It's a wanderful life, so it is

After two 7 hour back-to-back flights, we arrived in Malaysia. But this wasn’t the end of our travels. Oh no, we still had to navigate a bus trip to Melaka.

When we booked the bus tickets and chose our seats, the options were two together on the right, or singles on the left, with only a few rows, so we were apprehensive at the thought of a 2-hour journey in a rickety minibus. Imagine our delight when it turned out to be a regular sized bus, just built with massive, comfy armchairs, and as much leg room as even Jack Reacher would need. Heaven!

Our accommodation had been changed by the owners at the last minute and, while it wasn’t the most comfortable in the world, we were only there for a few nights. It did have its advantages, one being the infinity pool on the 36th floor with  spectacular views across the city.

Another was the location. We were within walking distance of all the sights and areas we wanted to visit. Sounds good, until you actually try to walk. It seems that fewer people walk in Melaka than in the States. There are just no pavements! It felt like we were taking our heads in our hands constantly, but we survived and it was kind of fun.

Once you get into the centre though, it is worth the death defying walk. There is so much history attached to Melaka due to its strategic location connecting the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. The Strait of Malacca is the shortest sea route between India and China and is, and always has been, one of the most heavily travelled shipping channels in the world.

Its modern day history dates back to 1400 when the King of Singapura formed the Malacca Sultanate. This was around the time when the Chinese admiral, Cheng Ho, was undertaking his diplomatic expeditions as far as East Africa using the biggest naval fleets seen until the 20th Century, which also transformed this little fishing village into a major trading hub.

The Portuguese invaded and took over in 1511, the Dutch from 1641 until 1795, then again in 1818, the British in 1826 and the Japanese in 1942. When the local Malays ousted the Japanese in 1945 after World War II, they probably thought they would get instant independence, but the British came back until modern day Malaysia was formed in 1963.

One consequence of its multi-colonial history was trying to spell the name of the city correctly. There are a lot of different versions – among them Melaka; Malacca; Malaca; Malakat – which all seemed fairly interchangeable but Melaka is the official Malay spelling so that’s the one we’ve tried to stick with. That said, Donald Trump has probably forced Google to accept some new spelling of it by now. ‘Murica or something equally crass.

Each of these outsiders has brought a big chunk of their culture. With the additional heavy presence of Chinese traders and their families, the result is a city that has so many different cultures and religions intermingled that it’s hard to keep up. It does make it fascinating though, and oh, so colourful. The buildings along the riverfront are all spectacularly painted in bright vibrant colours. In fact, many of them have adverts for Dulux Paint on their walls, which gave us a small chuckle.

One activity that the guidebooks all recommend is to take a river cruise but, instead, we decided to walk it. You get to see more at your own pace that way, like spotting a monitor lizard swimming along beside us. It must have been a good 5-foot long but we didn’t get close enough to measure it properly! Or even to take a decent photo – although we did reconstruct the incident in all its chilling horror later on. Look away now if you are of a sensitive disposition.

Jonker Walk is the Chinatown area of the city and is full of shops and restaurants selling such a variety of goods that it is a total assault on the senses.

Then there is the area around Dutch Square in the Old Town. It’s actually quite restrained compared to other parts of the city. The buildings are all painted a solemn dark red but it has a slightly unreal feel to it as the Square is home to Melaka’s famous pimped-up trishaws. These are something else! They are decorated with flowers, lights and cartoon characters and blast out music as they ride through the streets with tourists. It’s a bit like watching a Drag Race episode broadcast from a Free Presbyterian church hall. 

There are loads of graffiti artworks all over, many of these depicting the history of the city. Here is a small sample:

It’s not just the pavements that are ticky to negoatiate, the floors of old churches are too and Gerry found out how easy it was for St.Francis Xavier to lose his hand!!

Next, we’re off to the capital, Kuala Lumpur, which has only one spelling as far as we know, and we get to do it in those comfy armchair coaches. Ah, just relax…😊