Europe in Melaka

Strangely enough, in the east you sometimes find a little bit of Europe. Melaka has had quite a variable history in the last few hundred years because of its strategic position for shipping in the Malacca Straits. The Portuguese, the Dutch and the British all had a hand in it. (For more info about the Portuguese time here, try this website.)

So in the historical district of Malacca you come across monuments you would not be surprised to see in Europe. The carving above was on the old fort. The church below came to be used by the British to store ammunition. Tombstone in the old church.This cage, still in the old church, covered the tomb of St Francis Xavier before it was moved to Goa in India.This is another statue to St Francis Xavier found in the grounds of the old church on the hill above the ruins of the old fort walls.

Chinatown, Melaka

These photos are not very good ones, but they show a little of the nature of Chinatown in Melaka. It is promoted very much for tourists, but many Malaysian tourists seem to be there so it still feels very 'local' and quite village-y ( especially compared to the much larger Chinatown in Singapore.)

Once the evening comes, there are stalls all out lining the street here.

This animal decorated a temple door, and these two 'warriors" decorated the door to another temple. During the evening some of these temples were in use, eg by groups doing Tai Chi etc.

From my balcony

From my balcony in Melaka I enjoyed watching the world go by. Down the street in this direction were many small Chinese-owned shops.

Looking from the balcony where the open-air basin was, I could see the canal, and over across to the church of Francis Xavier.

This statue to Francis Xavier was in the front of the church I could see from the balcony.

Melaka

Melaka was a touristy kind of place, but still managed to have quite a relaxed feel about it.

Here are some tourists enjoying some of the very colourful local transport. Everyone of these bicycle rickshaws ( for which I cannot recall the 'local' name) was a work of art in Melaka.

This canal ran past my guesthouse. Despite the glossed up tourist buildings nearby, there was still evidence of the disparity of wealth in Malaysia. Some beautiful tropical flowers seen in the local museum complex.

A fruit seller. I loved eating pineapple, already cut and peeled into bite-sized pieces, from one of these stalls.

"Merdeka Day" Melaka, Malaysia

I happened to be in Melaka in Malaysia on 31 August, "Merdeka" (Independence) Day. It was a huge celebration, with a marchpast that involved 8,648 participants in 128 contingents (according to the newspaper.) It must have been quite some logistical feat to get all these people organised to march! I only had to walk across the road from my guesthouse to a spot where I had an excellent view. I had my new digital camera and took oodles of shots, only a few of which I will put here.

Blog reference:

http://kiwinomad06.blogspot.com/2006/08/merdeka-day-independence.html

leaving Malacca

This morning I left Malacca and am now back in Singapore. The morning never started well: I managed to lock myself out of my bedroom and had to wait for the manager with the spare key! Meanwhile I had an interesting convo about Malaysia and world politics with the elderly Chinese cleaner. He spoke excellent, precise English as he had been to school in British colonial times.

I had found out the day before where to catch the bus for the bus station, and I was there by 8.30am, in time to get the bus at 9am for Singapore. Across from me on the bus were two teenage Malay friends. One was wearing a headscarf but she was still listening to MP3 music and texting, and laughing with her friend. This part of Malaysia seems more moderate than some other parts in terms of Islam.

We had the same on the bus- off the bus performance for Customs. First on the Malaysian side then on the Singapore side. We were waiting a while for a passenger who must have been delayed getting through Customs. I decided to ditch my Malaysian bus (which was going to take me right into the centre of town, only for me to have to leave it again...) and get the Singapore bus for Woodlands MRT wth my EZ card. I was a bit sad to leave the bus as I had had some interesting convos on it. But as it turned out, unusally for Singapore, I also had some convo on the bus to Woodlands.

Public transport is so easy in Singapore as you merely swipe your card at the beginning and end of each journey whether it is on train or bus. Before I knew it I was back at my friend's apartment. I collected my new prescription sunglasses (watch out miscreants on the bottom field as I can see who you are now!) and my laundry is now spinning its way to being clean again.

Meleka / Malacca

I like Meleka. Though I am hiding from the heat again until the sun goes down! It poured with rain much of last night, but it has sure warmed up again today - even the locals say it is hot, but maybe they say that when they see the sweat on my brow!

I went to the ethnographic museum this morning. It has great displays about the history of the area, plus lifesize models of people getting married. Very informative about all the various stages of marriage customs. Learning about the history of the area was very visual and interesting. They had a whole series of paintings depicting events in the past. And they had models to show how buildings looked at various stages in history, from initial settlement, through Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial times. The strategic importance of Meleka is clear, situated in the Straits which various shipping routes need to pass through, and with a river running to sea near a hill location.

I have had several walks in the neighbourhood as well. My guesthouse is friendly and the aircon works well, even if the plumbing is basic. It is also situated in a very "local" shopping area not far from the tourist area. There are numerous Chinese traders in this street, and at one end and around the corner, Indian traders. They carry stock for the locals, not tourists. (Though I notice the shop directly over the road is carrying some larger bottles of drinking water today: it is something I bought from another trader the other day and was noticed with!) It is interesting just walking down the streets in various directions and people watching. The traders are usually quite friendly and helpful as well.

I have met quite a few Malay women here in shops and on the street. Almost universally they wear veils, whereas when I was briefly in Malaysia as a much younger traveller, veils were uncommon. These women smile readily, and it is good to exchange normal banter.

