She was a day tripper: Melacca

On our way back from Singapore Newman (the boyfriend) and I (the Bird) met up with our KL based friends (Tony and CeCe) in the city of Melacca (or Melaka, Malacca, Malaca etc.), a richly historic and interesting small city, which once upon a time was a busy port for international trade and sea merchants. With Asian and European sea merchants heading there for hundreds of years to trade spices, tea and other goods, it was effectively the Singapore of its time. Now, however, it is a picturesque old city to walk around and has become very popular with tourists thanks to its entwined mix of architecture and cultures. There were, however, signs during our time there that Melacca is on the brink of falling foul to those who see tourism only as a way to make money, not as an opportunity to enhance and preserve history with pop-up tack shops invading on recently excavated 16th century ruins and we actually saw one opportunistic stall holder selling cap guns on the site of an old church and grave yard (NewMan and I nearly got shot by an interested customer testing out the merchandise). One man's spiritual ruin is another man's market place, I suppose.

Yet, it shouldn't be overlooked if you're in Kuala Lumpur, or travelling around Malaysia and in fact there is enough in the city to keep you busy for a few days, though we were there less than 24 hours (thanks to a very late running bus from Singapore).

I will give you an abridged version of the history of Melacca City, which is the capital of the state of Melacca, a small state to the south of Kuala Lumpur. First it was a small shipping village, then the Chinese came, a few hundred years later the Portuguese decided to take control and make everyone Catholic all in the name of exporting spices, then the Dutch decided to have a go at running the roost but then they got distracted by Indonesia so they let the British takeover, who didn't do that bad a job until they dropped the ball during the second world war when the Japanese popped in to occupy the city and surrounding areas before finally in the late 1940s Melacca became part of the Malaysia as we know it now which was later granted independence; a happy ending!

As a result of this mix of rulers and its importance in the shipping and import-export world at the time Melacca features some buildings that are quintessentially British, many rows of terraced houses frighteningly reminiscent of those lining the canals of Amsterdam and brightly painted Mediterranean style churches and town squares. It is strange seeing this familiar European architectural characteristics on the other side of the world inhabited by Chinese, Malay and Indian people. Yet, it is very charming and well worth a wander off the beaten track, especially as many of these houses are open fronted and they sell home cooked food to passers by for very little money.

At night the city becomes eerily quiet, as we found out when we arrived at around 9:30pm and asked, or rather gaspingly and rudely ordered, our taxi driver to take us to Jonker Walk where our friends had got the beers in. It would seem that all the town descends on Jonker Walk for its hectic and busy street markets at night. As charming as it was being offered "octopus balls" or a "wife cake", there was admittedly an awful lot of tack being sold, including novelty internet flip flops (they are everywhere in Malaysia and Singapore!). In too many ways the street market's charm descended into the type of Costa del Cheap market I like to avoid at all costs. However it is worth a visit and at night it will probably be the only place in Melacca with atmosphere and beers flowing. We also heard that there is often spontaneous public karaoke performances at various ends of the market though sadly I didn't see any so I wasn't able to offer myself up as Kiki Dee to a Chinese Malaysian's Elton John.
By day Melacca seemed quieter and we walked along the city's river from our hotel into town where the city became colourful and vibrant, mainly thanks to these beautifully decorated trishaws. For around£8.00 (40 Malaysian Ringgits) we hired one for an hour and explored the city with some helpful insight from our driver. I say "our driver", it was actually Tony and CeCe's driver. Our driver didn't speak any English (which I have no problem with at all and actually quite liked) and for the whole journey he cycled with our noses virtually up our friends' bums, thus not seeing as much of the city as we'd like. After eating some delicious food in a delightful street cafe we stumbled upon down a side street (will blog about this separately as it was that charming) we killed a few hours mooching around more side streets and found an art shop and gallery by a local artist  Titi Kwok (no sniggering please!). We met the man himself and we all bought some of his refreshingly upbeat expressionist art in one form or another. I also had a nosey around some antique shops and had to stop myself from buying a vintage Buddha or three. There is a real liberal and artistic feel to Melacca, which is refreshing to find in a country not necessarily well known for it's liberal thinking.With a little bit more time we may have visited some of the city's numerous (and apparently very good museums) which are very cheap too; a £1.00 ticket will gain you access to three of the museums located near the old town. We then wandered back through the town centre again by foot, back along the river to the car and reluctantly bid farewell to a city, which despite the soaring heat and all that plastic at the night market, was a cultural blanket of fresh air compared to the hidden gems we had to actively search for in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

I also think I found the shop where those trishaw drivers go to get additional decorations....