Malacca, Malaysia & Singapore

Malacca (also spelled Melaka) is a city on the southwest coast of Malaysia, and I had always heard of it in reference to the Malacca Straits. Once we started exploring and heading into museums, we found that it was first established in 1400 by Parameswara, a Sumatran prince. It remained the Malacca Sultanate until overthrown by the Portuguese in 1511. They built a fort to protect the highest point, and this is all that remains -

St. Paul’s Church was built on top of the hill in 1521, and visited by St. Frances Xavier numerous times, as he was propagating Christianity in the area.

It is the oldest church building in SE Asia.

The Dutch captured Malacca in 1641, because of wanting a foothold in the spice trade. The Dutch East India Company was prominent in shipping throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Stadthuys was built in the 1650’s as a town hall, and later became an administrative center.

Buildings were painted red in the 1820’s, and the area became known as Red Square (also, Dutch Square) -

The British took over control of Malacca in 1824, until Malaysia achieved its independence in 1957. We didn’t find a whole lot of British influence as we wandered around, other than they drive on the left! Speaking of transportation, a very interesting mode is the tri-shaw. Be sure to have your audio on for this video:

The speakers on front of the carriage would be blasting the music choice of the passengers. (and no, we didn’t ride in one)

As we wandered around town, we found numerous temples…

… which were predominantly Chinese Buddhist.

The ornate decorations along the top are made from pieces of clay pottery -

We did make a special trip outside the city to see the Melaka Straits Mosque at sunset -

I had to clamber quite a ways along a rocky shore to get this, not-so-great picture, after I had seen some beautiful ones online. Those must have been taken years ago before all the construction built up around here. So, if you’re headed to Malacca, and want to see the mosque bathed in beautiful sunset colors…don’t bother. [you’re welcome] :)

I loved all the tile roofs and greenery throughout the old town -

We specifically styed in Malacca over a weekend, so we could go to the Jonker Street Night Market. We expected lots of street food like in Penang, but we were disappointed.

It was more of a flea market, with some stalls selling sweets -

We did enjoy watching the river traffic…

… and the lights after dark -

Shifting gears — we’re going to head to Singapore for our last night in SE Asia. Here’s a reminder of what the Marina Bay Sands hotel looks like -

Well… I wanted to go to the top and have a cocktail! On the 57th floor, they have an infinity pool (for those who paid $500 and up for a room)…

… where you could watch the sun set, and lights come on over the city. Where we were sitting at the bar, we also had access to the other side of the building, to see the harbor…

… and the light show put on in the Gardens by the Bay -

I’ll close with this silent video, and say Bye for now… until our next big adventure!

My mistake...Penang redux

I’m sorry. I did not mean for that partial Penang post to come out. It was supposed to have been saved, for me to continue to work on it. So, anyway… the monkey that reminded me of Don King, really did so when he was talking to us (sorry it’s a little out of focus) -

Penang is a true melting pot of Asian cultures, and has many temples, from Chinese Buddhist…

… to Indian Hindu…

… to Muslim mosques.

These were all on the same street - Harmony. :)

So besides checking out the local temples and nature, I enjoyed tracking down some street art. A Lithuanian artist, Ernest Zacharevic, painted the most interesting ones to me. Little Children on a Bicycle…

… Children on a Swing…

… that I just had to join (this is the closest I’ll ever get to Instagram)…

… and Boy on a Motorbike -

For all you cat lovers out there -

I thought this was a fantastic 3-D piece, complete with shadows -

We also toured two mansions of rich Chinese merchants from the 19th century. The Green Mansion wasn’t much to see from the outside, but had a gorgeous courtyard within the family temple…

… while the Blue Mansion offered some great pics…

… including this courtyard just past the front receiving room -

So, here are some street scenes that caught my eye -

… most buildings were no more than 2 stories…

… and pedal rickshaws were occasionally used by tourists -

Now finally, the food. Night markets begin setting up and selling food at 6 pm every night. You just walk down the street and get a plate of something that’s appealing to you -

… and the cost is about $1. You grab a table on the side of the road, sit on plastic stools, and direct the food vendor to deliver the food you want to your table, or just take it with you. A quick video on one of my favorite fried noodle dishes (egg, bean sprouts, noodles, pork cracklin’s and shrimp) -

Here’s a stand where you choose the foods you want to cook in the boiling broth, and you’re charged by how many skewers you take -

You share the road with pedestrians, food stands and even cars -

We loved the street food, but did have Dim Sum…

… at a beautiful tea house -

Well, I’ve reached the end of my photo folder for this city, so “see ya!”

Penang

This was our next stop on our tour of Malaysia. It is an island off the NW coast (very near the Thailand border) that is known around the world for its street food. Besides eating, though, we found plenty of sights to explore.

