Having experienced the "big smoke" of cosmopolitan Kuala Lumpur, we were ready to scale things down a bit. The UNESCO World Heritage Site town of Melaka seemed to fit the bill.
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| Melaka/Malacca - the historical centre |
The spelling of the town has been changed to conform with the systematic transliteration of Bahasa Malay into the Latin alphabet - it used to be spelled "Malacca", which seems to evoke more of the romance of the place. It has been granted a Heritage designation for good reason - a rich colonial history involving the Chinese, who entered into more enlightened trade relationships, along with the Portuguese, then the Dutch and finally the British, who all three nations had their hands full dealing with the local sultans and neighbouring kingdoms, none of whom ever rolled over as colonial subjects. We stayed in the old part of town, which is full of guesthouses and quirky little shops, along with temples and churches and, sadly, a Hard Rock Cafe.
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| A "traditional" Malaysian house in a working class part of town |
The town is best explored by bicycle, which allows you to go any direction on any street (unlike automobiles, which face a number of one-way streets). The most fun can be had riding a bike along the riverside walkway, which runs for kilometres through town inland from the waterfront. It is difficult to realize that Melaka is (or at least, once was) a seaside town, as there has been a decades-long effort to reclaim land from the sea for commercial development. Beside the pleasantly chaotic streets of the old town there is now a relatively sterile series of commercial blocs , beyond which is a high construction fence hiding the reclamation projects that continue to this day. The remains of the original Portuguese fort, which used to guard the mouth of the river, are now kilometres inland.
The quintessential method of Melakan transportation is the bicycle trishaw. These rickety contraptions consist of a single-speed bicycle with a sidecar attached. All are decorated in the most gaudy fashion imaginable (Hello Kitty is a common theme) and many are outfitted with stereo systems that put out more decibels than a Forest Lawn street racer. The trishaw jockeys hang out at all the tourist locations and hawk for business. It is one of those experiences that is so schlocky you cannot help but do it. We saved our trishaw ride for the Jonker Street Night Market, and had them cart us to the far end of the market so we could walk back.
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| Just like being on a honeymoon, but with your kids |
The Night Market is one of those experiences that seems at first to be geared toward the tourist crowd, which some of it is (think cheap toys and gadgets). But there is a great selection of food, a lot of which is geared more toward the local palate, which means sea creatures and animal parts that most Westerners would never dream of touching, all grilled over coals or fried in some sort of batter. As well, there is a large stage provided for karaoke, and never a want of participants singing syrupy westernized Chinese ballads.
We ended moving between three different guesthouses, due in part to the popularity of Melaka as a weekend destination and our room being booked by prior reservations. Diwali celebrations were in full swing amongst the local Indian population as well, which livened up the nights not occupied by the Night Market. Otherwise, there is not a terrible lot to do in Melaka of the high-energy tourism persuasion, but it is a beautiful and interesting place to spend time. It is proud of its heritage, and accommodates all the different cultures that have and continue to inform it.
One of the features of Melaka was the heat. It was not easy to find a place to get away from the heat in the old town outside of our air-conditioned room, and we were ready to escape it. After much deliberation we selected Pulau Pangkor as our next destination. This is an island beach destination that the Malaysians are keeping secret from the rest of the world, but we were ready to pull back the curtain on this one!
We boarded a bus in Melaka and set off on a trip of indeterminate length. The vagaries of road travel in Malaysia are such that some bus companies doe not list arrival times, and a 200 km trip can take from 4 to 6 hours. That was the case for our trip, as the bus driver smoked and so the various stops along the way had to accommodate his vice. The buses do not have toilets on board, so if the bus is not scheduled to stop at a station every hour or so, the bus stops at one of the rest stops with which Malaysian highways are well appointed. The bus had other mod-cons, though, which included a personal entertainment tablet that showed movies (all in English) and provided music and games. We all opted to use our own headphones, though, and not the used ear buds provided on the bus.
