Down to Melaka
I'm giving Medan and Lake Toba a miss this time around. I'll be entering Indonesia on a one month/US$25 'visa on arrival'. I want to move around and see some new parts of this expansive, diverse and interesting country. Northern Sumatra I haven't been to yet...but it'll will still be there, earthquakes and tsunamis withstanding, for a while yet. That can be another trip at some later date.
Sun. Feb.29
Good early-to-bed sleep last nite. Up to greet the last day of the month in this leap year. And a lazy Sunday it is with two sleeps...gettin hot in the middle of these days. Some fellow campers here at Noble complaining about it...but hey...this is the tropics, and near the equator and in the humidity of the hot season.
Mon. Mar.01
A pinch and a punch for the first of the month! Nothing to do with the crowd at Noble, but I feel the need to move on...right now, today. There's a lot I haven't done on Penang Island, but it was never my intention to stay here even this long...10 days. It's not about the time but rather the money. Doing it cheap here is OK...I'm spending around US$15-16 a day... but for me, it's actually relatively expensive. And I want to get to less developed places...they suit me better. Maybe it's because I feel relatively affluenst compared to the locals I come across...and they automatically think all foreigners, let alone those who can afford to travel, must be rich. The naivity of the uneducated. So I feel rich and people think I'm rich. That's a bit
rich.I've traveled in Indonesia before, when I was living and working as a volunteer in Papua New Guinea. It was great to pop over to Irian Jaya a.k.a. Papua province on extended 2 or 3 month breaks...like suddenly your in Asia, food, hotel prices, some of the people! After the expensive-by-any-standards PNG, it WAS so cheap; but that was the best part of 10 years ago now.
Guess I've traveled and spent the best part of a year in Indonesia...if you add up the different trips...further west from Irian, like in Bali (who hasn't) and Lombok (1997-8); in Manado, Sulawesi (1998), and in Java...Surabaya to Jakarta via Yokjakarta and Bandung (2001-2). Spent months on Pelni passenger ships traveling eastern Indonesia over the years. Also done my fair share of Merpati flights too...when you could have a smoker seat down the back...not still, now surely? So I'm kinda looking forward to getting to Indon. again and thinking that I will feel pretty much at home there too. My travel is always like this...no plan at all really...just a general outline of where I want to be and what I want to do there and see, given the time-period and money available. I've got about US$1,800, not counting the US$500 or so locked up in Vietnam...because of an expired card. So I decide that I will head for Melaka, south of Kuala Lumpur (KL) but the objective is Sumatra. I'll spend a couple of days in the historic town, then go over by ferry to Dumai, Sumatra and from there...on up to Bukittinggi, West/Central Sumatra.
Worries about the health of my Mum take a back seet. She seems to be doing OK and her sister Jess is with her at the moment...so all OK to continue. Later in the evening of the first of March I write up the day. “Well didn't get on any sort of bus today...go over to Komtar and book a seat on a bus to Melaka for tomorrow...and then, almost get on one to see the south coast of Penang Island...down near where the airport is...but just feel very tired...after the American breakfast...and by now it's almost midday too. So back to the room for the arvo...taking some more photos of Little India...and some down at the wharf and bus station in the evening...trespassing in the Customs Building area...most looking south into a setting sun.”
Tuesday Mar.02
Up early and hike down to Komtar about 8am... with my life on my back...bus takes the bridge and to Butterworth station...fucks around and doesn't leave there 'til 10.30ish. It's not going to be a straight, direct bus after all...but no worries...passing along the freeway, fringed mostly by oil-palm plantations all the way to KL...all the time in a very hazy atmosphere...burning in the north of Thailand, Laos and Mianmar is the probable cause...it's smoke haze not just pollution or could be from closer to hand. KL...which amazes me, with all it's apartment buildings and super-modern freeways...it's certainly back to the future...hey it really is the 21st century out here in the developed world...
