Magic in Malacca

So . . . . when I arrived in Malacca, Malaysia and I was greeted by a painted cow, a Dutch windmill and the Hard Rock Cafe, I’ll be honest . . . . I didn’t think there’d be much magic in Malacca. But before I get to that, let’s back up a bit.

When B-Rod left me in Penang, I was anxious. I don’t consider myself an anxious person (a recovering, sometimes fall back on it worrier, but not overly anxious). But when he left, I was anxious about my ability to travel on my own. If your experience is like mine, when you travel you eventually fall into some sort of rhythm. I have a rhythm when I’m on my own, DawnO and I have developed a certain rhythm having travelled together often and B-Rod and I have our own rhythm. Having gotten back to our rhythm, I was now faced with changing it up, but I couldn’t remember anymore what it felt like to travel by myself!

To top it off, when I was making plans, I did it as if I was still travelling with B-Rod. So, the day he left I booked a night bus. Normally, that would be fine. I have pretty good spidey senses, and I have never felt overly unsafe in my time travelling in Asia. But these are different times, and anxiety is newer to me, so the fact that I’d be on my own AND it would be during the night AND it would be on a bus was causing me some distress.

To help me feel better, B-Rod scoped the bus stop with me before he left, so I knew where I’d be going and reminded me . . . I could come home whenever I wanted.

The only thing left was to just take the dang bus!

So I left for the bus station at the last possible minute, When I arrived, I met a young German couple who were taking their first night bus in Asia ever AND thought I might be an influencer they follow (hahahahahaha 😂). When the time came, we were herded onto a bus by the grumpy woman working at the station, it had arrived 10 minutes early AND that’s when the adventure began . . . . .

There were seat numbers assigned, but none of the numbers corresponded to what a lot of us had. So, we just sat where ever, the bus crossed the bridge into Butterworth station where we sat for a bit. More people got on, there seemed to be a roll call of some sort and we sat some more. There was something that didn’t quite feel right to me. The woman at the bus station in Georgetown had put us on this bus, and the German couple and I just trusted that she knew (or even cared) that this was the right bus for us. But just as the bus was about to leave, I thought . . . . “what would B-Rod do?” So I did what he probably would have done the minute we pulled into the station. I asked the bus driver if we were going to Malacca.

The response to this question? A panicked look, the roll call guy was called back onto the bus, me & the German couple were kicked off, and their bags were pulled out from underneath. From there, we were told a bus number and numerous platforms to wait at which we ran back and forth to in the rain! Finally, our bus showed up, our seat numbers now matched up and we were on our way.

It ended up being a fairly standard night bus which cranked air conditioning, had me putting on my toque (which I usually bring to tropical countries for occasions such as these), and cause me very little sleep.

When we got to Kuala Lumpur, it felt like we stopped at every single little stop. It probably took us an hour to get through the city, and we still had a ways to go! So, when we stopped for a bathroom/restaurant break, I reconfirmed that we were still on the right bus.

“One hour” barked the bus driver!

Two hours later and three hours after we were supposed to arrive (a 7 hour trip had somehow become 10), we finally arrived in Malacca.

Was I frustrated? Sure! But after my bit of anxiety, I was pretty happy to board the bus, get through the excitement that came along with it and arrive where I intended.

So, why Malacca? It had been great to revisit Seoul and Penang, but I decided it was time to see somewhere new. I considered a beach destination, but after having come from Koh Phayam, I knew that would be hard to beat/top.

When in Penang, people mentioned Malacca. Penang and Malacca are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but they’re not considered separate. They are part of the SAME UNESCO World Heritage Site listing – “Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca” – which means what happens in one city affects the other and vice versa despite the distance between them. I decided to check it out.

First Impressions of Malacca

I found my way to my pad, and then hit the pavement.

I ended up walking all along the river for a good chunk of time. It was quite pretty. Even though I was there during the prime heat of the day, I found it a bit cooler and was kind of wondering why I was one of the few people around!

The only thing I had on my “must do” list was to take a river boat. It was recommended to do it around sunset when the view would change as it started to get dark and the city lights turned on, but I had read that there were day boats too. Where was everyone?

