Meleka River

 Meleka, Malacca or Malaque, The Straits of Malacca all romantic sounding names to me as a child as I read of pirates attacking spice laden ships and scooting back home to Melaka, pursued sometimes by naval boats. Never did I think then that one day I would cruise the very river that gave them sanctuary!

The Meleka river, to use the current spelling, is a small river, only about 50 km long and originating in swamps and flat lands instead of mountains, as do most rivers. Melaka was, in the beginning, a small fishing town where it flowed into the Straits of Meleka. It was the centre of piracy in the Straits and, during the days of the Portuguese, it dominated the spice trade. Piracy was a precarious life style and it ended after a Hindu Prince from Sumatra, Paramaswara, fled firstly from home and then from Singapore took refuge in this Pirate town. He saw great opportunities for getting the lifestyle and power he wanted not through piracy but in food production and maritime services. Meleka was half way between China and India - a great location for trade and business. He convinced the Melakans to give up the somewhat tenuous existence of piracy and to grow rice, bananas, sugar cane and such for export instead. He assured the traders that they were completely safe from piracy and convinced them to use Melaka as a re supply base and a refuge from the monsoon storms. His plan worked and Meleka flourished.

River bank plaque depicting the mouse deer versus dogs story

The story about the mouse deer or pelandol is one of how Melaka came to exist. Apparently one day the Prince Paramaswara was out hunting with his dogs around the Dutch Square - St Paul's Hill area when his dogs cornered a white mouse deer. This deer had put in several previous appearances and intrigued the Prince and he was very impressed when, instead of capitulating to the enemy, the mouse deer instead went on the attack. One version has the mouse deer kicking the dogs and presumably escaping, while the popular version has it forcing the dogs into the river. Either way, the Prince was so appreciative of the mouse deer's defiance - he was a bit of a rebel himself having had to flee from trouble of his own making several times - that he decided to build his new city on the very spot. Not only that, he named it Melaka which was the name of the tree he was sitting under while enjoying the spectacle!

Water wheel, Meleka

This 13 metre water wheel is a replica of the one built to channel water for the trading ships

Canons along the riverbank to protect the city from the many invaders, and there were many. Pre Paramaswara days these included the Arabians, Indians and Siamese.

Old Crane, Meleka River

When the Dutch invaded Meleka it was still a thriving trading port with bigger boats anchoring  outside the river lagoon while the smaller ones were able to come up close. A crane was needed to lift heavy solid objects. The arm was made of wood and was 6 metres long.

Meleka River Cruise

Meleka has been a UNESCO Heritage City since 2008 and its buildings are now preserved and restored with tourism now replacing piracy and, to some extent cash crop trading. We joined on such tourist orientated attraction, the River Cruise. This runs every hour during the day and also at night starting from the river mouth near the water wheel and costs a mere RM 15 or 20. [ There's a slight increase for non Malaysians.] Unfortunately we were last to board and had to be content with the last remaining seats at the back - not a good spot for taking photos, though.

Melaka river

The river nowadays is quite narrow and also shallow due to build up of silt. It wanders slowly through the town where the bridges over are all different and eye catching.

Melaka  bridge

As the boat chugged slowly along, it rounded a bend to the surprising sight of colourful murals painted on the walls of shops, former warehouses and houses. They depicted the mix of the ethnic origins and culture groups of the Melakan population. How lovely they were!

Melaka River Mural

Rounding another bend we came to . . . Pirate Park! How my young grandson would have loved to play here! Pirates are one of his favourite subjects these days, along with his enduring love of Thomas the Tank Engine and Dinosaurs. Maybe he'll end up here in Melaka!

Pirate Park, Melaka

After about 25 minutes the boat turned around for the downstream return and I noticed the wide walkway on the other side of the river. It would be a very pleasant walk with waterside restaurants where you could stop and enjoy the atmosphere, watch the world go by and maybe contemplate what this river would have been like in pirate days.

Boat terminal

As we arrived back at the terminal near the river mouth, the sailing ship made a lovely picture.

Mainly Food in Melaka, Malaysia

For the past five years or so Kuala Lumpur has been our hub for our travel to Sri Lanka and other places in Asia. It is an ever changing, vibrant city and, despite our too-many-to-remember- how-many visits, each arrival is a new adventure of visiting historic and national sites, people watching, eating and shopping. This time, however, we decided to instead spend a few days in Melaka and on arrival at the LCCT we boarded a Transnasional bus for the ninety minute ride south.

