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| Other countries sue_and_nathan visited in yearaway |
| Australia (4) |
| Cambodia (2) |
| Czech Republic (1) |
| India (6) |
| Indonesia (2) |
| Japan (1) |
| Malaysia (6) |
| New Zealand (2) |
| Singapore (1) |
| Thailand (7) |
| United Kingdom (2) |
| Vietnam (4) |
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| So, the decision was made and we headed down to Melaka, probably the most famous and therefore possibly the most touristy place we'd been to in Malaysia so far. Melaka had once prospered as the most important trading port in the region, first in the hands of the Portugese, then the Dutch, then the British and, as soon as it ceased to prosper, back into the hands of the Malays! We instantly took a shine to Melaka, partly because of our choice of hotel which was a traditional house on a road which had once been millionaires row in this part of the world, and partly because Melaka is such a beautiful town. The people who mainly lived here were called 'Peranakans' which were Chinese merchants who had settled in this area and married Malays - as far as we could glean the ladies were called Nyonyas and the men were Babas and they were mostly extremely well off. And so the architecture of Melaka has all of these influences rolled into it - in some places you feel like you're in the Meditteranean and in others, well, you could mistake it for olden days China. This makes for an interesting looking town as well as a very beautiful town. We did a lot of walking around Melaka and saw a number of temples, houses and mosques, but probably one of the most interesting things we saw were the traditional craftsmen at work, although this is quickly dwindling as tourism is stepped up and the old shops are replaced with hotels. We saw tinsmiths, bamboo weavers and even a man who made papier mache puppets to take with you in your coffin to the next world. The puppets were of servants, cooks and even butlers so you would be kept in the custom you were used to!! Most interesting of all (especially to Sue who has a very strange fascination with this that I don't quite share!) we visited the only cobbler in Malaysia who makes (or who has ever made) shoes for ladies with bound feet or san chon chin lian ( three-inch golden lotus feet) shoes. This was considered de riguer with society ladies in Melaka and so before their feet were fully formed they would have them bound and broken, In reality, very few ladies achieved the desired size of three inches, but many of them got pretty close. We were told by the owner of the Wah Aik, Mr Yeo, that for ladies to wear his red shoes in bed was considered very sensual and if their feet were infected and stinking this was considered to heighten the eroticism still further! One the main streets in the historical bit of town, Jonkers Walk, becomes a bustling street market every evening and so we spent a few of our evenings wandering along there, sampling the delicacies that were on offer at every other stall. After watching a local talent contest (or at least, we assume it was a local talent contest!) and peaking in to the local meeting hall which in the daytime was a very serious place for ceremonies such as funerals, but in the evening turned into the local karaoke hall (and my, some of those singers were BAD) we went down a backstreet to sample the local satay, But, this wasn't any old satay, this was satay with a difference. You went to the stall and collected your raw satay sticks loaded with all sorts of tasty things such as fish balls, fresh chillis, marinated chicken and even intestines and then went back to your table which had a bubbling pot of peanut sauce set in the middle. You then set about cooking it yourself, whilst sipping the local beer and watching the world go by. This eating experience rated as one of the best we've had so far, not just because of the lovely food, but also because of the location. All of the houses on the street had huge red chinese lanterns lit up outside their balconies, there were people everywhere and the atmosphere was just superb. This summed up Melaka for us. Many people we met really didn't like it here, but then it seemed as if they expected a historial showpiece and not a living breathing town where people actually work and exist. After delaying for a few days, because we had taken to Melaka so much, we finally boarded a bus heading to Johor Bahru. I had called ahead to try and book a hotel, but it had all got very confused and so we weren't quite sure what was awaiting us when we got there. 'How many people do you want a room for, Sir?' 'Two please' 'Three?' 'No, two please','Three?','Two!','Three?','Two!!' - 'And how many beds?' 'Just one' 'Oh no Sir, we don't do that here' at which point I gave up! Anyway, when we did eventually get to Johor Bahru (2 hours late due to a flat tyre), looked at each other and simultaneously said ,'Shall we just head on to Singapore?' Ten minutes later we were lugging our backpacks through Singaporese customs, although we were kind of interested to see what the hotel in Johor Bahru had arranged for us! The second time in Singapore we stayed near the Little India part of town. This showed us a completely different aspect of Singaporean life, which we liked immensely. We ate with the locals in hawker centers which sell great food at cheap prices and, because it's Singapore, there's no need to worry about getting a dodgy stomach. We did a few of the more toursty things like going on a night safari and visiting the zoo, both of which are 'open', meaning that the cages are usually moats, so no bars. We enjoyed these visits but we still have a few problems coping with animals being kept for entertainment. On Sunday mornings many people gather at a small park to 'socialise' their birds. The ornately decorated cages, containing the birds, are hung close together and the birds sing (most just tweet). The owners chat amongst themselves, moving their birds around occasionally when they think they are unhappy. It was a relaxing, if somewhat perplexing, experience. This Sunday was also the first day of the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts which meant that everywhere we went people were burning huge piles of incense paper and fake notes. The government this year were trying to get people to burn their incense in bins with lids, but unlike most of the Singaporean governments drives this one really didn't seem to be working and the skies were filed with rising ash and smoke. (One of the most successful government drives was apparentely set up to stop drunk Singaporeans peeing in the lifts of their apartment blocks. They installed close circuit cameras and alarms in the lifts which alerted neighbours, who would then put a stop to this night time activity!). Another element of the festival is that as the ghosts are hungry, people offer food to appease them. In front of one house, among various other tasty morsels, was a whole roasted pig. No doubt their ancestor was a particularly hungry ghost! | ||||||||||||
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| 7 Aug 2001 : Yamaguchi prefecture - Japan | 3 Sep 2001 : Ungaran, Central Java - Indonesia | |||||||||||
| Kimurasan shows us Japan | Into the Southern Hemisphere | |||||||||||