jarno’s / trul’s page

Malacca is the next UNESCO World Heritage Site (since 2008) I was visiting. Malacca was an important spice trading town in the past because of its strategic location next to the sea strait with the same name. The Portuguese ruled the state and city in the 15th century. the Dutch took over control of the region in the 17th century, controlling it for more than 180 years. So yes, there is still a little  windmill. In 1824 the Dutch signed a treaty which gave the British administrative control over the region. The region was owned by the Japanese during World War II. I’m just summing the dates, for more information feel free to check Wikipedia :p.

My so called super VIP bus from Penang to Malacca was very comfortable. Instead of 4 seats (2×2 seats) next to each other, it had wider seats: one on the left side of the walkway and two on the right side of the walkway. The only thing I could complain about was the temperature. The air-conditioning was on full power and I was freezing. I do not have jeans or a jumper with me any more so I used my towel as blanket.

At about 5 in the morning – 1.5 hours away from Malacca – we stranded on the highway. The bus broke down and the driver did not know how to fix it, so we needed to wait for a new bus. After a few hours waiting on the highway, our new bus finally arrived. Due to this – and the super-freezer air-conditioning – I did not catch a lot of sleep.

I arrived in the morning and was so tired that I just checked in to a random place in china town (Voyage, of the same owner as Sama Sama). I should not have done that. It was a big dorm containing 16 beds (I think), costing 15RM. I explored China Town where I met some people who were talking about bedbugs at the place I was staying so I went to Old Town Guest House which I emailed the day before. I thought it was far out of the center but it was still on walking distance. The owner remembered my e-mails from the day before though his place was full. He offered me to put a mattress in a corner of the living room, which I accepted.

In Old Town Guest House I met AJ – an Indian Englishmen – on his way home. He would be leaving Malacca on the same day as me, to take a flight home to London from Kuala Lumpur. I joined him for a walk around the east side of the city. We went to the Portuguese settlement and Square, there is nothing left really, just a parking lot, a few canons and a market place. Next stop was a shopping mall with a nice food court.

In the evening I went to the night market together with AJ and Douglas, another English guy staying in the same dorm at Old Town Guest House. He would be heading to Singapore the next day so I would move to his bed in the 4 bed fan dorm room (for 12 RM, 3 euro, which included free breakfast and water, coffee, tea during the day, and free wifi, great deal!).

The evening market is like any other Asian market, selling most of the same stuff they sell everywhere, though it’s a very good place to go for food. We were almost the only westerns here and there were several people who wanted to take pictures with Douglas or me, some were hilarious :p.

The day afterwards I had a day on my own with lots of walking. I walked around in the main ‘touristy’ area near the Dutch Square. It was very crowded because a lot of Singaporean tourists head to Malacca in the weekend. I Went into the church built by the Dutch, to the stadhuys and up the hill to the Dutch graveyard and St. Paul’s Church on the hill top. Remains of a fort are located on the other side of the hill. There is not really much to see any more. From here I went in to the big shopping mall they built to have lunch at their nice food court (Hokkien Mee).

On my way home I passed the St. Francis Xavier Church where a Mass was starting. My grandma – who turned 90 in January – had a accident where she broke her arm and she was not eating and weak at that moment. I decided to make a detour and attend to the Mass for my grandma. I’ve never attended to an English Mass before. The structure was kind of the same, though much more refreshing than the ones in my little home town. The church was overloaded with people, there were lots of people standing on the sides of the benches, including me. That almost never happens in my home town.

In the evening I did not do that much, I went to the night market to grab some food where random people wanted to take pictures with me again :p

The next day I took a bus from Malacca Sentral to Singapore. When checking out at Old Town Guest House they did not charge me the night I slept in the living room. I paid 24 RM (6 euro) to sleep 3 nights there, including everything. I left at about 1.30pm with the same style of bus I had when arriving in Malacca. It cost me 21,60 RM (5,20 euro) and was supposed to take about 5 hours.

Do:
Visit at the weekend when there’s the night market (though the town is full of Singaporean tourists)
Stay at Old Town Guest House

Don’t:
Stay at Sama Sama or Voyage