Melaka

On Saturday we packed our bags and headed south to here:

Melaka is certainly one of the more famous and more popular tourist destinations in Malaysia.  Our Rough Guide gets a bit down on it for being touristy (and then devotes 20+ pages to it), but despite all the tourists we found it quite pleasant and a nice break from KL.  Melaka (also sometimes spelled Malacca) is one of the oldest cities in Malaysia (14th century) and at one time was certainly one of the most important both in cultural and economic terms.  It was originally founded by a Sumatran prince in exile who got on well with the locals and Melaka quickly became an affluent trading outpost between India and Indonesia.

Thanks to its strategic location and wealth Melaka proved irrestible to the Europeans and as a result Melaka has a particularly long and varied colonial history.  The Portugese cruised in about 1500 and then 100 years later the Dutch relieved the Portugese of their duites.  The Dutch hung on for nearly 200 years but they were no match for the Brits who, save the Japanese occupation during the Second World War, hung onto it until Malay independence in 1957.  On top of this the Chinese have been flocking to Melaka for a couple hundred years as well.  The result, is a bizarrely coherent yet wonderfully diverse little town that deservedly (I think) achieved UNESCO World Heritage status 2 years ago.

Aside from the wonderful architecture, Christian churches, Buddhist temples, mosques and Hindu shrines sit quite happily next to each other, the food and the markets are the real highlight.  The standout food of Melaka, commonly referred to as Nyonya cooking is based on Chinese ingredients and cooking techniques with local Malay and Indonesian (and occassionally Indian) herbs and spices.  The result is amazing.

As for the markets you can buy all the usual tat that you can get at any market anywhere in the world but there are some standout shops particularly in terms of furniture and antiques.  It is a reprint, and after some mediocre haggling Ian picked up an amazing map of British Malaya ca. 1834 for about $15.00.  Borneo appears almost entirely blank with the following note:

'Borneo produces gold, tin, diamonds, camphor, spices &c.  Interior unknown but inhabited by the aboriginal Dayaks, & the coasts by Malays & Chinese.  Borneo is three times larger than Great Britain & divided into several independent states. Probable population 3,000,000.'

Our House

I sit writing this entry from here:

Today Ian and I made our first proper (ie non-Ikea) furniture purchase as a couple.  We bought a very lovely teak table and chair set for our patio.  Since moving here I have discovered just how (comparatively) cheap beautiful teak furniture is in this part of the world and I'm determined to kit our whole house out in it piece by piece. Sadly, this is going to take awhile, but it does give me plenty of time to shop around and so Ian knows what to get me for Xmas and birthday the next couple of years. 

Beyond our patio, this is about as furnished as our condo is at the moment:

But nevermind, our stuff from England should be with us in a few months and in the mean time I'm sure I can nag Ian plenty about using coasters and not scratching the new table.

On another note, we booked tickets to Borneo today for Ian's 30th.  We are going to Sarawak for 10 days at the end of February and early March to see the Probiscus monkeys and other wildlife in Bako National Park, visit some indigenous villages and hopefully not get malaria. But more on that as the time gets nearer.  Needless to say, both I and American Express have had a very good day.

Creature Comforts

Well we have had our first (uninvited) houseguest.

No, it's not Ian.  He's housebroken and allowed indoors these days.  It's our little lizard friend in the top left corner.  You see these little guys all over the place and they get indoors all the time.  Aside from leaving little poos all over your house they are quite good as they eat all the bugs.  I've reconciled myself to lizard poos over mosquitoes and flies.

We also have a cat that has been paying us a nightly visit.  We can't tell if he's stray or belongs to someone in our complex.  He doesn't have any tags but looks cared for . . . he comes and goes from the neighbours and has seemingly adopted us as well.  He's allowed onto the porch for the moment.

8 days a week

Phew, it's amazing how busy one can remain when you have to squeeze in plenty of sun-bathing, swimming, cocktails and shopping into each day.  We are officially installed into our new condo, pics to come but waiting until we get some furniture first.  In the mean time, this is where I enjoy my daily swim, a mere twenty feet from our front door.

Shopping in KL puts any American city to shame.  There are so many malls I can't keep them straight, they have all blended into one.  And it's never just one mall, it's usually about 4 malls linked together or at the very least is a 'megamall' which includes grocery, hardware stores etc.  It's nice that you can get anything your heart desires (I have already located Banana Republic as well as blue corn tortilla chips and chipotle en adobo) but there is no such thing as a quick trip to the store.  Parking and then weaving your way through these places takes ages.  This is not at all helped by the fact that they have scattered the stairs, elevators and escalators all over the place so there is no direct route up or down - the idea is that this make you walk around and therefore shop more.  It makes me irritable, not want to shop and one can only hope one of these places never goes up in flames because there is no way out.

Fortunately, we have now acquired just about enough of the bare essentials so that we don't have to make daily shopping trips.  We did our first big grocery shop yesterday which literally took hours.  It's going to take me a while to crack the logic behind supermarket organization in the part of the world, because as far as I can tell there is none.  There also seems to be an irritating setup in which you have to get all unpackaged fruit and veg weighed and priced before you pay, cosmetics and medicine often must be paid for separately as well.  Food prices however are a real treat.  We got just over a kilo of fresh clams for about $1, Dover Sole was going for $6 a kilo, fresh Tiger Prawns are basically free ($0.80 for about 4 meals worth) and we got 8 squid for about the same. 

I also got a huge kick out of what we like to call the 'sin section' of the supermarket.  They have stashed all pork and booze away in a corner away from everything else.  Beer and bacon, yum.  Unfortunately, beer prices are roughly what they are at home - even slightly more expensive, and wine (a lot of it terrible wine) is outrageously pricey.

