I said earlier today that it feels like I’ve been travelling since June when I headed off for Montreal. And I know I was home in November, and a bit of December, but wow what an 8 months. No wonder I looked tired when I reached Thailand. This afternoon in Singapore I’m glad to be on my way home. In Inhaling colour, tasting light I promised you some more of Melaka outside the home of Tham Siew Inn so here’s my final post before home.
On Saturday we drove from KL to Melaka and found ourselves in the midst of celebrations of the end of Chinese New Year. Oh what fun. We passed the procession on the way into town and as they circled and wove their way toward their temple goal, we seemed to keep crossing each other’s paths, twisting and twirling. So much colour and vibrant life, energy. It was the celebration of the Emperor that falls at the end of Chinese New Year and brings prosperity and life. Lucky us.
In between bits of march passing us we managed to fit in one of many fabulous and huge feasts, this one in a large old home, building, warehouse that has been renovated. I was to discover a few of those over the weekend.
Then we wandered out and around and up and down. Had some fun near the historic Church of Malaca with this dude and his Minion’s.
And we all know if I can’t find a temple I’ll find a church, and if possible a fort and a ruined church on top of a hill. Like the fort in Cochin this one was built by the Portuguese, renovated by the Dutch, pulled down by the British and is now a tourist clambering point. The church started Portuguese Catholic, but fell into disuse in 1753. Got to love the British, they used the church building as an ammunition depot. Those of you with exceptional memories may recall my trip to India in 2006 included a visit to a ruined Jain Temple in Saltan Bathery which the British also used as a ammunition dump. Encourage me enough and I might blog that trip’s notes and photos one day too. We weren’t too impressed with the disrespectful way people of other faiths were using the old church site, but I guess they could say they followed a British Tradition.
And this monument to an important event in nation making seemed to be very much off to one side and surrounded on three sides by a shopping mall and the other by a tree. Talk about unpreposessing, or perhaps trying to erase a colonial past. Who can say.
We did sit for a while back at the Gallery and in our perfectly adequate hotel before it was time to meet, walk and of course, eat. Full of incredible local food we wandered along the river for a while. And by the way I mean incredible, I’ve never had dishes like the tofu, the sweet and sour with taro, and omg the oyster omelette. It was an incredibly good dinner.
Then it was off through the night market which was a giggle, although incredibly hot and very claustrophobic.
Next morning we wandered again, had coffee, a bit of retail therapy, and more wonderful art therapy sitting in the gallery.
Next day in Kuala Lumpur this was the obligatory photograph after four women discovered that it’s a very small world.
But that night in Melaka is still asking one final question before we all get home, what do you see when you look up at the wondrous bubble of life?
Wendy's Out of Station 