Leaving Kuala Lumpur for Melaka
Our time in Malaysia was coming to an end. We had to move from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore for our flight home, but instead of going directly to Singapore, we decided to break the trip and spend three nights in Melaka (or, Malacca), one of the oldest settlements in Malaysia.
The bus ride from Kuala Lumpur was quite comfortable and took just over two hours. When we arrived, we found ourselves in a completely different place. After the bustle of the capital, Melaka felt very quiet.
We checked into our guesthouse, where a very helpful host gave us a lot of information about the area. The most important piece of information at that moment was where we could have lunch — it was already past lunchtime and we were hungry.
As it happened, there was a Chinese eatery right around the corner, Kopitiam Tanka. Google called it a “Chinese noodle restaurant,” which sounded discouraging for our food needs. But we should not have worried.
Soup, the Sea, and a Floating Mosque
The place was run by two brothers, and skipping the noodles was not a problem.
We selected the ingredients for our soup — fishballs, vegetables, seaweed and tofu — and they cooked everything together for us.
We liked it so much that we came back for breakfast during our stay in Melaka.
We still had several daylight hours left, so we decided to visit Melaka Straits Mosque, a modern mosque built on the water.
The first thing we discovered was that women had to cover their hair and body and rent special garments at the entrance. Thankfully, I had my sarong scarf with me. One of the women at the entrance fashioned it over my head, covering everything but my face. Valery had quite a bit of fun watching my transformation. I suspect he would not have found it nearly as amusing if he had been the one required to wear something similar.
We removed our shoes and walked inside the mosque, then went out onto the deck behind it, which was open to the sea. As the sun began to dip down, we realized that the best place to see the mosque was actually outside. This was not an original discovery — there were already quite a few people sitting and walking along the shore, looking toward the mosque — so we joined them.
It was a pleasant place to be. The sun was going down, and a light sea breeze brought some coolness after the hot day.
As the sun was setting, the evening service began with the call to prayer. The voice was very melodious, and somehow it blended perfectly with the sunset, the view of the mosque and the sea, creating a special atmosphere.
This is when we realized that the real show would begin after sunset. The mosque was illuminated with different colored lights, making it glow against the deepening blue of the sky and sea.
As darkness settled in, we finally got the photos we had hoped for.
We headed back to our guesthouse quite happy with how the day had turned out.
Seeing Old Melaka With a Local
The next morning I had booked a walking tour of the old town with a local guide. After breakfast at our now-familiar Kopitiam Tanka, we went to the meeting point.
As it turned out, we were the only guests, so unexpectedly had a private tour. Our guide was a retired local who had been born in Melaka and spent all his life there. As we walked through the old streets, the city slowly came to life through his stories.
He told us about Melaka’s history, from the first Malay settlers from Indonesia through the Portuguese, Dutch and British periods and up to the present day. We walked through the streets where some of the wealthiest people had lived.
First the Dutch:
Then the Chinese:
Then we walked through the streets where some of the poorest people in the town had lived — blacksmiths and coolies who worked around the port. On one street, a Chinese temple, a Hindu temple and a Mosque stood practically side by side.
Interestingly, it was the same Kampung Kling Mosque we had seen a model of at the Islamic Arts Museum in Kuala Lumpur.
Seeing the actual building was an unexpected connection between our time in Kuala Lumpur and Melaka.
By the time the tour ended, we had seen much more than old buildings. Our guide had helped us understand how different communities had lived and worked in this small city over the centuries.
Asam Pedas and the Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum
When our tour ended, we had lunch at a local place specializing in Asam Pedas, a spicy and tangy fish stew which was prepared while we waited.
We also selected a few other dishes from the counter: sambal ikan bilis (dried anchovies), sambal kerang (shellfish) and a couple of stir-fry vegetable dishes.
After lunch, we went to the Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum.
It was quite different from the Peranakan Museum we had visited in George Town. This one still felt like a family house, and the audio guide was voiced by one of the descendants of the family, which made the visit feel quite personal.
I was especially impressed by the room displaying the traditional bride and groom’s elaborate costumes in the bridal suite.
Valery was most taken by the staircase to the upper floor.
There was a gate at the top of the stairs that a wife could close and lock so her husband could not come upstairs if she was not happy with his behaviour.
It was a small detail, but somehow it was one of the things we remembered most from the museum.
An Evening Along the River
After the museum, we went back to our guesthouse to rest during the hottest part of the day. Later, we went out for dinner and then took a walk along the river.
In the centre of town, the river promenade was lined with restaurants and quite busy.
As we continued farther from the centre, though, it became much quieter. Colourful boats were constantly going up and down the river, carrying tourists on sightseeing trips. We preferred walking, so instead of taking a boat ourselves, we enjoyed watching them pass by as we continued along the promenade.
It was a nice way to spend the evening after a hot day of exploring Melaka.
