Selamat Datang from Malacca

It felt weird waking this morning knowing I had three more nights in this same place. I am a bit over moving around. 

Thinking I was miles away from anything at the hotel I asked the best way you get to the centre. Walk was the response. Her indication of 10-15 minutes as by the 7 minute mark I had moved out of the Little India area and into the Heritage listed part of the city. 

Little India was, well, Indian; lots of shops selling Sari’s and over the top jewellery. 

I walk along the river side. On the opposite bank are dozens of colourful buildings housing mainly bars and cafes. It’s colourful, fun and full of life. 

On my side of the river I passed by the St.  Francis Xaviers Church,  the beautiful Christ Church and then arrived at The Stadthuys. 

STADTHUYS is a city hall built by the Dutch when they had Malacca as a trading colony. It is the administrative centre in the Malaccan city and is popularly termed as the RED SQUARE.

ST FRANCIS XAVIERS CHURCH is built on the site of an old Portuguese Church and completed in 1859. 

CHRIST CHURCH is one of the oldest Protestant churches functioning in Malacca. There is a huge resemblance between the Dutch architecture and the Christ Church as you can witness the bricks hailing from the Dutch period.

I had a look through The Stadthuys where there some magnificent recreations showing life during the Dutch occupation. 

It was hot with no breeze so I decided a river cruise would be the coolest way to get a glimpse of the UNESCO HERITAGE LISTED part of the city. I bought my River ticket, walked along the river to the pick up pier, had my photo taken (obligatory), lined up until there were enough people in line to fill a boat. Sadly I got a couple of families where parents had no control over their kids who were constantly being asked to sit down by the skipper. Funnily enough with kids bouncing round he couldn’t see where we were going. 

Anyway that aside the river cruise was lovely and there was much to see from temples to theme parks.  We even saw some sort of a lizardy thing sleeping on the banks. 

As the boat went past I managed to get glimpses of some traditional homes (all a reddy brown colour) and see neighbourhood life. 

Alighting we are surrounded by dozens of rickshaw things. An ornately decorated seat attached to a bicycle. Hilarious and if there was a pooh bear one I would be tempted for a laugh. 

I pass by a couple of guys selling lovely topical and intricate sketches. Their stock was almost identical. One of the guys showed me a series of sketches where he had drawn his childhood home and included his siblings. A detailed narrative. He had been sitting with pencil in hand drawing the next sketch- well not really drawing just making little marks in exactly the same place to make it look like he was drawing. Funnily enough the other guy was also drawing, exactly the same scene and he too was making tiny marks in exactly the same place as the first guy. Full marks for trying guys. 

As we sailed past I saw a restaurant right on the river side that looked nice. I went back to find it and sadly ended up in the wrong place confronted with a great view and a very western menu. Oh well truffle fries again. I have a few days to het some local food and the fries weren’t too bad anyway. 

It is 1:30pm and it is getting too hot so I headed for home. I found a coffee shop - double espresso at $6 a pop. Better be good. Even for the cool fan it will be worth it.  Mind you the presentation is worth it too. A bonus it is close to the hotel.  And it was a great coffee. 

This place is crawling with tourists, non-western, but because they look like everyone else it doesn’t feel as though I am surrounded by them. Despite that it is gorgeous, well what I have seen - the Heritage part that is - just beautiful. The traffic is mad, there are people everywhere but as in the other places I have been, no one is losing patience, no one is tooting, no loud voices. No one pushing, no one walking along looking at their phone and no one looking like a slob. Just peaceful, tidy and respectful. All the stuff we are losing at home. 

This is such a colourful city, with influences from all the countries which at some stage have occupied the area you can’t easily separate between the Chinese, the Indian, the Dutch, the Portuguese or the Malaysian. It has a vibrancy that was missing from the other places I’ve seen on this trip. Maybe it is just this area and the tourists but I love it.  

I’m sad to see half dressed westerners at cafes and bars. Beach attire should stay right there at the beach. And they wonder why we are hated so much by conservative countries. 

I came out late this afternoon to ho to Jonkers Street. “The” place to go in Melacca. From 6pm each night it is turned in a market street selling all sorts of stuff including street food. I could not miss it and glad I got there early , around 5:30pm when most stalls were setting up. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. Everyone says ‘you must try “chicken rice balls”. I agree and I would have liked to try some there. Alas none were on sale but I stopped at one small stall and had a skewer of quail eggs with bits of sausage, a divine skewer that tasted of chicken and wasn’t bums and an equally divine flat skewer that I think was pork. Delicious but not enough to fill me up. Cost for the 3 about $4.  

There were heaps of tour groups arriving pushing their way round and it was stinking hot. I left. Bern there. Don’t have to come back. 

I had spied a pile of places along the river and went in search of local food. Heaps of alcohol, pizzas and burgers were on offer so I kept walking. 

The Dutch Harbour Cafe over the road caught my eye and sure enough they had all sorts. The photo shows my Nasi Lemak with grilled chicken. Looks divine. 

Onion Rings, cucumber, boiled egg, 2 sambols, popadoms, divine grilled chicken, green pandan rice and peanuts with dried anchovies. 

Absolutely worth waiting for. A wine would have topped it off nicely but this place is dry. 

Tomorrow I am going to KL for the day. Just 90 minutes north of Melacca on the bus. Not quite sure what I will do once I get there but I hope its not too hot.