After taking the airport bus to the downtown area, I quickly found a room, and set out on my adventures.
The first thing I did was visit the Protestant Cemetery. It's an eerie place, filled with shady frangipani (Plumeria) trees and crumbling tombs covered with weeds and plants (I identified some Ficus and Bauhinia among them). Odd thing to see the Sacred Fig (Ficus religiosa), the Buddha's tree of enlightenment, growing out of some of these Christian tombs.
Here I found the grave of Thomas Leonowens, the husband of Anna Leonowens (The King and I).
Just behind the cemetery is another one, the Roman Catholic Cemetery. Very few of the graves there are still readable. I spent about an hour photographing tombs in order to preserve the information online at Findagrave.com. This way, genealogists, family members and historians can find the information.
Afterwards, I was growing hungry. I rent to Krsna Restaurant, which is the new incarnation of the old Krishna Vilas, a restaurant I visited once 19 years ago. The food was every bit as tasty and cheap as I remembered it, but it's no longer the a dingy hole it once was. Generous portions of rice, dal and vegetarian condiments, served on a banana leaf, for about US$1.15. Can't beat that!
Around town I passed by some famous landmarks, like Kapitan Kling Mosque...
...and Cheong Fatt Tze:
Tomorrow one on my missions is to go to the Jewish Cemetery!
