What a banished Sumatran Prince, his dog and a mouse deer bought to Malaysia

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FOREWARNING - THIS IS QUITE A LONG BLOG, SO GO AND GET YOURSELF A NICE HOT CUPPA AND A BISCUIT

We were in Melaka (also spelt Malacca) until 8th June after arriving on the 28th May following a short but bumpy flight from Borneo to Kuala Lumpur and then a two hour coach ride to the city bus station.

Melaka is on the west coast in the south of Peninsula Malaysia and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Town in 2008.

The city was founded in 1400 by a Prince who fled Sumatra after an attack in 1377, the legend goes that the Prince landed on the coast of Malaysia and went out hunting. Whilst he was hunting his dog ran off and when he found it, it was face to face with a mouse deer. The dog cornered the mouse deer and got kicked in the face. The Prince took this to be a good omen of the weak overcoming the strong and decided to build his empire here. One version of the story says that he took the name Melaka after the tree in which he had taken shelter, another version says that the word Mallakka means on ones back (i.e. the dog on his back after he got kicked).

It has been invaded and occupied by the Portuguese and Dutch and governed by the British (the British East India Company) and is now part of Malaysia. The main ethnic groups here are Malay, Chinese, Indian and Portuguese. This makes for some amazing buildings and delicious food!

We booked up a Guesthouse a couple of days before we left Borneo and found a brilliant place online called Old Town Guesthouse. We are so lucky as the places we are staying seem to be getting better and better the more we travel. It's about a 5 minute walk from the centre of town and the museums/shops etc. The Guesthouse is owned by a couple (French man and Chinese Lady) who also live here with there daughter Shala. It is set over a huge first floor apartment (2 made in to 1) and there are a mixture of dormitories, double fan rooms (shared bathroom), double air con rooms (en-suite bathroom) and single rooms. Everything is brand new as it was only opened 6 months ago, really clean and fresh with 2 very large living areas, 3 toilets, 4 shower rooms, a kitchen and a washing machine. We paid just £5 per night for a double room with fan.

Getting our Bearings and Sampling the Local Cuisine - Thursday 27th May 2010


We woke up late, took showers and headed out onto the bustling streets of the old district. Next door to our Guesthouse is an Indian cafe so we decided before we started walking in the blistering heat to get some food and drink. Phil ordered a Roti (first one since the Cameron Highlands) and I ordered Mee Goreng (fried noodles) we both had a drink each, Phils new drink of choice since being in Malaysia is Iced Milo (hot chocolate with ice). The meal was lovely and cost us a whopping RM8/£1.40.

We had a rough idea of where we were heading as the taxi driver the night before had pointed us in the direction of China Town which is near the Town Square and Museums etc.

The streets here seem to be mostly all one way, so its nice and easy compared to other places crossing the road as you dont have to look every which way. The street we are staying on is full of Chinese shops and cafes and a mix of old and new buildings. The old buildings are beautiful with a lot of character, the new ones are quite nice as well and I suppose because this is a UNESCO town they have to be in keeping with their surroundings.

We passed lots of shops from ones selling motorbikes to a small smelly place selling tiny baby chicks that were all cooped up in cages. After about 10 minutes we came across quite a long road lined on either side with shops all painted a pinky colour. One of them was actually a gallery displaying local students art work which was quite interesting, and a change to cool down in the air con 😊

We left the gallery and carried on walking and came across the Stadthuys. The Stadthuys was built by the Dutch in 1650 to be used for Government buildings (it is now full of museums).

This has got to be one of the busiest places in Melaka - pedestrian wise anyway - and was chocker bloke full of tourists, Western and Asian all taking photos and posing in front of the fountain. I know alot of 'travellers' might disagree, but sometimes its quite nice to be in a touristy area and knowing that youre not the only person there (I emphasise on the word 'sometimes'!).

