Marco Ferrarese

Writer

Penang, Malaysia

Marco Ferrarese lives in Penang since 2009, from where he covers Malaysia, India, and the larger Southeast Asian region for a number of international guidebooks and publications that include Lonely Planet, Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, the Guardian, BBC Travel, and Nikkei Asia. In the footsteps of fellow countryman and homonymous Marco Polo, in 2012 Marco hitchhiked from Singapore to Italy across Silk Road routes and the Middle East. His debut novel Nazi Goreng (2013) was a bestseller in Malaysia until it was banned by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2015. Marco has also played guitar in Malaysian hardcore punk bands and written a book about it, Banana Punk Rawk Trails (2015), and earned a Ph.D in subcultural anthropology from Monash University Malaysia. He and his Malaysian photographer wife still call Penang home, even though prior to COVID-19 they were on the road reporting from elsewhere most of the time.

Read more of his works at Penang Insider and Monkey Rock World.