Selected Highlights of Mid-Semester Holiday Escape Down Under to KL: Excursion to Malacca.

Alt. Title: You know, That Other Half of Historic Cities of Straits of Malacca UNESCO World Heritage Sites Accolade.

Prologue: In relation to the topic at hand, did anyone of you know that Malaysia has a new addition in their small but growing list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites just last month, Archaeological Heritage of Lenggong Valley, Perak? While I am somewhat proud at the fact USM actually plays a part in the recognition through Pusat Penyelidikan Arkeologi Global/Global Archaeology Research Center's discovery of Perak Man, the most complete Paleolithic human skeletons, I am somewhat dismayed as a proud Sarawakian that our very own prehistoric site at Niah Cave which has even older discovery than Lenggong Valley not given similar accolade. Come on, archaeologist! We need more and better discoveries to make our case for the accolade more credible! Oh well, at least Sarawak can safely claim to have the first UNESCO World Heritage Site, Gunung Mulu National Park while fulfilling most numbers (4/10) criteria compared to the others in order to qualify for the accolade!

Obligatory picture of Porta de Santiago just to show that we have been to Malacca, now an the overused icon and cliched tourist spot. Ignore the tourist accidentally included in this picture because they're everywhere.

Continuation from the previous post and covering the additional two days one night excursion to Malacca that I took while I am down under in KL for the week long holiday. First Malacca trip on own effort (or rather, combined effort of my younger bro and his mateys. He booked the hotel because I have fear of phone call and asking people.) and research (actually it was almost unplanned with decision only made a couple of days before. I have to make erratic research to make up the deficit of information.) unaided without private transport or friends. On Monday 12 Nov 2012, without much plan or idea except the certainty that's there's a room (luckily circumstances finally push it to Monday or otherwise the weekend crowd will be crazy), we brazen headed down south to Malacca on a 1pm Transnasional Bus leaving TBS Bandar Tasik Selatan and arriving at Melaka Sentral two hours later...

As soon as we unloaded our luggage from our Transnasional bus, a challenge immediately dawned upon us: how are we supposed to get to our hotel from Melaka Sentral which is pretty off the grid from city center and our hotel. I was thinking of taking public bus (based on my knowledge of Melaka State Government owned Panorama Melaka blue line courtesy of MyPT, which happen to pass in front of our hotel at Jalan Temenggong.) but as soon as I reached the local bus section of Melaka Sentral, I was taken by surprise that ALL BUSES are now branded Panorama Melaka while there's no Blue Line bus in sight. Apparently, the news about Melaka State Government's exercise of bailing out all ailing bus company in Melaka and restructured public bus services have somewhat slipped off from my head and we're now in a state of uncertainty. Frantically we went around asking the bus attendants and information counter (ended up buying a large, detailed map for RM5.) and not too long after, we're herded on board a bus (borrowed from RapidKL) along with other fellow hapless tourist who has no idea where the hell are we going to end up at and off we go. As the bus goes along, I tried to trace where are we going matching road names and landmarks while wondering when are we suppose to press the bell and get off. After 20 minutes of uncertainly, we reached somewhere at Jalan Temenggong in which our hotel is somewhere along the upper stretch and we just pressed the bell. The bus stopped and dropped us at the side of the road (it seems that public bus in Melaka will stop anywhere, bus stop or not) and we make our way back up again.

After another 10 minutes of walking, we finally reached our accommodation at Hotel 7. Located right beside Bukit Cina, it's relatively off the grid which at first might seems like a chore to walk all the way to the city center but became a blessing in disguise. More about that later. Anyway, quickly brushed up and we took our leisurely stroll to the city center.

Jonker Walk at Jalan Hang Jebat/Jonker Street/Jonkerstraat is the main throughfare in the heritage core of Malacca in which all the pre-war colonial Chinese shophouses were retrofitted and reappropriated into backpackers inn, museums, art galleries, gift shops, convenient stores and restaurants ranging from bistro catered for tourists and a few remaining modern kopitiam-esque as well as bakery outlet selling local food to marauding tourists. While revival of old city core is certainly something that should be welcomed, I can't help to feel weary on how Melaka choose to do it and Jonker Walk is definitely the prime example of how overcommercialization may make or break the conservation effort. The whole place  is reeking with a faux, pretentious theme park carnival-esque aura overran with tourist filling up gift shops that sells nothing of relevance to the Melaka heritage and devoid of living local people save for those street vendors who can't wait to fleece off unsuspecting tourists by peddling something local. (Like me, who bought two packets of hard malt sugar candies 敲敲糖 from a talkative little girl and her father just because she gave me a discount of two packets for RM5. It was RM3 per packet. In the end, I only manage to eat one of them and I left another one in my elder bro's home fridge. It was not that nice.). I am not even sure popsicles (last picture) of plastic case design could be consider as anyway local aside from perhaps it was home made! It might be tasty and refreshing for tourist but most likely not local. Even though it's now constantly buzzing with life with tourists shuffling shoulder to shoulder, Jonker Walk would fit aptly to what I term as TOURIST TRAP.

