A Note from Louise

Louise has left a new comment on your post "Our Picks - Melaka, Malaysia": Hi, nice post :) Melaka is really an amazing historical city and it's amazing that how heritage and culture is well-preserve in Melaka and no doubt that's why it's one of UNESCO world heritage site :) I visited this amazing city once and feel like going there again :) All the red buildings, old architecture, Melaka River, Jonker Street .. everything is just amazing ... I put up some information about Malacca Malaysia in my blog . Please visit and have some comments .. Hopefully I will visit Melaka soon :) cheers ...

Pin It Now!

Our Picks - Melaka, Malaysia

In Melaka or Melacca, it is spelled both ways, we were fortunate to come across an excellent taxi driver who did not rip us off. He drove us from the central station to the hotel and then from Melaka to the Air Asia airport in Kuala Lumpur. His English is excellent. Omar Sulkaflee 017-279-6739 or night reservations 606-335-2353

A great place to hang out, have a coffee or snack is the Dutch Harbor Cafe. They also have FREE WiFi, the only place we found that had WiFi. Dutch Harbor Café 39 Jalan Laksamana Melaka www.dutchharbourcafe.com

For a hotel, we stayed at the Aldy China Town. They had just opened this location 6 days before we arrived. They do have another location, but we found this one to be great. The rooms are large, ultra clean and the service was excellent. http://www.malacca.ws/aldy/

Pin It Now!

Good-bye Kuala Lumpur, Hello Melaka

Sleeping in until 9:00 am was a real treat. I never seem to be able to sleep that late in Budapest. After going for coffee, we repacked and readied to leave the hotel by noon, but the laundry was not going to be ready until 1:00. The hotel, a real winner will be added to Our Picks page on our web site. They were exceptionally kind. We found out at the last that there was WiFi right in the lobby, but alas they don’t serve coffee.

A taxi ride to the bus station on a Sunday, one would think it was would be a no brainer task, however, even on a Sunday, the traffic was nose to tail. Once at the bus station we had to fight the crowds to find out where to buy our tickets to Melaka. It was more crowded than any U.S. airport the day before Thanksgiving. Trying to get through with luggage was like trying to fit whale in a sardine can. Our tickets for one way were only 9.50 Ringgets, but with a two hour bus ride ahead of us, we had to use the bathroom first. Of course, the men’s rooms are on the 2^nd floor. Finally making it to the bus, there were only two seats left and miraculously, they were together. Fully wide reclining seats made the two hour ride a joy. There was a little boy across the aisle from me. At one point, my seat went flying back, surprising the hell out of me as I am sure it did the man behind me. The little monster across from me had pulled the lever while I was reading. He must have been about nine years old, but he never stopped moving.

Hoping for lush scenes of countryside as we traveled out of the city, we were disappointed with views of high rises that were dilapidated, run down businesses, and with the usual detracting signs on buildings, it could have been boring highway riding anywhere, any country. When we pulled into the final stop, it was a little nerve rattling from the build up we had heard about this city. It looked like a beautiful woman that is more than plain before the make-up artist transforms her. Melaka like all of Malaysia has bowed to many rulers from the Hindus to the Europeans. The Portuguese ‘conquered’ Melaka in 1511 by Alfonso d’Albuquerque and kept it under Portuguese control for 130 years. In 1641, the torch was passed to the Dutch who maintained power for 154 years. Then the British had their turn from 1824 until the country gained independence 50 years ago. Actually, this is their 50^th anniversary of independence and a free nation, August 31, 1957.

Indeed smaller than KL, the traffic here is no less threatening than it larger counterpart. We made our way to the Hotel Aldy Chinatown, a second hotel for the Hotel Aldy (www.aldyhotel.com.my). This newest property just opened a week ago and they are having a few growing pains; however, it is modern and lovely. Not finding any towels in the bathroom and the nozzle broken on the toilet spray hose, we reported it and within 2 minutes, there were two people here to fix the problem.

Walking the city in the neighborhood was not all that impressive, but there is an absence of sidewalks. Either you walk in the street or you walk through the stores’ entry ways where there are a number of large rectangular holes in the cement, which I am guessing is for drainage. We walked down to the city center where the Dutch influence is still evident. A whole block of buildings were painted salmon red including Christ Church and the Dutch governors’ official residence. The stores close much earlier than in KL, thus the number of people out and about are far less, but the traffic is still rush out like at 8:00 pm on a Sunday night.

Across from our hotel is an ‘Italian bakery’ like a non sequitur in this culture, but lighting a familiar flame in my ancestral longing. When we went in, there was nothing that could be identified as Italian baked goods, but they were featuring Portuguese egg custard cups that they just started serving. Three for 3.30 was a bargain, so we indulged in six. We took them to our hotels restaurant for a coffee, but their espresso machine is not working yet and the best they could offer was Nescafe. We went back to the bakery for an espresso and ate our cakes. They truly were as exceptional as those we used to buy during our weeks in Lisbon.

