Enter Malaysia (Asia Trek Pt 3)

I have crossed the bridge into Malaysia, which as usual was a nervous affair for me. Crossing borders always makes me nervous but this one went completely smoothly even though I hadn't filled in the custom declaration section of my immigration form. I wanted to ask some questions but there were no customs officials around to asked. So I just walked through and when I was back on the bus I completed the form to say that I had nothing to declare.

The bus trip to Malacca from Singapore took about four and a half hours and is very easy and straight forward. It is like travelling from Canberra to Sydney, only with the small matter of going into a different country in the process. The Highway is smooth and after a small stop off at a road side restaurant, we arrived in Malacca in the mid afternoon. On the way I picked up another backpacker from America called Matt and a backpacker from the Netherlands called Andre (more about him later). Neither off which had booked accommodation and so followed me to that place where I was booked in; Ringo's Guest House. Ringo's guest house is run by Howard and is a nice little place whose greatest redeeming feature is the roof top terrace. Where you can sit as the sun sets, with and cool breeze and hear the Muslim call to prayer (announced at the many Mosques) echo over the city. For the first time I really knew I wasn't in Australia anymore.

Malacca has a complex colonial history, as does a lot of South East Asia. Sitting on the Malacca straight it has long been a place of trade and since before the 15th century has been colonised by the Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and English, before Malaysia as a whole gained independence in 1957. This implies a whole stream of conflicts apart from the handover between the Dutch and the British which was done by agreement as a land swap. Of the different colonial power to this day the Chinese influence is still quite prominent and the preparations fro Chinese new year where significant. However Malacca tries to pull as much tourist value as it can out of the ruins and old buildings of the Dutch and Portuguese even though there are no many of them left today. Two of the main streets in Malacca are still referred to as the Heeren (Gentleman) street and the Jonker (hard to translate, but a status below Gentleman) street. Those those streets have little Dutch influence visible in them.

I spent two days walking around and had of course to take a look at the actual straight and while no where near as impressive as the entry to Singapore, I could see between 10 and 15 ship dotted around the horizon. Malacca also sits at the mouth of the Malacca river so it has a nice little canal running through it which they are in the process of fixing so that there will son be a nice promenade on either side. I can't be sure but it seems that the town economy is doing reasonably well, though at one stage I saw a whole warehouse type building available for lease.

In the evening I spent the time with Matt and Andre, where we spent much of the time talking about international politics and a monastery in Greece (Matt's last name is Kostakis)which I can't recall the name of. It also emerged that Andre is quite the traveller and has thus far seen approx 107 countries around the world and has in recent years hitchhiked and travelled through such illustrious places as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and many other such countries not usually found on the tourist map.
He works ridiculously hard for 4 months and then goes on holiday, usually flying to somewhere in the world (such as India) and then making his way back overland to the Netherlands. His perspective on travel and the dangers thereof were much more modest then you generally hear, though he does call his trips; reizen voor gevorderde (travelling for experts - approx, someone can correct me on this!)Very interesting guy and certainly sparked in me the inkling to take a few more risks in my own travels, though I don't think hitch hiking is on the cards yet. After dinner we went and bought some beer and sat on the roof top terrace to talk some more.

The next day I spent the morning looking at the local museums on History and Ethnography and development of democracy in Malaysia. Both where very well setup with many interesting artifacts. These small museums gave an good overview of the history and development in Malacca, to give you a bit of an idea of how things have developed and changed, including the large amount of land reclamation completed by? (I'll leave you guys to guess)
Following that I went to the St Paul's ruins on top of a hill which is not particularly interesting except for the fact that there are quite a few gravestones written in old dutch from the colonial era.

Descending from the mount; after trying so long to avoid get lured onto a Trishaw and Old man called Ali managed to lure me onto his. And I am glad I chose him and not one of those trishaw's with flashing lights, pumping out the latest Santana hits. Ali turned out to be a local, having moved to Malacca in 1958 and had been riding a Trishaw since 1968. Can you imagine riding a bike, all day, everyday for forty years and still be able to have a smile on your face. I take my hat of to the man even though the trip ended up costing me 100 ringgit. He took me to the Kings well which was renowned for its fresh water, so much so that walls were built up around it and during the dutch era it was permanently guarded.
After that he sent me on a walk through Bukit Cina which is an Old Chinese graveyard that takes up a whole mountain in the city (i.e Prime real Estate). Now through some administraive confusion the owners of the graveyard had not been paying rent and at one stage the Malaysia government wanted to reclaim the land. This caused uproar in the Chinese community so much so that the Chinese government stepped in and made sure that the land would be protected which it now is. It is a very beautiful and solemn as each grave is quite large, however the older one are crumbling and disappearing in the undergrowth. But definitely worth walking through. When you get to the top of the mountain you get a great view of the city..

After that Ali and I went onto the Portuguese district passing another fort relic on the way. There we stopped for a meal (me not realising that Ali was still clocking the minutes)and we shared information about each others lives. Life has been pretty good for Ali, riding a bike for a living. His children are doing well with two working for Siemens and Ali has 8 grand children. He owns his own home and has had the opportunity to travel a bit. Most surprising is that in the 40 year of riding his trishaw amongst the cars in the busy street of Malacca; not one accident! After lunch, during which it conveniently rain we headed back and said our goodbye. I gave him my address to add to his 200 other addresses to which he sends a post card every year.


After that I returned to the hostel and spent the evening again on the roof top terrace and listened again to the call to prayer. That brings us to this morning where after breakfast I made my way with Matt to KL.