Malaysia - Melaka

By Rough Guy’d (*as Rough Guy'd braves the next chapter of his travels in China and Philippines, we wish him all the best!)

With my pleasant memories of Singapore behind me, I was looking forward to Malaysia. Though I’d enjoyed my trip so far, Malaysia is a country that I have fond memories of. Now, like I said at the start of my blog, I am from New Zealand and very proud of that fact. I was born and bred there but during my earliest formative years, I did live in Malaysia. This was because although I was a New Zealand citizen by birth, my parents were not and it took them some time before they were able to live in New Zealand long term. So as it stood, I lived in Malaysia for two or three years before going back to my country of birth. This meant that I had some memories of Malaysia. Most of them were of being hot all the time and the food which are some of the best in my mind. The rest of Malaysia, I was blissfully unaware of, and part of my reasoning for revisiting Malaysia was to learn more about it.

So it was that my first stop in Malaysia was Melaka. Two hours south of Kuala Lumpur, this town had a very rich history from the early days when it was a bigger trading port than Singapore to the many times it was captured by the Portuguese, Dutch and British to the signing of Malaysia’s independence from Britain in the twentieth century and I was keen to learn as much as I could. The whole journey from Singapore to Melaka took a fair while and I arrived after about nine hours and too tired to do much, especially since it was after 9pm when I arrived. One thing I did discover was that my choice of guesthouse was excellent and to all those interesting in visiting this town, I highly recommend the Traveller’s lodge. As well as being cheap and very cheerful, the friendliness of the other fellow travellers was very encouraging and there was a large communal area as well as cooking facilities.

Bright and early the next morning, I decided to walk to Villa Sentosa. This was as they called it, a living museum. To all intents and purposes, it was nothing more than a family home, just lovingly maintained in traditional style and filled with many things in it that made it a joy to visit. From the many artefacts that they have acquired over the years to the rich history of the family, you even get a personal tour guide from a member of the family to walk you through it and all for the cost of a voluntary donation. During the afternoon, on my way back, I ended up joining a Spanish couple that I had met the previous night and took a swim in the local swimming pool before walking around town soaking up the ambiance.

The interesting thing about the town was the combination of old and new that would not have been possible even ten years ago. From walking six plus kilometres from my guesthouse to the villa with no shade or even a footpath (you just walked on the road) to watching the latest Hollywood movie in an air-conditioned theatre in an eight storey shopping mall later that night, I was experiencing a side of Malaysia that saw two worlds collide and I was glad to be able to experience it all.