Day 26: Melaka

Melaka is a cool town. Such a odd combinations of cultures that should not have been combined but now work together in an odd post-colonial way. Such an interesting history about this place as well. As you walk down the street, you walk by the old Malay Sultanate's palace which became the seat for the Portuguese viceroy (or whatever he was called) when they took over. It overlooks the remnants of O Famosa, the Portuguese fort built to protect and mark the territory of the Portuguese (and was later torn down by the British during the Napoleon Wars when they had 'temporarily' taken over the city to protect it but, like a child who likes but doesn't want to give back a toy, decided that they liked the idea of destroying it a bit better instead); however, almost right behind it is a huge Dutch windmill and the Melaka river. The riverfront looks as though it belongs in Holland, surrounded by Dutch architecture. 

Then, in the middle of the whole thing is a replica of an old Dutch sailing vessel that currently houses the Maritime Museum. Inside was just lots of reading for me (moral of the story - Straits of Melaka is the easiest passage between the Indian and the Pacific Ocean, lots of trade, 68 languages spoken there at a given time, Portuguese decided they wanted it, implemented lots of taxes and trading rights on certain goods, then the Dutch wanted it, and then the British wanted it. Over time, with all of the taxes, et al, the trading capital slowly moved to Singapore and Melaka became an expensive but 'worthless' property to the British. Thus ends today's "Sarah's interpretation on history" lesson. 

In the evening we trekked over to Jonker Street, which is in the China-town of Melaka. The Chinese actually came to Melaka in the 14th-15th century to protect Melaka from the Siamese. As such, these Chinese folk try to distinguish themselves from more recent immigrants. Additionally, their cultures merged with the locals forming something called Nonya cuisine. You'll also find a lot of Malay-Portugese food as well. What does that have to do with Jonker Street? Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night (it was Saturday), they have a huge night market filled with goodies and stalls. 

The different kinds of fried squid and crayfish on sticks (as in, see the outline of them), fried oysters, local nonya food, regional dishes like 'popiah' which is basically a Malaysian interpretation of a spring roll (bigger, fatter, yummier), etc. 

Then, our favourite thing about the whole Jonker Street experience - public karaoke. It was so bad, so good! A whole big outdoor stage with lights, with a 100 person audience, and serious older folk singing Malaysian songs. That was just the one outdoors. We passed at least one more public karaoke that was indoors AND a Malaysian line dance studio. It was country line dance but with Malaysian music. The two didn't seem to go together, but that seems to be the theme for the day.