24/5/2013: My first night in Melaka

Melaka is a place of great history! Before the 14th century it was a simple fishing village but when the Hindu Prince Parameswara, who was also the founder of the city, was ruling the city became a favoured port for resupplying trading ships as they travelled between China, India and the spice islands of Indonesia. This meant that Melaka attracted traders from all over the East and became a powerful trading state. However, after the death of the Hindu prince, Melaka headed into a troubled time where the state was ruled first by the Portuguese, then the Dutch and for a while the Brits and apart from a short period of time when rubber was an important crop, Melaka never regained the power I had during Parameswara’s ruling but went back to being a quiet village until today when it is a major tourist attraction!!!
I thought this entry needed a bit of history to set the scene now that I am in a very interesting city that has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Site status. A World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO to be of special cultural or physical significance and there were in 2011 962 sites on the list out of which 4 are found in Malaysia. Since its listing in 2008, Melaka has been one of the hottest tourist destinations and it is said that that has affected the city’s charm but I must say that what little I managed to see today before sunset was very charming and I think they have managed to make the modernization blend in quite well!!
I started out from KL this morning taking a taxi to KL sentral from where I took the KTM (a commuter train) to TBS, the bus station facilitating destinations south of KL. This in itself was a bit of a journey because I haven’t been to KL sentral or TBS before so I had absolutely no clue where to go and for once Lonely Planet was no use at all… However, with a little help from various nice staff members I made it to TBS where I expected an absolute chaos (All the bus stations we went to in Thailand and Laos last year were more or less chaotic all of them so was expecting the worst) but there was no chaos at all… Everyone was standing in line, no skipping the queue and no hassle of people pushing from all directions – was so confused by the discipline!!!

"Such a beautiful queue - Have never seen such a beautiful line at a bus station in Southeast Asia"
After queuing for 30 minutes I finally got my ticket but I had if cause not calculated that the busses were going to be fully booked because of the bank holiday and so I had to wait for 1½ but it was actually just a fun experience! Yet again everyone queued beautifully to get on the bus and everyone were smiling and giving way and helping each other – I am very pleasantly surprised by the hospitality that is found everywhere out here in Malaysia! Everyone is so helpful all the time, not like in Europe where you have to ask for help and get the feeling that you are a complete idiot for not knowing where to go :)
At 5pm I finally arrived in Melaka and after a short ride on a local bus I managed to find my hostel straight away (a very lovely hostel by the way – I’ll explain and show photos tomorrow) and after 5 minutes I was out in the streets of Melaka (no time to waste when I’m only here for a weekend)!! I have planned a long list of things to do and see tomorrow so I just took a little walk around Chinatown, enjoying the laid back atmosphere. On Fridays and Saturdays the main streets of Chinatown turns into a night market and even though it wasn’t actually planned I found myself in the middle of a lovely little night market where you could buy anything you can possibly imagine – It was AMAZING!! A night market if cause, isn’t a real night market without delicious food, and this night market lived 100% up to that!! They sold the most delicious spring rolls, Samosa, noodles in all different shapes and flavors, rice dishes, a wide range of seafoods, fruit juices, local ice creams and a million different types of local homemade pastries – It was heaven!!

"One of the lovely food stall selling the most gorgeous fish dishes"
I bought a lot of nice food but I didn’t actually buy anything else, which now gives me an excuse to come back tomorrow night and enjoy another night of crowded streets full of the most wonderful atmosphere… I think it is good that I don’t have any guys with me, am sure they would go crazy over all the shopping that can happen at these markets – as you move down along the different stalls you find that all of a sudden you cannot possibly live without half the things they sell…. It is like a disease, you just have to buy stuff either because it is pretty, because it is cheap or because you didn’t think it was possible to buy such a thing – all I can say is that it is FANTASTIC :D

"Street view of the night market"
I will upload more photos tomorrow so don’t forget to check the website again soon!! I hope you are all happy, I’m very, very happy!!
Susannah x