Melaka/Malacca (Malaysia): July 28: Museums

I took these pictures this day.

In the morning, I wandered by a couple temples and churches on the way to Kampung Morten, a part of Melaka with some traditional Malay houses. It's a pleasant place on the river.

I then found the Architecture Museum was open--my guidebook said it was supposed to be closed on Mondays--and explored it. It's a little museum with a good number of models of different Malaysian house designs, along with pictures of numerous historic or famous buildings. It's almost too bad the museum covers all of Malaysia and thus I never saw most of the building styles of the buildings it highlights: Malay versions of Chinese, Indian, Thai, and various indigenous people's designs.

I visited the Maritime Museum next. Spread over a ship and two buildings, it was mostly about maritime trade (with some mention of Portuguese mismanagement), colonial rulers, naval protection of Malaysia, and marine life. These topics were portrayed through dioramas, paintings, and model ships; the last went well with the previous museum's models. One building was the Royal Malaysian Navy Museum, containing uniforms, plaques, insignias, a naval helicopter, another tour-able ship, big ship-mounted weapons, a radar station, and various military knickknacks (bands, instruments, etc.).

I went to lunch, then entered Stadthuys for its Museums of History & Ethnography. The ethnography museum included pottery, weapons, kitchenware, furniture, musical instruments, many dioramas, parts of houses, and lots of information about the complicated twelve-day Peranakan wedding ceremony. The museum was much better than (and certainly larger than) the Malay museum in Singapore.

The history museum portrayed the story of Melaka as told through 66 paintings accompanied by text and some more models. As with the Maritime Museum, the paintings were unattributed. I really liked this exhibit--I found the history interesting and the paintings evocative--and would likely buy the book if they make it into one. I took a picture of one of the paintings and the related text so you can get a flavor of what the exhibit was like.

I stopped by the Gallery of Cheng Ho.

The Museum of Literature was closed for repairs.

I walked through the Governor's Museum. Originally a dutch mansion, it was used as the governor's house for many years. The guard there wanted to talk, and we ended up talking politics, mostly Obama. The guard thought that a "black man shouldn't be number one" but was good as "number two." He cited Colin Powell as an example. He supported his argument by pointing out how few black men are in leadership roles. I countered, saying that one doesn't see black men in leadership roles because of lack of practice; they're not given the opportunity to take big leadership roles because they're not allowed to take small leadership roles. I also argued that white men can screw up governing, citing the bad management of Melaka by various occupying powers over the years. (Melaka had been governed by locals before being conquered by the Portuguese, conquered again by the Dutch, traded to the British, occupied by the Japanese, and finally sometime received independence. During most of those years, the city didn't experience any growth.) The guard said that situation was different: leadership due to occupation versus leadership appointed by the people.

Next I visited the Democratic Museum. The museum covers the history of the government of Malaysia and its organizing principles. I was surprised to see references to Islam, praise Allah; most democracies don't wear their religion so much on their sleeve. I guess this is a good time to remark that everything I read about in Melaka closes early on Friday afternoon for weekly prayers.

Finally, it was time for me to find my ride back to Singapore. First I cut through an ordinary shopping mall to get to a hotel where a guidebook said some luxury buses leave from. I should've read the fine print in my guidebook that listed the time and explained they only leave once a day. I was too late. Instead, I tried to a get a taxi to take me to the train station, but the driver looked at the train schedule and insisted he wouldn't be able to make it in time. Rather, he suggested bringing me to the central bus terminal, as buses leave from there to Singapore all the time. I agreed, and he was right. I arranged one of the sooner, cheaper buses, which was to leave in an hour. While waiting, I wandered the bus terminal's fairly shoddy mall.

The bus stopped at a restaurant on the way to Singapore. I thought about buying something, then realized I'd already converted all my Malaysian ringgits to Singapore dollars.

Once in Singapore, I began a long (too long!) search for food. I tried to go to a particular hawker centre. I'm not sure if I found it. (Whatever I found was certainly closed; whether it was the hawker centre, I'm not positive.) Eventually, I made it to a hawker centre I previously visited and knew was open late. I ate. After dinner I was so lazy/tired, I took a taxi five blocks to my hotel. Although the fare was S$3.20, the total was almost double that due to surcharges and fees. Watch out!

Perhaps because I checked in so late, the hotel upgraded me to an executive room. The only difference between this room and the one I had the last time I stayed in this hotel was the view, but, in the process of upgrading, they also upgraded me to executive privileges (e.g., free internet, breakfast). :) They didn't have to do that.