Melaka (Part Two)

Exploring Melaka is not very hard. Most of the interesting things are all stuck together in a bunch and the city is not huge, so walking around it is not difficult, although it is easy to get lost. The Porta de Santiago ruins were just around the corner from my hostel, so this was the first place I started, and walking up the stairs to the ruins St Paul's Church, it was clear the scope of vision the fortification had on the water approach to the town.


 The remnants of Porta de Santiago (built 1511)

Ruins of St Paul's Church (built 1521)

While I wandered through all the locations clustered around this little area, I came across an elderly Japanese guy wielding old World War 2 military issued katana in the park. Many other people were too scared to approach, but he had that slight upturn of his mouth that to me looked like a smile. I approached him and he showed me this working WW2 Japanese motorcycle used during the Japanese occupation of Melaka in 1942. The smile, I found out, was because he offered a photo with the bike for MYR$3. I thought this was worth it, but he had no experience with my camera, so I actually got about 40 photos while he figured it out.



WW2 Japanese motorcycle - still working (from circa 1942)

I had seen this thing rise and fall and spin around for days, but I had no idea what it could be. When I tracked it down, I found it to be a very overt tourist ride to show tourists the city from a height of about 80m. The Menara Taming Sari had lines of people ready to ride it, camera at the ready, and tour buses pulling up to deposit more tourists onto the packed lines. I took a photo to prove I had been there, but you can get the city sights from the top of St Paul's Church ruins for more exercise and much cheaper.

Menara Taming Sari (Spinning viewing tower)

Just around the corner is the Melaka Naval Museum which had heaps of old gear in it, including a massive boat mounted on concrete pillars that you can roam all over. The kids were sitting at various locations shooting each other - always good to encourage violence in kids, it helps them for the wars to come, but I wonder if it might predispose them to violence, like video games do (or don't depending on which scientific study you read). Don't get this mixed up with the Melaka Navel Museum, which I stayed away from.

Naval turret on display at the Melaka Naval Museum

I managed to miss Stadthuys (twice), and although I wasn't really looking for it I am sure I saw it, it just didn't really stick out for me. Melaka's Christ Church did jump out at me, mostly because of the New Zealand name (for me) and the entire region is made of the same coloured structure. There is a round about just out the front of here that I was much more worried about when I was driving and equally worried about as a pedestrian.

Christ Church, Melaka (built 1753)

I did find the "Tourist Police" across the road most interesting, but was too worried to check it out - the name suggests some interesting aspects. For example, if they are police who are specifically there to assist tourists, then it does suggest a need for a large building full of tourist police to address a criminal element targeting tourists. On the other hand, it could be a building of police dedicated to keeping the tourists in line. Either way, I didn't want to have anything to do with it and stayed on the other side of the street.

I had been a little disappointed with the Dragon Dances in Singapore when I saw them, at most four people under the dragon, when I used to participate in eight person dragon dances in Brisbane's Chinatown. Practice for this is intense and even having six people, I was impressed. Most of the dragons I have seen have been small dragons with two people in them. You can imagine how impressed I was when I came across this massive dragon in an alley in Melaka.

I didn't realise this dragon was asleep

There is an old Chinese saying that equates roughly to "Let sleeping Dragon's lay" and the sound of my camera must have woken it up because it came at me. I dodged through the ever-present traffic and was glad when a small car got in its way. It did not hesitate to try to swallow the car whole! Surely this is a blessing for the Chinese New Year, but can you imagine explaining this to the wife? "Sorry, honey, a dragon ate the car."

Once it was awake, only a car would sate it

Bukit China is a massive cemetery across a beautiful hill with heaps of graves in it, including Muslim graves. There is a temple at the base called the Poh San Teng Temple, but I waited until the bus-loads of tourists moved on before I went in for a look and stopped in at the Hang Li Po Well next door, which was poisoned repeatedly during its lifespan (in 1511, 1606, and 1628/29). Whoever said history never repeats itself is unfamiliar with the story of this well.

Near Bukit China (Memorial to Chinese victims of the Japanese occupation)

Finally, I noticed this structure on Pulau Melaka from a distance early while I was there and finally, I figure out how to get over and see it. It is known as the Floating Mosque and was built recently for the Muslim population to pray at. The building is incredible with some amazingly intricate detail in the construction and cats all over the place. I don't think it is actually floating, but it does look like it. Regardless, it was a fantastic place to look around and the people were very friendly and wanted to know if I really had driven from Australia.

Masjid Mosque (built 2006)

Menara Tower (built 2006)

I really liked Melaka. It is a wonderful blend of India, China and Malay with a strong acceptance of the cultures that make up the city, which for me, coming from Australia, I thought would be normal, but even in Australia I don't think we have this sort of acceptance any more for the cultures that make up our multi-cultural nation. And given the fact that Senator Nick Xenophon was deported a few days before I arrived in Melaka, my Australian number plates certainly had me engage in political discussions about him with almost everyone there.