Malacca - the Sleepy Hollow

This is a trip up to Malacca, Malaysia to attend Dr Aaron Lim's seminar on "Face Reading". For more information about the seminar proper, click here .

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This post is about our gallavanting around this 'sleepy hollow' historical town and enjoying its delights.

This is the hotel we stayed in. A far cry from the hotel where the seminar is held. See later...

The consolation is that we get some 60s chic in the deco. Mostly accidental I think.



This is the room I stayed in, complete with a sixties heart shaped mirror, themo flask and window unit air-conditioner. :)


They don't make themos flask with iron and tin like these anymore. This one even comes complete with dents on the top. I remember getting a scolding everytime I dropped such themos flasks on the floor denting its top, when I was a kid. :) Great nostalgia, complete with the red, yellow and blue striped towels. hehe.

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This is the mess left after the mahjong session the night before. This cane sofa set must be straight out from the 70s. Notice that the flask stopper is made of cork and wrapped with cotton cloth. This was before the days of themo-setting plastics stoppers were invented.

This TV bench is a cut-off portion of a dis-used bar.

How resourceful!!!

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This windows are seen near the hotel.

What caught my eye is the old flowery iron grill. See next pix.

These grills are made to order. In the 60s that's the only way grills were made.

They were never mass produced.

The iron bars for the grills are even manually bent to form the desired patterns.

. Future plans turned monuments.

Don't you love this kampung life?!!

With free pastures of lallang grass and coconut trees.

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This is a typical Malaccan styled town house.

See the daring blend of European gable roof, Roman columns, Chinese doorways and motifs and Portuguese glazed tiles.

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This shop sells the famous Malaccan Chicken Rice.

It is similar to the Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice, except that the rice are sticky and rolled literally into balls. Don't know why they do that. Perhaps because it made rice more easy to transport around.

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This man sells delicious "poh piah", spring rolls... Street stalls are still common place.

Cockrel sauce dishes...

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Tamil Methodist Church

Many of you may not know, but there are Indian Peranakan in Malacca too.

They are lesser known than their Chinese counterparts.

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Pasar Malam along their famous Jonker Street.

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This looks like a Hindu Temple...

... but it is a Mosque.

In the old days, people are not so uptight about having to be Arabic to be Muslim.

There is yet another mosque that looks like a Chinese Temple.

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This is the courtyard of the Zheng Ho museum.

With the researcher from China who specialises in the voyages of Admiral Zheng He. Incidentally, his family name is also Zheng.

We started the conversation by asking if Admiral Zheng got married!!!!

"Of course not!!!", he replied to much amusement!!! hehe

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The Admiral was a Ming Dynastic Eunuch from China. He was a born Muslim and come from Yunnan.

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As he was a capable man, the Emperor got him to sail south to Nanyang (the Southern Seas).

He also brought along princesses to be married to the local Sultans in Malaya. He confirms that there are royal blood of the Ming rulers via these princesses, but it is very hard to verify who are these dispersed and forgotten royals any more.

I asked if the Zheng He ever ate pork or drank alcohol (which he shouldn't as a Muslim) and the researcher said that it was again difficult to verify, as on board, there were lots of wine and assorted lamb, chicken, beef and pork for everyone on board.

However, Zheng He later converted to Buddhism.

This is the seminar hotel - The Legacy.

Kinda posh!

On the way back to the bus station to go back to Singapore, we took this taxi. The driver is such a cheerful person and when I got out, I had to take this pix... it says "MAD 2996"!!!

After the MAD taxi, I was to take the bus sounding like "dilemma".

And it turned out quite to be one as we were stuck in the Sunday Johor Bahru Causeway traffic jam for one hour.