Melaka

Today I am visiting the city of Melaka (or Malacca is English spelling). It is a must see on the tour of Malaysia since it is so rich with history and has a large Dutch influence on its architecture. It is south of Kuala Lumpur and not too far from Singapore.

Luckily my calf issue seems to be on the mend and today is a travel day. I’d hate to lose a day of being out and about due to an injury. I already missed out on the hike yesterday.

It’s a very curvy first half of ride from Cameron Highlands. I forget to take my motion sickness medicine until the bus starts moving so at the start I feel queasy. Luckily it doesn’t take long for my medicine to kick in.

I waited until the last minute to book my transportation within Malaysia because typically with bus tickets you can get them a couple days or the day of travel. I don’t think it is a big concern to travel from Cameron Highlands to Melaka in my initial planning. When I finally go to book my ticket I realize there are no direct buses. I do a little bit of last minute research and I try to use the website that I used to get to the Cameron Highlands but it would not route me to Melaka even with a transfer. I see that there are buses direct from KLIA to Melaka, which is the international airport in Kuala Lumpur and then I realize they are buses from Cameron highlands to KLIA. I buy one ticket to the airport, making sure I have enough time in between the buses, and then book my ticket to the second bus separately. On my first bus to the airport there are multiple stops which is common. It isn’t until after the first stop that people in the front of the bus started acting a little strange and asking questions but I can’t quite hear what they were talking about. I think to myself it probably a good idea to stay alert. When we get to the second stop it’s at a station called TBS, which is also a Kuala Lumpur and the major bus station. The driver makes it known that this is the last stop. I get off the bus and I’m confused because my ticket says KLIA and there’s nothing that says a transfer in the ticket. I ask the driver and he tells me to follow him up the escalator. I’m waiting there because there’s two other guys that are confused and he’s helping them but in another language. He finally hands me a ticket for a transfer to another bus which leaves at 1:30 which is in about an hour from now. I go inside the station and I realize that this is a major bus station and maybe I could just book my bus to Melaka direct from here. The ticket counter lines are long but I see a self service machine. I book a ticket for the same time that I am to catch my transfer to KLIA. Why am I going to the airport to transfer when I can ride direct from here? So here I am waiting for my direct bus to Melaka.

First thing after checking into my hotel is to get something to eat. I’ve only been eating snack food all day. I settle on a Pernakan restaurant called Kocik Heritage Nyonya Restaurant. I walk in and there is no hostess. I looked confused and two nice men who are dining tell me I can sit anywhere. Eventually a waitress appears and I order a couple Peranakan dishes that look appetizing. I can’t possibly finish it all as a single diner but I want to sample a couple things. While I am waiting for my meal I have a nice chat with the men who are just in town for the weekend from Kuala Lumpur. One is a doctor I believe. My visit to this city is already off to a great start with meeting such friendly people. All the food is amazing. I drink the fish curry sauce like it’s a soup because it’s so good.

I wander around Melaka and decide to take a cruise on the river close to sunset. We just go up the river and back. You can tell at one time this boat had many stops and people could get on and off at different locations. Probably another casualty of covid. Like the other cities I’ve been many business that cater to tourists have been permanently closed.

I decide to get roti canai for breakfast the next morning down the street but first a stop at the ATM. It gives me a 20RM instead of one of my 50’s. Basically shorting me the equivalent of 7USD. Not excited about this but the bank isn’t even open yet so I’ll have to deal with it later. I head over to Selvam Restaurant, an Indian restaurant. I order roti canai, a fried egg and a coffee without sugar (finally!). It seems like eating roti canai for breakfast is common so I am not doing something out of the ordinary for once. When my bread comes out the waiter gives me a metal canister with three different sauces for dipping. I am used to only one type in the USA so I am curious. I can tell he is leading me to the milder sauce but I want to try them all so I put all of them on my pate. The milder one, while good is watery. I prefer the other two: one slightly spicer curry that is thick and a white sauce that tastes like cucumber maybe and is slightly spicier than that. None of them is too spicy for me or my taste buds are toughing up.

I planned to go see the pretty mosque this morning but its pretty far out and I don’t feel like walking that far or taking a grab this morning so I stay local. I head over to the old Portuguese church on the hill, Church of Saint Paul. It is the oldest church in Southeast Asia. It’s been used by different Christian colonizers over the years but now it is roofless and hollowed out and holds some old very large tombstones.

I walk down stairs to the A Famousa, an old gate to the Portuguese city. It is all that is left from that wall that the British detonated at some time to prevent it to be taken over by Napoleon’s France. Wow just reading this stuff reminds me how lacking our US education system is. I never heard of this important city that I describe as “Melaka is to Malaysian kids what Saint Augustine is to the Florida kids”. Basically every kid here does a field trip to the town to learn its important history.

I start to begin my day of eating with a pineapple cookie and some sightseeing while I wait for this cafe to open.

