Melaka AKA Malcca (Part 1)

Once again I must apologize for my tardiness in posting in this blog.  The trip to Thailand has been a whirlwind and, as promised by my Singaporean friend Adam, it is a lot hotter in Thailand than in Singapore.  We have had an outstanding time in Thailand, but before I get to the wonders of the past week I feel like I should share a bit about our trip to Melaka.

First off, there are two spellings for the town, Melaka and Malacca.  I saw both on souvenir T-shirts so I am assuming both are correct (what more accurate source of information could there be than the souvenir T-shirt?).  I favor the Melaka spelling as there is something very Western European about two consecutive Cs, and Melaka is easier for me to remember.  Our amazing tour guide Francis took us to many of the historical sites in the historic district of Melaka.  But first, I have to gush about the hotel we stayed at, Hotel Puri.

Fun fact, Melaka has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Which means that the whole town has historical significance and is to be preserved.  Hotel Puri is no exception.  Francis told us that hotel is actually a living museum.  I can honestly say that he is correct.

These chairs and tables may look like something from Pottery Barn but they are actually made of 100% iron.  Something that brought me much amusement as I watched many of the students try to drag them to other tables.

The frescoes were amazing. 

Everywhere you looked there was antique furniture.  There was an entire set of this marble-inlaid hardwood furniture in the lobby.  

In keeping with tradition, the hotel had a spirit house tucked away in a corner of the courtyard.

After ogling the hotel for a half an hour, it was time to start our guided tour on the nearby streets.  First up, the shops near the hotel.  Those who are prone to squeamishness may want to skip over the caption for the photo below (just pretend they are dolls shoes...).

The streets around the hotel had many practicing artisans.  One of the most stunning was the shoemaker.  The most striking pieces were the shoes.  Not only did he make classical (and normal sized) beaded shoes but he also still made shoes for women with bound feet.  Don't worry, those were only for historical purposes.  I had always seen photographs of Chinese women with bound feet, but it wasn't until I saw just how tiny the shoes were, less than 4 inches long, that it really hit me how cripples those women must have been.  To his credit, Francis was brutally honest about how severe the damage was to the women and why they had it done.  Hard to run away from home if your feet don't work properly.  Anyways, the rest of the tour had a much happier tone.  Next up, a Buddhist/Taoist temple, a mosque and a Hindu temple.

Above is the Buddhist/Taoist temple.  I call it that because I sincerely cannot remember which religion it is or if it is both.  Next was the mosque.  Unfortunately it was under repair so we could not go in, but it did have this stunning tile work on the front of the building.

Last was the Hindu Temple.  Sadly, it too was closed, but I did manage to snap a couple of photos.  I hope you also enjoy the happy cows.

We wondered past many more temples on our tour.  One of the most common features were the temple guardians, the so-called Foo Dogs.  These were two of my favorites.

I had never given much notice to Foo Dogs before, but Francis asked if we knew which one was male and which was female.  I always thought that they were identical, but upon closer inspection I noticed that one was holding a ball (the bottom one) and one was holding a cub (the top one, you have to trust me on this as the cub is blocked by the giant pile of incense).  The female is the one with the cub and is on the left, the male is the one with ball, and often a coin, and is on the right when facing the entrance to the building.

Finally, the streets around the hotel also had random street art.  Some of it was poignant, some of it was funny, some of it was just plain bizarre. 

That is it for my street tour by Hotel Puri.  Next post I'll talk about the historic sights of Melaka.  Don't worry I'm taking plenty of photos of Thailand too!

The Mangrove Swamp

Sorry for the delay in the blog posts.  Its been hard to want to write nice things about a place that is toxic to be in.  The haze in Singapore is the worst it has ever been in the history of the nation thanks to Indonesia's forests burning down.  Yesterday the peak PSI (pollution index) hit a whopping 401, which is in the very hazardous range.  So far I have been extremely lucky.  No bad symptoms and no trouble breathing.  However I cannot say the same for the rest of my traveling group.  Several people are starting to have headaches and other common symptoms, so far nothing alarming but merely annoying.  Luckily we are leaving soon for Thailand, so we just have to sit tight for the next few days and endure.

In the meantime I'll post all the pictures of the places I have been that were relatively haze free.  First up is the mangrove swamp of Malaysia!

We took a weekend trip to the city of Melaka, birthplace of Malaysian independence.  Merdeka!  We had a  fabulous tour guide, Francis, who gave us a guided tour of Melaka and beyond.  First up was Pulau Kukup Johor National Park.  After a presentation on the park by the park guide, we took a boat ride a mangrove swamp.

After a short boat ride past a few fish farms we arrived at the mangrove swamp.

We docked at the red building seen above and got our first taste of what a real mangrove swamp is actually like.  

To be honest, I was nervous about this trip.  I was expecting tons of mosquitos whirring around my head, water-snakes, large lizards, death.  I was more than pleasantly surprised however to find a mostly mosquito free environment.  Francis explained that Malaysia, until its urbanized neighbor Singapore, is not undergoing a Dengue outbreak.  The reason being, is that Malaysia is not a concrete jungle and mosquitos have natural predators that keep their numbers relatively low.  My biggest fear allayed I only had to worry about water-snakes and large lizards, but they kept to themselves and were smaller than I had feared.  However, the greatest fear for some in our group was the suspension bridge.

