Baba-ville

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Sunday, we packed up the Proton Wira (Malaysian made car) and headed across the peninsula to Malacca on the west coast. The route that we took sent us through more oil palm estates and rubber plantations than we could count but the road was not very crowded aside form the occasional truck that we had to overtake. Lots of small towns on the way since we were not on the expressway but the old roads. By avoiding KL and taking a southern route we missed all of the traffic there. The trip took about 4 hours putting us in Malacca town at about 3:30pm. We got there just in time to check in at the Baba House (I’ll explain more about that in a minute) and have me zoom off to the express bus terminal to pick up some friends from St. Louis that came to Malacca to meet us, Peggy and her daughter Aliana. It sounds impressive that they came all this way but they had been in Shanghai and flew to Singapore for a few days before crossing the border and coming to Malacca. I didn’t realize when they rang how big the Malacca Sentral bus depot is. It’s huge, and has a large shopping mall in the middle. I spent a few minutes walking around it before they spotted me. Apparently, I’m quite easy to pick out in a crowd in Asia; you’d never guess, eh?.

The Baba House is so named for the Peranakan culture that flourished in Malacca and west Malaysia. When the Chinese mixed with the Malays they created a hybrid sort of culture with lots of unique characteristics including dress, housing, food, etc… The men were called Babas and the women, Nyonyas. Jo’s father’s side comes from this culture. Malacca features a lot of Peranankan houses and food. The Baba House is a hotel that was converted from a house. It’s not highly polished but retained a lot of its charm and beauty. The foyer and central atrium were beautiful with an open skylight and decorated shutters and balcony. Because the houses are connected in blocks the rooms in the middle don’t have windows, but we didn’t mind. Viv, Will and Aliana enjoyed exploring all of the corners and various floors of the old house.

The old section of Malacca where we stayed was made up of lots of similar houses mixed in with various family temples and shops along narrow one-lane streets. You can find the expected antique and tourist shops, but it is still a neighborhood where people live and work. That seems to add to the pleasant feeling of the area.

Nearby, is the central part of Malacca which is filled with history. It’s where the first Malay kingdom was set up on the peninsula followed by Chinese and Indians traders, then Portuguese, Dutch and English colonizers. They have all left a mark on the region, but the colonial powers left behind buildings, churches, graves, and remnants of a fortress. Some of the buildings date to the early 1500s when Europe was heavily engaged in the spice/China trade.

We had a few other items on the agenda for Malacca, including me facilitating a workshop at the Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) in Malacca. It went well, having about 25 English faculty members participating. Mdm. Shiv, one of the lecturers from UiTM that I had met in Shah Alam a few weeks ago, was the one who invited me to her school. She was very kind and even put Jo, the kids and me up for a night at her house. She’s been teaching at UiTM for 20 years and understands a lot about the needs of the students there.
While in Malacca, we also wanted to visit Jo’s dad’s brother, uncle Tai Wan. We had a nice dinner out near the sea at a place called Alai with fresh fish just off the boat. It’s called ikan bakar, you make your selection and they serve it up at your table. The kids enjoyed watching the cats try to get the fish more than they did the dinner.

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Photos

Keith and Jo at Christ Church Malacca
The Dutch built church at the foot of the hill below the Portuguese built St. Paul's church in central Malacca

Malaysia's oldest temple
Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, also called Kwan Yin Teng, is Malaysia’s oldest temple and was first built in the 1600’s.

Praying to the Tiger god
A lady at the Cheng Hoon Teng temple making offerings to the tiger god below the alter table. She brought meat and eggs and touched it to each of the statues below. The tiger god protects people from illness.

Will and the cobbler
Raymond Yeo is a third generation cobbler in old Malacca. His grandfather started making shoes for Chinese women with bound feet and beaded slippers for the Peranakan women who shunned footbinding. He's a very nice gut to meet and talk to. Will was really keen to learn how to make the shoes

Names of the dead
Plaques at the Cheng Hoon Teng temple featuring names of the dead so that family members can come and pay respects to them

Our hotel from the front
The Baba House from the street

Killing time at Baba House
Will waiting for me in the lobby of our hotel...taking a rest from all the walking around Malacca.

A place to relax
The atrium of the hotel, a fine example of Peranakan architecture from the early 20th cent.

Pasar malam on Jonker Walk
Jalan Hang Jebat (aka Jonker Walk) features a night market on weekends...lots of good stuff to eat and haggle over.

St. Paul's Church
High atop the hill in central Malacca is this church built by the Portuguese in 1521, but eventually being taken over by the Dutch. There are lots of memorial stones listing various members of the Dutch community and their birth/death dates...most from the 1600s. These along with the view made it worth the climb up the hill.

Graffiti boy strikes again
Ok, he didn't tag the wall, but he really liked these creatures on the walls in historic Malacca.

Shopping partners
Viv and Aliana are schoolmates in St. Louis who were able to meet up and do some shopping on the streets of Malacca for a couple of days...