Taman Jaya’s as weird as i thought it would be
woke up to the sound of some street vendor yelling about cornflakes in their soup. didn’t even know that was a thing. i guess ramen’s not universal.
last night, i woke up to this humid air. not just warm, but like your skin’s trapped under a wet towel. checked the weather and it’s 22.56 degrees here, feels like 23.43. which is just my way of saying it’s gross. hope you like that kind of thing.
featured in a yelp review from 2019 as ‘a ghost town with better vibes than most cities.’ i don’t know if that’s true, but someone must’ve been high when they wrote that.
so i wandered around and asked a kid selling bottled water if there were any ‘hidden spots.’ he handed me a map that looked like a potato and said, ‘follow the smell of burnt plastic.’ led me to this dusty alley with a mural of a smiling sun. over a blockquote from some drunk tourist i passed:
‘the vibe here is like a podcast where everyone’s mad but no one says why.’
neighbors? well, if you get bored, penang’s streets are just a short drive away. haven’t visited yet because my bike broke last week and i’m too lazy to fix it. also, some local told me the market here is cursed. like, every third time you buy something, it’ll disappear. i haven’t tested this but i’m 60% sure it’s true.
the sun here is weird. during the day, it’s like it’s hiding behind a cloud that’s 50% smoke and 50% regret. i tried taking photos of the harbor but the light was so flat it looked like someone spilled ink on my camera.
maybe this place isn’t for everyone. but if you’re the type who likes to wander into places that feel like they were forgotten by god, this is your spot. don’t believe the travel blogs that say it’s ‘quirky’ though. they’re just pumping up their google rankings.
https://tripadvisor.com/taman-jaya says it’s a 4.2 star place, which is confusing because it’s literally a dusty patch of land. but hey, maybe they’re lying.
anyway, i left with a headache and a weirdly specific urge to buy a bag of sand. maybe next time.
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