On to Melaka arriving at the back of 6.. As is too often the case, the bus station is not that near the central part of town I need...cheap local bus...no.17 down to the old town square...of this historic monument to firstly Chinese, then Portuguese and Dutch trading interests. The Dutch East India Co. more or less started here about 1600. Unless I'm mistaken they swapped it with the British for I've forgotten where and what other colony. Those were the good old mercantile days not too long after the demise of feudalism in most of Europe. The traders had already overtaken the power and wealth of the landed aristocracy. Walk around in the wrong direction, through the old Chinatown for about an hour...no cheap hotels here these days...finally reaching the Taman Merdeka Raya area, which always had backpacker accommodation. Find a window-less room for RM25...share toilet facilities...hot drinking water and wifi included...out and eat...buy coffee...smoking in the no-smoking bedroom...sleep. eMail sister Irene for update on Mum's health situation. On the history of Melaka:
“In the 15th century Melaka (Malacca) rose to become the greatest trading port in South East Asia before experiencing the complete series of European incursions in Malaysia – Portuguese, Dutch and English.In 1405 Admiral Cheng Ho, the 'three-jewelled eunuch prince', arrived in Melaka bearing gifts from the Ming emperor and promising the sultan protection from Siamese arch-enemies. Chinese settlers soon followed and became known as the Baba and Nyonya (Straits Chinese). Under the Melaka sutanates, the city's strategic position on the Strait make it a wealthy centre for spice trade with China, India, Siam and Indonesia. This wealth attracted the attentions of the Portuguese who in 1511, led by Alfonso d'Albuquerque, launched an assault on the port. Islamic merchants retaliated by taking their trade elsewhere. While Melaka declined, other ports in the area challenged it for supremacy, particularly Dutch Batavia (now Jakarta). In 1641 the city passed into Dutch hands after a siege lasting eight months. In 1795, the French occupied Holland so the British, allies of the Dutch, temporarily (and disasterously) took over administration of the Dutch colonies. The far-sighted Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles interceded and in 1824 Melaka was ceded to the British in exchange for the Sumatran port of Bencoolen (Bengkulu). Melaka once again became a sleepy backwater, temporarily stirring from its slumber during Malaysia's economic boom in the 1990s. New waterfront developments on reclained land have destroyed the natural formation of mangrave swamps along the shore and dealt setbacks to the local Portuguese fishing community. Despite modernisation, old Melaka is still a place of intriguing streets, antique shops, atmospheric mosques, old temples and landmarks bult by former European colonial powers” (Attribution: 2001:464 South East Asia LonelyPlanet Publications).
Wednesday Mar.03
Up before dawn again...at about 7am that is...check mail, reply to Rod, who's now north of Shanghai, and just starting a new job, after walking out on the one he told me was going to be great...a month ago! Nothing from Irene on Mum's condition...need to know, because have a feeling I can only stand this place for a few days...and want to head over on to Bukittingi in central Sumatra. The ideal plan...to spend a month there...on over to Maninjau and Padang...return to KL and then quickly over to Sarawak or Sabah...ending up in Kalimantan and finding a job...maybe in Surabaya or Ujang Pandang/Makassar. We'll see...all depends. On..? There are many options when it comes to going to and leaving Sumatra from Malaysia/Singapore. When I open up my laptop...get only a blank screen...remember knocking it as I put in bag earlier today...whew, re-starts OK. Is this a sign of problems to come?
About 9am, I go for wander to get info on ferry to Dumai at the wharf...leaves 10am every day, takes 1hr and 45 mins...can enter Indonesia without having an onward ticket out! Then I go on a quick walk...up to the town square...take some fotos to say I've been here...especially of the Portuguese/Dutch fort entrance...with the Dutch East India Co. logo above it. Portuguese 1511-1668?, Dutch 'til English in 18th century. Back and check out of noisy guest house where I'm staying...room right by the shower/toilet and light on bright in corridor...I slept OK, being so tired after mee goreng in Raya 3 nearby. Staying at place with same name...Samudra in the next street over (Raya 3)...a bone of contention...RM18 for room with window (was their daughter's), share toilet...good...but no wifi!or hot water...and my water jug...the one that Rod 'gave' me blew up too, today. Not a good day for technological endeavors perhaps.
Will probably get the ferry tomorrow for Dumai, Indonesia. Need to change
money...saw RM3.3 to US$ down at the wharf...it's going down or the RM is going up or both. Last got RM3.4 when I changed US$100 cash in Pulau Penang last Thursday...but as I find out tomorrow when I change at the wharf, Melaka is a rip-off for changing money! Sleep for a couple of hours in the heat of the day...up now...out later when it gets a bit cooler...humid here too...take some evening shots...and that will do for Melaka. It's very boutiquey...way beyond Penang in this respect...really developed, trendy people, lots of Asian tourists and generally more expensive than I care for...