We found Phil an identical hat to the one he had lost to Davey Jones Locker, which he was very happy about. His hair is getting a bit long again so if he wears it for a few hours it keeps it flat on his head! Had a little wander around looking at all the tourist tat and then walked towards the river. At this point it was about 1pm when the day is at its hottest, and my my my was it hot!!! We had a little wander in the indoor market area, again selling more tourist tat, and then headed over to the river side to see what time the boat left that takes you on a tour 9km up the river.

Deciding to skip the next boat that was sitting there packed full of Chinese tourists, we headed to the cafe for a little break and a drink and then went back 40 minutes later to which we found a much emptier boat with only about 8 of us on in total. The boat ride was good, it showed you alot of the river (obviously) and the buildings that you might not otherwise have bothered to walk along the edge and look at (since the tour we have bothered), parts of Melaka are very beautiful. It almost felt as if we were in Europe, thanks to the Portuguese and Dutch influence, and at RM10 each it was definitely worth doing.

Back on land we thought we would go for a little stroll down the river back towards our Guesthouse and then have a little break before heading out again for dinner.

Dinner was easy to find, we were going to head out a bit further but there is a nice restaurant just next to our Guesthouse that serves duck. We both had roast duck with noodle soup and vegetables, it was very very yummy! We could see all the ducks hanging up in a cabinet in front of us slowly roasting away with their heads still on, but Im afraid to say we didnt really feel that sorry for them I just wanted to get my teeth in to their lovely juicy succulent flesh......hmmm hmmmm......lack of meat......sorry 😊 Anyone seen Madagascar when Alex the Lion doesnt eat meat for ages and then goes after his best friend the Zebra......well I think thats me.....Phil better not look too succulent or he might be in for the chop.

Anway.....back to the story.....

Our bellys full of duck, we waddled down the street (haha!) took a few snaps and then headed back to a nice comfy sofa to watch a bit of Coronation Street (very old one) followed by our favourite critic Mr Pierce Morgan in Las Vegas.


6 buses later and we didnt actually get anywhere - Friday 28th May 2010

Thought we would get up early, early being 10am, and go to Melaka Sentral bus station and get on a bus to Ayer Keroh where there is part forest part landscaped park and a 250m canopy walk. Sounds good, but unfortunately we just couldnt seem to get there. After an hour on the local bus from town we got to the bus station and set about finding the bus we needed to get on. It was chaos. The people that worked there didnt seem to have a clue what bus was going where or what the hell was going on. We spent over an hour getting on and off buses as we kept on getting told they were the right ones, even the bus with Ayer Keroh written on the front of it wasnt actually going there.

We were absolutely drenched after sitting in stifling hot buses for all that time so decided to call it a day and go back to town and hit the lovely air conditioned shopping mall. Back on another bus that some old toothless man told us to get on to, well pointed and ushered us on with no regard as to what we were saying where we wanted to go. Then the bus driver got on and the ticket man. The bus pulled out of its stop, starting driving off, the ticket man comes over and we tell him where we want to go. Guess what? It was the wrong bus, so we had to get off and walk back to the bus station and get on another bloody bus. We finally made it to the shopping mall about 2 and a half hours after we set off, achieving nothing but seeing lots and lots of crappy buses and men spitting all over the floor.

The shopping mall is absolutely huge! Alot bigger than Bluewater/Lakeside and full of everything even a little cultural market selling lots of different 'Malaysian, but made in Taiwan' souvenirs.

We thought we would head to the cinema to see what was on as it was such a wasted day and we didnt really know what else to do that didnt involve dying of heat exhaustion 😊

So we watched Nightmare on Elm Street, ate some popcorn and had a jolly good time!!

After the mall we went back to our guesthouse for a shower and then walked over to China Town and the night market to see what it had to offer. The night market is absolutely massive, like the ones we went to in Thailand but a bit tamer. We walked down about half way and then stopped to get something to eat, after stuffing ourselves (Phil with a burger and me with seafood) we went back to the guesthouse for some rest feeling a bit dissapointed that we didnt actually get to go anywhere exciting.


Our First Taste of Capitol Satay Cendol - Saturday 29th May 2010

We spent most of the day in the guesthouse watching some TV and saving some money.

