Mmmmalacca...

In Malacca there are just as many things to see as there are things and places to eat. To cover all Western needs, there is Mahkota Parade, a huge mall with everything from a bowling alley to Burger King and high fashion clothes shops. I was there in late November, and had a good time walking around and humming to the Christmas carols muzak.

Malacca is at about 2 degrees North, so I had a tough day walking around wearing jeans and a sweater (now I know where that name came from) while I waited for my laundry to be done. It was an interesting day, though, walking in the centre of old Malacca, seeing the remains of Portuguese, Dutch and British colonization of the area. There's not much left of the old fortress; All the walls are torn down, the only part left is an entrance section, which was built by the Portuguese and improved by the Dutch. On the top of the hill in the middle of the town, the ruins of the St. Paul church can be found, with really old tombstones. There was also a street musician playing the latest hits on his guitar, probably making the people in the graves rotate pretty heavily.

There is a museum in a historic building called Independence Hall, which gives a very accurate, although possibly a bit too detailed (to Westerners at least) impression of how Malaysia was formed by events between 1945 and 1965. A much more interesting display can be found in the old, Dutch Stadthuys (city hall), where the history of Malacca is very well illustrated through a number of great paintings and some rooms kept in the condition they used to be hundreds of years ago. Malacca has been a very important place to control, because of its strategic position for the trade between east and west by boat. I loved this sentence describing the arrival of Europeans to Malacca: "The arrival of the Portuguese was not the best thing that happened to Melaka". You may want to skip having a look at the literature museum in the lower floor, unless you have a VERY developed interest in Malaysian writers.

A much more interesting kind of Malaysian writers can be found just below the museum, opposite the post office. And they are even alive! There's a row of serious-looking men with typewriters sitting there, writing letters for people, either for money or for some goods. As more and more people learn to read in Malaysia, this is a dying profession, but it seemed very much alive when I was there. Nearby you can find a hindu temple, a mosque and a Chinese family temple very close to each other, as is typical of many Malaysian cities.

There's also a Pizza Hut place in the city, and they have ringgit 10.93 eat-as-much-as-you-can on Tuesdays after 6pm, which is a good way for backpackers to fill up with fat food after lots of chicken and rice. Having done so I went back to the lodge to do some reading and talking to the others there. There was a TV in the main hall, and the top story on November 26, 1996 was that the government of Malaysia had decided to establish a Formula 1 racing team. Go figure. They spent just about half the news program on giving us all the details on this.

The next day I could continue my museum-walking in shorts, and it was much better than wearing warm clothes. A very interesting museum taught me that ear ornaments originally was interpreted as a sign that the person carrying the ear-ring or whatever had to listen, not talk, and take orders from others. I suppose this makes sense in the West, where most often it is the woman that carries jewelry in the ears, although we have forgotten the reason for it being there. An exception is of course the large golden rings worn in pirates ears, which is worn in case of the pirate falling over board to be found later by strangers. Then the gold could be used to finance a decent funeral. A ring in the nose is a sign of being married, and seems to be pretty universal. I also learned that the "longneck women" of certain tribes in Thailand, Burma and Africa really are just "low-shoulder-bone women". The neck itself is not prolonged by building the long, thick necklaces. It was very interesting to learn the background stories for the external enhancements people wear.

I also went to Bukit China, "China Hill", where the graves of many generations of Chinese can be found. The graveyard is, as all Chinese ones are, located on a hill overlooking the city, so that the ancestors can keep track of what their families are up to. This particular hill has more than 12,000 graves, and some are very impressive ones. On the other side of the hill and a bit further away from the city centre, the Portuguese part of the city can be found. The buildings are mainly the same as elsewhere in the city, but the people look like southern Europeans, except they have much darker skin. I found this very fascinating, but I wasn't feeling adventurous enough to try out one of the many Portuguese Seafood Restaurants that could be found there.

In the evenings during the summer, there is a Light & Sound Spectacular (tm) show in the Independence Park. It's not really spectacular, but definitely worth the 5 ringgit admission. As most other attractions in Malacca, it is a presentation of the history of the city. While it is technically impressive, it totally lacks any entertaining or interesting anecdotes. "Melacca - The great envy of all mighty nations"... Well, they certainly have self-confidence.

There are many possible daytrips to take from Malacca. One of them is to take bus number 19 to Air Keroh and experience the rain forest. I did, and I discovered why it is called rain forest. I sat under a piece of plastic for more than an hour in heavy rain. And I liked it. Nearby is a zoo and a crocodile farm, neither of particularly high quality. People with the instinctive fear of reptiles might enjoy the shows at the crocodile farm where a man stuffs a cobra down his throat, some people wear pythons around their waists and of course the men pulling crocodiles of various sizes by their tail.

The cheapest beach option is to take bus number 51 to Pantai Kundor, which is a long and fairly beautiful beach. I suppose that it may often be quite crowded, but I got off the bus at a hotel which seemed to be occupied by Saudi-Arabians, who probably have got so much sand at home that they certainly do not spend their time on the beach while on vacation. To make it even more familiar to the Saudi-Arabians, there was also an oil refinery just next door. Whatever the reason, I was the only one at the beach that day, and it was nice enough for someone who just wanted to read in the sun. Being this close to the Equator I used sunblock factor 25, but I still got a small burn.

I spent my last ringgits on a ticket to Singapore and a trip to the cinema. The movie theatre is a good place to spot cultural differences, both in the people and in the movies. I chose to see Dragonheart, which seemed like a movie I could like. So I got my popcorn and my ticket and sat down. It was a bit like being in Denmark, as practically all the pre-movie commercials were for Carlsberg beer. And this was a childrens movie... Anyway, something went completely wrong, because when Dragonheart started, all of a sudden it was transformed into "101 Dalmatians", and I am pretty sure I did everything right and went into the right theatre. They had kept the US soundtrack, so I could follow the movie easily, but I was rather distracted by the sporadic subtitling in both Chinese and Malay.

So, that was the end of my visit to Malaysia. I'm not sure what to say to sum up my feelings about the country. It is definitely a civilized country, a lot more developed than Thailand and Nepal. Their prime minister, Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, is among the most powerful men in Asia, and he has presented a plan which shall lead Malaysia to a status as a developed, industrialized country by the year 2020. They seem to be on schedule, with a large economic growth, at least before the recent Asian depression which has damaged the South-East Asian economies so much that now is a really good time for westerners to go visit. I'm confident Malaysia will strike back fairly quick, and become a lot more Western soon, whether that is a good or bad thing.

The language in Malaysia is easy to pick up, and their use of the Latin alphabet certainly makes it easier to follow signposts than it is in e.g. Thailand. The people are also very friendly, and there is little unrest to be sensed between the Chinese and the other groups of people. Malaysia has a lot of illegal immigrants, mainly people from Bangladesh who work for very low salaries. I suppose these people will be sent back if the economic depression lasts, but until that happens, they are very much part of Malaysia and an important factor in Malaysia's ability to offer cheap products.

I certainly enjoyed my stay, but I also looked upon my trip to Singapore with excitement.