And then I saw . . . .

But, I somehow got lucky and as I happened to pass one of the boat stops after supper, the first boat left the dock (they must have just gotten the ok) and I ended up on the second boat.

Being on a boat riding through the city was great. However, as we went one way there was this cheesy commentary in different languages about various things we passed by. Ok, that was fine . . . I like learning different things. But when we turned around and made our way back, the cheesy commentary was replaced by cheesy music. I felt like I was on “It’s a Small World” ride at Disneyland! That was one of my fav rides in Disneyland as a kid, but I realized here in Malacca . . . I felt like I was in a type of Disneyland, and it all felt a little too . . . fake!

Now I honestly feel bad writing that, and I felt bad while I was messaging a friend that night telling her I didn’t think I really liked Malacca. But sometimes, when the expectations are dropped, and the slate has now become clean is when the magic appears. And that’s what happened in Malacca!

Magic in Malacca

Malacca has been ruled by the Portuguese, Dutch and British and like Penang, has many different culture and religious groups some of which include Malays, Chinese, Indian, etc. You can see examples of all of these things everywhere sometimes mashed together, sometimes in their own separate enclaves.

I woke up the next day ready to check it out with a few self guided walking tours different people had put together and a plan to loosely follow some or parts of them and just let myself get lost (or is it really SELF guided) along the way!

And the first piece of ✨magic✨ was that I was alone with absolutely no crowds in a lot of the places I ended up in. I began with this Dutch graveyard that was literally behind the main tourist drag where EVERYONE was, and I was the ONLY one here!

I then headed up to St. Paul’s Hill which was said to be a pretty good a lookout. It’s also close to the numerous historical museums in the area, and it appeared that this was the day that all the schools were coming for a field trip. I got a bit of time there before it was overtaken by screaming children looking forward to the upcoming holidays!

And that’s when the biggest piece of ✨magic✨ appeared. As I was leaving, I was walking on a lower walkway. All the school kids and tourists were just above me and would most likely make their way in my direction soon-ish. But at that moment, I was there alone. I noticed some leaves rustling, but it wasn’t windy. So, I just stopped and observed.

Holy 💩 . . . . monkeys!! And no one else was here to see them but me! Now I do have a bit of a love-fear of monkeys (have had my stuff attempted to be stolen by some and a water bottle swatted out of my hand by others), but this felt so special! I was so excited that when a couple of people passed by, I had to point them out! They ended up being sellers setting up who worked at the site, so they let me know that it’s only occasionally that the monkeys are there, and I got into an interesting discussion with one guy about the effects of urbanization and how it’s affecting these monkeys.

I later found out that these Dusky Leaf Monkeys are not only shy and often avoid humans, but are also on the endangered species list under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). I felt so honoured that I was given the privilege of catching a sight of them.

I continued with my “walking plan” where I walked through the numerous tourists, tour buses and school children and made my way to a temple that sounded interesting.

What I didn’t realize is that Poh San Teng Temple is a graveyard temple that was created to watch over the Bukit hill.

“Bukit Cina is very well known because it is the largest Chinese graveyard outside of China. There are more than 12,500 graves including about 20 Muslim tombs in the 25 hectares grassy hill. It is reputed to be the earliest Chinese settlement in Melaka. The earliest grave found to 1622”

melakacool.com

It was a really nice walk up to see some good views over the city. It was great to have some nature therapy, and you know who I ran into while I was there?!

NO ONE!!!

I had the whole place to myself (besides the spirits of course), so I sat up top for awhile, took in the view, watched the birds and dragon flies and contemplated the ✨magic✨ that kept coming to me that I did NOT expect in Malacca!

I was riding such a ✨magic✨ high that when I walked down the hill and went to go into a market for lunch and an old Chinese guy waved me out and said in his very loud, yet limited English “LOCALS ONLY!” I quickly let the shock subside, let it slide off my back and simply went to the market a few doors down where a young Chinese guy was more than happy to take my money and feed me!

For me, Malacca will now always be the place where Rocky got her travel groove back on!!

Other Malacca highlights

The Street Art

The Architecture

The Eats

Finding the Beach