65. NORTH OF THE BORDER

Driving up North into Malaysia was something I've been meaning to do for sometime as the urge to touch base with where I was born, grew up in, was strong.

I opted to go through the old, narrower roads, bypassing the super highways. It gave me the chance to explore the little towns which were my playgrounds during school breaks.
Those little plantation towns aren't so little any more. The roads are much wider now.  

The plantations have been cleared in many areas, opening up the place. The town limits have been pushed further to nearly merge with another little town down the road. There's the obligatory mall with a supermarket. You couldn't call it a kampong any more although many shophouses are still the original ones carrying out the same family business. By and large, time has stood still for many especially those living away from the main roads

The pit stops along the way are really nice and clean, the public toilets were far cleaner than many in Singapore and smelt a lot fresher too. Some things have not changed. Their people are a warm, genuine, smiling lot - so refreshing! Nobody's in a hurry to get anywhere, they still have time for niceties and small talk. They speak in soft tones and sales staff don't talk so much among themselves at the top of their voices - something too common in Singapore. 

meals on wheels - they've got it right by calling it radish instead of carrot cake as in Singapore tut! tut! but gasp! the gas cylinder is next to the open fire stove.......but heck care - boy! was his radish cake good.....
 

The candyman can - he certainly took me down memory lane

Its beginning to look a lot like the 3 spruced-up riverside Quays in Singapore. The shophouses and warehouses of old by the cleaned-up Malacca River are very much like those by Singapore River, probably built around the same period and possibly by the same wealthy merchants and large British companies. Together with Penang, these 3 riverside towns by the Straits of Malacca and the Straits of Johor, formed the Straits Settlements of British Malaya

The iconic landmark of A Formosa, ruins of a Portuguese fort, behind which is St. Paul's Hill where stands the remains of St. Paul's Church

St Paul's Church

This white tower is definitely new, made to look old. The tourism folks have petitioned for 8 years to have certain sectors of Malacca designated UNESCO World Heritage sites and they recently succeeded.

For several years now they've worked on the town and the changes have been quite remarkable, less of a sleepy hollow I've always known Malacca to be, but things still move at a leisurely pace. Unlike some Malaysian towns where changes have been to make the places more 'Melayu' or 'Islamic', even Arabic, in Malacca, they've preserved the 'Chineseness' of its street names, its older buildings and its small trades. 

Like most port cities in Asia, the Chinese were among its early settlers. The Portuguese stayed a long while. The Dutch came a calling too, and the British, and the Arabs and its closest Indonesian neighbours - the Sumatrans. And like most port cities, its people evolved to become a hodge-podge of Heinz 57 varieties

The Dutch Stadhuys 

The very first time I explored these old buildings as a kid, they were dark, dank, cobwebby, spooky with the ghosts of Dutch colonialists and Rip Van Winkle having a tipple of Heineken - I jest of course, that's from the fertile imagination of a 7 year old from reading too many Famous 5 books
 
Tombstones of prominent Portuguese and Dutch settlers inside St Paul's...


Malacca satisfies my desire to check out buildings of historical and cultural interest. 

Like something from Singapore's Fort Canning area

This old muslim mausoleum of some important person is in an area with several Chinese clan houses and temples, equally old. The clan associations come alive during the weekend nights with karaoke and line dancing - quite happening - whilst in Singapore, they're pretty quiet with retirees playing mahjong or watching tv                             
                               
The town of Port Dickson hasn't changed much, the major changes being along its beach front where there's a lot more resorts, some really fancy. The beach is ok, quiet and clean. It used to be plagued by oil slicks from the busy Straits of Malacca but this was not evident during my visit