Highway to Hell

Driving in Malaysia is not for the faint of heart.  People here have compared it to driving in Italy, I think this is terribly unfair to the Italians.  In any event we have bravely taken to roads, well Ian has and I've been his panicky passenger.  The biggest hazard is by far the motorbikes of which there are many and all are reckless.  I was informed by a colleague of Ian's last night that you will see an average of one dead motorcyclist a month on the highways.  There is zero regard for pretty much all rules of the road - we've already witnessed someone driving down in the interstate in the wrong direction.  I'm in serious doubt that turn signals even exist in  this part of the world.

We went car shopping the other day and I was shocked to learn that airbags are an optional extra (so is ABS).   We know someone else who bought a secondhand car and had to install seatbelts himself.  Cars here are quite expensive particularly when you compare the cost of them to the relatively low incomes of the vast majority of people.  Duty fees on imported cars are positively exorbitant, it is not unheard of to hear of people taking out 25 year loans for cars.  Needless to say, we will be buying Malaysian and this is what we have settled on:

People who own these seem to be pleased with them and they have a Toyota engine, so at least that bit should work.  We will of course be going 'Premium' with ABS and airbags.

Colonial Pastimes

Having recovered fully from my first round Asian illness, yesterday we had High Tea at the former British Governor's Mansion, Carcosa Seri Negara.

It was a very colonial affair and Ian felt right at home.  It was indeed very civilized and mostly tasty - but even after 5+ years of living in Britain I still have serious doubts regarding the sandwich tastes of the Brits.  Egg and mayo on Wonder Bread is not classy, no matter how much you try and dress it up.  And further, eating dainty finger sandwiches with all the crusts trimmed off as if the patrons were all 4 years old and then eating said sandwich for a fork and knife is also remarkably silly.  I have nothing to say against the quality of the tea, croissants or scones, full marks.  At the weekends they serve a Malaysia High Tea which is served in the same fashion but instead with Asian savouries like spring rolls and Thai crab cakes.  We'll be back.

We are booked in to look at several flats today in Bagsar which is frequently referred to as an 'ex-pat ghetto.'  It is superb area with excellent restaurants and shopping but still has a nice residential feel despite being in the city.  Hoping for sucess and curious to see what Malaysian estate agents are like, I suspect as useless as everywhere else in the world.

Also, we saw our first urban monkey yesterday.

Day 3

Dysentery - 1,  Me - 0

We made it!

We commenced our journey from Heathrow about 36 hours ago on one of these

I've flown on plenty of big planes in my day, but this was my first experience with A380 superjumbo jet.  It has a capacity of 555 and being seated in the last (88th) row it took well over half an hour to get off (even with 2 exits).  In general, I am of the opinion the bigger the better when it comes to aircraft but Quantas has grounded its entire fleet of A380s at the moment after an engine failure and emergency landing in Singapore the other day . . . so between that and the time it takes to disembark, I was pretty happy to go back to a trusty Boeing 777 for the Dubai - KL leg of the journey.

Otherwise it was an uneventful journey.  We arrived under cloudy but dry skies and it was a blamy 82 degrees.  We were greeted by Flora, the nanny and all-round PA for Ian's boss.  She makes a mean Singapore Sling.

Peter took us for dim sum and beer in Chinatown and we returned full of delicious food and happily exhausted.  Getting ready for some proper exploration of KL later today.  Peter and Rika are off to Thailand for holiday on Thursday and leaving us with their flat, car and even Flora to give us a hand and cook and keep us well-watered with a steady supply of cocktails.  I think I can just about get used to this.

So, the whole dvd/cd debacle isn't quite so tragic as it may seem.  It is the only way to get Ian to part with these:

Unfortunately, the dvd's are already packed, but suffice it to say, I'm thrilled that Starship Troopers is staying behind.

I've also been studying up on the basics about Malaysia.

1. Malaysia has a population of about 28 million and covers an area just larger than New Mexico.
2. The average life expectancy is 73 for men and 76 for women (the US is 76 and 81)
3. The ethnic breakdown looks something like this: Malay 50.4%, Chinese 23.7%, indigenous 11%, Indian 7.1%, others 7.8%
4. Roughly 60% of the population is Muslim and there are separate laws that apply only to them (ie no booze) but are enforeced to varying degrees in different regions.
5. There are Sharia Courts for Family and Civil cases (if you so choose) but choose carefully as if you don't like that decision you are unable to appeal through the 'regular' court system.

Okay, must pack.

After weeks of trying to get this started (and many false starts), I have at last completed 2 full days worth of packing washed down with plenty of champagne so I can just about relax enough to take a few moments to get this blog underway.

We are now 4 days from departure, roughly half-packed and still completely unable to wrap our heads around what is about to happen.   Aside from one lost box of Christmas ornaments (that Ian hates and I'm sure he threw out last year) we've made it without any fights, tears or injuries - just a lot of swearing.

Our dvds and cds are being largely abandoned thanks to Malaysian law which states that all dvds and cds are subject to screening and any that are deemed offensive to Islam are destroyed.  It is (I suspect deliberately) unclear as to what the term 'offensive to Islam' officially entails, but I think it might hinge on how that particular customs employee is feeling on any given day. Despite the fact that about the raciest dvd we own is 'Sideways', we aren't taking any chances just yet - the real kick in the teeth is that it costs $3 per imported dvd/cd.  As we are already a two-person stimulus package to the Malaysian economy, I am going to withhold further donation for the time being.  Also, this rule does not apply to computers, books, or vinyl records (video games are currently a grey area) - make sense of that.

Well that is all that I can squeeze in for the present (so much to do!)  Please leave your comments, thoughts and suggestions.  Plenty of fun facts (and photos) about Malaysia and our little adventure to come soon.