Melaka, Malaysia
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2008
1
18
47
Trip End
Apr 30, 2009
Melaka,
Melaka State,
Malaysia
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Lisa waited while I ran to the store to pick up two cans of juice. Most of the cans of juice in Malaysia have little pieces of something in them, sort of like bubble tea in texture. My favorite drink was black current and aloe, which had little pieces of aloe vera in it. Although this isn't something that sounded appealing to me originally, I like to try new things and this one really surprised me. I am not sure that I have even had black current before and I definitely never ate or drank aloe in anything previous to being in Malaysia. Since first trying it however, I have had a can of it every day (or apple and aloe, also very good).
After a short wait we were greeted by Howard, one of the partners that run Ringo's Foyer. Howard introduced us to a few of the guests that we walked by on our way to our room and seemed to know everybody there by name. He quickly showed us around the facilities of the guest house which included sellf-serve coffee and tea, drinking water, showers and toilets, laundry soap (and lines to hang your laundry) and a great roof top patio for tanning or just hanging out. There was also a TV room with a DVD player and assorted movies and free wireless Internet (and a computer for 2 RM an hour if you needed one). We had reserved a double bed with air-conditioning for a cost of 50 RMB a night. The mattress was very comfortable, but was on the floor instead of a bed frame.
The first thing we did in Melaka was to walk around China town and the old part of the city. Melaka has an interesting history, although much of it is European colonialism. The city was founded around the year 1400 and quickly became an important sea port of trade controlling the Strait of Melaka. The Chinese arrived in 1405 and established trade links with the Ming Empire. The Portuguese arrived in 1509 and by 1511 had conquered and established a fortress called A' Formosa, which still remains today. The Portuguese struggled to control it and by 1641 the Dutch had taken over. This continued for another 150 years until the time of Napoleon when the British assumed control. The British kept control until the Japanese invaded in World War II, but in the 1950s Melaka was a centre of the Malaysian independence movement. All of this history has left many elements of Malay, Islam, Hindu, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and English cultural aspects.
Walking around Melaka, we viewed the Stadthuys, built by the Dutch between 1641 and 1660, which makes it the oldest Dutch building in East Asia. It was used as a town hall and governor's residence and is situated in the historic Dutch Square. We climbed Melaka hill where we found St Paul's church, which was originally built by the Portuguese in 1521, but today mostly Dutch modifications and improvements were present. There were many old tombstones of former Dutch traders and also a prominent lighthouse that was built during the British era. Then we ventured to the canal where there was a life sized replica of a Portuguese 16th century ship called the Flora de la Mar. The original ship sank off the shore of Melaka whilst trying to haul off a load of treasure to Europe.
Near Ringo's Foyer, there was an important Chinese temple called Chang Hoon Tang temple, which dated back to 1646. It is Malaysia's oldest Chinese temple, but was in immaculate shape. There were many Chinese people praying at the facility, but we were still allowed to explore inside and take pictures free of charge. There were people getting their fortune told by shaking a stick out of a pile in a cup with a number on it. The fortune teller would explain your future based on the number of the stick you shook out. There were Chinese locals lighting incense in bowls, but we didn't really understand the religious significance behind this.
At night, Howard from Ringo's Foyer gathered people for a communal meal in one of the better establishments of Melaka. He was a native of Melaka and knew the best places to go, so we often tagged along with him. One of my favorite places was a venue called Newton's Food Center, which consisted of a few dozen vendors that each sold their own traditional based dishes. It was easy to get a wide assortment of different dishes, as the prices were generally around 5 RM. There was also a wide assortment of fruit juices and shaved ice desserts, which were absolutely delicious and cheap (around 2 RM for a fruit shake). One of the owners of Newton's brought us out a free traditional dish called rojak, which was a fruit salad with deep fried dough pieces in it. A very unique taste that isn't comparable to anything I've had in Canada.
Howard told us stories about some of the wildlife in Malaysia and how to deal with them in emergencies. For example there is a white snake, that eats other predatorily snakes itself (including King Cobras) that you should never run away from. It can apparently stand on its tail to make it eye level with man and they like to hang out in plantations. We didn't see anything like this, but we did see some giant monitor lizards along the canal banks. They must've measured near 1.5 meters and we were told that they are cousins to the Komodo dragons of Indonesia. They were not nearly as dangerous as their cousins though and would hide out under people houses when they were approached.
With alcohol being relatively expensive in Malaysia, Lisa and I didn't go out partying much at nights. The exception to this was Saturday night when Howard took people out to a club that played house music. It was actually a gay/lesbian bar, but about a dozen people from the guest house tagged along. I think I was the only straight guy of the group (aside from Howard) as it was mostly girls. Once we were inside, we bought pails of beer, which was 90 RM for five 320 ml bottles. Howard showed us some magic tricks and then the music got us all up dancing. I probably should've stayed a little closer to Lisa because by the end of the night I was surrounded by a group of a half dozen men that were giving me plenty of attention. They coaxed me onto a podium in my drunken state and some of the girls that were with us grabbed a picture. They promised to email it to me once they got home, but I'll have to wait to see if that happens.
On Monday we needed to head back to Kuala Lumpur so that we could make it to the airport for our early flight on Tuesday. Howard graciously volunteered to give us a lift to the bus station which was on the outskirts of town. I really cannot say enough great things about how well Howard ran Ringo's Foyer Guest House. He worked there 24 hours a day, seven days a week and was constantly trying to ensure that every guest was having the best time they could in Melaka. I would highly recommend staying at Ringo's Foyer if you want to have a fun time in Melaka.
The bus ride back to Kuala Lumpur was even more comfortable then the ride to Melaka. The bus was a luxury one, which had only 3 wide seats in an aisle. The cost was the same as it was to get there (12.10 RM), so I guess we really lucked out. Lisa had to reserve the tickets in advance though, as this was a holiday weekend in Malaysia and the local people loved to visit Melaka. Once back in Kuala Lumpur, we checked into Serai Inn & Hostel again for a night and again we got lucky. There was only one room left, a room for 4 people, but they let us have it at the same price as a double (69 RM).
We had to get up early the next morning in order to catch the bus to the airport for our 8:55 flight. We walked to the Light Rail Transit station a little too early though, as it didn't open until 6:00. From here it was just two short stops to the Central Station where we could catch an Air Asia bus to the airport for 9 RM. We actually ended up riding with one of the competitors this time though, at a cost of 8 RM instead. The bus driver went about as fast as he possibly could and we ended up getting to the airport in about an hour (7:30). The airport wasn't very busy, so after checking in we actually had time to enjoy a breakfast at McDonalds before finally going through security for our flight.
All of our rushing around turned out to be in vain though as the flight was delayed by about an hour anyhow. Air Asia has a late flight guarantee which provides its customers with a voucher for 200 RM if the flight is more than two hours behind, so after it was already an hour late we were sort of hoping they'd take another hour. The cost of the flight from K.L. to Chiang Mai was around 450 RM each, so that voucher would've seriously reduced the total cost. By 10:00 we were in the air though, finally on our way to Thailand.
