According to my guide, Malacca, Malaysia is “just a slow, swampy little town.” Maybe compared to Kuala Lumpur, as there are about a million folks in the greater Malacca area.
I signed up for the “Malacca Culture and Heritage” tour. We started with a tour of Chinese immigrants. Heck, you can read it yourself.
“Baba & Nyonya” means sons and daughters of the immigrants. Seems the current family members converted two of the houses into a museum and continue to live in the third. I am not personally a fan of mother-of-pearl inlay, but I can acknowledge the skill it takes.
The museum had a lot of original furniture (covered with “do not sit” signs) and clothing. Here is a marriage set:
As these houses were built before air conditioning (or even electricity), there were open-air foyers thruout to allow for air flow. Many were also fountains, to allow the evaporating water to cool the house. I liked the goldfish art on the wall.
What I found interesting were the different types of floor design. What can I say, I’m a sucker for tile work.
As we crossed the town we found ourselves in a parade. Seems this is the final day of the 15-day celebration of lunar new year. Here, the locals were showing off the smaller, local spirits and deities. Each truck/van had a sign on it, essentially saying “This Float is Sponsored by <Business>”.
The quick, short-range travel option were bicycle-powered three wheel taxis. I’m sure this “Hello Kitty” themed taxi paid the proper image usage licenses…
After long, hot and humid walks to other museums and a historic hilltop fort – all educational but not very photogenic. However, at the bottom of the hill was this example of American consumerism.
- It was crazy hot and humid today. I worked legs on this ship in the morning, and after a day of walking the town and up the fort hill – my leg muscles and joints were not happy with me.
- I didn’t realize how close we were to the equator. Singapore is only one degree north!
- At the Baba museum one of the local couples wanted to take a picture of me with them. Should I have been wearing Uncle Sam garb?
- We did a quick visit of the Malacca Straits Mosque, but none of my pictures were better than Wikipedia, so here you go.
