18/11/08 Our journey down went okay. On arrival at lunchtime, we got a bus into the city centre, found an internet cafe and looked up places to stay. Eventually we found one and checked in; it was very nice actually for the price we were paying. After a bit of a rest, it was the evening, so we decided to walk to the Portuguese Settlement and have some food there after looking around. Melaka is unique in Malaysian terms, because is was ruled by the Portuquese, the Dutch and the British before Malaysia gained independence in 1957, and contains a lot of historical buildings from those periods. I was quite excited about seeing the Portuguese Settlement, because descendants of the original Portuguese settlers who conquered Malacca in 1511 still live there, and the older generation can still speak a dying dialect called Christao which developed from medieval Portuguese. However, when we finally arrived (the map, as usual, wasn't much good), we were both quite disappointed; I knew that the centre, Portuguese Square, had been built in 1985 in a supposedly Portuguese style, but it didn't look very authentic. It consisted mainly of a concrete carpark and some Portuguese seafood restaurants, and a modern archway covered in tourism posters. There was a good view over the Strait of Malacca, but that was about the only good thing about it. We didn't even eat there in the end, because we were put off by the people standing outside them hassling us to go inside. It was just so obvious that the authorities, knowing that the 'Portuguese Settlement' sounds interesting to visitors, were determined to draw tourists to it in a big way, and ended up 'Disneyfying' it and destroying a sense of authenticity in the process. The houses surrounding the centre did look very different to normal (though they didn't have flat roofs or were painted in bright colours, how I remember the buildings were like in Lisbon) and I'm pretty certain they were authentic , but they didn't look it. Disappointed, we walked back. On the way, we stopped at a Chinese 'restaurant' (like most of them in Malaysia, just a collection of food stalls and plastic tables under one roof) and had some dinner there - fried vegetables with beef, and seafood rice. It was lovely, which goes to show that atmosphere certainly isn't everything! It was very cheap too.

19/11/08 We visited a lot of places today - the historical centre of the town is quite compact so everything was within easy walking distance of each other. The first thing we saw was the entrance gate to a Portuguese fortress called A Formosa, the only part of is that now remains (the rest was destroyed by the British East India Company.) Next to it was a hill with St Paul's Church at the top. It was built by the Portuguese in 1521, but was taken over by the Dutch and now contains many old Dutch gravestones from their colonial period.

The next place we visited was the Museum of Beauty, the Kite Museum and the Governor of Melaka's Gallery, all contained under one roof. The Museum of Beauty turned out to be all about tattooing, scarring, dental mutilation, lip plugs, body mutilation (head elongation etc.) and other aspects of what different tribes from around the world consider to be beautiful for the human body. There was also some information about what they called 'modern primitives' - ie. punks and those with entire-body tattoos in the Western world. The Kite Museum was interesting too - kite-flying is an traditional, ancient art which is practised all over Asia, including Malaysia. It had examples from lots of Asian countries, information about the history of kite flying, and posters advertising the world kite-flying championships from different years (I can't remember the exact title of the competition.) On the ground floor it had a collection of Gising, ie. spinning tops (this is also a traditonal Malaysian sport/tradition), and information about Silat, the Malaysian martial art.

We needed to get some money out, so we walked on and over the river into Jonker Walk. This is a street filled with restored Chinese shophouses, containing antique shops, souvenir shops, food stall restaurants etc. We had some delicious Haianan chicken rice, and looked around, but didn't get anything. In one of the antique shops, they had either British or Japanese war helmets, and a big collection of antique swords and daggers. Later on I read that Jonker Walk is a bit of a fraud, because when the authorities realised that tourists were interested in the traditonal shophouses etc., a lot of the original businesses were actually driven out and the shophouses restored and the souvenir shops set up inside them instead. That's one reason why Penang is so unique - traditonal life has continued to live on a lot more than in the other former Straits Settlements of Malacca and Singapore, and hasn't been 'Disneyfied' for the tourist trade.

At this point we went into a travel agent to book our bus tickets to Singapore for the next day. However, they told us that you can only get them at the bus terminal itself! Dave said he'd get a bus up there while I looked in the next museum, so I wrote down which places I was going to so that he'd know roughly where I'd be when he got back. Then we agreed that I'd walk home at 5, so that if he'd got back to town before then and been unable to find me, he'd know that I'd be going home at that time. So I went into 'Stadthuys', the former colonial Dutch town hall, in which the Museum of History and Ethnicity is held. It was very interesting, but I got distracted near the end by getting absolutely desperate for the loo - the museum had no toilets so I had to dash round the last couple of galleries and go on to the next museum in hope of finding one there. This was the Maritime Museum, part of which is inside a replica of a 16th century Portuguese ship, on the river. Inside, it also had models of an English ship of that era. A separate building contained information about the marine life of Malacca, and small portraits of famous sailors/adventurers such as Francis Drake, Marco Polo and Ferdinand Magellan. Thankfully, there was a toilet there! As soon as I stepped onto the street, Dave came walking up! He'd got the tickets okay. He also went round the Maritime Museum, so I went with him (they didn't make me pay again.)

We had some dinner at a restaurant by the river before walking home. I was glad we'd brought our waterproofs with us after all, because it started raining on our way back, and then turned into a full blown thunderstorm.

In all, we weren't that impressed with Malacca. Although it does contain a lot of interesting history, it's just so obviously geared towards drawing in as much tourism as it possibly can! In a couple of the museums, they actually had boards up describing how Malacca has the specific aim of developing as much tourism and industrialism as possible. Also, apart from the small historical centre, it's got a lot of industrial and other ugly buildings, and rows of modern housing surrounding and going right up to the historical buildings. Everywhere you look, there's a building site of some description.