Wandering the streets of Malacca

Walking around Malacca was weird, because it often did not feel like I was in SE Asia, but rather in some smaller town in Europe.

But then, other times, it definitely felt like SE Asia. It was an interesting mix of everything.

There was also a very muscular statue next to an elephant statue.

We wandered around to the various sites. We went to the Kampung Kling Mosque, though I couldn't enter the actual temple. It was originally built in the 1700's, then rebuilt in 1872.

We then went to thee Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, which is the oldest functioning temple in Malaysia. It was built in 1645.

We also walked around another temple.

It had this extremely happy statue.

We found a shop that sold bound feet shoes, even though that doesn't happen anymore. The guys says he does it for the art of the shoe. They were extremely small. It was disconcerting.

We walked around during a short amount of free time that we had. We found a strange boat with steps leading up to it. In the middle of a crowded street.

We bought some of that juice. It was not delicious.

The view of the river was lovely!

These are Malay houses built without nails.

We then drove back to KL during a pretty intense thunderstorm. The other person on our tour asked about snakes. Our tour guide said he recently had a cobra (!!!!!!) in his house in Kuala Lumpur (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and has had 3 of them recently (3!!!!!). He said Malay people don't kill them, because they believe that killing a snake will bring generations upon generations of bad luck. He said he talks to the snake and just says, "You are not here to hurt me and I am not here to hurt you. Go back to your home!"

Afterwards, we wandered around the electronics market and Petaling street before turning in for the night.

I wrote in my journal, "Our guide talked about Dengue Fever tonight. Now I am worried about getting Dengue Fever. I think I might have a cold. I bet it's Dengue Fever"

I did not get Dengue Fever.

I went to Cambodia the next day to visit Todd, Jen and Josiah! But that will be the next blog.

  

Thanksgiving in Malacca, Malaysia

The following day, it was Thanksgiving that day! My fourth Thanksgiving away from home. I wrote in my journal, "I hate seeing the pictures of Thanksgiving because they make me sad. But, I'll be home for Christmas. However, it does not feel like Christmas is coming since it was 'feels like 105' today."

I am not one of those people that enjoys holidays away from home. 

We went on a tour to the city of Malacca, about two hours south of Kuala Lumpur. It was colonized/occupied at different times by the Portuguese and the Dutch. There was clearly a very strong influence by both countries in the architecture there. It was quite beautiful.

Our tour guide was great. He had an abundance of knowledge about everything you might ever needs to know about Malaysia. On the drive down, I learned that "Kuala Lumpur" means "muddy estuary" which isn't the most beautiful of names. I learned that Malaysia is 57% Malay people, 23% Chinese people, 13% Indian and 2.1% indigenous tribesmen. 60% of the people are Muslim, since many Chinese people apparently converted to improve their business ventures. In Malacca, Chinese men who married Muslim women are considered their own race. Their children are known as something that sounded like 'babba nonyas' but that could be completely incorrect. 

I am uncertain if that is a real person, but I'm hoping it isn't.

Also I arrived a couple months after the Malaysian Air plane disappeared. Chinese tourism dropped 60% after that. About a month after that, an Air Asia flight crashed into the ocean, which was the airline I flew from Korea-Kuala Lumpur and then KL-Phnom Penh. 

The drive down was very pretty. There were a lot of palm farms (the largest cash crop in Malaysia) and rubber farms. Cows were also mixed in.

Our first stop was St. Peter's Church, built by the Dutch in 1710. It's a Roman Catholic church.

The church was beautiful. And very European. Except it was Malaysian.

We then headed to the city center, which is famous for the church and statehouse built by the Dutch.

There were a lot of little carts with Hello Kitty on them. I did not feel the need to ride in them.

This is the inside of Christ Church, which was built in 1753.

The square is called Stadthuys, It was built in 1650 by the Dutch occupants at the time.

Apparently, parts of it are dangerous.

There was an alarming bug, though I find most bugs alarming.

Our next stop was St. Paul's Church, built in 1521, which is now in ruins. The statue of St. Francis Xavier had a tree fall on it the day after it was consecrated, which followers now consider significant since St. Francis Xavier's arm is now a relic.

Notice his missing hand.

This is A Famosa, which is the oldest surviving European architectural remains in SE Asia. It was built in 1511

It was brick that seems to have been covered in some sort of plaster.

Afterwards, we drove to get lunch at a tradition nonnya (sp??) restaurant, which I believe was delicious and spicy. But the later events will be in my next blog,