Malacca: Malaysia’s distant past
After briefly having a wonton noodle soup for breakfast, I headed to Termial Bersepadu Selatan, the main bus terminal in Kuala Lumpur, to catch the bus to Malacca. Checking out from the sketchy hostel I carried my backpack (~15kg) all the way, which turned out to be as awful an idea as it seemed.
The clean and bright bus terminal was also where I first set foot in KL 2 days ago. I remembered having a small bottle of Milo when I first arrived (which seemed to be quite popular in SEA and South Asia), but this time I tried something a bit more authentic (it seemed, at least).
I forgot how long it took to arrive Malacca, but it should be something close to 2 hours. Malacca is roughly 120km from KL, making it an ideal day trip destination from KL. The pinkish Christ Church Melaka was the most notable building at downtown Malacca, first consecrated by the Dutch in 1741. It was later converted to an English church after Britain took over the colony.
Apparently I had another bottle of Milo here.
But the history of Malacca started way before the Dutch came. The Sultanate of Malacca was founded way back in 1396 (the successor of the sultanate technically lasted till the 20th century in the islands of Riau). In the early 1400s, Zheng Ho (鄭和)’s convoy visited the prosperous port, then the center of the Malay world. Zheng Ho’s name could be seen around the town, along with his monument (although I didn’t find it).
The fake Poliwhirl and Pokeball were looking very fake here.
Before the Dutch and the British, another European power arrived and claimed Malacca — the Portuguese. The Church of Saint Paul on the hill was their relic, originally a Catholic chapel.
As in the New world, explorers came with Bibles on one hand, and guns on the other. The Malacca Strait had been as important as it is today. In 1511, the Portuguese defeated the Malacca Sultanate with guns, and captured this strategic entrepot. The Sultan’s progenies retreated southward to Johor, where they would extend the ruling dynasty for several more centuries. Unfortunately relics of the Malacca Sultanate had been long gone.
Climbing through these hills and stairs I really started to feel how bad an idea it was to carry my backpack all the way. However lockers, like the Sultan’s palace, were no way to be found.
The Baba & Nyonya Museum (峇峇娘惹博物館) was also within walking distance, which used to be the house of an affluent Malay-Chinese family. “Baba” is the term for male members of this community, while “Nyonya” being the females. These people originally came from the Southern coast of China over several centuries. Although they gradually assimilated and lost their languages (Hokkien, Cantonese or Teochew, instead of Mandarin), they kept several cultural elements to preserve their identities.
(left) I thought this was to mock the “Don’t mess with Texas” meme. Little did I know the flag of Malacca actually does look extremely like the Texan one…. / (mid) the Malaccan flag / (right) a Malaccan cat
Malacca was a town packed with tourists, not only for history buffs like myself but also ordinary tourists, among which many were families. “I love XXX” nicely appeared again.
Persiaran Jonker (雞場街, interestingly its Chinese name literally means “chicken street”, which stemmed from the homophony between “chicken” and “street” in Hokkien) was like a Taiwanese night market. It was among the earliest Malay Chinese settlement, traced back to Zheng Ho’s era. I had the most famous dish “chicken rice ball” (雞飯粒) for dinner. It was essentially Hainanese chicken rice with the rice formed into balls.
Persiaran Jonker was full of Malay-Chinese-European syncretic buildings, temples and hometown associations. Chinese descendants from the same hometown formed these associations as immigrants. Many of the buildings may have been repurposed now.
I have always been a huge fan for nyonya cake (娘惹糕). As a child I used to have this in one of the department stores in Taipei, but didn’t find any good quality ones afterwards. Yesterday in KL I actively looked for one, but the one I tasted turned out to be too jelly-ish. This one in Malacca was quite right.
I also tried a cup of white coffee. Not sure whether authentic or not, but I could only remember it being very sweet.
It’s more authentic than some of the other shops for sure. I do feel Malacca, boasting a number of important historical sites that worth visit, has fallen into a path of over-commercialization. I guess it’s the inevitable destiny for any popular tourist site flocked with thousands of tourist daily.
This fellow was also a backpacker, who was trying to earn some money by selling handmade postcards. I was relatively new in traveling then, as meeting experienced travelers (in real life and online) really influenced how I thought about travel and life in general.
Let’s end with the iconic “I Love Melaka”. Gotta pick up the (damn heavy) backpack and head to the next country.
Taking a taxi back to Melaka central bus station, I then caught the bus heading to Kuala Lumpur at midnight. It soon started to rain cats and dogs. I didn’t arrived at Malaysia easily, and she certainly wouldn’t allow me to leave in easy mode. The man whose faces and quotes could be seen everywhere at that time, claiming ”people first, achievement first” has been put in jail now.
Such is Malaysia, where the East met the West, and the tradition met the modernity. Various ethnicities, religions and ideologies coexisted with limited amalgamation. Malacca may be its distant past, with glaring lights of modernization and commercialization. I originally planned to visit Putrajaya on my 3rd day in Malaysia to see the beautiful Masjid Putra (the pink mosque) as well as a number of grand governmental buildings (but couldn’t make it due to the huge delay on Day 1). Could Putrajaya be Malaysia’s future?
Another site I would love to see, but couldn’t due to tight schedule and inconvenient traffic, was a mosque right by the Malacca strait: the Masjid Selat Melaka. (its night view was another level) Next stop, I am heading toward the strait and all the way into the Indian Ocean. Onward to Ceylon, aka Sri Lanka.