This would definitely fit as the cherry on top of cake of faux heritage theme park: a frankly kitsch, tactless, pretentious, self aggrandizing statue of a muscle man flexing. Apparently, the man is Datuk Wira Dr. Gan Boon Leong, the person responsible for Jonker Street revival as well as former Mr. Universe/Mr. Asia/Mr. Malaysia a few decades ago and this status proclaims him as "Hero of Local Community." The park situated right in the middle of Jonker Street is supposed to commemorate Melaka as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (as proclaimed by their arch) as well as functioning as a green lung for tourist to catch a breath after spending the day hoarding pointless souvenirs but the local community (Yes, the plaque says it was a gift from the "local" community. How much "local" are there now in Jonker Streets anyway?! Probably all of them already made loads of money fleecing off tourist and living in cushy suburbs rather here in the middle of city) wants to make someone a tourist attraction of his own. *shrug*

The trend of re-appropriating old shophouses into guesthouses, backpackers inn or art galleries is a growing phenomenon across cities in Malaysia that has significant colonial past and a chinese shophouses enclave in the center of the city, seemingly trying to imbue the city core with a bohemian, backpackers, rugged artsy fartsy quarter feel. This however is a double-edged sword again which either adds to or ruin the nature of city core. Discovery Cafe and backpackers inn is what I would term cheap and badly done in terms of painting while Orang Utan House is cute but still obviously not local. The give piss a chance toilet door is really taking a piss, trying to be rasta but not quite there. Art Galleries are alright if they're selling locally inspired art but it annoys me somewhat (as a tourist. *gasp*) when I see the sign of "No Picture."

...and there it is smacked in the middle of Jonket Street, forlornly, forgotten and ignore is the grave of Hang Kasturi. If he's actually resides in this grave, I am not entirely whether he can actually rest in peace with noisy tourists and traffic clogging up the streets.

One actually has to venture to the far end of Jonker Street when glimpses of actual local people started to appear. Just one block to the right of Jonket Street into Temple Street/Goldsmith Street/Blacksmith Street that one can finally catches air of tranquility away from the bustling and touristy Jonker Walk.  Temple Street is where three local places of worship located within metres from another namely Cheng Hoon Teng Chinese Temple (top row, no. 4 and 5 from left) with its ornate adornment on their roof and interior, Kampung Kling Mosque (lower row, left) with its unique pagoda-esque minaret and tapered roof and Sri Poyatha Vinayagar Moorthi Hindu Temple (lower row, no. 2 from left) which uniquely has LITTLE adornment compared to the usual hindu temple and all three of them are among the earliest place of worship in Malacca situated right at the heart of heritage core. There's also a traditional chinese opera stage 歌台 situated right across Cheng Hoon Teng and there are other hosts of temple as well (top row no. 2, lower row no. 4 and 5.) with uniqueness of their own like the painting of guardian gods (门神) on the door. Temple Street itself (lower row, middle) is quite a narrow street lined with quaint and relatively short shophouses even though at the junction of Temple Street and Jonker at the far end, there are establishment of Art Deco designs (top left) of the interbellum years marked with clean lines and exposed wall.

While Stadhuys, Christ Church Melaka and Queen Victoria Fountain is already too cliched and equally overran by tourist, I decide to look harder beyond the usual such as the commemorative stone tablets of various significance lining along the wall of Stadhuys. The top middle is to commemorate (along with the fountain at lower right) Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, the top right is to mark the visit of James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, Marquess of Dalhousie, Governor of British India to Malacca by W.J. Butterworth, Governor-General of the Straits Settlement, the lower left is to mark the history of VOC (Dutch East India Company) while the lower middle is an archaeological discovery of its own, a Portuguese Royal Arm from the Portuguese era.

