I decided to take a two-day break from Singapore to travel to Malaysia. I eventually settled on Melaka because it was reachable by bus (i.e., didn't require a plane), was small enough so that two days would be about right to comfortably see the city, and was alleged to have a lot of history and old-world charm. (It's true.) After all, it's hosted most major colonial powers over the years. That said, it's still undergoing renovation; in the historic, mainly-Chinese district, for instance, some buildings have been restored while others (on the same blocks) remain in disrepair.
In retrospect, my main memory of Melaka is its museums. It has an astounding number of them. (Count how many I visited over these two days, plus how many I skipped.) I say with confidence that Melaka must have more museums per capita than anywhere in the world.
Some other observations about Melaka:
- The town definitely feels foreign, but not in the offensive grab-tourists'-money style of India.
- Because so many streets are one-way, I didn't have confirmation what side of the road people drove on until near the end of my second day in town (though I'd guessed earlier based on where the steering wheel was located).
- Pineapple tarts were everywhere. They're the town's specialty. Surprisingly, I didn't end up trying any.
- Malaysia may have the same problems with trademarks as India: I saw three Restoran Famosa Chicken Rice Balls, two on the same block. They didn't look related.
I awoke early to catch my 8:00am bus to Melaka/Malacca. I didn't know what to expect from the bus or from Malaysia. Would it be like bus travel in India? Nope: riding the luxury tour bus, Grassland Express, was like riding in a fancy bus in any country. And, as I soon learned, the highway we took in Malaysia is better maintained than highways in the bay area.
Nevertheless, it was bit traumatic when I got off the bus in a foreign country and didn't know where to go because I didn't know where I was. The other passengers quickly disappeared. I didn't have any local currency. Happily, I didn't feel abandoned for long; I spotted a church, located it on my map, and walked to the center of town, withdrawing some money on the way.
In the center of town, I got my bearings, took a ton of pictures, and headed to lunch. (Yes, it was lunchtime: the bus ride took about four hours.) Lunch, by the way, was 4 ringgits, about one-third the price of hawker stands in Singapore (S$4).
From lunch, I headed to the Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum, located in a restored high-ceilinged house where a millionaire used to live and three nearby townhouses holding his extended family. The grandchildren own the house and manage the museum. The museum is basically the house; a tour comes with the price of admission. The house is elaborately but tastefully decorated. (Sorry, photography was prohibited.) There's gold-leaf-plated hard wood, Italian marble, carved chairs, an English planter chair, a Dutch cabinet, lanterns, embroidered silk scrolls, a Venitian mirror, English dinnerware, Victorian silver. The tour guide was good at putting objects in context with Chinese and modern Peranakan traditions.
The house was made with no nails. There's also an interior courtyard, called an air well, with a fountain lined with Portuguese tiles, that's used for ventilation and for collecting water for washing.
Also, the house has a gate at the top of stairs that gets locked at night. Besides preventing robbery, it insures (under threat of being locked out) the kids and husband don't return too late at night. There's also a peep hole from the second floor to see who's knocking at the first-floor door.
The guide mentioned a common Malaysian expression that I thought was worth noting:
If you aren't married, no matter how old you are, you're not an adult because you don't know your responsibilities.
After the house tour, I explored some of the countless temples in the Chinese district, then wandered to Bukit St Paul and explored its vicinity. There, I skipped the stamp museum because I was sure Singapore's would have to be better. I did browse the Independence Museum but found Lonely Planet's description spot-on: there's too much text (hundred of poster-sized sheets of info) and very few objects (half a dozen or maybe a dozen display cases). I then walked by but skipped some other museums (e.g., Malaysia museum, Islam museum, Customs museum, Educators museum, and a couple that didn't have their name translated into English).
Throughout the day, I stopped by hotels. I'd already done research on which hotels were decent and in the price range I was willing to pay, so I simply stuck my head in hotels as I passed them to see how they looked, check for vacancies, and find out the current rate. This hotel hunting was easy because I left most of my stuff in Singapore (a smart idea, if I do say so myself); all I had to do was carry around a small overnight bag all day. I ended up in Hotel Mimosa (yes, it turns out to have a web page), for which I paid RM118, about a third to a sixth of what I was paying in Singapore. Admittedly, I'd only call it passable; it certainly wasn't as nice as the places I stayed in Singapore.
After dropping my stuff off at my chosen hotel, I walked at dusk/night to another hotel, a fancier one with four (!) restaurants.
Note to self: I also missed the Cheng Ho Museum, a museum in honor of a Chinese admiral, and Medan Portugis, the center of Portuguese life in Melaka (not close to downtown).
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