The Kek Lok Si temple is the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia. It is a large complex with many prayer halls…

… with multiple statues of Buddha…

… amid colorful decorations -

At the top of the hill is the 120 ft tall bronze statue of Guanyin, Goddess of Mercy -

The doors in the picture above are “human size”, as is the staircase you can just see at her feet in the next one -

Again, besides food, one of my favorite places was The Habitat Penang Hill. This is a nature preserve to protect rainforest, right at the edge of bustling Georgetown. There were some beautiful flowers…

Ginger

Bromeliad

… Fern Trees…

… and beautiful mammals, such as the Giant Black Squirrel (size of a housecat)…

… and the Dusky Leaf Monkey…

… also known as the Spectacled Langur -

That one reminded me of Don King. :)

Cameron Highlands

This area of Malaysia is about 120 miles north of Kuala Lumpur, and at 3-4,000 ft of elevation. It was SO much cooler than at sea level (where we’d been sweltering for the last 6 weeks). Daily temps in the rest of Malaysia were usually around 90, while here they were in the low 70’s. Besides tourism, the main business here is growing tea…

… and strawberries.

The latter are grown in large “greenhouses” covering acres of hillsides…

Another view, showing tea in the foreground and strawberries in the distance on the right (under the white plastic coverings) -

We did a tour of the largest tea plantation in the area (BOH Tea). Besides being very photogenic…

… it was also quite informative. BOH is not a surname, but stands for “best of highlands”. Tea bushes are not harvested for the first four years (then produce for 100 years!), but are kept trimmed to about waist-high:

The new shoots of the topmost leaves are then hand plucked (for the finest teas), or sheared by two people on either side of the bushes moving a large set of scissors over the tops. Our driver for the morning told us that tea leaves can be harvested every 21 days from the same bush.

After harvest, the leaves are “withered” for 20 hours to reduce moisture content and remove the “leafy” taste. They are then rolled and compressed to “liberate the enzymes and juices”. Fermentation (oxidization) is done by spreading them out on trays for varying lengths of time. Green tea is not fermented at all. Drying (quickly, over 10 minutes) stops the fermentation process and reduces moisture content from 60% to 3%. Sorting is done by passing them through a series of vibrating sieves, separating out stalks and fibers. I found it interesting that tea bags are filled with “Tea Bag Dust”, one of the lowest categories.

All of that information above came from a series of posters outside the factory. We were told not to take pictures inside the factory. Hopefully, this panorama will translate well here -

We then went to a place called Mossy Forest. It sits at an elevation of nearly 6700 ft, and is commonly shrouded in clouds and mist.

We had a beautifully clear morning for our walk…

… and enjoyed the flowers and ferns.

The name was quite appropriate…

… as mosses and other plants covered branches quite thickly -

I don’t know what this flower is, but it made a pretty wall on the outside of a strawberry greenhouse. And this is where I leave you for today.

photo courtesy of Steve :)

Kuala Lumpur

After the sweaty wilds of Borneo, we welcomed the civilization of Kuala Lumpur. We spent several days seeing the sights and sampling local food. Our first day was checking out the heights of this very (to us) vertical city -

That is the KL Tower, where we got great views of the city…

the Petronas Towers are on the right side of the picture

… and the surrounding highlands…

… and we really enjoyed the experience of stepping into the Skybox -

One of our best pictures of this trip was taken by the security guard (!) -

We learned that the Merdeka 118 tower is the second tallest building in the world right now (behind the Burj Khalifa in Dubai)…

I think you can figure out which building is the Merdeka

… and it was just completed this month.

I thought this was a fun pic -

I hadn’t even realized that the shadow of the tower we were in was in the picture, until I was picking the photos for the blog. :)

We then walked over to get some pictures of the Petronas Towers…

… because for me they are synonymous with KL. I thought they were near the top of tallest buildings in the world, but actually they are “only” the 21st tallest building in the world. We opted not to go up, so this seemed to be a bit of a let down after seeing the city from the KL Tower.

That night, and nearly every night we were in KL, we went to Jalan Alor for the street food Night Market -

There are stalls of food where you can order food, and then eat it at tables right on the street, sitting on plastic stools -

We had these fantastic charcoal-grilled chicken wings, that still make my mouth water.

On the next day, we headed out to Batu Caves, just a few km north of the city proper, but 30 minutes by Grab (the Malaysian version of Uber/Lyft) -

This is a Hindu temple dedicated to Murugan, who is commonly referred to as “the god of the Tamil “ people of south India. At 140 ft high, it is the second tallest Murugan statue in the world. There are 272 steps to reach the first (and largest) cave, and these were painted the ‘Instagram’ colors in 2018.

The caves are limestone, and had neat formations…

… formed by water dripping through over the centuries. There were a series of caves…

… within which a number of temples were built. The cave furthest back was open on top -

As we headed back out, you can see the edges of the city…

… as well as the bright colors that we found on most every Hindu temple -

Did you see the monkeys? There are at least 4 Long-tailed Macaques in the picture above.

Now, after still sweltering in KL (highs around 90, humidity at 75-85%), we’re looking forward to cooler temps up in the Highlands, which is the next post.