That's all for sights in Day 1. Now, Day 2 before we head back to KL later in the evening.

At the foothill of Bukit Cina which is basically a large swath of Chinese Cemeteries is where Sam Poh Kong Temple (right) is situated, built in commemoration of Admiral Zheng He/Laksamana Cheng Ho's voyage to Melaka and immediately adjacent to it is Hang Li Po's Well, apparently used by the Chinese Princess who came to stay in Melaka for bath as well as water supply and right behind both of it is Chinese WWII War Memorial in memory of Chinese who fought against Japanese invaders, adorned with the Blue Sky and White Sun (青天白日) roundel of Republic of China (Taiwan) and Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party). In fact, the calligraphy was penned by Chiang Kai-Shek himself. 

Church of St. Francis Xavier and this time, we actually inside the catholic church. In front of the church are a couple of statues in which one depicts the namesake St. Francis Xavier, one of the most well known Jesuits in Asia accompanied by a Japanese priest/interpreter Yajirou and last but not least the most important fixture in Catholic Church, Mary and Infant Jesus. All the windows lining the cathedral are stained glass depicting various stages in Jesus's life as well as other stories in Bible while on the second floor is where the church organ (not sure if functional) is situated.

Heeren Street/Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock/Heerenstrat is the oldest stretch of in the heritage city core with shophouses tracing all the way to Dutch times and the only place in South East Asia that we can this category of chinese shophouses. It's characterized by it's diminutive size (top right, lower left) when compared wit the more recent eclectic/straits style (lower, no. 3 from right). Another distinctive architectural feature available in Heeren Street is its window in the wall separating two shophouses. Despite its coziness, there are still some signs of modernity creeping in such as an CIMB Bank ATM machine located right in front of a backpackers in (top row, no. 3) as well as modern art installation featuring Chinese calligraphy gracing the blank wall of another inns facing Malacca River. The back of the Heeren Street shophouses was once facing the sea directly but the seafront is actually some meters away thanks to seafront reclamation to house commercial development. 

The trip to Malacca is not complete without any mentions of local food...though I would say some of them are probably not that representative.

From the left: Chicken Rice Balls at Hoe Kee, Jonker Street, which I think is just Hainan chicken with rice scrunched into balls, Durian Cendol from a random stall right beside Church Square/Melaka river which is basically durian dumped into cendol, Nyonya Laksa at the food court right beside Mahkota Parade which falls under the category of Curry Laksa with coconut milk base but otherwise milder than other curry laksa that I tasted before. Now, we didn't got to try Satay Celup even though we got to know that Capitol Satay Celup (pic no. 5), the most famous/infamous Satay Celup outlet in Melaka is located at Lorong Bukit Cina not far away from our hotel because it only opens at night (after 5pm) and it closes on Monday (so no luck for us to try on the first day we came). Instead, we got ourselves actual traditional street food in the form of Chee cheong fun with yam cake at a stall right outside a traditional Chinese kopitiam! I would say food from kopitiam patronized by local actually contains more value than those popularized and commercialised outlet. Another thing that I do noticed (even I didn't got to eat it) is how similar it is Wantan Mee in Melaka with Kolo Mee in Kuching as in it's red (in contrast of the usual black soysauce of wantan mee), as if I am actually closer to home if I move down South.

This trip is also the first time I got to taste Melaka Nyonya/Peranakan Cuisine in which we had it over Restoran Anak Nyonya at Jonker Street/Temple Street junction. Four dishes we ordered namely Ayam Pongteh (2nd row, right), Pineapple Prawn (3rd row left), Pie Tee ( 4th row right) and Nyonya chap chai (5th row left). I think they are all good because I do not have other point of reference which I can make comment on but it's indeed filling for four of us. Directly next to it is a bakery selling pineapple cookies in which they are the record holder for the largest pineapple cookie in Malaysia. Good to know that they do replace the record holder with a newly baked one (note the date): it's one month old though so most probably not edible). Trays of freshly baked pineapple cookies ready to be packaged and sold to tourist.

