The Many Museums of Melaka

I think it’s hotter here than in Singapore. I took a shower before bed last night and so was able to sleep in relative comfort, but from the moment I stepped out the door this morning I have been sweating through my shirt and into the straps of my backpack.

Today I’m going to doing the museum circuit, a circle starting at the city square and winding away from Chinatown towards Little India. It all starts at the Christ Church in city square, a lively and well-maintained public gathering point. Inside, the church has whitewashed walls and mahogany floors and benches. It’s simple and Spartan, but doesn’t inspire me to feel particularly spiritual. Since no photos are allowed, I’m only able to sneak a quick shot of the most interesting item there: a pair of skulls and crossbones carved into the floor directly where the priest would serve communion to the parishioners. I’m not sure why they added this macabre decoration, but I would bet that it’s to attract those hell-bound pirates that are just so hard to get to come to church.

The Baba Nonya Museum is really intersting and very impressive.  It's set in the beautiful old home of a wealthy family and the museum has kept basically everything they ever owned.  Crystal chandeliers, unopeneed bottles of gin and rum from 1870, marble mah jong and chess sets, silk and mahogany, fine china and silver, if the British colonists valued it this family seemed to, as well.  A nice touch is the photos of the family showing how they grew from one married couple to today over 50 kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids!  No photos of my own allowed, though.

The Youth Museum is a stuffy and boring look at the history of the youth movement, but the art museum above is remarkable. It features work mainly from one artist, Allen Tan, and I would be ecstatic if I could get one of his pieces into my house one day. They’re colourful, confident, and complicated—in a word, captivating. Stadthuy’s next door is wealth of information and artefacts about Malaysian history and culture. You can walk through recreations of weddings, village homes, fishermen’s boats and schools, even if the displays are just a bit dusty and in need of a little TLC.

After that I followed the road to the Naval Museum and boarded the giant broadsail ship I saw yesterday.  Thank god for the small things, it's air conditioned.  I may spend a little bit of extra time here now!  An interesting enough way to kill an hour or so, you walk down a few flights of stairs to two lower levels where there are the usual posters on the walls and some odd exhibits of sailors in their daily activities, like being kept in shackles under the bow. 

The most intriguing museum is four floors of dilapidated displays that are barely hanging together, where each story’s focus a complete departure from the one below it, but a place bursting with so much promise that you can’t help but root for it and send up a prayer for it to find wealthy patronage in the future.
--Basement: the "3D" gallery, oooohh.  This was hilarious.  A few absolutely gigantic machines that played 3D videos about some event in Malaysian history.  It reminded me of when I was a kid because the technology is at least that old.  Also, lots of posters where when you stand on one side it's one photo and when you shift slightly it changes a bit to create the illusion of action.  Sway from side to side at the battle poster for "realistic chopping action!"
--Ground floor: cultural gallery.  The first focus was on the different peoples of Malaysia, including the Chinese, Baba Nonya, Malay, Indian, Peranak (Sino-Malay), Chitty (Indo-Malay).  Food, culture, religion, etc.  And then most of the rest of the floor was devoted to the art of top-spinning, which they really made seem really fun.  Wrap a rope around a top, yank it as hard as you can and hopefully send your top into a long, controlled spin.  PS: Your top weighs ten pounds and is almost a foot tall.
--Second floor: kite museum.  Falling apart a bit and all the colors are fading.  It's like you're actually watching someone's childhood innocence die.  Sad.
--Third floor: beauty museum.  An interesting concept supported by lots of information, but held back by faded photos and a lack of artefacts.  Displays were on the following 'beautifying' trends: lip and ear plates, neck rings, foot binding, piercings, tattoos, skin mutilation, etc.  Definitely makes you think.

Just one more stop was about all I could take before dinner and a late bus to KL, so I went to see the ruins of A Famosa (The Famous One) and St. Paul's church. A Famosa, once a massive defensive fort, was destroyed long ago, except for the main entry gate, which was busy being used by a tout to entertain a crowd of Japanese tourists.  Above, on top of a hill, stands what's left of St. Paul's Church.  The architecture isn't much, but there are some absolutely amazing tombstones from as early as the 1500s.  Lots of skulls and crossbones again, this time with wings on top. 

As you walk through Melaka it's hard not to notice that this is a city of artists.  There is graffiti and street-art all around, galleries line the roads as well as antique shops claiming to have original works, and clothing stores try to come in on the others’ coattails by selling “wearable art”. You can also see this in the homes along the street, which all have colourful, tile mosaics (or at least the remnants of one) running in a thin band between the first and second floors. Dragons, flowers, birds and geometric designs are all squeezed into a 6” tall strip and compete with their neighbours for whose will be most flamboyant.  It makes you slow your relaxed pace even more, as you stop periodically to just stop and observe.

So now it's the end of the day and I've only eaten a plate of ginger chicken for breakfast and some snacks.  I'm going to the guidebook's most highly recommended restaurant: Capitol Satay.  Apparently, you choose from loads of different kebab-style options then cook them in a bubbling pot of satay sauce right on your table.  It sounds delicious, which explains why I had to wait in line for...2 hours.  And I'm sure it would have been delicious if I liked processed meat or gigantic, whole shrimp.  So, maybe not the five stars Lonely Planet gives it, but then what was I expecting in Southeast Asia?  Time to see what Kuala Lumpur has to offer...

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A Note on my Traveling Conditions

No matter how temporary this feeling might turn out to be, today I’m glad I’m travelling alone. I don’t want anyone with me here or in Indonesia because I’m exhausted from talking all-day-every-day and it’s just overwhelming to live in a country that is never totally QUIET. I need to get away from distraction and noise pollution, though, because I’ve got a lot of things to think about, most of them having to do with what to do with my life six months from now. I could really use the downtime to contemplate and develop a sense of calm in my life again.


