Two colonial towns are popular tourist attractions along the west coast of mainland Malaysia: Melaka in the south between KL and Singapore, and Georgetown to the north between KL and the Thai border. For some reason – let’s just call it travel neurosis – I felt the need to visit both cities. I’ll save you from the suspense: Neither one was a sock-knocker-offer, but if you happen to be passing by, they’re worth a quick look (especially in the quiet and cool of evening).
* * *
MELAKA, MALAYSIA (June 9-10, 2010)
I apparently was so impressed or unimpressed with Melaka, I forgot to take notes, so excuse me if I crib from the usual sources. Melaka is considered the “cradle” of Malay civilization. It’s where you’ll find the oldest functioning mosque, Catholic church, and Buddhist temple in the country. (Thank you Lonely Planet.) Founded in the 14th century, the town grew to become one of Southeast Asia’s busiest trading ports, attracting Chinese merchants and others from the region, and later European occupiers (Portuguese, Dutch, and British in that order). The Chinese intermarried with the local Malays to become “Straits Chinese,” also known as Baba-Nyonya, and if that’s not enough, also known as Peranakan. Yes, I’m confused too.
Today, the heart of Melaka is a mixture of quaint colonial buildings and old Baba-Nyonya merchant and shop houses and temples with a heavy dose of superfluous museums, modern attractions (like a rotating observation deck), and other nauseating tourist attractions that seem to work. The tourists were there in droves.
I was lucky to arrive in the evening when traffic and tourists were taking a rest. I was a bit cranky because my “three-hour” bus trip from KL took more like five and a half hours door to door thanks to traffic and the necessity of taking separate buses (or taxis) to and from the inconveniently located bus stations outside cities and towns. My mood perked up when I arrived at my guesthouse located in a 19th-century Peranakan townhouse upstairs from Café 1511 in Chinatown. The townhouse and two adjoining townhouses were once the domain of a wealthy merchant. His descendents still own the townhouses and operate one of them as the excellent Baba-Nyonya Heritage Museum.
The weather was perfect, the traffic subdued, and the glowing red lights of Chinatown so perfectly atmospheric that I decided to see as much of the town that evening. If I got bored, I could get out the next day. (And no, the red lights are not what you’re thinking.) The evening stroll was one of the highlights of my visit and really the best reason to come to Melaka. The mosque, the old merchant houses, the Chinese temples, the ruin of St. Paul’s Church atop the town’s hill overlooking Melaka – they work a bit of magic together. If you could somehow erase all the parked cars and the rotating observation tower and the other touristy crap, then the illusion of going back in time would be perfect.
The next morning, I walked around town again and was disappointed by the throngs of tourists and lines of car traffic. I felt a bit sorry for people who just popped in for a daytrip. The place is at its worse during the midday heat and tourist crush. I escaped into the Baba-Nyonya Heritage Museum for their educational tour. The interior of the townhouse is opulent – decorated with Portuguese and Victorian tile, silk embroidery, English gaslights, Venetian mirrors, Victorian silver, and a unique gilded staircase.
Later, I visited Villa Sentosa, a 1920s Malay village house or “kampung.” The family living in the house opens it to the public everyday at no charge (but they remind you of this as they stroke one of their donation jars). My tour guide, Ibrahim, was the current patriarch of the house. Ibrahim’s father first opened the house to the public in the 1960s and it’s been a tourist attraction ever since.
Visiting Villa Sentosa was quite the down-to-earth experience – no gilded staircases or Venetian mirrors. Rather the house was filled with things, useful and useless, that a middle class Malay family would collect over several generations, like phonographs and shoes and old photos. Despite that stimulating description, the visit was quite amusing. Both the Baba-Nyonya Heritage Museum and Villa Sentosa were highlights of my second day in Melaka, each offering a different insight into local life – arguably one of the main reasons for travel.
