Melaka

We've been 4 days now in Melaka, 2 hrs southwest of KL and on the coast and are gaining a new appreciation for the colonial history here in the eastern part of the world. Like we wrote earlier on the blog about Penang, Melaka was here because it was the turning point/meeting point of ships from Europe/India/Arabia and those from China where all the goods were exchanged and traded. This was due to the combination of being roughly the 1/2 way point and also where the trade winds reverse direction in Apr and Nov of each year. Below are the ruins of the old Portuguese built church....



In the early 1500s, when the Portuguese found out about these characteristics peculiar to Melaka, they decided they needed to control it and extort the wealth. As per usual for Portugal at the time, it wasnt too hard for them to take over the city and build a fort that withstood counterattacks for 130 odd years, however a large amount of the traders decided they'd find other places in the straits of Malacca to meet and trade and there wasn't much the Portuguese could do about that.... the gate of the old fort can be seen below.






The legend as written on the displays here is that in the zenith of the early 1500s there would be up to 2000 ships from all over berthed or anchored in the port and dozens of languages being spoken.

By 1641 the Dutch deafeated the Portuguese and had their go at making money off the east-west trade and they received a bit less hassle from the local sultans because the Dutch helped them beat off the Portuguese and then controlled things with a bit less of an iron grip.



Finally the Dutch succumbed to the British who soon after decided they would focus more on Singapore and Penang thereby contributing further to the decline of Melaka.

...So what about the Melaka of today. There remains but a single gate of the old Portuguese fort, the ruins of a Portuguese church and a few govt and church buildings from the Dutch era. Really the biggest distinguishing feature of today is a fairly large Chinatown in narrow streets and colonial style buildings which was just packed for the Chinese New Year celebrations. The city is jammed with tourists mostly from Singapore and is therefore acquiring a bit of a fishbowl-like touristy feel to it. Lots of amuzement style attractions and buildings being built and it probably will look very different in 5 yrs. The old chinese section all decked out for the New Year....




An over the top decked out tri-shaw drivers with stereos blaring all manner of types of music feeding the kitchy side of mass tourism.... (they have flashing lights at night which have not somehow convinced John to take Lori for a spin.....something about being embarassed?!?)

Like Penang it is a cool place in the sense of the mix of Malay, Chinese, and Indian with their respective places of worship and types of restaurants mixed all in together side-by-side which makes it kind of interesting and exotic to wander around!....old Chinese temples and mosques like the ones below abound.

Lori has managed to shake off the fever, aches, and sore throat of the past 3 days and we are staying in a small-ish hotel just on the edge of Chinatown, experimenting with various foods (such as Otak-Otak which is a spiced fish paste cooked in banana leaf....I - John - thought it was quite good). All in all though, it is hard to favour the Chinese food more than the Indian.

Well that's good because in a couple of days we'll be heading that way from Kuala Lumpur. After reflecting on what to do next, it just seemed like going to Indonesia (which is so close) just didn't seem different enough from our past couple of months... and whereas India just seems different enough to inspire us to pack our bags and hit the road again. NZ and OZ would be nice and we are going to miss that somewhat, but to go there for some time first would mean that India would be just too hot by the time we would get there so they are going to have to wait for another time...so look for our next post from Trichy in south India and here's to hoping we can cope with the culture shock!