Last night I went to the night market in Chinatown. Still 'authentic' and many locals there. I had run out of Malaysian currency though so was not in the least spendthrift. I might go back tonight. Then tomorrow I head back to Singapore and before I know it, I will be on the plane home.

Merdeka Day -Independence

Today it is Independence Day in Malaysia and I struck it lucky here in Melacca as the guesthouse I am in had a prime parade viewing position. I merely walked across the road and had a superb view of the whole Merdeka parade this morning.

It has been clear since I came to Malaysia that Independence Day is celebrated with some enthusiasm. Flags have been exuberantly flying all over the place. Then yesterday when I checked in and they saw my passport, the comment was that I had just had a birthday and that my age was **. The reason that my age was so easily calculated was that I was born just over a week before Malaysian Independence. So, if you know how many years Malaysia has been independent, you know my age!

Last night things began. I heard the countdown and caught a glimpse of the distant fireworks from the guesthouse balcony. Like a New year countdown at home.

This morning when I opened my shutters I could see people assembling outside and a few police motorbikes around. By the time I had showered there were some more people gathering and it was clear I would not have to go far to find the parade I had been told about.

The parade was amazing and took ages to get to its end. It started with some military people dressed in white carrying an enormous flag in a flat position, followed by two groups carrying many flags. The parade continued with a huge array of marching groups, from schools, to police cadets, to workplaces to marching bands, to leisure groups. There was a smallish army presence. Some of the marching groups were deadly serious with their marching steps and others were more relaxed and even waved to people they knew.The crowd watching the parade were incredibly well behaved. There was a police presence, but once they had stopped the traffic there was little they needed to do with the crowd. I was near a family whose father was a policeman and he came and stood with them for a while with his motorbike. It was a real family affair with many small children watching. There were so many in the parade itself I am surprised there was anyone much left to watch it! When I ate dinner last night the waitress told me that the Melacca parade this year would just be a small one and that next year it would be huge for 50 years. I thought it was pretty huge this year!

Malaysia

Trishaws. The ones here in Malacca are amazing, decorated with flowers and flags and all sorts. At night they might have lights and hooters.

Traffic. Terrible. Lanes mean nothing and driving down the middle of lanes, and changing lanes without indicating are commonplace. Motorbikes weave in and out at speed and apparently the accident/death rate is very high. Double parking is a norm. There are shelter places for motorbikes built under motorway bridges and since I have seen a few torrential downpours now they are obviously a good idea.

Food is yummy and comes in great variety. Hygiene for food also seems to be high. Though water needs to be bought.

Seremban, KL, Malacca

Have been spending a few days in Malaysia. D and I came up on the MRT and buses last Sunday evening. Getting through Customs involved getting off the Singapore MRT bus at Singapore customs, then getting back on to drive over the Causeway, then getting back off for Malaysian Customs, then getting back on to go to Larkin Bus station in Johor Bahru, from where we caught a Malaysian bus to Seremban. We had a bit of a view until it got dark. Lots of pine oil plantations where once there was no doubt jungle. The whole place had such a rural feel after the skyscrapers of Singapore. People seemed more relaxed and less like business clones.

The nice thing about Seremban was that it was an ordinary Malaysian city, not full of tourists. D's friend J being a local, he knew all the best places to eat out. We explored the sights of Seremban by car and saw the multi-coloured lights by night. There was a glorious Sultan's palace - very rich - that of course we could not enter.

On Tuesday we went into KL where J had necessary business to perform. We waited for him at the shopping centre under the two towers. Very exclusive kinds of shops. Quite a few women all in black that J told us were probably visitors from Saudi ( who used to go to UK and USA but can't go there so easily now.) We then visited the museum which had some great lifesize displays to demonstrate aspects of life of the various diverse cultures in Malaysia. We walked from there up to the beautiful orchid and hibiscus gardens. We just missed getting caught out in the torrential rain which arrived, though D and I got somewhat drenched a bit later just getting out of the car to go to the roofed-in market area.

This morning I branched out on my own to Malacca for a few days. The drive only took just over an hour. But when I got to Malacca I was foxed by the huge size of the bus terminal and its many doors and the fact that it is several kilometres away from the historic part of town. Plus the language barrier and the fact that I had no idea where any hotels were. I had done no research! And the taxis are unmetered so I didn't fancy taking one. So I delayed and checked my e-mail for a while!

Next I actually sought some help to get the local bus. I knew the historic area was somewhere near the sea, so when a local lady cottoned onto me saying hotel and sea she thought of Ocean and helped me find the Ocean bus. Turned out Ocean was a shopping block so I still hadn't found the historic centre. I soon got tired of feeling lost in the heat so decided to venture into a flasher hotel than I was going to afford and asked directions. (I thought they might speak reasonable English in there. They gave me a map which was very helpful.) So I then spent quite some time in the historic area with shades of its Portuguese and Dutch history, and finally found a guesthouse. It has aircon but primitive plumbing. I dare say I can survive for three nights at the end of my trip! It has canal views and a vew of Francis Xavier Church from the room balcony so that is nice.

This evening I have eaten out at a food stall where I got delicious food. Now town is quite busy. It is Malaysian National Day tomorrow and I gather there will be lots of people out celebrating this evening. Fireworks will be let off that I am hoping to see from the hotel roof, though I am now confused whether that is tonight or tomorrow night! Time to go and find out.