Another reason to come to Melaka is to eat, which I did in spades. My visit lasted less than 24 hours, although I think I ate about five meals in that time, including Indian and Peranakan cuisine and a rather addicting lychee smoothie. Oddly, my version of Word does not recognize the word “lychee,” recommending instead “leeches” and “lichen,” neither one of which sounds particularly inviting in a smoothie.
That afternoon I returned by bus back to KL.
* * *
GEORGETOWN, MALAYSIA (June 12-14, 2010)
My next trip from KL was to Georgetown on the island of Penang to the north. Again, it involved a ride to the KL bus station, then a bus ride to Penang’s remote bus station (there’s a bridge connecting the highway to the island), then another bus into the city center, plus another hour walking around lost looking for my guesthouse. You’d think I’d have this travel thing down to an art by now, but getting to Georgetown reminded me just how much I still have to learn.
So again the time it took me to get to ostensibly nearby Penang rather embittered me to the place – that, and it’s a pretty big, crowded city with skyscrapers even. And I had come for the colonial buildings! Following the example of Melaka, I toured the city by night. The buildings were lovely old English things, but I’d have done much better just to fly to England or even Boston.
Like Melaka and really everywhere in Malaysia, the food was excellent and inexpensive in Georgetown. I really don’t understand how Malays are so much skinnier than Americans with so much great food within easy reach. Perhaps it’s the fact that it is great food, and most of what my fellow countrymen eat seems like crap by comparison (but, my fellow countrymen, please continue to invite to your dinners and BBQs). I started my evening at the Red Garden Food Court and had several $2-3 dishes before rolling myself onto the roadway to have a look at the old buildings.
The next day I walked around the city sweating and not particularly thrilled. My most interesting stop was at Khoo Kongsi, the 1906 Chinese Straits clan house of the Kong family. The current compound includes the clan house plus several other buildings and an outdoor stage for Chinese opera and a recently added basement museum with its detailed genealogy of the clan. The genealogy lists thousands of clan members; the ones that studied and received degrees at American, British, and Australian universities seem especially coveted, as they are acknowledged in plaques on the wall. The main clan house is gorgeous, with large carved columns, exterior friezes, gilded ceilings, and decorative artwork throughout. No one lives in the clan house; rather it’s used for clan meetings – large family gatherings, if you will.
That evening, I met up with Ani, an Iranian PhD candidate in tourism. Ani was one of those short, slight, spunky, fearless types who’d feel quite at home in a Steig Larsson novel. She drove up to my guesthouse with abandon, scooped me up, and whisked me off to far-flung corners of Penang, completely fearless that we only knew each other through http://www.couchsurfing.org/.
I, on the other hand, had fear. It was not entirely clear that Ani could see over the steering wheel. We weaved in and out of traffic and cut off honking drivers like they didn’t exists. Perhaps sensing my concern, she turned to me and asked if I thought she was a good driver. I pointed to the fact that she skillfully avoided several cars without seeing them and assured her that this was a feat requiring great skill, and she had it.
After dinner, we walked around Georgetown and happened upon the opulent Eastern & Orient Hotel. Established in 1885, the E&O is one of Asia’s grand old hotels, for which (if you read my articles regularly) you know I have some fondness. E&O’s founders, the Sarkie brothers, later went on to found Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Past visitors to E&O included heads of state and early Hollywood celebrities and authors such as Orsen Wells, Rudyard Kipling, and Somerset Maugham, their timeless black-and-white photos still displayed in the lobby. The hotel features in several of Maugham’s short stories.
That’s it for Georgetown. You’re weary of reading about colonial towns and I’m weary writing about them. My main gripes with the colonial towns in Malaysia are that they incorporate too much touristic modernity and attract too many cars and tourists. Perhaps these are inevitable results of Malaysia’s success. Notably nearly all the cars clogging Malaysia’s modern roads and highways appeared to be brand new. It probably didn’t help any that it was hot and humid and my bus rides were always much longer than advertised.
From Georgetown, I set off southeast to the cool Cameron Highlands by direct minivan.
==================================================
To COMMENT, scroll down and leave your comments in the box below or Comment on Facebook.
See below for ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:
No comments:
Post a Comment