Perhaps we were skint or really stingy or absence of facilities... but my family always travels with cooking pots, rice and the necessary "stove". We had two them. They were made from brass. Kerosene, half a bottle (a unit of measure most commonly used in villages), a small medicine bottle containing methylated spirit and matches were needed brought wherever we went.
Of course we couldn't afford posh hotels in KL, Kuantan (on the long yearly journey to Kelantan to send auntie to her Teachers' Training College, singapore (on the occassional shopping spree) and even our yearly Eid-ul-Fitr trips. So we would normally look for hotels along the road and then "set-up camps".
First, without unpacking, we would switch the omni-present rattling window air-conditioning units before opening all the windows and door. In those days, glass louvred windows were not common-place installations.
Either my uncle or father would be charged with lighting up the "stove". Kerosene first. Methylated spirit or simply refere to as spirit in the top ring will be lighted. This would "warm up" the head. Whilst the head is being warmed up, he would use the piston and "pump up" the "gas".
Grandmother would then whip up a simple dish of fried salted fish, fried anchovies, pounded (the stone pestle and mortar will always be part of the "wardrobe") sambal belachan and rice. For vegetables, the simplest would be sliced cucumbers. The second cooked meal would be more adventurous depending on the amount of time spent on shopping or sight seeing. With onions, garlic, fish or chicken we might be enjoying curried dish or a dish in soy sauce with boiled or fried vegetables. If time was not at hand, we would have sardines.
A few very memorable stops that I can recollect. One was a hotel not far from the Mara Building in KL. What made it memorable was the fact that, it was the first hotel with seated water closet which grandmother announced unashamedly that she had difficulties in squatting over!
Another was a hotel in Arab Street in Singapore. They had balconies overlooking the busy street where this became the kitchen.
One most unforgetable location was in Mentakab. All the hotels were full since the journey to Kelantan was hampered by flooding (reportedly all the way north). So we sought shelter in a mosque. Of course we cooked but not in the mosque - In the main porch!
We continued this practise until the mid 70s when thermos flasks replaces the "stove". We cooked or bought rice and kept it warmed up until meal times in the hotels. We will always bring the "mangkuk tingkat" (tiered tiffins" to be filled at restaurants which were sprouting like mushrooms.
You could, in those days, bring durians, mangosteen...into hotels without being stopped. I guessed that the influx of foreigners had this acceptable practise put to a grinding halt. The centralised air-conditioning system didn't help either!
My family stopped this practise late in the 80s since we did not travel much then. But I personally had to borrow the technology in the early 90s whilst travelling through Europe in a Ford Cortina L. You can rent camps with cooking facilities in most of the camp sites. What I did was book these in advance, plan the journeys to coincide withe these camps. Travel during the day, stop at the town or cities near the camp for half the day, cook and sleep in the camp before resuming another half the day for more sightseeing...
Brussels near the Atomium, Ile-de-Paris for Paris, Bad Liebenzahl near Stutgart, a village near "The Floriade" surrounded by tulips next to a windmill, near Innsbruck in a valley carpeted with rape seed and eidelweiss, mainland before Venice amongst olive trees, near the lake under deciduous trees in Zurich (or was it?)... Eurocamp! That was the agency providing the facility. The camp would be there - up and running when you arrive! Some with televisions. Of course they provide communal bath where the patronage will shower in their natural bathing suits (time to compare unashamedly your equipment).
Although food was plentiful, Muslims would have a tough time looking for "kosher" food. In McDonalds or KFC we could only eat the fries. In England, you could swallow the oily fish and chips with vinegar or curry without batting an eye.
I had the continent mapped out, with hundreds of pictures of the road trip. The picturesque sceneries of petrol kiosks, log cabins in Austria, "spaghetti trees", dug out caves with roads winding through them and the scenic valley below (Innsbruck to Italy)...the vibrant coloured photographs are now turning into listless pastel colours, the animated videos with sound did not survive the years of neglect... Only Tea Towels and Leather Book Markers - cheapest memoribilia - are remnants of this adventures. (Aziz Isa can testify to their existence, can't you?)
With affluence all these stopped abruptly. Dining in hotels, restaurants or "mamak" stalls are now the norm. Sometimes, "take-aways" sneaked in through hotel lobbies...
The brass "stove" is now in store, tucked safely away with other time-stamps which the termites could not destroy. Will it ever see the light of day again?
(Will you grade this essay?)
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