The very name "Melaka" evokes memories of books I found in my grandparent's bookshelf when I was about eleven years old. The stories of daring pirates racing for their home base, Malay royalty, adventures in jungles and swamps enthralled and delighted me as I curled up in a chair, oblivious to everything around me. I now wish I had asked to whom the books had once belonged. There were also several on the smuggling theme so someone, maybe my father, had a hankering for a dangerous and different life!

It was just getting dark as the bus left the terminal and we were tired after a long day's travel so we relaxed and slept a little until bright lights indicated that we were nearing the city. A short taxi ride later and we were outside our hotel, Jonkers. This is one of the old hotels right in the centre of the old part of the city and we were very warmly welcomed and soon had our bags lugged up a flight of stairs for us.  As we were very hungry I asked about eating options and we were promptly escorted over the road to the last restaurant still open at that late hour.  This helpfulness by all hotel staff was to continue for our entire stay and we were greeted by name every time we entered the hotel lobby. Yes! We'll stay there again!

Jonker Boutique Hotel

 In contrast with Kuala Lumpur, Melaka at night, mid week, was very quiet with all businesses, except for the restaurant closed. As we sat down the waitress came and also sat down with us to have a chat and talk about the various dishes on offer. We chose a fish dish with rice which went down very well, and after another relaxed chat with the waitress we were wished a "good night". This, we thought, was a very pleasant start to our Melaka stay.

Jonker Street, Melaka

Despite our late arrival we were awake early next morning and bypassed the Hotel cafe in search of a Melakan breakfast. On one previous visit to Kuala Lumpur we had eaten a fish dish that was described as being a Nyonya dish and I later read that this cooking style was a feature of Melakan cuisine. Nyonya - non - ya - is the fusion of Chinese and Malay cuisines and is delightfully spicy. The name, Nyonya, means "wife" in Chinese-Malay language mix. Our friendly waitress the previous night told is that meat and fish and even vegetables are marinated for some time before cooking and that a shrimp paste is used to bring out the flavours of fish and make the meat sweet. Coconut milk is another feature of this cuisine.

Although it was already 9am when we left the hotel we had to walk some distance down Jonker Walk before we found a restaurant that was just opening and we were the first customers of the day. We knew immediately what we wanted - the famous Hoe Kee Chicken Rice Balls!

Breakfast at Famosa Restoran

These famous Chicken Rice Balls are chicken rice shaped into golf sizes balls, steamed and served in soup. We decided to try the Fish Balls as well. Very sweet and tasty they were, too.

Hoe Kee Chicken Balls and Fish Balls

When we visit a place we always eat the local food in preference to touristy European food. Melaka proved to be an exciting place for our taste buds! From soups, curries, cakes and desserts we had to make choices and that was not easy.

Bakery on Jonker Walk

The goodies on these tables at the front of this bakery were so tempting that I was a regular customer with their coconut buns my favourite. I even carried some to eat on the plane that night but ate them instead before we even embarked! Every item contained sugar, even the savoury curry buns so not good for diabetics, sadly.

Eleven Bar and Bistro

One night we had a Portuguese meal at Eleven. This establishment has about four houses with a bar and bistro and can be found in a side street off Jonker Walk in a street known as the Hainan Food Street. It's open only in the evenings, unfortunately.

Eleven Restaurant Menu

The menu is very comprehensive with so many dishes appealing.

Curried Prawns

We eat a lot of prawns at home but this dish was the tastiest ever and the prawns gigantic. Very juicy and sweet.

Chicken

Our second choice was this attractively presented chicken, the curry flavours quite sweet and delicate, served with steamed rice.

Lunch at Grenedier Resturant

Nyonya Pineapple Tarts

I'll have to try the Nyonya Pineapple tarts next time as the restaurant was closed while we were there.

Share Happiness, though !

The journey south from Jaffna to Dambulla

Our visit to the Nallur Temple was all too brief but I was very aware that we needed to return to Kandy for medical reasons so we hit the road south as I wondered how is it that I frequently leave places wanting to return for a more leisurely visit to explore further. We took the same route as we had on the trip up, the A9, - it's the only one anyway - resisting thoughts of deviating to revisit places off the main road that we had known well. Unlike our journey up, we now travelled in daylight and it became obvious that had we tried to leave the main road we would probably have met safety issues on roads that were now dirt tracks, possibly still mined. The map below indicates the places we previously regarded as being in our neighbourhood, from Jaffna to Puliyankulam.

Road to and from Dambulla - Jaffna

Leaving the Kallur Kovil, we drove through streets and lanes that seemed totally untouched by the thirty years of war with lovely houses, standing behind well maintained walls, in manicured lawns and gardens. As we travelled south, this contrasted with the abandoned war destroyed houses and structures left us feeling quite uncomfortable.

