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Published: March 30th 2008
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012 - Malaysia - Melaka
03/24/08 - 03/26/08
The Once Booming Port Town of Melaka
Melaka is a port town on the southwest coast of Malaysia that was once a sanctuary for international ships sailing between India and China. It's history is marked by foreign colonizations: first the Portuguese, then the Dutch, the Japanese (for a short period during WWII), and finally the British. For this reason, the city is filled with museums and landmarks from the various countries that once controlled it.
The word 'Melaka' is actually a common curse word in Greek. Hannah and I repeated it about 1,000 times a day and giggled each time we did. We also vowed not to use it again until we make it to Athens in September!
We stayed at a relaxed guesthouse in Chinatown called Sama-Sama. The owner is a Malay-Chinese that has a cool record collectioan of old reggae roots and dub music. This was a good place to hang out and talk about Malay politics and religion with the owner and guests.
We headed to the Maritime Museum on one of the days and checked out some replicas of old Malay, Portugese, Dutch,
and British ships. It was interesting to see the progression of naval technologies with each colonization. We also headed to Stadhuys and neighboring musems for some over-dose of Melaka history.
Food was a highlight in Melaka and we tasted many of the regions delights at restaurants without any tourists; Indian banana leaf rice and curry, Chinese chicken with rice balls, Malay sting-ray soup with spices, satay chicken skewers wih peanut sauce, and fish paste wrapped in bamboo leaf. Delicious!
Next stop: Singapore.
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Marisa
non-member comment
Hiiiiiiii
MELAKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.....heheheeh. Miss you waaaay to much. xoxoxoxo