We had heard about Capital Satay in our Lonely Planet book and as its right near us we thought we would head there to see what all the fuss was about (we'd seen people queuing round the corner to get in). It looks like every other Chinese cafe place in Malaysia, but it has a difference. Every table has a bottle of gas underneath which lights a huge ring under the table that heats a pot of satay sauce that is placed in the middle.

You go up and pick what food you want from a huge selection of chicken, beef, sausage, prawns, shellfish, liver, vegetables, animal insides, tofu, rotten eggs (yes - they are a Chinese delicacy), quails eggs, wan ton and much much more! You put everything that you want on a tray (most of it is on wooden sticks) and take it over to your table. The waitress brings you over a small plate each with bread and cucumber to also dip. You just drop your stick in to the boiling hot bubbling satay sauce, sit back, and wait for it to cook. Most things take 2-3 minutes and taste just gorgeous! When you have eaten so much they bring you over a gigantic prawn each, which takes 7 minutes to cook. We shared our table with 2 English men from Oxford and Bristol and had a good chat about where they are going and giving them advice etc.

The whole meal came to RM40, around £8, for 4 cans of coke, 24 sticks, and plates of wan tons and a salami type meat. Another bargain.

After filling ourselves to the point of bursting we went back to the night market and had a look all the way through this time. There are lots and lots of Trishaws that are all covered in fake flowers and fairy lights and anything else they can get their hand on to decorate them with. They have 80's music blaring from them and cost about £3 to be ridden round for an hour, we havent tried one out yet (remember the Thailand fiasco?!) but we have plenty of time here so maybe another day!!

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Well, I was trying to keep a day to day account of what we'd been doing but I was sick (food poisoning after trying to be British and eat some much love fish and chips....big mistake!) for 2 days so it kind of all fell apart.

We've spent the last week walking around various parts of town and sightseeing, we spent a day visiting a new water park a short cab ride out of town. Strange experience, being a Muslim country you have to wear clothes whilst swimming which is fine. I (Victoria) couldnt go the whole hog as the only 'trousers' I have are 3/4 length jeans, and there was no way I was getting in the water with them, so I had to make do with a t-shirt and my bikini bottoms. The only problem was people wernt allowed on the big water slides with a t-shirt on but I couldnt take mine off because Im a woman, catch 22. Phil was fine, but still felt a bit uncomfortable because all the men were fully dressed as well. We walked a short way to a crocodile farm and watched some big crocs fighting over a chicken and knocking eachothers teeth out.

We went to the cinema and watched Prince of Persia which was really good. Then I pampered myself with a hair cut (I now have a short bob) and a facial (£7 for an hour!). Also, yesterday I had a Thai head and shoulder massage - its a hard life but someones got to do it.

Phil had his head shaved by a rather strange feminine male hairdresser who took great pleasure in shaving Phil's head and making a big show of it by prancing around behind him and dancing and singing to Beyonce at the same time. When he was finished he got the hair dryer out, usually to get rid of all the cut hair at the back - which he did, but then he started rubbing Phils head for a few minutes until Phil asked him if he was finished 😊

Best things about Melaka - people are friendly, food is good (most of the time!), cheap, easy to get around (apart from the buses!), night market is really good and there are some good shops.

We've had a good time in Melaka but will be pleased to move on to the next place and our next country - Vietnam!

We are leaving tomorrow and taking a taxi to the local bus station (uh oh!) at 6:45am and then (hopefully) getting on a bus to Kuala Lumpur Airport. Fingers and toes crossed we get on the correct bus.

Vietnam here we come 😊




Our Route So Far

Kuala Lumpur - Ipoh - Tanah Rata (Cameron Highlands) - Perhentian Kecil - Kota Bharu - Kuala Lumpur - Kuching (Malaysian Borneo) - Kota Kinabalu (Malaysian Borneo) - Kuching (Malaysian Borneo) - Kuala Lumpur - Melaka -

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Comments

[Helen Barnard]

HOT SPICE
Some fantastic pics, beautiful colour and life. hugs