However, I predict I will hold the exact opposite opinion before I even get to KL. Good intentions aside, I am still a girl, after all.

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I'm in Melaka! Huzzah!!

Yes! This is great!! I'm finally getting out of Singapore and into another part of Southeast Asia! I've turned down other trips with friends to places like Indonesia and Vietnam because I figure since I intend to go to those countries later for a long period of time, why spend good money just to go there for a few days? Also, I have to admit that overall, when I look back on my trips, I enjoy travelling alone for the most part. You meet more people that way and you can be a bit selfish about where you go and what you do. But on the road itself that does get lonely and can be difficult, so maybe the ideal way to do it is to travel with one other person, but take periodic breaks where you travel apart for a little while. Finally, something tells me my friends would have a hard time staying in some of the, uh, ‘budget’ hostels I tend to use.

But about Malaysia. I took a rather colorful bus from Singapore to Melaka, expecting it to take somewhere around 4 hours. It took 7.5. What I failed to appreciate was that this was Vesak Day, a public holiday, and thus a day that people would be fleeing Singapore en masse to take a little holiday. We crawled through traffic, crossing one of the world’s smallest countries at a snail’s pace. Malaysia’s immigration desk didn’t help, though, and in a room the size of a high school gymnasium, approximately 2,000 people waited for clearance to enter the country. Guess which line moved most slowly?

I slept through most of the bus ride, which really felt great, and only woke up when a. the air conditioning went out (again) and it got too steamy on the bus, b. I had to go into customs and c. the bus driver tried to leave me at a golf resort with the other passengers on the bus, a Chinese family staying there for a reunion. It was another 45 minutes from there to the actual station listed on my ticket. Thanks for trying to leave me alone in the middle of nowhere, dude.

But that’s where the complaints end because Melaka is great! I had a few hours before the sun went down, so I checked into Sama-Sama Guesthouse’s dorm and hit the street. This is one of the most walk-able cities I’ve ever been to—all the roads dump you out into basically the same main locations: city square, the bridges leading across the canal, or the Jonker Walk (more about that later). The streets are narrow and mostly one way and there are no sidewalks so pedestrians must squeeze between the cars trundling by and the foot-deep gutter that collects run-off and garbage. Straying to either side is not advised! Living in the US, I never would have guessed that it could be so enjoyable, though, just to twist and turn up one street and down another, ducking into alleys, following gravel paths, and generally trying to get lost. Nothing in America is like this at all.

When I left my hostel, I learned it was on Jalon Tukang Emas, or Harmony Street. It’s called this because within a half-mile you can find Kampung Keling Mosque, Malaysia's oldest Hindu temple (Sri Payyatha Vinayagar Moorthi Temple), and Malaysia’s oldest Buddhist temple (Cheng Hoong Teng--Green Clouds Temple). The mosque is a bit bland and shabby, but you can tell the donations are made good use of in Cheng Hoong Teng. The paint is fresh, the floor is clean, the lanterns aren’t coming apart, and the brass is polished. Add to the captivating view the heavenly smell of incense being burnt and gongs being struck periodically and suddenly you find yourself wondering if you have to convert to be Buddhist or if you can just start coming here whenever you want.

Continuing along the street I buy a freshly-cut pineapple (an under-appreciated benefit of living in the tropics: the wealth of fresh fruit available year-round) and look at all of the traditional nonya shoes for sale. In a refreshing change from other travels, I realize that no one is calling out to me or taking photos of me or trying a sales pitch or honking at me or anything like that. While I certainly don’t go without being noticed, I’m not harassed, either, and it’s wonderful!

Cutting down a gravel path between buildings I stroll past a beautiful traditional wooden home as well as some shacks made out of sheet metal, tarps and hope. Soon, though, I’m at the canal and walking towards the ocean. It’s easy to imagine Melaka as a busy port 500 years ago, with boats being rowed up and down the river loaded with spices, fabrics, precious metals and other goods coming from or bound for China, Persia and Europe. The massive red buildings built by the Dutch (original) and 17th century wooden cargo ship (replica) conspire with the traditional low-lying houses, canal-side ruins of a fort, smell of salt water and flaming sunset to make you believe the East India Trading Company still exists and is dominating the NYSE.

After exploring and creating a mental map of the city, I sit down for a beer, some fried tempeh with salt and curry leaves (oh, wow, so good) and a slightly spicy vegetable soup served in a coconut. It’s dark out now and the weekend street market has come alive. Cheap shit made in China is put on display next to food vendors and it reminds me of an American fair: lots of things that light up, food on sticks, young people out for a cheap date, and...senior citizens singing karaoke while wearing jester hats and sparkly shirts? All right, that one I have no equivalent for, although I’m happy to report that corn dogs are just as popular in Asia as they are in the US.

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Good lord, she created another blog?

Yes, I did, but I swear this is the last one I'm making for a long, long time.  It's where I'm going to keep the travelogue from all of my travels from this point forward.  Every time I take a trip the details will be here. Starting tomorrow, I'll tell you about my time in Melaka and Kuala Lumpur and clue you in about what's been happening to me lately in Indonesia. 

What I'm most excited about is that at the end of the school year I'll be going on a long trip (7 months or so) to about a dozen countries and this is where you'll hear about it all!!  This dream is a long time coming and I can't wait to share it with you.

I hope you enjoy traveling vicariously through me and my posts, and that maybe some day you even join me on the road.  And remember, I'm always sending lots and lots of love from Southeast Asia!!

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