Melaka, Malaysia

Halfway thru Melaka, looking through the windshield in front of me whilst my chin rested on my right hand, I regretted not having much time spent in Georgetown--inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site. I could have gotten myself a bunk in a turn-of-the-century building there, slept the whole day and woke up just after sundown.

Here's how the sequence of the storyboard would have appeared: Me pulling a chair in a roadside cafe. Puffing. Sipping whilst taking down mental notes on the city's architecture and simply, just people-watch.

As the bus swooshed its way toward the fringes of Kuala Lumpur and to the historic town of Melaka, the urban cityscape of KL changes to rolling terrains, palm oil plantations and orchards. Two hours have passed and with a clear window, a camera on standby, I could not take a decent photo yet of what I believed were old houses, mostly abandoned and slowly left to decay.



I flipped my notebook as the bus stopped at Melaka Central Terminal. It read: "Take bus no 17 from Melaka Sentral bus terminal. Get off at the red Dutch Square. Walk across the bridge over the Melaka river, turn right into Lorong Hang Jebat. At the end of the road, turn left into Jalan Kampong Pantai. Continue to walk for about 3 minutes. We are on the right."

But the instruction did not prepare me for a delightful feast for the senses. As soon as the bus entered the Heritage City, I felt transported to a living museum which Melaka really is. Spice stores, Chinese restaurants and temples that reeked of incense. Mosque sits side by side temples. These must be the same smell, sight and flavor hundreds and hundreds of years ago when the town teemed with Portuguese and Dutch settlers alongside Chinese traders.

Then, I finally found my hostel-- Riverview Guesthouse. It's a two-story affair housed in a 1900s structure by the Melaka River. As soon as I registered and paid 45 ringgit (USD13.00) for such a very nice room with floor to ceiling windows that empty to the street (the opposite end of the hostel is the river), the very nice couple-- Raymond and Mani, owners of the hostel, gave me a good headstart for my stay in Melaka.



(to be continued...)