Melaka- February 2007

We took the early morning Transnational Bus from Kuala Lumpur to Melaka. The bus was very comfortable (except for the dripping from the air conditioner) and arrived two hours later at the bus station just outside of Melaka. We took the #17 bus to Chinatown and checked into the Hereen House. This was an amazing guesthouse and the owners were positively charming. The husband travels the world shopping for textile arts and the wife makes an amazing scone. The room had a four poster wooden bed and antique furniture.

Melaka is a fantastic old port city where the Indians, Chinese, Malays, Portuguese, British, Dutch and Thais blended their cultures together in architecture, food and the arts. The famous Straits of Malacca run just off the city center. I have no idea what these Straits looked like once when they were the main thoroughfare for shipping, but now the shoreline floats with trash and crawls with walking fish. There are some sites in Melaka which are flooded with the kind of tour bus tourists that can ruin any city. However, the Chinatown area lacks hotels big enough for such a large group and so retains a more local flavor. The best part of the city is just walking the streets. Two guys Lim Huck Chin and Fernando Jorge hit the streets with a camera and did an amazing amount of research on the city. Their book Malacca: Voices from the Street is totally worth the 50USD we spent on it but you can also pick it up and thumb through it in most of the city’s book stores.

I highly recommend the following sites:

• The Architectural Museum of Malaysia was very interesting and seemed like it didn’t have a lot of visitors.
• The Baba-Nonya Heritage Museum has a lovely tour and a chance to go back in time.
• St. Paul’s church at the top of the hill provides a nice view of the city and interesting ruins.
• On Sunday nights, the area has a local night market on the main street with great food and good shopping.
• On the street Jin Tonkong you can see the Kampung Kling Mosque (Muslim), the Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthis Temple (Hindu) and the Sanduo Temple (Chinese shrine) all in a few blocks.

The following places are lovely restaurants we stopped in:

• The Best Cafe had good food and very helpful staff. The food throughout Melaka is an amazing fusion of different cultures and very spicy!
  
• Geographer’s Cafe was a bit touristy but great for a late night drink.
• Limau-Limau Cafe was a great place to stop for tea or coffee.

Not so great...

We hiked out to the Villa Sentosa but found it a bit odd. The little old man was very proud of his heritage but the place was kind of like being trapped in your elderly aunt’s house being forced to page through old albums and look at souvenirs from someone else’s life. We stayed longer in the Sultanate Palace than we planned because of the rain; it was an interesting place but full of silly mannequins.

We were sorry to leave Melaka, even though we’d seen all the sites we’d hoped to see, the atmosphere was fantastic and I hope we’re able to return.