Malaysia Truly Asia…

Yes, the commercial promises the world’s best dive sites, a shopper’s paradise and the world’s largest flower. But I stayed away from all that and spent the week in Melaka, a UNESCO World Heritage site variously influenced by Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, Indian and English.

Melaka is a medium size city, although the historic centre is small and easy to walk around. Apart from some incongruously ‘restored’ red Dutch buildings, it’s a pleasant mix of chinese temples, colonial residences and ancient mosques, plus a healthy handful of tourist souvenir shops.

The streets further out from Jonker Walk are less well-kept, less cutesy and more interesting.

Melaka was known as Venice of the East due to its crucial role in the eastern trade network – all over and finished by the time the British took over in the 19th century. The seafront itself is now just a concrete mass of major hotels, shopping centres and parking lots (with a few cute kitties).

But to stay with the nautical theme, you can visit a reproduction Portuguese galleon which houses an exhibition on the history of Melaka. The crew were not very responsive though.

You can also visit a replica of the Sultan’s Palace and enjoy more dioramas there.

Probably the best thing was the river cruise. It’s a somewhat picturesque route…

which we had walked along earlier and seen this…

Monitor lizard!! At least a metre long. But nothing prepared  us for what we saw whilst on the cruise.

But even better than that!

Yes, monitor lizards having sex. Alas, I was so transfixed I didn’t think to take photos until it was nearly over and the pair of lizards swam off in different directions. Typical dinner date, I guess.

I wonder what exactly they were eating. I hope it’s the huge rats I saw on several occasions in the open sewers, rather than the profusion of stray cats. It was nice being in a country where they don’t dislike cats (I still don’t know why Koreans are so prejudiced against them), but I guess they’re not seen as pets, but rather, pest control. There was the cutest cat family in one restaurant we visited, who decided to rest under our table and enjoy their own lunch with us.

Other Malaysian animals I got up close and personal with were the mosquitoes. They were not as impressive as the monitors, but their bites did swell up to disproportionate sizes.

Melaka zoo was surprisingly good, I think because it featured animals in their natural climate (rather than yellowing, depressed polar bears that you usually see in zoos).

I touched an elephant for the first time (and also got elephant snot on me). There were lots of cute fluffy chicks in many of the cages. Then we realised they were lunch.We also saw some strange bear-like creatures getting their lunch via a hesitant zoo-keeper who had to quickly empty a bucket and retreat back along the gangplank before they chased him off.So with all this eating, we got hungry for our own lunch; chicken in black pepper sauce and pineapple fried rice

Scrumptious! In fact ALL the food in Malaysia – from the full english breakfasts to the chinese chicken rice balls to the coconut leaf rice and curries – was absolutley delicious!satay, Satay Celup Bukit Cinamango & chicken sandwich with fresh juices, Cafe Limau Limaubanana leaf curry, charppati houseNasi Goreng (fried rice) with chicken and seafood Tom Yam soup, roadside hut

Mmm…mmm….more mmm…..

Our hostel in Melaka, Tony’s Guest House was very colorful, decorated by the owner himself.Tony runs a small cafe downstairs, which offers a large variety of breakfasts and light lunches.There were only a few other guests, and for the size of the rooms, the price and the location, it was one of the best bargains I’ve ever stayed in.

It was generally quiet everywhere in Melaka; the taxi drivers expounded on theories to explain the lack of tourists from the recession to global warming. Personally, and somewhat reproachfully, I think it might be because shops and restaurants didn’t seem to have set opening times. We’d walk past a cafe serving breakfast one morning and the next day it would be closed, even at lunchtime. Or we’d return to a nice bar we saw one evening, only to find it closed by 6pm the next day. Maybe because there weren’t so many (foreign) tourists about, places just kept the hours convenient to them.

However, there was development everywhere. On the bus journeys to Melaka zoo and a nearby beach labelled as ‘fishing village’ on the map, there were any number of hotels or condos being built in the seemingly middle of nowhere. And plenty of resturants and roadside cafes too, just mostly all closed.

We returned to Kualar Lumpur to spend the final day seeing a bit of the city. Unbeknowst to us, our room was actually in an apartment on the outskirts of the town (also unbeknownst to us, run by Koreans!) but had a wonderful view of the sci-fi cityscape…It’s not a city made for walking around. And in the heat, who would want to do that anyway? But there is a nice monorail to use…We managed to get to a couple of ’sights’ before giving up.The Petronas Towers were, yes, tall! But we didn’t feel like queuing for the special ‘invitation’ you have to get to go up.China Town was the most crowded, commercial, cheesy place. We exited it as quickly as possible, not wanting to buy the marked up chinese merchandise I’d seen on sale in Beijing last year.

It’s sad to say, but the best thing about Kuala Lumpur, and this really does make up for everything else, was leaving it. Because, guess what? If you fly Malaysia Airlines, you can check your baggage in and get your boarding pass at the train station, then stroll around town until you’re ready to take the express train to the airport. Greatest system for travellers ever!So. Malaysia.

Melaka

Kuala Lumpur

Being stared at lasciviously and/or talked about directly in front of me as if I’m not there, despite the fact there are Malaysian women wearing less clothes than me

Food