Melting in Malacca

On Saturday, August 2^nd, we left the Highlands for Malacca. We had bought a bus ticket from Geneesh for RM 19 each which took us from Tapah to Malacca in five hours, so we had to take a local bus down the winding road from Tanah Rata.

We had heard the Town Holiday Lodge was a good place to stay, so we had made a reservation there – it was luck we had done so, because it was packed when we arrived. We were greeted by James, the Bengali who worked there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and who knew absolutely everything about Malacca.

After the cool weather in the Highlands, Melacca was absolutely oppressive. There was a huge, new air conditioned shopping mall (the Dataran Pahlawan Mega Mall) between the Town Holiday Lodge and most of the sights, so we found ourselves ducking in there after about an hour of walking around outside. We practically had every meal there: McDonald’s (of course), Hartz (an all-you-can-eat, RM 13 buffet of chicken, salad and pasta), but mainly we ate at the cheap food courts on the 2^nd floor (actually the 1^st floor – they used the British system “Ground, 1^st, 2^nd” system – confusing and annoying at best), which had cheap Malay and Chinese food. It’s also where Beth discovered “spring rolls” – no the fried ones but thick, onion filled and made in front of you. We even checked out a movie (Men in Black – RM 6), and weren’t surprised to see half the backpackers in town doing the same.

Between dashes to the mall, we walked the central area (Stadthuys, Christ Church, the Red Square and the hill at St. Paul’s Church) which was covered head to toe in dark red paint – quite unusual. The Maritime Museum was crap – consisting of hundreds of paintings of the port of Melacca (I never really was a painting guy), but the People’s Museum, in particular, the beauty exhibit was excellent. It covered different perceptions of beauty from around the world and explained the significance of body piercings, lip stretching, tattoos, mutilations, head enlargement, Chinese feet wrapping and the list goes on. Exhibits like these really caused you to think about Western “norms”. It reminds us that everything we look at is through a looking glass that has been carefully assembled and configured based on our specific beliefs and values. It was very hard to always have a truly open mind about the things we saw and experienced on our travels, but we were giving it our best. Still, I laugh at myself thinking, body piercings and tattoos – no problem, but if my daughters do it I’ll ground them for life!

We checked out the Sultan’s Palace which had a beautiful garden with a great view of the huge, wooden reconstructed palace, but the heat kept us from being too absorbed in the history of the pace, our minds constantly wavering back to…. The mall! Pathetic, I know.

One day, we had a great Indian breakfast (marsala dosai, but of course) at Restoran Veni on Jalan Temenggong and then headed across the bridge to nearby Chinatown. Chinatown, in particular Jalan Jang Jebat or “Junk Road” was filled with antique shops that would make anyone with the slightest interest in anything oriental break out in an anticipatory sweat. Even the buildings of the street were old and traditional yet well maintained. Interspersed throughout were Chinese temples, and the occasional mosque and museum. Maybe they should have held mid-east peace talks in a place like this? Again, we needed relief from the heat and headed this time for the public pool near the people’s museum. It was cheap and opened at odd hours, but a great way to cool off.

By Tuesday, August 5^th, we were well ready to be done with the heat of Malacca, so we caught a cab in the morning to the express bus station, and quickly caught one of the many buses bound for Singapore for RM12. In our minds, we felt like we were heading for a cooler situation in Singapore - I’m not sure what we were thinking, as were obviously in for a surprise. I later imagined us lined up at the complaint line in Singapore, berating the staff because it should really have been cooler than Melacca…

It took almost exactly 5 hours, including having our stuff off the bus twice, once on the Malaysian side for customs, and once on the Singapore side for immigration. The minor delays were a very small price to pay, as it was here that our life as backpackers ended and our life of luxury began.