Pin It Now!

Birds, Bees, Orchids

Having a room free of insects and with clean sheets, makes for a good night’s sleep. The television even has more channels in English than we do in Hungary. An interesting cultural note is that in all three of the hotels so far, the bathroom is truly a water closet. The shower is not separated elsewhere. You shower where you toilet and the toilet paper is under some protective covering so it does not get wet. Also, each bathroom has a separate hose to be used like a bidet. Now I thought this was a custom for women only, but when I went to the men’s room at the Handicraft Center, all of the stalls there had this hose with a nozzle also. I have heard that Orthodox Jewish men have some restrictions about touching themselves, so perhaps this is the same with Muslims also. I am not going to ask around.

We had to break into the Euros to exchange money this morning in order to get breakfast. We have not had Ron try his luck with his ATM card again. If Bank of America has shut down his card too, well I just don’t want to think of that situation at the moment. When we passed restaurants on our way to Starbucks, I rationalized why we do go there. Besides the fact that none of the restaurants serve coffee, we witnessed what people here eat for breakfast. At 9:00 am, people are sitting at the outdoor restaurants eating duck, pork soup, soup with noodles, another words, all of the same things they eat for lunch and dinner. Now I have been known to eat pizza, left over spaghetti, and chicken for breakfast, but I don’t make it a regular practice. What you don’t see here is what you would consider breakfast foods unless you go to the American style places. Rationalization part II: Starbucks gives free WiFi. Even if I am not going to use it, it is nice to support them. With Internet cafés all over, I have yet to see any WiFi hotspots other than Starbucks.

The National Museum is located near the Bird Sanctuary, the Orchid Farm, and the Butterfly World. None of them are accessible by public transportation, so we had to take a taxi. The hotel desk clerk told us not to pay more than 10 Ringgets for the ride. Well this knowledge did not bid us well as three taxi drivers refused us for that price. We suggested we pay the meter, but was told that they will not use meters in the city since the traffic is so bad. After settling on 20 Ringgets we found a ride.

The National Museum is another gargantuan complex with little open on the grounds. The museum itself is open to the public for an entry fee of 2 Ringgets. It has been years since I have been on a football field, but my guess is that the whole of the museum is smaller than one. What was there was interesting, but there was not a great deal there. A foot bridge connects this underutilized space over the eight lane highway to the National Planetarium. Walking through the parking lot, you can find the Bird Sanctuary. Admission here is 30 Ringgets and despite the fact that it is the world’s largest, we thought the admission was for the birds and all too high. Across the street, the Orchid Gardens was charging a reasonable 2 Ringget admission, so we submerged ourselves in orchids and the national flower, the hibiscus. We went to the butterfly gardens in Thailand, so skipped it here. Returning to the bird side of the road, they have coupon taxis where the rates are fixed by zones, giving us a bargain fare of 15 Ringgets for the ride back to the hotel.

After dropping our laundry at the service next door, we took the monorail to the Malaysian Cultural Center. They have a 45 minute dance performance highlighting the different dance styles throughout Malaysia. We did not realize that parts of Malaysia are not connected to the peninsula, but across the sea. There are two states attached to Indonesia, called Malaysian Borneo, Sabah and Sarwak with Brunei in between. Sabah and Sarwak are larger than the entire peninsular country. The show was vibrant with costumes from all of the different Malaysia States; this country of 24 million has a cosmic number of cultures, costumes, and dance traditions. What really dazzled us was the way the women dancers use their hands in dance. One dance was a hand dance while sitting on the floor. They are able to bend their hands backwards and make unusual contortions making them extremely demonstrative. We found later that they have to start bending their hands backward starting at 2 years old to stretch them to perform these moves.

Then it was time for a nap, reading, and writing. Afterward, we went walking down the street around the corner for a dinner place. Basically, they all look alike, so it is difficult to make an informed decision. Basically, we stopped when we reached a section of the street we had not eaten at yet and where they had menu items other than fish. I don’t eat fish at all, but there were a number of Internet articles on fish contaminated with a new not easily detected parasite throughout Asia, giving Ron pause about ordering seafood. Normally, this would be his choice. We again had chicken curry with fried rice and greens cooked in garlic, sharing a large beer. It is one of the few things on the menu we can understand other than deer, or frogs that does not have gills.

We wandered over to Starbucks to check e-mail and confirm our reservation for our hotel for tomorrow night. We leave for Melaka tomorrow afternoon. It was a tight fight to find a table near an outlet so I could plug in the computer. The place was mobbed at 10:30 pm and they are open until 2:00 am.

Pin It Now!