After waking up and getting ready, we went up to the breakfast lounge to have another heavy breakfast. The strategy had worked great on our first day so we decided to stick to it. After breakfast, we came down where our guide for the day was waiting. We were doing a day trip of Malacca which is a UNESCO World Heritage town two hours drive southeast of Kuala Lumpur. Our first stop in Malacca was a church called Saint Peter's Church which had a white outer facade. It was a little underwhelming for us after having seen numerous churches in Europe.
The next stop were the ruins of an old Portuguese fort that's at the top of a hill. The fort was taken over by the Dutch after they invaded Malacca. There used to be a secret passage from the top of the hill to the base that was closed after the Malaysian government took control. After seeing the ruins that included ten foot high tombstones, some with Dutch seals on them, we climbed down the stairs to the base of the hill which used to be the other end of the old secret passage. The building where the passage ended is now an iconic symbol of Malacca, much like the Petronas Towers are the icon of Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia has seen five different invasions in the past - by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, briefly the Japanese and then the British again. The town of Malacca provides a glimpse into its old colonial past with red buildings from the Portuguese era, Dutch office buildings and British bungalows with verandas and balconies. We walked to our next stop and saw an entertaining tourist trap along the way - rickshaws decorated with popular cartoon characters that give you a tour of the main square and the adjacent area while blaring loud music. We saw Hello Kitty, Frozen, Minions and Pokémon to name a few.
We stopped at another set of ruins of a fort that still has the cannons from the Dutch times. Then we saw a plaque marking the place where Prince Parameswara sat down under a tree by the river. He had fled from Singapore and while he was sitting under the tree, he witnessed a tiny white mouse deer defeat his two big guard dogs. That's when he realized that if a small mouse deer can stand up to bigger opponents, he should stop running too so he decided to lay down roots in Malacca and start a new kingdom.
Then we walked back to the main square that has red buildings from the Portuguese time, including a church called Christ Church. From the main square, we turned towards the famous Jonker street which has temples and street food stalls. We passed through a street called Harmony street which gets its name from the fact that it has a Muslim mosque, a Hindu temple and a couple of Chinese Taoist temples, all within walking distance of each other. We stopped at the mosque and the two Taoist temples but the Hindu temple was closed. We continued walking on Jonker street and had our first taste of the Durian fruit. We got a puff that had Durian filling in it. It smelled like a mix of onion and garlic and was extremely sweet with a bitter after taste. I didn't mind the taste but Samia had to spit it out. We also had the Portuguese dessert Natas (custard egg tart) that we had first tried a couple of years back in Lisbon. We wanted to try the famous Malacca specialty chicken rice ball but the line up was long so we decided against it.
Then we drove to our next stop, the so-called floating mosque. It's a solid structure but the foundation pillars are in water so it looks like it's floating. It was an extremely hot day so we sat inside the mosque next to a fan and let Sereen stretch out on the floor. Like the mosque on Harmony street, Samia had to wear a head scarf before she could go inside the mosque. After visiting the mosque, we drove to our highlight of the day - our lunch. We had South Indian thali, served on a piece of banana leaf. We had chicken and mutton, with vegetables and rice and the best part was that we had to eat with our hands. It has been a long time since we ate rice with our hands but it was fun.
After this delicious lunch, we started heading back to Kuala Lumpur. It was the end of the Chinese New Year public holiday for some people so there was lots of traffic on our way back. Then it started raining which caused flooding on the highway so traffic moved extremely slowly. The drive that had taken us two hours in the morning took almost four and a half hours on the way back! Thankfully it was Sereen's bedtime so she slept most of the way in her car seat which allowed Samia and me some time to doze off as well. We were really tired by the time we got back to our hotel so we went to bed as soon as we could, after changing Sereen. In retrospect, we learnt another lesson for our future trips with our infant Sereen - never do day trips. If we had to do it again, we would've just gotten a hotel in Malacca for the night and driven back the next day. Till the next update, take care!
The next stop were the ruins of an old Portuguese fort that's at the top of a hill. The fort was taken over by the Dutch after they invaded Malacca. There used to be a secret passage from the top of the hill to the base that was closed after the Malaysian government took control. After seeing the ruins that included ten foot high tombstones, some with Dutch seals on them, we climbed down the stairs to the base of the hill which used to be the other end of the old secret passage. The building where the passage ended is now an iconic symbol of Malacca, much like the Petronas Towers are the icon of Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia has seen five different invasions in the past - by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, briefly the Japanese and then the British again. The town of Malacca provides a glimpse into its old colonial past with red buildings from the Portuguese era, Dutch office buildings and British bungalows with verandas and balconies. We walked to our next stop and saw an entertaining tourist trap along the way - rickshaws decorated with popular cartoon characters that give you a tour of the main square and the adjacent area while blaring loud music. We saw Hello Kitty, Frozen, Minions and Pokémon to name a few.
We stopped at another set of ruins of a fort that still has the cannons from the Dutch times. Then we saw a plaque marking the place where Prince Parameswara sat down under a tree by the river. He had fled from Singapore and while he was sitting under the tree, he witnessed a tiny white mouse deer defeat his two big guard dogs. That's when he realized that if a small mouse deer can stand up to bigger opponents, he should stop running too so he decided to lay down roots in Malacca and start a new kingdom.
Then we walked back to the main square that has red buildings from the Portuguese time, including a church called Christ Church. From the main square, we turned towards the famous Jonker street which has temples and street food stalls. We passed through a street called Harmony street which gets its name from the fact that it has a Muslim mosque, a Hindu temple and a couple of Chinese Taoist temples, all within walking distance of each other. We stopped at the mosque and the two Taoist temples but the Hindu temple was closed. We continued walking on Jonker street and had our first taste of the Durian fruit. We got a puff that had Durian filling in it. It smelled like a mix of onion and garlic and was extremely sweet with a bitter after taste. I didn't mind the taste but Samia had to spit it out. We also had the Portuguese dessert Natas (custard egg tart) that we had first tried a couple of years back in Lisbon. We wanted to try the famous Malacca specialty chicken rice ball but the line up was long so we decided against it.
Then we drove to our next stop, the so-called floating mosque. It's a solid structure but the foundation pillars are in water so it looks like it's floating. It was an extremely hot day so we sat inside the mosque next to a fan and let Sereen stretch out on the floor. Like the mosque on Harmony street, Samia had to wear a head scarf before she could go inside the mosque. After visiting the mosque, we drove to our highlight of the day - our lunch. We had South Indian thali, served on a piece of banana leaf. We had chicken and mutton, with vegetables and rice and the best part was that we had to eat with our hands. It has been a long time since we ate rice with our hands but it was fun.
After this delicious lunch, we started heading back to Kuala Lumpur. It was the end of the Chinese New Year public holiday for some people so there was lots of traffic on our way back. Then it started raining which caused flooding on the highway so traffic moved extremely slowly. The drive that had taken us two hours in the morning took almost four and a half hours on the way back! Thankfully it was Sereen's bedtime so she slept most of the way in her car seat which allowed Samia and me some time to doze off as well. We were really tired by the time we got back to our hotel so we went to bed as soon as we could, after changing Sereen. In retrospect, we learnt another lesson for our future trips with our infant Sereen - never do day trips. If we had to do it again, we would've just gotten a hotel in Malacca for the night and driven back the next day. Till the next update, take care!
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