Galen & Rebecca Kennel’s Weblog

Here we go again. . . our first day in town ritual – change hotels. There are lots of budget hotels along the streets nearby, but they are either full or not very pleasant. Even though it is Monday and not a holiday, there are still lots of tourists around. The Lonely Planet Guidebook lists the Kancil’s Guesthouse – it’s down one of the main streets coming out of downtown and the traffic is quite heavy, but we walk down it until we come to the traditional Malaysian house with guesthouse sign out front.

The sign on the door says to ring the buzzer, so we push the button and wait. The windows in the front of the house are tinted, so we can’t quite see in. When no one comes, we ring again. Finally a harried man comes to the door and invites us in. He is in the middle of preparing breakfast for himself and apologizes for keeping us waiting.

It is a pleasant house with an inner courtyard open to the sky. We select a room on the second floor with windows opening onto the courtyard. The toilet and shower are spotless, but down the hall from our room. In the back of the house is a lovely garden with tables and chairs. Looks like a great place to spend a few days.

It doesn’t seem to take as long to walk back to the Fenix Inn – funny how it seems to take longer when you’re not sure how far you will have to go. The reception area of the Fenix is so cold it takes our breath away when we step inside. It feels good to get back out into the warm, humid air.

After stowing our bags at Kancils, we walk back into town. It isn’t the most pleasant walk, with no sidewalks and heavy traffic, but each time we walk it it seems to get shorter.

One of the first places we come to downtown is a hill with a church at the top. Tourists are going up and down the stairs to the church, so we decide to make this our first stop. The church was built by the Portuguese in 1521, then taken over by the Dutch in the 1600s, and then by the British. The ruins are now a historical site – a must see for all the tourists that file through this town.

There is a great view from the top of the hill, looking out over the historic town where the old sandstone buildings are painted red, further out to the new condo development, and then out to the water – the Strait of Melacca.

At the bottom of the hill, we decide to go through the Muzium Rakyat (the People’s Museum) which has a varied collection of items that depict the cultural history of Malaysia. Malaysia is a mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian people so the museum portrays the traditional cultures of each of these groups. Halfway through the museum we decide that we are tired and hungry, so we go out in search of food after checking with the front desk to make sure our tickets are good for the whole day. We never do make it back as we get side-tracked exploring Chinatown and getting lost trying to find Little India. We do manage to find Little India and a place to satisfy our craving for lassis – the yogurt-fruit drink that we enjoyed so much in India.

We spend three days in Melaka, enjoying the garden and quiet of the Kancil Guesthouse and exploring the historic town and people watching.

The people watching was almost the best part. We sat around one afternoon in the town square, watching busloads of tourists come to take each others photos around the fountain and then catch a rickshaw ride to the other tourist sites.

Four young girls entertain us with their singing-clapping hand games. I took the video sideways, so you will have to turn your head (or the computer monitor) to see it properly!!

You can see it all in our photos from around Melaka