I must say I'm truly brilliant to plan a break in Malacca on weekdays. We avoided the notorious traffic jams over the causeway and got to Malacca within three hours!
We arrived in Malacca at about 1pm, and our minds were set on the number one item on our agenda - Jonkers Dessert 88 for laksa and cendol.
You have NO idea how miserable I was with not being able to sink my chops into these two items the last time I was there with the gin gang.
So now, I've finally fixed myself. Yay.
When we were done, we navigated through Malacca in search of where we were supposed to spend our next two nights - The Majestic, Malacca.
This luxury boutique hotel may be only two years old but the building has been around far longer. I was told it was constructed even before World War 2. The floor tiles in the lobby (pictured below) are just as old as the building, and we were advised to "tread carefully".
I guess no elephants on stilettos will be allowed in this hotel.
The hotel has a library stocked with a variety of encyclopedias, including an aged set of Children's Britannica and a collection of classic literature. How fab!
Josh demonstrated his enthusiasm over the library with a mighty big yawn. -_- And he had merely looked at the book covers.
I love boutique hotels because they have their own unique character. Staying in one is an adventure in itself and I love going around the hotel to see what the owners have done.
Although The Majestic is a boutique hotel, guestrooms were surprisingly spacious. I guess the owner had a lot more freedom in the design of the guestrooms compared to the owners of, say, Singapore's The Scarlet Hotel and Hotel 1929, since the accommodation wing was newly constructed and thus not subjected to conservation regulations.
Heritage buildings are lovely to behold, but a real headache to convert into commercial use because of numerous restrictions imposed by the government to protect as much of the original architecture as possible.
Yes, the hotel has a pool. And there I spent just an hour - half of it by the pool playing a game on my iPhone while waiting for Josh to come by with my sunblock and half of it cooling off in the pool after I realised he was taking too long and my boobies were burning up.
That half-hour in the sun without sunblock was long enough for the front of me to turn lobster red. So now, I am pink in front and a teeny bit browned behind. :)
I'll have to fix that uneven tan another day.
Pretty hotel aside, the one thing I truly enjoyed during this trip to Malacca was a two-hour historical trek I took with a historian employed by the hotel.
The historian not only painted an informative picture about Malacca's past and resulting present, he also linked Malacca's history with that of Singapore, which was also under British rule many donkey years back.
I've been to Malacca several times now and I adore the old architecture. But not once, until now, did I truly 'see' so much of the destination.
An old building, for instance, is now more than just a remmant of the past; it tells a story.
When the Dutch ruled Malacca, the governor imposed taxes according the width of the house and the number of windows the house had. So the people back then built narrow but long houses with very few windows. To make up for the lack of windows, and thus ventilation, the people built courtyards with open-air atriums in the middle of their houses to channel wind into the house.
When the British took over Malacca, taxation rules changed. Taxes were no longer charged in proportion to one's house width and number of windows. Walking through Malacca today, you could tell which houses were built when.
This house below, for example, was built during the Brit rule. Just look at the number of windows it has! :)
According to the historian, it was the ridiculous practise of taxation by number of windows that gave birth to the term "daylight robbery".
Again, an old bridge is more than, well, just a bridge.
I saw a modern bridge built over the pillars of one that was bombed by the British soldiers who wanted to stop the advancing Japanese soldiers during World War 2. The original bridge was commonly used then by people who were enroute to Singapore.
I saw too, this bridge - unassuming like many other bridges around Malacca - that bore a dark tale behind it. It was on this bridge that the ruling Japanese soldiers hung decapitated heads of notable locals as a way of putting fear into the hearts of the people.
The historian said his great grandfather fell victim too.
The bridge may still stand today, but an altar of a god had been erected next to the bridge and some older folks who survived the war refuse to cross this "ghost bridge".
The historian also opened my eyes to some architectural details of Stadhuys - constructed in 1650 by the Dutch and is now a museum. These black tiles (pictured below) that lined the steps to the museum's entrance were tombstones of Dutchmen whose tombs were desecrated by the Portuguese who colonised the town after the Dutch.
Just as the sun was starting to set, we climbed uphill to St Paul's Church and heard about how the locals reported sightings of the "other kind" there a couple of days ago.
"That's why you see the locals are all leaving now," said the historian as we did the opposite - we entered the church while the other were all leaving. Yikes.
Suddenly the dilapidated church seemed a lot darker than it was when I entered. Didn't help that the inside of the church stood huge tombstones of the ancient masters of the land. My hair stood on their ends and I was dying to exit the ruins soonest possible.
I think this - the hostorical trek - is the best experience any visitor to Malacca could have. Malacca's beauty and status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site would be lost on a tourist if there isn't an educated historian to take him/her through the town.
I feel sorry for the busloads of tourists who come to Malacca and make a beeline for Christ Church and the Red Square for a couple of snapshots to take home without learning something valuable about the destination. There is so much more to Malacca than these attractions!
The next day, we headed to Villa Sentosa, a living museum and a winning attraction in Malacca.
Villa Sentosa could have been a fantastic attraction to visit and learn a thing or two about the Malay heritage of Malacca. Unfortunately, the educational value of this attraction relies heavily on the narrator,a 72-year-old man who owns and lives in Villa Sentosa.
Mid-way through the tour, the owner drifted off to plant his eyes on his TV screen which was showing a badminton match. His narrative on Villa Sentosa and the living styles of the Malay community in Malacca turned suddenly into an enthusiastic commentary on the badminton match.
I looked incredulously at Josh, who was by then grinning away in amusement. I had to bite my lip to resist bursting into laughter.
I realised soon after that the visit to Villa Sentosa was really a visit to Comedy Central. The owner spoke more about himself and which well-known politicians were his guests before.
"And guess who was very impressed with Villa Sentosa?" the owner posed mystically as he pulled out an old logbook from under his coffee table. He flipped through the logbook, stopped at a particular page and said proudly, "There! Winston Churchill himself came here and signed in my guestbook!"
To my further amusement, he boasted about his ability to speak Japanese and broke into a wobbly rendition of the Japanese national anthem. Then he sat grandly at a table, inviting us to take photos of him. He then signed his name in Japanese on a brochure he later presented to each of us.
When he was done with that, he invited us to donate to Villa Sentosa. How much? RM10 per person, as indicated by two RM10 bills taped to the top of the plate he used to collect donations. We were not allowed to donate any less. :)
The owner may seem like an odd ball, but I think he's just an old man who enjoys the attention from strangers and the opportunity to talk about himself and his glories.
I guess old people are like that and there's nothing wrong about that. But Villa Sentosa mught not be the place you wanna visit if you have very limited time in Malacca.
Villa Sentosa gave me a couple of chuckles and also the chance to make friends with this fluffball kitty cat.
On the last night, we returned to Jonkers Walk with an intention to pub-hop. Unfortunately, a filling dinner meant we could hardly drink.
We ended up downing only one beer at Geographer Café and only one cocktail at Libar Cocktail House, both of them located a couple of doors apart from each other. The latter, as its name suggests, offers over 170 different cocktails. Then we headed back to the hotel to nurse our bloated tummies in bed.
Bah! So much for pub-hopping.
To end this post, I will leave you with this photo I grabbed on this trip.
Bachelor sausage. Perfect for a man-eater. :)
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