The First Sunday
What a range of churches to visit today – and some of them built even before New Zealand had been discovered!!! Strange words set to familiar music rang out from one, Catholic chants from another, calls to prayer from a mosque. Tinkling bells resounded as a group of Chinese observed an ancestral funeral rite….and earlier in the day we had seen a funeral procession drive along the road, old trucks covered in brightly-coloured flowers.
An elderly Indian gentleman (it would later transpire he was the last of ten children born in Melaka to parents who had come from India) approached ER(2), who was perched atop Rob’s shoulders.
“You happy now. I see you before. Wah wah wah. Now you happy girl.”
Yes, she had been crying when we were out earlier. Now we chatted briefly and moved on.
Then as we headed out for dinner the same man stopped us to talk again.
“Where are you from?” he enquired. Upon hearing our answer, he declared we have good milk and that our boys must be strong rugby players! He then proceeded to give us an engaging history lesson. Starting with the remains of the Portugese settlement that are currently being unearthed right in the town centre (we had stumbled upon the archaeological dig earlier in the day), 
he told us the story of how Melaka got its name, how the Dutch used to bring stones in their ships as ballast and then use them for building, how those same Dutch fought to overthrow the Portugese, but how the subsequent Dutch-British exchange was a peaceful one. He was most complimentary about those three ruling powers, but scathing about the Japanese occupation during World War II. Too graphic for the children, he described how people were murdered without reason, even young babies being thrown in the air and left to fall on a sword stuck in the ground. He remembered whole families fleeing out of the city to avoid the Japanese and preserve their lives. It was obviously a harrowing time.
This little quarter-hour interchange was just one of many highlights this day. For the older children, holding two Real Live Pythons and seeing almost a dozen large monitor lizards in the river rank pretty highly if their conversations are anything to go by. For the little ones hanging out at Tony’s Guesthouse wrapping themselves in the bedsheets (as if it’s not hot enough!!) and playing “I’m a monk” put smiles on their faces for quite some time. T4, similarly attired to the monks, played Queen and sat on the double bed being fanned by her servant K9.
A morning rivercruise made more memories.
Tags: history, postcard: Malaysia
rayres
If buildings could talk what tales they could tell
bless that elderly Indian gentleman
sooner your family than me holding those snakes – I have always had a fear of them even though the only ones I have seen up and close were at the zoo years and years ago
do people live in those houses in the bottom photo?
woowww look at those snakes! awesome! 🙂
pretty clear where the wealth lies huh? 😉
People live in all these buildins. There was one that I was really wondering about….and a hand appeared through a hole in the wall and tipped a bowl of rice onto the edge of the river. I figure if someone lived in that one, the others are more-than-habitable!
Looks like some cheap rentals available in Malaka.
Great photos.
Nice friendly snakes, well done all.
hey Rach, just checked in today and what a legend, as if your days aren’t busy enough, you’ve been busy on the puter as well!!!!!
Glad you chose Pulau Ubin over Sentosa in S’pore – after all, you’ve been to the real beaches in NZ 🙂
Uhm yes, my grandfather was purportedly executed in the Japanese camp when my dad was only a baby of a few months old.
[…] Indian man we met in Melaka had asked the question and concluded, "You are rich, very rich." We […]