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...