Melaka, Malaysia 07/14/08-07/16/08

I left Kuala Lumpur and headed to Melaka. Several Malaysians that I met in KL indicated that that was a place to go. The guidebooks seemed to agree. After going there, I don't see the attraction. Yes, the city is historically significant, but if you are not a Malaysian history buff, I wouldn't bother going. Don't get me wrong, it is a pleasant city. It just isn't that interesting to me. Since I visited, the city was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with Penang, Malaysia. Having seen its colonial neighborhoods, I was a bit surprised by this.

Arrival

In Kuala Lumpur, I got up packed, did a little shopping before checking out, grabbed a McDonald's burger (sad, isn't it?) and then went to the Pudaraya bus station a few blocks from my hotel in Chinatown. This bus station is pretty large and busy building. The teaming masses make it seem a little chaotic, but it is fairly organized--definitely not like the total chaos of many Central American bus stations.

I got on the bus, no problem, but almost got off a half hour early. Of the 20 or 30 people on the bus, I was the only one taking it all the way to Melaka city, which really surprised. Fortunately, the bus driver, who did not speak English, got my attention and said, "Melaka Sentral?" to which I said, "Yes", and he waved me back on the bus (which I had just stepped off while following everyone else. I saw no sign at the station, so I assumed it was Melaka. I never did find out what station that was.

When I got to Melaka, I took local bus 17 as described in Lonely Planet and got off within a couple of blocks of the hotels I wanted to look at. Traveler's Lodge was full. Uh oh. I didn't think things would be busy. I grabbed the last room available at Samudra Inn. It was a double with air con, but shared bath. Oh, well, only RM 40 (about US$12.50). I was worried it would be too noisy--there is TV down the hall--but no noise penetrated my room except for traffic, which was not even that bad. My room had a balcony overlooking the street. When I had the guesthouse do my laundry, it was dried on a line on the balcony from which I could pluck it when it was dry.

After getting in the hotel, I walked around town, hoping to find a late (4:30) lunch, but everything seemed closed or deserted. I ended up eating a curry puff from a place in a mall.

My aimless walk around town left me very disappointed. I did see the town square, surrounded by historical buildings. The theme is definitely red.

Seeing the Sights

The next day, I decided to take another walk around town a little less aimlessly. With guidebook in hand, I hit the points of interest. After yesterday, I was not expecting much, but it turned out to be OK. The weather was overcast and threatening to rain, which was actually very nice because I did not have sun in my face and sweat pouring off of me like yesterday.

I had lunch at the Newton hawker center--a big open air food court. The place was practically deserted.

I went to the ruins of the fort and the church. They were fine, but nothing extraordinary. I walked through the old street in Chinatown which Lonely Planet said had well-preserved buildings. I would not have noted anything about it if I had walked down it accidentally.

I walked quite a way around the city, and eventually made it to the old Chinese cemetery, which is on a big hill. That was actually one of the nicer things that I saw today. There were nice view from the top. (Tomb with a view?) Unfortunately, I got turned around when I left the cemetery. I was headed the opposite way that I wanted to be going and ended up going all the way around the cemetery--a few kilometers.

I decided to go to the waterfront. It is amazing how they treat the ocean like it isn't there. It isn't mentioned in tourism information, there is nothing looking out on the water, no waterfront restaurants, nothing except for the mosque, which I will talk about later. They seem to make a big deal about the "river" (which seems more like a drainage canal) but not the ocean.

Mysterious Island

I decided to take the causeway to the island just offshore. There is a big mosque there. When I got to the entry of the causeway, I saw a fence across the road. There were two lanes each direction on the causeway, but the fence was only open for one lane. There was a sign that said "Danger", but a few cars were going in. I saw a few people on the side of the causeway. I went in.

Just past the fence, there was some marshy land to the right. As I looked over, something hopped about in the water. My first thought was that they were big frogs. When I saw them, I realized that they were actually fish. They hopped around quickly on their fins and poked their eyes above water. Their dorsal fins were drooping down to one side. Weird.

A bit later, a tour bus stopped on the causeway and disgorged a bunch of Asian tourists with cameras, some of whom proceeded to snap pictures of the not-particularly-attractive seascape. I figured since there was a tour bus, it must be OK to go on.

I walked on, only occasionally seeing a car or motorbike go by. There were maybe two or three people on the shore of the island beyond the causeway. As I went on, I saw blocks of these big yellow apartment buildings. There must have been scores of them. They were all deserted. It was creepy. I saw a few people sweeping and doing some construction work on the road. At one point, I got a glimpse into a courtyard among the buildings and saw what looked like police doing practice for riot control. Other than that, it looked like a ghost town until I got to the mosque. I can only assume that the buildings were still under construction, although they looked complete except for garage doors and an occasional unterminated wire. It looked like some of the paint was old.

I had seen the mosque from the causeway, and it looked very nice. It was bright and colorful, looking very new. As I got closer, it looked even more impressive. It was set right on the sea. There was a fence around it. Everything within the fence was very manicured and beautiful. Everything outside the fence was very desolate and deserted. I stopped to take a picture when the late afternoon singing came from the minaret. This made the already creepy area seem even more haunted. I decided to take a short video to try to capture the feel of it.

I walked close to the mosque, onto the grounds, and took some photos. I did not feel comfortable actually going to the mosque. Being a tourist in a religious place--be it Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or whatever--always feels odd to me. There were only a few people at the mosque. I could see through the mosque to the sea beyond.

While walking back over the causeway as I left the island, there were 4 people doing a photo shoot on the side closed to traffic. There was a woman who appeared to be in very modern-style wedding dress, a man in a formal jacket and jeans, a woman fussing over the woman in the wedding dress, and the cameraman. It was very odd.

I walked back off the island, grabbed a Slurpee at 7-11, and went home.

Fun Food

After using the net, I went to Capital Satay, which was highly recommended by Lonely Planet. I was worried that it might be closed, since it was almost 9pm. It was full. I walked around the block and came back to find that there was a table free. It was fun. I went to the bar and got skewers of various meats, tofu, stuffed veggies, little boiled eggs, etc. and put them in the pot of boiling satay sauce in the middle of the table. I ended up going back to the bar two more times. It was 70 sen per skewer and my bill was RM 23 (about $7.25), so I guess I ate about 35 skewers. (Granted, many of them did not have a whole lot on them.)

Departure

The next morning, I packed, caught the local bus to the bus station, and bought a ticket to Kuala Lumpur on the bus leaving half an hour later. The Melaka bus station is easily navigable and not at all chaotic. I booked a room in Tanah Rata, my final destination, over the phone while waiting for the bus.

The ride to KL was nothing exciting. I used the time to read more in my guide book for trip planning in Thailand and Cambodia.