“Malacca Hi,” Lekka Hiney Ho!

One of the neat things about Singapore is that it is such a small country. You can stand on the southern shores and clearly see Indonesia; where many head to for a day of golf because it’s cheap! Or if you head north you can’t help but come across Malaysia. In fact, I am pretty sure you could swim to or with a good bat swing land a baseball on its shore.
Since John and I are still staying in a hotel we decided to take advantage of a hotel tour to Malacca, Malaysia. Two Saturdays ago we woke up bright and early for our 7:30am pick-up. A bit groggy we boarded a minibus and hoped it wasn’t going to take us all the way to Malacca. And so began a day of slight mishaps and minor confusions. We transferred at the tour office to a luxury double-decker bus. We were the last people to board the bus and got in trouble for sitting in the wrong seats. Apparently we had been assigned them but no one told us. We traveled along to the border where we waited for about three hours to get through. At one point our bus driver came up to the top deck and told us that we would have to disembark to go through customs and quickly disappeared back down to the driver’s seat. John and I sat there a bit confused because we were at the back of the bus, but no one moved to get off. Everyone seemed a bit confused. So John went and checked with the bus driver who looked at him funny. It turned out we had some time to go before we had to get off.

Getting through the Singapore border check point was simple, but a bit intense. Let’s just say it isn’t anything like a trip over to Mexico or up to Canada. As person passing through the border between Singapore & Malaysia is met with sense of ease, security, and a bit of intimation. All meant to create an understanding that Singapore is an efficient, strong, sovereign State.

Our tour guide came on the board the bus at the Malay border. He introduced himself and announced that we were on our way to Kuala Lumpur. To which John immediately raised his hand asked, “Are we going to Malacca.” The tour guide, “Yes, we are going to enjoy Malacca today.”

After six hours on the bus we arrived in Malacca, still a bit lost. We were ushered into a hotel with four other people and sat down to dim-sum lunch. John and I had to laugh because we didn’t quite feel we were getting a cultural experience with six hours on a bus and a lunch at very sterile hotel. From the hotel we rushed around Malacca taking an Augen Blick of 600 years history in about two hours. (Towards the end the women in the group including myself were begging for water!)

Now at this point you who are reading about my trip might be thinking, “What possessed them to take this trip?” First of all as they say, Ignorance is bliss. We had no clue how long we would be on the bus for! Most importantly we went because of the history and check out the modern importance of the water ways that surround the city. Since the 1400’s Malacca has been an extremely important out post for explores and tradesmen. Today the Malacca Straits is one of the most heavily trafficked and pirated areas in the world. I believe 80% of Japan’s oil flows through the stretch of sea. In the 1520s Malacca became part of the Portuguese expansion into the East Indies. In the 1540’s Saint Francis Xavier came to the coastal city and died there during monsoon season. After the monsoons ended he bodied was eventually taken to Goa which is still his resting place today. The Dutch then took over the area in 1641 ruling for over 100 years, until they lost interest and headed for Indonesia. By the time the English arrived in the 1800s the city was in despair. It was at that time a conscious effort was made to preserve the city this was also helped by decisions made during World War II. –The British “abandoned” Malacca and fought to stave off the Japanese further south. “Abandoning” is how a local Malay would describe what happened, but even if that was a truly accurate statement in the end they were given a truly beautiful gift, the preservation this historically diverse place. A true melting pot, where today you can still find a small number of people who still speak Portuguese there.
Here’s is a link to more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malacca#History

We arrived home 12 hours later. Still intrigued by this city where people who come from a mixed heritage are often referred to as “Straits” and modern landlords make more letting the their houses be run over by sparrows for Bird’s Nest Soup than renting it out. Where they are still fond of Jesuit priest and honor Buddha (Malaysia’s official religion is Islam).