Another reason for our loving the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Kuala Lumpur was that they offered the most amazing breakfast buffet. In addition to the usual choice of fresh fruit, cereals, cakes, salads, bacon, sausages, eggs etc there was also a Japanese food section, a Malaysian food section of course, a Chinese food section and an Indian food section. Although the 8 hour time difference meant that we felt rather as if we were eating in the middle of the night, and we couldn’t be tempted by the hottest of the curries, we still managed to eat far too much on Saturday morning.
Having already visited most of Kuala Lumpur’s tourist sights we planned today to take the bus south to spend the weekend in the historic city of Malacca
. It was a 2 hour journey on a very comfortable non stop express bus. We travelled through luxuriant rolling green countryside on the very busy motorway that runs south down the west coast of Malaysia towards Singapore.
Malacca was first colonised by the Portuguese and later by the Dutch and the British. There are reminders of all these cultures in the city today but the main tourist area is Chinatown, a compact district of charming 19th century shophouses where the immigrant Straits Chinese settled. Our hotel was an attractive art deco building in the heart of Chinatown with a pleasant café bar at street level.
We spent the afternoon exploring. We began our walk at the Dutch central square, just across the river, where we found the imposing red brick buildings of the town hall and Christ Church, overlooking a fountain decorated with bas reliefs of Queen Victoria. There were hordes of tourists around, many on day trips from Kuala Lumpur and others in large groups from visiting cruise ships
. The transport of choice here was the cycle rickshaw and we were amused to see that the drivers seemed hugely competitive in the way that they decorated their rickshaws to attract customers. Most rickshaws were covered in brightly coloured plastic flowers and flags, many had a music system fitted and at night we discovered that they were also rigged out with flashing lights!
Our walk then took us through the streets where the wealthy Chinese traders lived. Many of the attractive old frontages were now hotels, restaurants and antique shops. We found a shoemaker’s shop where tiny shoes were handmade. These are sold as novelties these days but Chinese women once bound their feet to stunt growth and were expected to squeeze their feet into these miniature sized shoes in order to attract a husband. There were many Buddhist temples to visit as well as an imposing mosque which was built in the Sumatran style and not immediately recognisable as a mosque.
It seemed a lot hotter in Malacca than in Kuala Lumpur and we were soon flagging
. We found a pleasant spot on the riverside where we could enjoy a cold drink and watch the excursion boats pass and decided that we would leave the rest of the sight seeing for Sunday.
Saturday night is a lively one in Malacca and as we strolled back to our hotel, stalls were already being erected along the main street which would soon be closed to traffic for the weekend night market. By the time we emerged for the evening a stage had been erected outside the hotel and dozens of plastic chairs set up in the street were now occupied by visitors enjoying some rather raucous music.
Malacca is known for its Nyonya cuisine (again introduced by the Straits Chinese) and during our afternoon walk we had found a little Nyonya restaurant, a bit off the tourist trail, that we decided to return to in the evening. The plan went wrong, however, when we arrived to find it closed. We ended up on Hainan Food Street. We had to wait for a table but once we had secured a place we could order food from any of the specialist food stalls along the street
. The food was very spicy and delicious, and we were able to try some Nyonya dishes. We later wandered around the crowded nightmarket before returning to the bar outside our hotel. Thankfully the music show was just finishing (with a stirring Malaysian rendition of “The Leaving of Liverpool“) and we had a couple of beers before adjourning to our room to watch the Man City / Newcastle game which started at 11.00pm.
We had a very poor breakfast of coffee, toast and eggs at the hotel café on Sunday morning before continuing our sightseeing. We first visited the Baba Nyonya museum where we were given a guided tour of a wealthy Chinese family’s townhouse. Although the frontage was small it was surprisingly roomy inside with a central courtyard open to the sky and rooms filled with ceramics, silk textiles, hand carved wooden furniture and faded photos of the ever expanding family who lived there. Most Chinese immigrants made their fortunes during the comparatively short Malayan rubber boom
.
Then we crossed the river again and climbed up St Paul’s hill. Here we found the ruins of the church built by the Portuguese in 1521 and used by St Francis Xavier as a base for his missionary work. At the base of the hill was the only surviving gate of the Portuguese Fort. There were several museums in this area but we only had time to walk along the river to see the huge model of a Portuguese galleon, Malacca’s latest tourist attraction. We caught an afternoon bus back to Kuala Lumpur. It had been very, very hot in Malacca and undeniably touristy but we had thoroughly enjoyed our visit.
There were some torrential downpours with spectacular thunder and lightning en route to the capital. Our seats on the bus were directly behind the driver. Although the standard of the roads and of the driving seemed generally good in Malaysia we were a little nervous watching our driver engaging in protracted conversations on his mobile phone whilst driving at speed through the heavy rain and spray with only one hand on the wheel
.
We arrived back in Kuala Lumpur in one piece however and it had stopped raining. The lovely Crowne Plaza’s rooms were for some reason even more expensive tonight and so we had booked a room at a nearby hotel - the Royale Chulan. This turned out to be an excellent choice. The room was better and bigger, the design of the bathroom was better and we even had a view of the Petronas Towers from our room. We decided to reserve final judgement until we had seen their breakfast buffet but there was a strong possibility that we might consider shifting our allegiance from the Crowne Plaza!
We ate once more on Jalan Alor but decided to ring the changes in our choice of bar too and had a couple of beers at an Irish Pub’s “Happy Hour”. (If those were "Happy Hour" prices we should hate to have had to pay the full price!) Tomorrow we were moving on to Thailand. We hoped we might find things a little cheaper there.
A weekend in Malacca
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Malacca City, Melaka State, Malaysia
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