We had shorted ourselves somewhat in the food department, and had to count on bags of nuts and vending machine drinks along the way. We arrived in Lumut, the coastal departure point for Pulau Pangkor, famished, and ate some unidentifiable curried meats at an Indian restaurant. We then cinched up our packs and walked to the ferry terminal, 10 minute's walk away, and boarded the strange yellow ferry, which looked like a submarine that was no longer able to submerge. It continued as a colour-themed day, as when we arrived we boarded a hot pink taxi van for the fixed-rate, 15 ringatt ($5 Cdn) trip to the far side of the island.
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| There is no excuse for not being able to find a taxi on Pangkor! |
We booked in to the Budget Beach Resort, where they gave us two double rooms for the same price as the family room. This was a welcome relief after having shared single rooms in Melaka and gave parents and children some valued private space from each other. The boys could watch B-rate action movies on the 13" tube TV, while mom and dad could remember what made them mom and dad in the first place.
Things on Nipah Beach, where we were staying, are very quiet. The road is lined with food and clothing stalls, and the main cuisine is fish. The island is predominantly Muslim, so alcohol is not easily obtained and consequently there is none of the usual buffoonery or late hours that attends resort towns.
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| Some school kids interested in the farang at the old Dutch fort |
The highest degree of social disorder is represented by reckless motorbike riding, and we saw a few wipeouts and their results while we were there. We rented a couple of motorbikes on our first full day and explored the island, which does not take much more that a day.
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| They start 'em riding motorbikes young on Pangkor - this bike was actually running |
The island has some fascinating temples and ruins, as well as a working shipyard that makes Chinese junk-style fishing boats.
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| One of many temples |
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| This will be a fishing boat in a couple of weeks - all hand-made |
The pace on the island picked up somewhat (shifting from first to second gear) as the national holiday to celebrate Diwali approached. We actually enjoyed this as it woke up the town and the beaches for about two days.
For all that Malaysia is blessed with lots of coastline and islands, the beach culture there is relatively sedate and undeveloped. Fishing is very popular, and whole families will spend the day pulling tiny fish out of the water using poles from the beach. Women, whether Muslim or Hindu, swim fully dressed - long sleeves and pants with a head scarf for the Muslim women, full-length clothing or saris for the Hindu women. Many of the Chinese swim fully covered as well (including gloves!) to preserve lightness of skin, which is the preoccupation with them as much as tanning is with us. The majority of bikini-clad women or shirtless men were European, and we were about the only North Americans there. As scandalous as our beach attire was, the Malaysians were quite tolerant and considerate.
The beaches were beautiful, and from Coral Beach, a 5 minute walk away from our bungalow, it was possible to wade about 350m across to Coral Island at low tide. The Pangkor Island is well-populated by Hornbill birds, which are tame enough to pluck food from your hand, and monkeys, which while quite entertaining to watch, are mischievous and bold as well, willing to pull things from your cooler or bag and sit in a tree above you while they eat or pull them apart.
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| Hornbills at dinner time - bad luck for one lizard |
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| Does this photo make macaque look too big? |
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| Some of the other wildlife on the beach. We looked into adopting one but the paperwork is horrendous |
We developed our own beach routine, with school in the morning followed by a migration to Coral Beach for the afternoon, reading in hammocks, taking cooling dips in the refreshing water, and enjoying roti and teh tarik at our favourite beach restaurant.
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| The easy way to get to Coral Island |
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| Two rad and gnarly white dudes bringing SoCal to Pangkor |
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| Tea tarik, a book and a hammock in the shade - the best possible way to enjoy the beach |
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| The jet setting, jet skiing couple |
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| The guy that took this photo is blessed |
Ultimately, we had exactly the kind of lazy, laid-back beach experience we had been missing since leaving Koh Yao in Thailand, and re-charged ourselves to face the next leg of our journey! We are off to India!
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Tropical sunset, blah, blah, blah
~Remy
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