Melaka

---

On March 19, we left Cherating for Melacca.

First we took a local bus from Cherating to Kuantan. We did not realize that Kuantan has so many Chinese residents as there are many Chinese business signs.

In Kuantan, we walked from the "local bus station" to the "long distance bus station", about 20 minutes walk. At the second station, we boarded a bus to go to Malacca.

The road from Kuantan to Malacca is quite bumpy (or we have a bus that does not offer a smooth ride). Comparing to the other rides we have in Malaysia, this is probably the worst, but of course still much better than the Burma or Thailand buses.

Half way from Kuantan to Malacca, the bus picked up some foreigner passengers. They obviously spent time in the National Park (Taman Negara). One of them smelled really badly. I guess he has probably not washed himself for days, after spendng time in the park. Luckily, we picked up a trick in Burma. We had oranges and held the orange peel to our nose. This is our own air freshener.

By the reach the bus reaches Malacca, it was about 8 pm and dark. We decided to take a taxi to the guesthouse and negotiated a price of RM10. None of the taxis in Malacca has meters. It would cost us a lot less (I presume) if the taxi drivers uses the meters.

Malacca is quite near the Equator, but it is not as hot as we expect.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Malacca

We visited the Stadhuys (Dutch House), which houses the historical museum.
There are many trishaws decorated with flowers waiting to take your for a tour at RM40 (US$12) per hour. We went by the Christ Church, the Red Square, which has the Tang Beng Swee Clock Tower. We visited St Paul's Church, the Melaka Cultural Museum.

We visited Bukit China (Chinese Cemetery), which is one of the largest Chinese cemetery outside of mainland China. At the top of the hill, there is an interesting grave, not for a person, but for a Taiwanese company.


We visited an interesting street called "Harmony Street", where there is a Chinese Temple, a Hindu temple and a Muslim Mosque right next to each other. This shows that the different cultures have lived with each other in harmony.


Malacca used to be a very important port. However, the development in this city has definitely not kept up with the other cities in Malaysia.


From Malacca, there are ferries to Indonesia. Some Indonesians come to Malacca for medical treatments and general checkups.


Our impression of the Malacca people is that they are a bit more cunning than the other Malaysians. We had a few occasions that we dealt with the Malaccan Chinese and got charged a higher price (in food). The reasons: the menu that you ordered from is not our menu (and therefore a different price), we put in more food into your order (and therefore a higher price). So buyer beware in Malacca.

---

Photos

2007-03-20 11-18-06
Dutch Square

2007-03-22 12-10-33
China Hill

2007-03-22 12-15-28
At the very top of the hill, we found a tomb of a Taiwanese company, erected by the company itself. Weird.

2007-03-22 12-23-19
Clay model of the "Red House" at the foot of China Hill.

2007-03-22 18-06-40
Chinese temple in Harmony street.

2007-03-22 18-11-54
Mosque in Harmony Street

2007-03-22 18-14-00
Hindu temple in Harmony Street.

2007-03-22 18-17-03
Inside the Hindu temple, someone is performing a religious service.

2007-03-22 18-29-51
In this restaurant, we tried the famous "chicken rice ball".

2007-03-23 09-22-29
Almost everywhere in Southeast Asia, plastic bags are used instead of foam cups for take-out drinks. Hot or cold.