The State of Heritage

Went Malacca last weekend. This visit was my first, after almost two decades. I seriously need to fix my impression on that state. All along I thought it is rather a rural place filled with lots of greens and beautiful scenery and a strong taste of cultural and heritage and..more greens.

Boy, was I wrong. Malacca reminded me of Penang, although it can never be compared to Penang in many ways. The place is pretty much developed (like Penang), clean (unlike Penang) and peaceful (unlike Penang). The lifestyle there was pretty much on the slower pace, unlike Penang and KL, so I think it's a good place to escape from all the city hassle and traffic.

The air's cleaner too! How would I know, you might ask. Less traffic = less vehicles = less CO2 emission = cleaner air.

I was right about one thing though. The baba nyonya culture and heritage are well-preserved. Stepping into Jonker's Street is like stepping into Penang many decades ago. There was one place in Georgetown, Penang where the heritage was preserved as well, but they didn't do that good of a job as compared to the one in Malacca. In my 23 years of living (and counting) as a penangnite, I didn't even know of it's existence until a local movie "The 3rd Generation" starring Amber Chia, Carmen Soo and Zhang Tong Liang, was produced.

Get to roam around Malacca lunch onwards nia cause he had to be in the hospital till noon. Had cendol and rojak. The rojak is so-so while the cendol is pretty good. Comparable to the one in Penang. But then again, I'm not a good food critic so don't trust me on this. Hehe. I'm fine with anything. Almost.

Cham I need to stop saying "anything" or "I'm fine" or "up to you". People started calling me Miss Anything cause I'm kind of indecisive, especially when it comes to food.

After lunch we strolled around Christ Church @ Red Church, A. Famosa, St. Paul's Church, Jonker's Street, Dataran Pahlawan Megamall, etc. We were very much stuck in that area only due to time limitation.

The places we went (in order):

Christ Church

Outside St. Paul's Church. Had to climb pretty high steps all the way up. Tired.

That's St. Francis's statue.

St. Paul's Church

The famous A. Famosa

All in all, I think Christ Church is the most attractive heritage in Malacca. At least among those that I know of. First of all, it is still standing and functioning, as compared to A. Famosa and St. Paul's Church, which are now left with nothing but thick and solid walls made of don't know what bricks. Maybe I just do not know how to appreciate structures. Secondly, Christ Church plus other adjacent buildings are painted in red. Attractive siot.

And, there were many colourfully-decorated-with-fake-flowers trishaws too! It's a rare sight. There were trishaws in Penang as well but those weren't as attractive and cute lor.

One weird thing though. Many blasted their radios with pop/rock/R&B songs. Songs like Pitbull's "I know you want me" and Michael Jackson's "Black and white"! Such songs on trishaws do not match at all =/

The whole trip was fun (how can it not be anyway) but one thing I regretted a lot, which is to not rest when I was abandoned in the morning because I was so tired later in the evening it was evident in photos =(((

See what I mean?

He just claimed he is cute. Ish tak tahan.