I’ve been wanting to visit this highly recommended cafe called the Daily Fix. I get there early so there is no wait. It is very cute inside. I try some Gula Melaka coffee (palm sugar coffee a local specialty) and pandan pancakes. While the pancakes are good I hardly taste the pandan so there is a little disappointment there (I’m addicted.).

Baba and Nyonya museum.

I visit the Baba and Nyonya museum. The museum is in a Peranakan house that was in use by many generations. It is a good example on how life was like during the times. There is no tour guide but they provide a good guide in English that describes the rooms and life. I love the present day family photos of all the different generations.

I visit an old shoemaker that has foot binding shoes on display. He wants me to buy some binding shoes. What the heck am I going to do with these little shoes. I say no thank you and carry on.

The big news is that I tried durian again. I read that one of the local favorites is Cendol Durian ice cream. I get some courage and order it. It is actually not bad. The durian fruit is whole in the dish but when mixed with ice cream it isn’t too terrible. Maybe it is growing on me.

I finally try Putu Piring after being unsuccessful in Singapore. It’s an ok snack but they give you a very large portion for the price. I could only eat a little of it.

I am here on the weekend so I get to visit the famous Jonker Street night market. There are many stands to buy various things and a large food area. Of course I’m too full from my eating spree earlier to want to eat anything.

I am leaving soon. Not one of my proudest moments but I complained about my neighbors smoking this morning. Last night when I came back from being out my entire room smelled like cigarette smoke. It was gross. I thought about complaining then but the smell seemed to dissipate with time. When I was ready to go to sleep I heard noise from my neighbors and once again the smoke smell. I thought about once again getting dressed and going down to complain but I fell asleep anyway. I am not sure how since the smell is disgusting. After breakfast this morning I smell it again. Yes I am packing to leave in two hours but I’ve had enough. I finally complain. Besides being against hotel rules (I don’t really care about that) it is hella inconsiderate to your neighbors. So I am that person that complains about others now.

Besides the smoke I think the moisture in the air the past few days, and high sugar diet, are causing me to get some sort of sinus thing. I hope I can beat whatever this is quickly.

Now I’m off to Kuala Lumpur to hopefully a non-smoking, hot water, good WiFi hotel.

Chew Jetties and more Chinese New Year

I woke up early today, not on purpose but because that is what I do. I used the opportunity to chat with a friend back home about future travel (13 hours difference).

I read somewhere to go watch sunrise at the Clan jetties of Penang is a thing to do and since I am already awake I head down there. The Clan Jetties are this 19th century Chinese immigrant community that build their homes on stilts over the water. It is pretty unique. They open their community to visitors during the day (and sometimes nights since there is supposed to be a large Chinese New Year Party there Sunday night).

The jetty area does not open until 9 am to visitors so I am still too early. Luckily the char koay teow place that my tour guide recommended is open (Xen Teck) so seems like a good time to get breakfast and some of that extra strong coffee. There is a whole way to order coffee in Malaysia, kopi or kopi O or ??. I can’t remember the correct way. The default way comes with sweetened condensed milk that I was happy to try the first time (Do like the locals). But now I want it my way with unsweetened with just milk over ice. I thought I ordered it correctly but I got the sweetened one again. Good thing I do lots of walking to walk off all this sugar. The char koay teow is good; it is different from the one I had before since this has thinly sliced pork sausage in it (you don’t see it in pork in the other tourists areas out of respect of the Muslim community). It also had these little button like things that were slimy. I first thought they were mushrooms but they could be oysters? Sometimes it is better to not know. Anyway, the dish is good and satisfying, It is the breakfast I never knew I wanted.

It is still too early for the jetty so I do a tour of the street art nearby. One I believe is a Dutch artist and the others are local artists. The famous ones are from the Dutch artist.

Clan jetty

It is 9 am so I head over to the Jetties. I am glad I am there early before the crowds. Not everything is open yet but it is pretty in the morning light. It feels a little weird walking close to people’s houses. It feels intrusive seeing laundry hanging and watching people inside their houses (many doors were wide open to the outside). This is open to tourists so they expect this I guess, still feels weird. There seems to be a boat tour at the end of the pier but is not running. Not sure if it no longer runs or if I’m just too early. It is a small pier so not sure how there will be a big party here tomorrow.

Mansion

I tour the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, the 19th century mansion that is a good example of the Peranakan lifestyle. Peranakan are a distinct type of Malay. When Chinese immigrants, mostly rich, arrived in Penang they were often offered a bride of native Malay heritage, often very young. The resulting offspring are the Nyonyas (women) and Babas that you still see to referred to in the culture today. The marriages were almost always arranged and the groom could not see the bride (and vice versa) until they are to be married. The brides often wore this very heavy metal thing on their head that masked their appearance. I am glad I made it time for the tour because the guide was very descriptive on how life was back then. He even commented that polygamy was common a while ago because often the groom would not be happy with the bride chosen for him. Many native Malays are of this heritage.

