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Published: August 8th 2007
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Also known by it's Olde English spelling of Melacca, this city was interesting and worth a visit. However, our expectations promised so much more, so ultimately disappointed.
This place is briming with history, rule having been forcibly removed from the Malays to Portuguese rule, then between the Dutch and English, then back again to the Malays when Malaysia gained its independence from Britain in 1957. I guess we expected something like a UK/European historic city, where you are surrounded in incredible architecture in the heart of such cities. In Melaka this was much more peppered around the place. For once, I was thankful that we'd gone against our prinicipal of tending not to do day tours that you could just as easily do youself more cheaply. We were a bit pushed for time by the time we'd actually sorted out fitting in Melaka, which we arranged at the Malaysia tourist office just down the road from KLCC in Kuala Lumpur (Blog:
Kuala Lumpur / Malaysian F1 Grand Prix) . The way the sights required us to do tourist dot to dot, I felt we needed wheels to get around anyway - so the coach trip appeared a good option as the day wore on.
The
first sight, the Portuguese settlement that still remains centred around Portuguese Square, left us unimpressed...I wasn't quite sure what I was meant to be looking at here, other than the evidence above the doors to the unnoteworthy houses that there were Portuguese living here - the evidence being a Christian Cross, where Malays main religion is Islam. So instead, we all ended up looking out to sea, following the view of a mock old cannon - which I guess was meant to hint at the various battles for supremacy that have gone on here in centuries gone by.
Next up was Christ Church, a Dutch architectural feat which left us equally unimpressed. Fortunately though, next we arrived in Red Square (also known locally as Dutch square - as the Dutch built it during their custodial of Melaka). This was impressively red and you could see the Dutch influences, right down to a small windmill and a Philips Shop (fibbing about the latter - they were long since closed down!). After this we walked into Chinatown, not to find some budget accommodation this time, but to see some temples. Now these were also impressive - very ornate. There is so
much detail on parts of the temple that demand a closer look, such as in the roof design.
We then headed for our lunch stop. If ever we needed a reminder that Malaysia really doesn't cater for vegetarians, this was it. Asked at the beginning of the day if there were any veggies on board, Sally raised here hand. She was the only one. It quickly emerged that unless there was anyone else, Sally would be sat by herself, banished to a separate table!! Naturally, I did what had to be done, and turned vegetarian for the day. Sure enough, when we arrived, we were kept aside whilst the rest of the tour group took their seats, then given our own table. As romantic as this may sound to some, we were actually quite looking forward to mixing with the rest of the group. Instead, we were cast aside! Quite frankly, I didn't think it mattered in the end whether I had meat or the veggie option - it was all pretty average, despite the tour guide's proclaimation that this is the best (Chinese) restaurant in Melaka. I came to Malaysia to eat Malay food, not dishes I could
get down my local takeaway!
Next stop was St. Paul's Church. This was okay, with views over Melaka, but again I couldn't get too excited - by the views or the church. Built by the Dutch, but then later falling into disrepair through lack of use, then us Brits arrived and demolished the tower and built a lighthouse near the entrance. The history of the site and of St. Francis Xavier (buried here, then exhumed to be buried in Goa, India) was more interesting than the architecture itself.
There were other unnoteworthy sights that we took in, but overall this one day trip from KL left us feeling we were glad we didn't come down here to stay for a couple of nights. Okay, so I guess we barely got to know Melaka by doing it in this way, but we didn't really see anything on this highlights tour that made us want to stay much longer.
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