Malaka - Day 1
Left Kuala Lumpar at 9:00 and arrived in Malaka by 11:00 including a stop along the way to eat. Malaka is a small town on the coast with a lot of interesting history; it used to be a bustling seaport, and has been occupied by the Portuguese and Dutch. Check out the photos…
A very touristy place. Before we checked in we took a bit of walk around town, stopping at a small fountain where you could get your picture taken with an albino python. We all got a picture taken as it wasn’t expensive. It was a little slimy feeling but not too bad.
We walked up a hill to St. Francis Church which looked as old as it was. Still, a stunning view and very worth the uphill walk.
Spent a long time inside a little Museum/shop, looking at pictures, model-boats, and reading about the history of Malaka. I think I’ll call it an international port, since they had ships coming in from China, India, and European countries. A definite melting pot and a lot like Malaysia, where everything from the cuisine to the people are a mix.
At night they close off a road and set up roadside restaurants and shops. We spent hours walking around looking at everything. It was quite crowded. One funny thing here is that the people in Malaka seem enamored with Karaoke, and every few meters you could hear someone singing along to a different song. Sometimes the singer sounded pretty good and other times we were like… “Run!” I found the Chinese music quite interesting, talented but a bit pitchy!
We eventually got lost while looking for a restoran (Malay for restaurant – Bahasa Malaysia is a surprisingly easy language), we found one that wasn’t closed and were served a light Chinese dinner by a very smiley man. I am not kidding, he smiled non-stop and was such an interesting person, he had me in stitches most of dinner and I had a hard time eating anything in between all the hilarity.
(Deepa is on a brief hiatus from active missionary work. She is traveling to visit family in SE Asia and Canada before returning to India. Enjoy her travelog!)