Matt (and Spongebob) Go to Melacca

So after being deceitfully led on an "hour and half" trip to Malaysia, I found myself in the beautiful port town of Melacca. While it only took three hours to get there, it was quite a different world from Singapore. After sitting in traffic for at least an hour, as it turned out to be independence day in Malaysia, we arrived at the historic city.

Most of the historical stuff comes for the Dutch who used it as a strategic port during colonial days. Much like Singapore it sits strategically between India and China where by passing through the straits of Melacca one can avoid circumnavigating Indonesia. There are lots of old dutch buildings from the Church on the hill to the old Stadthaus where business would’ve been conducted. One of the old Dutch mansions however has been turned into a history of Islam museum. After removing your shoes at the door, you can view some old artifacts on the first floor which lay out the basic rules of Islam, to the more relevant Islam in Melacca artifacts on the top floor. The most interesting thing, which was news to me, was the Arabs had come and civilized the primitive savages who lived here before, as depicted in this painting.

The museum had an interesting view on the history of Islam, but nonetheless interesting. And it was noticeably present. The women, while being some of the most beautiful I’ve seen all wore scarf like things that showed nothing but their faces. In this regard they’re quite devout, and if you’re listening to the radio at the right time you might just be lucky enough to stumble into some prayer. Wait! Don’t touch that dial, it’s the same on all the channels! Prior to colonialism, Malaysia was part of the Sultanates of Asia, which is pretty interesting. They’ve actually reconstructed the old palace (pictured here) without using nails, as it would’ve been done originally. I frankly don’t believe that they did it without nails, but that’s what the propaganda says.

The rest of the city is a series of juxtaposed images that reek of old style colonialism met with globalization. The McDonalds in the mall features your standard meals while the bathroom stalls still have Malaysian toilets. I won’t go into detail about what those are about, but instead here’s a picture – let me know if you have any questions. No wonder you have to take your shoes off when you go into the Mosque! In addition you see a lot of poverty and rich culture (like the guys on bikes with huge floral displays and Indian music playing) between the relics of Dutch colonialism and one of the largest malls in Melacca, featuring stores like Levis, and even larger versions of Spongebob. You can understand why there is some resentment between the Malaysians and the Singaporeans when you see how much better the latter live. By far one of the most interesting parts of the day was going into Chinatown where they were having a wonderful street fair. Off to the side was a great row of little bars where we sat outside and had some drinks observing the local traffic. I even managed to find something I had been looking for for a long time – a New Kids on the Block pin, hell yeah!