23rd January, 2024
A fairly quiet day today, I think. To be honest, some days are beginning to meld into each other – you probably think the same way reading this blog. I think we may have visited one of the many shopping malls, but we definitely did visit an excellent Keralan restaurant called Kayra in the evening. It rather prides itself on serving modern Indian cooking and it was certainly a cut above your average restaurant with some fabulous dishes. We went with Ad, Babes and Mahes, Babes’s sister. Mano was supposed to join us, but I may have sent him to the wrong place. Whatever happened he didn’t make it, sadly. A nice time other than that.
24th January, 2024
OK, plenty going on today. Val had managed to arrange 3 friends to come and entertain her for the day (my thanks to Vivien, Anne and Mindy), so I was free to make a trip to Malacca (or Melaka as the new spelling is). I had not been there since about 1979, so getting on for 45 years ago. It, along with Penang, is a popular tourist spot where they have managed to preserve a lot of the old buildings and where, famously, the old Dutch buildings are still standing as well as the old Portuguese fort.
I was picked up by a nice taxi driver, called Chris. He did a good job on the longish drive down to Malacca, some 2.5 hours duration. What was most impressive was that he barely drew breath the entire journey (and the same for the 3.5 hours return trip). I thought I could talk a lot!! What I don’t know about the Malaysian taxi business is not worth knowing! On the way back, I was a bit tired and ended up like Winnie-the-Pooh when he visited Owl and resorted to saying alternate yes and no. Very genuine, though and did a good job through some truly awe-inspiring traffic jams.
Quick history of Malacca. It was a fishing village originally, then Parameswara or Iskander Shah founded his kingdom at the end of the 14th Century. The area became a tributary of China for a while to protect it from Siam and the Portuguese arrived in 1511, followed by the Dutch in 1641. The state was ceded by the Dutch to the British in 1824. Malaysian independence was in 1957. It has a somewhat unique culture, as you might expect.
We arrived and I set off…..
The Stadthuys was built in the 1650s after the Dutch had captured Malacca from the Portuguese in 1641.
I wandered about, happily getting a little lost and enjoying the old shop fronts and other buildings.
The Melaka River is a nice spot and I was impressed by the way they had made it more attractive. I would add that when I was last here, there was the Dutch bit, the remains of the A Formosa Fort and lots of old shops and workshops, with accompanying rubbish and noise. The whole town (city?) has been gentrified, though there are still a lot of buildings suffering from old age and neglect.
I walked up the hill (nearly died – it was hot!) to the A Formosa Fort (yes, that is what it is called, with an A).
The Malacca Sultanate Palace Museum is nearby. It is a reconstruction and was actually built in 1984 following a design in the Malay Annals and made entirely of wood.
I then wandered down and back through the maze of streets. Lots of wonderful sights, not least the trishaws – as you can see…
There was not really enough time to explore everything, but I did manage a few photos of the outside of buildings..
I found Chris again (I had failed to take a photo of his car, so it was a bit by chance, but all under control) and we set off back to KL, though first we had to take in the rather fine mosque that has recently been built.
It is actually built on a man-made island in 2006, some distance from Malacca itself amidst a huge development that comprises half-built high rise blocks and empty town houses and shops. It was like a ghost town. Chris reckoned nobody wanted to live so far from the city.
We set off for KL and arrived during one of the more impressive jams, so much so that I walked the last bit. Val had been wonderfully looked after and we had a quiet evening in.
OK, I will post this, but be warned, the next day, I visited the KL Butterfly Park!!
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