Jonker Street
We finished the evening with a walk along Jonker Street.
Our guide had skipped this part of town during the morning tour, and now we understood why. Historically, Jonker Street was an area where people of medium means lived — not the richest, but not the poorest either. Today, it is one of the most tourist-oriented parts of Melaka, with a multitude of shops and restaurants.
It was Monday, so Jonker Street was probably not at its busiest, but there were still plenty of people around. After walking through the quieter parts of the old town earlier in the day, the crowds and tourist-oriented atmosphere felt quite different.
We walked along the street for a while, but didn’t stay long before heading back to our guesthouse.
A Morning Walk Through Melaka
The next day, after breakfast, we started our early morning walk along the river. We wanted to revisit some of the places we had seen during our tour, but this time at our own pace and with more time for pictures.
From the river, we headed to Dutch Square, still almost empty at this hour, then climbed up to the half-ruined Church of St. Paul and continued down to the ruins of A Famosa fort.
After that, we crossed Dutch Square again, dodging trishaws carrying tourists around the old town.
The heavy decorations and loud music felt out of place against the old buildings, so we were not tempted to take a ride.
We wandered through the old streets across the river, taking in the quieter side of Melaka’s old quarter.
Our guide had pointed out these round moon windows during the tour.
He called them “gossip windows” and told us that Chinese housewives used them to chat with their neighbours without leaving the house.
Some women had bound feet, which made walking difficult, and women were not expected to go out without an escort.
At the end of the street, we spotted a traditional Malay wooden house.
It looked so different from most of the Chinese houses we had seen in the old quarter.
Earlier we had seen a replica of a traditional Malay house at the Stadthuys museum, so it was fun to stumble across a very similar house in the street.
Our Last Malaysian Adventure
The next morning, we were leaving Malaysia. We had a 9 a.m. bus to Singapore, so we planned to have our usual breakfast at Kopitiam Tanka at 7.
But when we got there, it was closed.
Our host had suggested an Indian place nearby, so we went there instead. It was open, but they weren’t serving food. The same thing happened at a Chinese place next door.
In the end, we returned to the guesthouse and had an improvised breakfast of nuts and carrots before catching our bus.
The trip from Melaka to Singapore was pretty smooth until we reached the border.
We had to leave our bus, go through customs on the Malaysian side, and then return to the bus at a different location. The stressful moment came when we were delayed at customs because my passport did not scan right away. By the time I cleared customs, all the other passengers from our bus had already left.
We came to a place where we had to go either left or right. There was a sign on each side with a list of bus companies, but ours was not on either list. The worst part was that the signs also said that once you chose a direction, you could not return if you had gone the wrong way.
I was standing there at the fork, trying to decide which way to go. The pressure was getting worse because our bus driver had said he would wait only 20 minutes at the border.
I was completely stumped when Valery turned and went to the right.
I hurried after him, thinking, What would we do if this was the wrong side?
But it was the right side. We saw our bus there, with all the passengers already on board. We ran toward it, waving, just as it was pulling away.
Thankfully, it stopped and we got in.
And that was our final encounter with Malaysia.
Singapore: More Than an Airport
When we arrived in Singapore, we took the MRT to the airport.
During the ride, I was looking around the car and noticed a sign listing things that are not permitted on the train.
Who knew that carrying durians was considered as dangerous as carrying flammable goods!
We had quite a bit of time before our flight, but fortunately Singapore airport is a good place to spend it. We went to Jewel Changi, the ten-level mall adjacent to the airport. We had lunch at a Thai restaurant, looked through the shops and wandered around the gardens, which occupy several levels of the mall.
The main feature was the giant 40-meter-high waterfall falling from the transparent cupola to the lowest level — the Rain Vortex.
There were multiple paths through the terraced gardens, with benches scattered among the greenery and a small stream cascading down.
After that, we had dinner at a dumpling place and bought tickets for a movie.
But before the movie, we had another surprise in the garden. As the transparent cupola darkened with the coming night, the giant waterfall was illuminated with different colored lights. It was a mesmerizing view, but it was not all.
At 8 p.m. there was a light and music show. It lasted only five minutes, but it was a great ending to our wandering through Jewel.
Almost Around the World
Finally, our boarding time came and we headed to our flight home.
Looking back at our route, this trip had taken us almost around the world. We started in Toronto and flew to Vancouver, then to Seoul and Manila before making our way through Malaysia to Singapore. From Singapore, our flight took us to Jeddah and then onward toward Toronto.
The morning flight over the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa gave us a fascinating view of the landscape below.
After the tropical greenery of Southeast Asia, the vast stretches of brown and beige looked almost surreal from above. Cities appeared below us, surrounded by an overwhelmingly dry landscape with hardly any green to be seen.
We continued across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe before finally crossing the Atlantic and arriving back in Toronto, bringing our long journey almost around the world to an end.