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Published: September 4th 2009
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Melacca, Malaysia. By Paul
A port city. Melacca is a port city on the west coast of Malaysia. It’s a historically rich city. If you take a look at a map, you’ll see why. Melacca sits right in the Straits of Melacca, a shipping lane through which everything going between Indonesia and China and India, the Middle East, and Europe used to have to go.
Ships would hop from the Spice Islands (Indonesia) and China to Melacca. Ships would hop from India, from Arabia, and from Europe to Melacca. The two major monsoons, coming from India and through Southeast Asia, converge on Melacca. It’s been a major port and shipping route forever.
A mixture of cultures. First the Indians came. So there’s a deep well of Hindu culture here. Then the Chinese, with Confucianism and Taoism. Then the Arabs, with Islam, which is still the predominant religion. Then the Europeans came. The Portuguese were the first European conquerors (1511), then the Dutch, then the English. Then the British brought in more waves of Indians and Chinese.
It’s a rich cultural stew. There’s nowhere else in the world with this much intermixed history, and this much inter-relations of
people (Malay, Arab, Chinese, Indian, European), except for maybe Georgetown, another city in Malaysia on the Straits of Melacca.
A World Heritage Site. Melacca is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. That means that the UN has designated it as culturally, historically, or biologically unique and significant for world culture and heritage. Melacca is a World Heritage Site largely because of the rich history, and because the town has been relatively well-preserved.
Melacca’s Chinatown. There are two historic areas of Melacca: Chinatown and the Dutch core. We stayed at a lovely guesthouse in Chinatown. Melacca’s Chinatown consists of 10 or so square blocks of old Chinese shophouses that function much like they always have, with the addition now of many tourist shops and tourist restaurants.
A typical Chinatown has a row of two-story shophouses or townhouses, and mosques (Muslim), Indian temples, and Chinese temples sprinkled throughout and mixed all together. The shophouses typically have a shop on the bottom floor: a restaurant, a tourist clothing or trinket shop, a food store, or something more workaday like a bike repair shop.
The family that owns the shop lives above, in the second story. Many of the shophouses have
been restored, and they’re lovely - white with Chinese lettering, pale yellow, pale blue, pale green, a few more brightly colored. But it still very much functions like it always has, and it feels very real.
These shophouses and neighborhoods are probably what makes Melacca most unique. There’s nothing else quite like it, anywhere. It’s like what I would imagine an Asian port town being, but it’s still like that, and it’s still functioning like that. It’s pretty, and it’s definitely for tourists (mostly tourists from China these days), but it’s not only for tourists.
For instance, our guesthouse was on the wholesalers’ street. Ninety percent of the shophouses were wholesalers, selling bulk food, drinks, supplies, whatever. The wholesalers are still along this street because the street fronts the river, and the supplies used to come in from the port via the river. The goods come in now along the narrow roads, because the river has been beautified, but the function of the street as the wholesalers’ street remains.
The Dutch area. The Dutch historic core also remains as it has, since the 1600s. It’s all painted red - a church, a town hall, several government buildings.
It’s quite lovely, especially in the late afternoon when the sun lights up the red church and clocktower.
What we did in Melacca. Despite all the history, we had fun in Melacca. It’s a laid-back, easygoing town. Malaysians are friendly, maybe the most friendly folks I’ve ever traveled among. Strolling through Chinatown was endlessly fascinating: touristy and fun, but also very functioning and real. The food was delicious. It was a great place.
We didn’t really do much in Melacca, but it was really fun not doing much. We walked around a lot, just strolling, because the town itself is a one big tourist sight. We ate a lot: great Indian food, good Chinese food, some local Malaysian food, a bit of McDonald’s and Pizza Hut too.
It was as hot as you can imagine, but we started to get used to the heat. Our guesthouse was lovely, along the river, with lots of ceiling fans and good places to sit and read.
Ella had some pretty severe culture shock - Patsy the Purple Cow describes that well. But she got over it, and she loved Melacca by the time we left. She said it felt
River View
From the River View Guesthouse very much like home. Somehow it does: easygoing, not that much to do, but very pleasant and relaxing. It’s a good place.
Melacca by May
Ramadan. Ramadan started while we were in Melacca. This is a holy month for Muslims marked, most obviously, by fasting from sunup to sundown. Ramadan wasn’t too obvious to our untrained eyes, except at McDonalds.
There, the extra value meals that made lunch such a good deal were extended for Ramadan from 6-9pm. The Muslims could come to McDonalds and get a value meal to break their Ramadan fast. One night around 7:20, we were leaving a near by McDonalds after eating ice cream. I noticed 3 tables of Malaysians sitting with their straws in their drinks, chili sauce ready for fries, burgers unwrapped, staring at their cell phones. They were watching the time, I guess, waiting for official sundown time.
The hungry ghost festival. The hungry ghost month also started while we were in Melacca. This is a Chinese practice. On our first night there, we saw Chinese families in Chinatown lighting fires on the street outside their shop houses. We asked Raymond, our guest house owner, about
it and he said they were paper offerings to the ghost ancestors.
All month, the Chinese do nice things for the ghosts, hoping the ghosts will be pleased and therefore friendly for the rest of the year. The nice things include-- setting an extra plate at the table every night for the ghosts; fixing meals and taking them to the temple; and singing and dancing on a stage to entertain the ghosts. The stage was set up Friday-Sunday night and had a big audience of living people too- but the first row was empty, chairs with water bottles in each, presumably for the ghosts to relax in.
I also liked Melacca. We had been there 16 years before with Jordan when she was 2. We had good memories of it from way back then and those memories were justified. We saw a couple of things that we remembered from our trip with her. One was a church with no roof up on a hill overlooking the town. Jordan loved to play there when she was 2. We also saw a playground with lots of new equipment but enough old concrete play structures that we recognized.
It’s an
interesting but not too busy place, the food was most delicious and out guest house was a great home base for our stay there.
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Sharon Fender
non-member comment
Seven foot lizard!
Do they bite, like alligators?? Do they just wander around the city? Wow. Are they protected...I cannot imagine having them stroll around! Love the stories and pictures! Sharon