Colonial Capers

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Hello my fellow travellers!

This day went off quite well I'd say even though it got a bit chaotic when I reached Kuala Lumpur but I'll get to that later. I started early today, going up together with Bruce and Cindy as she went to work. I went with them to where she meets her co-workers for a car-pool across the causeway to Singapore, it's incidentally also the spot where the buses collect their passengers. Bruce went with me to the different vendors and we found a good ticket to Malacca. There aren't joined vendors here but every company have their own small office but the prices don't differ much between them. The bus was right on time and two hours later I stepped off in a very sunny and warm Malacca.

The bus terminal here is quite big and fresh with inter-city buses on one side and city buses on the other. I met an elderly couple there, tourists tourists, while I was waiting for the city bus and they gave me a neat little tourist map since they had an extra. Really kind of them, we chatted for a little while until the bus arrived. Lovely people!

I jumped of right in the heart of the Malacca historical district, by the bright red Stadthuys (the former residence of the Dutch Governor). There sure was a lot of tourists here, so far on this trip I haven't been subjected to overly many tourists but here I sure came across them all at once and all that comes with them with the industry built up around tourism. Even so, it is beautiful here. Both the Stadthuys, the adjacent Tang Beng Swee Clock Tower and the Christ Church standing nearby are all clad in bright red colours and are really unlike anything I've seen so far here in south-east Asia! I was surprised to find out the clock tower wasn't of Dutch origins but off Chinese, donated by the son of a wealthy Chinese philanthropist. The Stadthuys is the oldest Dutch building left in the orient! Christ Church is the oldest, still functioning, protestant church in Malaysia and it's quite stunning, at least on the outside. In accordance with protestant views it's very scarcely decorated on the inside yet quite serene, not many tourists actually went inside.

Once I left the Stadthuys area the herd of tourists thankfully began to thin and it was a bit more manageable, even so there was quite a lot of tourists at most spots I visited. The first of these after the Stadthuys was the Malacca Maritime Museum which is comprised of both a building and a large replica of the Portuguese ship Flora de la Mar that sank of the coast of Malacca. It's a very nice and interesting museum to visit. It doesn't house many artefacts but the ship replica is worth the visit in and off itself.

From the Malacca Maritime Museum it's just a short stroll down to the ruins of the Fort A Famosa. It's not big or grand but nonetheless very nice, it's a quite charming little spot and well worth a visit. While I was there I saw a cool kid playing with one of the cannons, when he saw me photographing him he did a nice pose for me which was kind of him, I have him a thumbs up in return!

Just across from the fort is the Proclamation of Independence Memorial, it was from here that the Malaysian Prime Ministers declared the Malaysian independence. Today this building houses an exhibition of the nations road to independence.

Right next to both these buildings are the Malacca Sultanate Palace Museum which is a reconstruction from 1984, it was unfortunately closed when I was there which is a shame because it would have been nice to visit it.

Afterwards I took the sweaty hike up the quite steep Saint Paul's Hill to the ruins of Saint Paul's Church. It's a beautiful spot up there and was well worth the sweaty hike. There isn't much left of the church but the walls, however the inside is lined with old and elaborate tombstones and the site has a calm dignity about it which actually feels quite distant from the other touristy spots down the hill. If you go through the church and follow the small path on the other side you'll come to an old Dutch Graveyard which is quite nice and well tended to and a unique reminder to the old colonial days of this region, the name is a bit misleading though since out of 38 graves here only five are Dutch while the rest are British.

Next up was the last colonial stop of my day, the Church of Saint Francis Xavier. I didn't go inside it though because there was actually a funeral being conducted there when I visited but the church seems quite nice at least from the outside.

I then left the old colonial buildings behind me and went on to the small Chinese Po San Teng Temple. It is really beautiful and is located on a the quiet outskirts of Malacca, there were no other tourists here so I could walk around in peace and enjoy this beautiful temple on my own, I highly recommend a visit here. Don't forget to take a stroll up the nearby Chinese Hill and look at the old tombs as well, it's a very nice and calm area and many of the tombs date all the way back to the Ming Dynasty! With 12.000 graves this is the largest Chinese graveyard outside of China!

Next I stumbled upon the small Al-Hamideen Mosque which in itself isn't to spectacular but the Muslim graveyard nearby is quite interesting. After that I stumbled upon yet another small Chinese temple, the Poh Onn Kong Temple. It's colourful with beautifully painted pillars, well worth checking out!

After that I crossed the Malacca River and went into the Kampung Morten which is an old remaining Malay village that is nestled beautifully in a bend of the river. Very nice and serene place and one of the houses, called Villa Sentosa is open to the public as a living museum. Well worth a visit while you're in Malacca, the whole area is just stunning.

Back across the Malacca River I visited the Kampung Kling and Kampung Hulu mosques, both of them are absolutely incredible! Kampung Kling Mosque was built in 1748 and has a minaret that looks like a big pagoda while Kampung Hulu Mosque, built in 1728, is the oldest mosque in all of Malaysia! It's impressive minaret looks like a big lighthouse! These are located on a street called Harmony Street because it contains not only these mosques, but also the Hindu Sri Poyyatha Vinayaga Moorthy Temple which was built in 1781 and is one of very few Chitty temples in Malaysia. It was unfortunately closed so I couldn't go inside. Harmony street also houses the Cheng Hoon Teng Temple which is the oldest temple in all of Malaysia, built in 1645. This is such a beautiful temple, highly decorated and so easy to get immersed in and just walk around in as if in a daze, trust me, go see it! Don't forget though to also visit the nice little Buddhist Siang Lin Shi Temple across the street.

The last thing I did in Malacca was to take a stroll along the Jonker Walk which is the Chinatown street of Malacca. The houses lining it date back to the 17th century and in the evening the whole street turns into a market. It's a nice walk which will also take you down past the Tamil Methodist Church. As of now I was running out of time for my bus so I asked a nice police officer who directed me to the nearest bus stop and just a minute later the bus came and I caught my bus to Kuala Lumpur with about 15 minutes to spare, talk about things just falling into place!

I highly recommend a visit to Malacca and while it is possible to see most of it in a day as I did I would say that you should spend at least two days here so you can see it all, there was a couple things I missed and so that you don't feel stressed while you're here.

Now I've reached my new host in Kuala Lumpur, Rizqin who was kind enough to take me in on short notice after my original host had to cancel (I will still meet her, but in Taiping instead). He is a music student and he has a fellow student here for tonight, Aizat, they are planning a trip to Japan and will leave about the same time as I leave for Taiping so it's nice to chat with them about their first travel abroad!

Until tomorrow I wish you all peace and happy travels!

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