one line is finished, obeying the bell to push the carriage back to start the next. An incongruous scene by the river in Malacca.

I had stumbled on Waffles - the best backpacker’s in Singapore – and after a few weeks graduated to a room with a view. It was a comfort zone after a hot day’s work, and the long-stay inmates became my family. They belonged to one of two clans: teachers or deep-sea divers. .....

Half the fun of travelling to faraway places and intermixing with different cultures is to be found in the simple - but most essential – daily task of eating and drinking. We think all the answers are at home … until we go abroad. Often, as well as new foods that unlock new taste buds, it’s the setting around those foods that provides extra divergence from our norms. .... (read more)

Old is the operative word. Majestic? Well perhaps in a bygone, disappeared era. What must it have been in the past? What might it become in the future? Unlike its Sarkie Brothers’ counterparts - Raffles in Singapore, The E&O in George Town (both now modern-day luxury clones) - The Old Majestic, a staging post between the two, appears much in its original, if now aged state. .....

After arriving at the hilltop hostel in central Malaysia and being allocated rooms, we all regrouped in the living area of the spacious colonial bungalow. Andy, my sparring partner from our stomach-churning LandRover journey, emerged with a portable machine to test blood pressure. It gave a few beeps, then silence.

I lay in bed on that first night, consumed by thoughts. Could I cope? Out of my comfort zone: a middle-aged back-packer diving into a fresh career in a strange and challenging city. With long-distance vision It had seemed a great idea. Now in close-up I was not so sure. At least I had my own room; no windows admittedly, but my own space. I tracked back to arrival ....

“Hi, I’m Andy.” The man opposite held out a plump hand. “Where you from?” We were eyeball to eyeball in the back of the Land Rover. No escaping his question. “Australia,” I responded. “How about you?” He told me he was Chinese but lived in Kuala Lumpur, which like everyone in Malaysia, he referred to as KL.