Nadeje Cake House, proudly proclaiming itself as The Origin of Mille Crepe. I have heard about Nadeje a few times here and there from my Malaccan friends on Facebook whom were wax lyrical about how great they are. Their house specialty is obviously Mille Crepe, a cake with layers of paper thin skin with creams in the middle thus giving a very interesting mouth feel. The whole premise itself is quite opulently decorated with classy decor. By the way, this is actually their headquarter at Plaza Mahkota which according to my research are less crowded and more stable in quality. I do glad I made these research before hand because as we went past its touristy branch at Plaza Mahkota, it was HORRIBLY crowded with line snaking out to the road. Definitely a heaven for sweet tooth. I am still wondering where does the name Nadeje came from.

Before wrapping it this post, some thoughts.

In the earlier part of the post, I have been lamenting about the absence of truly local Malaccan in the heart of cities while being overran by tourist filling tourist traps. Luckily staying somewhere off the grid and some walking distance away from the city core, there are traces of real people and real places. Compared to Little India in Penang, Malacca's Little India is definitely much smaller with only one block but they do share similar compositions of Little India such as spices and VCD/DVD store blaring Indian musics/movies. As for traditional Kopitiam, there's one that I spotted at Lorong Hang  Jebat by the name of Sin Yin Hoe, apparently famous for their Oyster Omelette/Oh chien. Traditional wet market (that has the longest name for a wet market) as well as other kopitiams can be spotted along upper stretch of Jalan Temenggong.

Despite being proclaim Historic Cities of the Straits, the British colonial past is much less conspicuous in Malacca when compared to the sister city of Penang which retains much of its colonial era road names and other paraphernalia. Most tourist maps in Melaka does feature older colonial names alongside the current government sanctioned names in bracket just to give some semblance of sentimentality and history to it (the most obvious one being Jonker Street and Heeren Street) but as for both to exist side by side or even taken a major presence, sadly I didn't manage to spot anyone of it or I didn't look harder. Egerton Road or Jalan Temenggong is the only one I manage to spot and I think the Egerton Road part of the signboard was actually there since colonial era! Besides that, spotted a Royal Mail postbox somewhere behind Stadhuys near the police headquarters emblazoned with GR or King George VI or QEII's father.

While the colonial heritage and past is slowly diminishing, other more recent, post millennium addition has been supplanted all across the city street with some actually questionable. Pic no 1. on the left: considering its a local council signboard warning about the crime of vandalism, the numbers of typo on it is simply mind-boggling with the obvious example of vandalisma in which the correct spelling (as sanctioned by DBP) is actually vandalisme. Pic no. 2: Melaka's smoking free. No problem with that and done in similar rein for Green Penang except Malacca's one is a bit tackier perhaps.  Pic no 3: This signboard demarcating Parliamentary and State Assembly Constituencies is rather baffling: what does this bit of information actually contributes meaningfully to the aggregate knowledge that a tourist could get being having little value of history whatsoever except perhaps those who are interested in local politics? Curiously enough...both P.138 Kota Melaka and N.22 Bandar Hilir is in the hand of...Pakatan Rakyat (DAP.) Pic 4 and 5: the face of Ali Rustam, current Chief Minister of Melaka is popping up everywhere on every government sanctioned banners and frankly, he looks more like an eccentric clown rather than a true leader and definitely he has a role of turning the whole of Melaka into some sort of massive heritage theme park to fleece money of tourist not to mention eccentric, oddball schemes such as proclaiming Melaka as Developed (Melaka Maju 2010) in 2010, 10 years before 2020. Another thing that drives me up the wall of course is the accompanying slogan/tagline: Melaka Maju Negeriku Sayang, Negeri Bandar Teknologi Hijau. Obviously the people who think about this tagline (probably Ali Rustam himself) didn't bother of making it rhyme except that both lines shared the same amount of syllables but that's it.

Finally, souvenirs we got from Melaka: the malt candy sweets that I have fleeced off RM5 for two packets (left) and fragrant biscuit (or in Chinese 马蹄酥). While the candy sweets which is ridiculously hard (hence gula ketuk or knocking candy. Some knocking needed to break it into smaller pieces before eating it and as soon as you left it aside, it will stick and became one big chunk again.) and became sticky in room temperature is not that nice, the fragrant biscuits I would say is a good buy. Too bad we left both of it over my elder bro's place. I wonder how is it survive now.

This concludes the additional excursion to Malacca. I would say worth doing it again with more extensive research and/or a private car. Now, we can go back to Kuala Lumpur covering the remaining sights and foods as well as other miscellany thoughts about the Mid-Semester Holiday Escape Down Under.