The weekend of September 22/23 we decided to rent a car & drive to Melaka. What a great experience. Melaka is a major city about 2 hours away from KL. What a fabulous city. It is the historical centre of Malaysia with Dutch, Portuguese and British influences as well as Chinese & Malaysian. It used to be the centre of politics and finance but KL has now taken over that role. It is a small city but filled with so much to see & do.
In the 1500’s Melaka (formerly Malacca) was the biggest trading, commercial and cultural spot in South East Asia with one of the busiest ports. It adopted Islam in the late 1400’s which began the Melaka Malay culture with a new Malay language, a superior court system and a royal lineage. It was taken over by the Portuguese in 1511. The Dutch rose to power and captured the city in 1641. There are still small Portuguese and Dutch influences left in the city. The Chinese flocked to Melaka and often became more successful in business than the Europeans. Many Chinese married Malay women & created a new racial mix – the Peranakan – or the Baba- Nonya. This is still a very prominent group in Malaysia today. The British took over in 1795 and remained there until 1957. The British influence is also still very evident especially when speaking to people of our age who have British accents and of course they still drive on the left side of the road. In 1957 the Malaysians were able to gain independence & take back control of their own country. They put on a great push to develop the Malaysian culture again. Melaka went through years of mismanagement under European rule and the once bustling international port of Melaka started to decline. In 1957 the prime minister made the announcement of Independence for Malaysia from British rule from the government building in the heart of the city. The building is now the Museum of Independence – great tour! Today it is a lovely city to visit.
We had a great time touring & visiting the historic sights. It was soooo hot and half way through the day we started to use our umbrellas to block the sun – much better. China town has some of the most interesting shops (a lot of souvenir shops too) where people are still manually working at a trade. See the pictures of the man making hand made sheet metal items, the lady packaging tea by hand and the clogs that are still being made & worn by many workers in Melaka. There are 4 – 5 small temples and mosques with in a small area each with the amazing details and histories. We even saw a Tamil Methodist Church in the district.
The weekend of September 22/23 we decided to rent a car & drive to Melaka. What a great experience. Melaka is a major city about 2 hours away from KL. What a fabulous city. It is the historical centre of Malaysia with Dutch, Portuguese and British influences as well as Chinese & Malaysian. It used to be the centre of politics and finance but KL has now taken over that role. It is a small city but filled with so much to see & do.
In the 1500’s Melaka (formerly Malacca) was the biggest trading, commercial and cultural spot in South East Asia with one of the busiest ports. It adopted Islam in the late 1400’s which began the Melaka Malay culture with a new Malay language, a superior court system and a royal lineage. It was taken over by the Portuguese in 1511. The Dutch rose to power and captured the city in 1641. There are still small Portuguese and Dutch influences left in the city. The Chinese flocked to Melaka and often became more successful in business than the Europeans. Many Chinese married Malay women & created a new racial mix – the Peranakan – or the Baba- Nonya. This is still a very prominent group in Malaysia today. The British took over in 1795 and remained there until 1957. The British influence is also still very evident especially when speaking to people of our age who have British accents and of course they still drive on the left side of the road. In 1957 the Malaysians were able to gain independence & take back control of their own country. They put on a great push to develop the Malaysian culture again. Melaka went through years of mismanagement under European rule and the once bustling international port of Melaka started to decline. In 1957 the prime minister made the announcement of Independence for Malaysia from British rule from the government building in the heart of the city. The building is now the Museum of Independence – great tour! Today it is a lovely city to visit.
We had a great time touring & visiting the historic sights. It was soooo hot and half way through the day we started to use our umbrellas to block the sun – much better. China town has some of the most interesting shops (a lot of souvenir shops too) where people are still manually working at a trade. See the pictures of the man making hand made sheet metal items, the lady packaging tea by hand and the clogs that are still being made & worn by many workers in Melaka. There are 4 – 5 small temples and mosques with in a small area each with the amazing details and histories. We even saw a Tamil Methodist Church in the district.
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