One very interesting piece from this museum is a piece of blue jewelry. It is actually created from someone painstakingly attaching blue bird feathers. Birds were not killed for it but I am sure it was painful for them. It is not allowed anymore.

Thought about visiting another mansion, blue mansion, but I was tired and hot – big surprise. Besides I think it is pretty similar to the mansion I just visited. I go back to rest and cleanup for the night celebration.

Street party

They are still celebrating the Chinese New Year and there is a large street party in Chinatown. There are dragons, dancing, music, crafts and food. I brave it out for a little bit. I get some snacks and watch some entertainment. Eventually the crowd is too much for me so I search out a bar.

Speak Easy

I don’t like to drink much lately but for some reason I decide I want to visit all the speak easies I can in town due to my recently discovered sweet tooth. The tour guide from the other day suggests two in town. One he suggests never seems to be open when I try (or I don’t know the secret password). The other speakeasy he suggests is further away so it takes me a while to get up the motivation to go visit. Backdoor Bodega, hidden behind a store, requires reservations but I arrived around opening so they took me as a walk in. They have very inventive drinks and the staff at the bar took the time to converse with me.

Another night I happen upon a newer speak easy when I was trying to the other place suggested by my tour. Birds Nest is in a residential neighborhood. In fact you would never know it is a bar. The only reason I found it is because I followed some people who appeared to be going into someone’s house. Come to find out it sort of is. The owners, a couple, live upstairs. They’ve converted, and are still converting, the downstairs into a craft cocktail bar. They were very nice and offered me an orange and some new years crackers.

Nasi Kandar

I finally try Nasi Kandar at the very popular Hameediyah Restaurant. It has an odd setup where you order your food from one store front but then you go a couple store fronts over to eat. I had a nice gentleman help me with the process except I almost walked out of the first building without paying. This Malay/Indian fusion cuisine is a a signature dish of Penang: a plate of hot rice, some fried chicken, beef curry, some turmeric-laced cabbage, or what you choose. There is a short line but I went shortly after opening time in the mid-morning.

It wouldn’t be Chinese New Year without fireworks. I skip the evening celebrations at the the jetty but I get to participate anyway via the fireworks that are going most of the night. Good thing I have a long bus ride tomorrow because no sleep is happening tonight.

At some point I ended up by this McDonald’s that looked very interesting. I didn’t go inside but I caught a grab around here.

Arrived in Penang

I end up calling the airline in the morning to make sure I am on today’s flight to Penang. They confirm I am. I am still charged double for the internet mishap. She can only see one transaction but my credit card shows two. I’ll wait a couple days to see if the problem resolves itself (At time of posting the transaction has been refunded with no intervention from me). Fun fact – even though I am using my USA phone in Malaysia with a daily international plan I need to call the Malaysian number not the international number when I make calls in Malaysia. I am confused but I’ve learned something new.

Now that I have the flight thing settled I let myself leave an hour later to the airport. The airport is crowded but I could have probably left even later because I spend time sitting around and reading waiting for my flight. I guess downtime reading is good since I don’t do it much lately. When I have downtime I either nap or do research for upcoming travels.

Walking around town yesterday I saw signs for ferries to Penang. I don’t bother to stop because I had already purchased a flight. I ask my grab driver to the airport about it. He says what I read is correct, that they no longer run ferries to Penang from Langkawi. The ferries are a casualty of covid. The effects from this illness stretch far and wide. I believe there are still ferries to Thailand running.

When I arrive in Penang my grab driver there tells me more about how hard covid has hit the city, It seems like tourism is ramping up again, hopefully enough to give locals some sort of normalcy since their livelihoods are so dependent on the tourism industry.

I am staying in Georgetown Penang, the historic district. I check into my hotel that is basically a room in an old Mughal mansion. The name of the hotel Jawi Peranakan Mansion is named after a specific type of Malay. I’ll talk about Peranakans in more detail later but Jawi Peranakan represents a Muslim of mixed Indian and Malay. They were prominent in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s.

It’s a little musty inside but that comes with the territory. There is always some trade offs when staying at a place with a little character.

Soon its time to eat dinner. I get the impression that things close early and open early around here, a stark contrast from where I just came from. I need to make sure I plan my meals accordingly. Or perhaps things stay open later on the weekend? The sidewalk situation is mostly non-existent as well as crossroads. I spend a good deal of time walking the side of the road in Penang avoiding falling into the sewage drain.

I find a covered outdoor area that looks like a large food court. There are so many different foods to try that I have decision indecision. I find a cart with different types of proteins that are fried. I pick some and that is my meal for the evening; probably not the healthiest food so far. I also order ice kacang with cendol (pandan noodles). It has beans. The whole dish is semi-sweet. It is probably much healthier than my dinner choice.

Penang is where I really can tell I am in a Muslim country. I hear call to prayer multiple times a day, women typically dress conservatively and cover their hair and you will rarely find pork anywhere (beef is sometimes scarce to due to the large Hindu population).

Tomorrow I have a food tour scheduled so I can start my eating adventure of Malaysia.