A couple members of our group had a near crippling fear of heights; however, they were both troopers and with a few tears and Francis' help made is across the bridge.  Next up is the swamp proper.

What first struck me after the noise of Singapore was the quite of the swamp.  No cars, no buses, no teenagers.  I had forgotten what wide open space and natural (i.e. no parkland) looked like.  It was a very serene setting, made more so by the occasional inspirational sign.

For the curious, this is what a majority of the swamp bed looks like.  Can you spot the mudskipper in the first picture?

The waters of the swamp were filled with archerfish and mudskippers.  The muck was filled with small to medium crabs.  Frances told us that in the old days, natives would gather up the small crabs by the hundred during molting season, fry them up, and eat them whole.  These days however, most people in Malaysia know that the true value of the mangrove swamps is not in their crabs but in their trees.

Mangrove trees are special in that they thrive in brackish swamps.  The salinity of the water is high due to their proximity to the ocean and most plants simply would not survive the high salt content of the water and the large changes in water level.  The mangroves have an intricate system of roots that hold the soil in place and prevent erosion of the swamp land.  Destroy the mangrove swamps near the coast and a tsunami will do much more damage to an island.  For this reason, Malaysia has been replanting mangroves to repopulate their swamps.  Above you can see a few baby mangroves planted by school children.

In addition to housing a variety of crabs, fish, snakes, lizards and other un-fluffy critters, they are also home to a few species of monkeys.  Including this grumpy guy.

A note on monkeys.  Hide your food, don't look them in the eye, and some of them don't like having their picture taken.  This big male was not happy to see us and charged one member of our group who was acting like a paparazzi.  Luckily no one, including the big guy, was hurt.  After the swamp we toured a fish farm.

Each farm has several bins that house a different species of fish.  This one has archerfish, pufferfish, and many many others.  After a quick snake break it was back on the boat for an awesome seafood lunch (the chili crab was amazing) and then on to Melaka!

S.E.A. Aquarium!

After a long week of studying and sightseeing I finally have a chance to write about what I saw!  First up is the S.E.A aquarium on Sentosa Island.

The S.E.A aquarium is the largest oceanarium in the world (by water volume) and boasts some superb marine life.  This place has it all jellyfish (now called sea jellies), sharks, puffer fish, eels, oh and a half a giant boat.  The boat is a replica of an old pirate ship and is so large that it had to be cut in half.  To give you an idea of the size, it could comfortably house several giraffes.  Unfortunately that part of the tour was very crowded and pictures did not happen.  However, I snapped plenty of photos and movies of the aquarium.

There were several example of rock and boat based coral environments that were massive.  Above is a close in shot of the exhibit below.

Not only were there these types of gorgeous installations there were also the obligatory tunnels.

Unfortunately, due to my near total ignorance of my own digital camera and the crowded conditions most of my pictures aren't really worth showing off.  However, I did manage to capture a few good shots of the sea jellies.

While the aquarium/oceanarium offered a stunning array of marine life, the best feature by far was the enormous viewing panel.  It is 118 feet by 27 feet.  Or in other words, absolutely huge.  Even fully zoomed out I couldn't make the whole panel fit in my picture.

Fun fact.  If you have money to burn you can actually stay in a room that looks directly into the massive aquarium.  Honeymoon ideas anyone?  Filling the tank it a large variety of colorful fish, but my favorite had to be the three sting rays.  Those big boys/girls were such show offs.

Of course the aquarium saved the best for last.  The Shark Tunnel!

After our visit to the aquarium we wondered around Resort World a bit before heading home.  The most impressive of all the Sentosa sites had to be the giant Merlion statue.  Sadly it does not breathe fire, although it really should.

Tiring Tropical Treetop Trek

Sorry for the alliteration above, I'm still a little loopy after our 7+ mile hike starting at the MacRitchie Reservoir.  Our guides warned us that it was going to be a tough hike, but nothing really prepares you for traipsing through the jungle at 90 degree temperature and 80% humidity.  Well, maybe roofing in Atlanta in early August for a mission trip.  That was pretty similar.  On the brighter side, our walk started out with cute monkeys.

As we learned from numerous signs along the way, we were not to feed the monkeys, approach the monkeys, or even look them in the eye.  They can be vicious and are know to steal food, water, and cameras.  By the end of the hike we were all treating our furry friends as slightly dangerous squirrels.  Cute and furry, but omnipresent and more annoying than anything else.  Oh, this warning sign was by far my favorite monkey sign.

After a few kilometers into the forest we got to the Tree Top Walk.  Essentially, a very long wire bridge across a valley.

In true tour-group fashion one of our female members was more than a little scared of heights, which, also in true tour-group fashion, inspired two others to shake the bridge.  Luckily it all turned out okay (no one got smacked) and the girl was spurred on to the end of the bridge by this sign.

The bridge itself was the largest and the most stable pedestrian suspension bridge I had ever been on.  And it offered some spectacular views.

After the bridge came walking up some stairs, then down more stairs, then down, down, and down more.  The elevation changed so much that many of us had our ears pop.  Just when we though we were down with stairs we came across a jungle tower.  Of course we had to climb it.  It did have a pretty good view of the city skyline and the reservoir.

Lastly it was around the reservoir and back to the station for a quick rest before heading out for a much deserved and much enjoyed lunch at a nearby hawker center.