Gracious living in Jaffna

The women in the Jaffna area now seem to be very different to those I know in other areas, in terms of their independence, due possibly to the need to take care of themselves or suffer the consequences. I noticed many riding not only bikes but also motorbikes and even working in one of the restaurants we visited - something not at all common in the south.

As we drove towards Elephant Pass, through Chavakacheri and Meesalai we could see the ravages of war with blown up houses, palm trees missing their tops, standing like useless power poles in the dusty earth.

remains of a house

Previously the Meesalai Railway Station

The most sobering sight of all was that of a couple of Army women, minus any useful protective  clothing or equipment - a few sandbags only were visible - kneeling in the hot dusty dirt locating or detonating land mines. As we paused  to take a quick photo, [ we were immediately sent on our way ] I hoped that they had done their work well under the road we were travelling on!

de mining the side of the road near Meesalai

As we neared Elephant Pass our hearts began to race, even though we knew from our way up in the dark that there was now no bridge, no lagoon, no Rest House. Some things you know with your brain but the heart finds it difficult to accept. Elephant Pass was where we sometimes relaxed in the evening, timing our arrival so that we were sitting on the veranda with a cool drink as the train from Colombo crossed the bridge, its lights reflected in the lagoon below. I especially enjoyed those nights as I was somewhat isolated, living in company quarters with very few women around me.

Monument at Elephant Pass

There were at least four Army personel guarding the monument and I was asked to stop taking photos. It is only recently that foreign people have been allowed into this area so maybe the authorities are sensitive to foreign interpretation of what they see, I don't know, but monuments are usually there to commemorate something important for a nation and as such are much photographed.

Elephant Pass monument

I thought that the idea of the country being supported by hands was interesting.

Bronze Plaque at Elephant Pass

I was interested to see the woman carrying a child seemingly wading through mud in the foreground of this plaque. As a woman and a mother I can empathise with the plight of women caught up in any war anywhere as they not only lose sons, husbands, brothers, have to survive alone in an environment where human values and beliefs have broken down.

One of the plaques art Elephant Pass

Elephant Pass has always been an important spot because it is/was the narrowest point between the Jaffna Peninsular and the mainland. Both the Portuguese and the Dutch maintained a defence base there in the 1770s, as did the British. The British established networks of Rest Houses all over the country [ the forerunners of today's guesthouses] for their refreshment and accommodation needs. I well remember my first stay at a Rest House where we were served  four course meals on fine china with silver service and white gloved servers.

The name, Elephant Pass, apparently came about because the Dutch had wild elephants rounded up and herded into the shallow waters of the lagoon from where they were captured and sold in the yearly sales with buyers from places like Bengal then exporting them.

Formerly the lagoon at Elephant Pass

When we lived there the lagoon was one huge salt pan, complete with a salt processing factory. Of course the salt works are now on the list of "gone". As I stood at the edge I thought about how destruction of the lagoon would be affecting the weather and animal life of a very wide area.

Sea Side view at Elephant Pass

Elephant Pass was, of course, a key point during the thirty year war between the Sri Lankan Army and the Tamil Tigers with three wars being fought there and no doubt many more skirmishes. During the first war there in 1991 the Sri Lankan Army was saved from defeat by a Lance Corporal named Gamini Kularathna. He was a village boy, meaning without advantages enjoyed educationally and otherwise by his city raised and prestigious leaders, however he proved himself  a hero with his quick analysis of the severity of the situation and selfless bravery in the face of oncoming disaster. Armed only with a few hand grenades he ran at this approaching Tiger "tank" detonating his weapons in time to stop it, blowing up those inside and, of course himself, as well. I hope that his poor family has been well taken care of, unlike the board that commemorates his bravery.

Bulldozer Tank, near Elephant Pass

The Tigers were well known for their ability to improvise and their tank started out as a bulldozer.

To finish the story about the three wars, the Tigers gained control of Elephant Pass in 2000 during the second war but lost it during the third war in January 2009. I remember watching this on the news in Colombo at that time.

A little further south we came to Paranthan where the Chemical factory was formerly on the northern outskirts.

Paranthan Chemicals

Without the sign we would have been hard pressed to be sure that we were in the correct place, except for the remains of the huge cooling tower lying in the centre of the picture. It wasn't possible to go closer as this is now an army base.

Paranthan Chemicals today, cooling tower in the centre.

I guess few cars stop on the road side here as this little boy's head popped up over the Hindu Temple wall to see why we were there. He seemed bemused when we got out of the car and went over to take a look.

The Sri Lankan government has been able to obtain aid to rebuild the A9 highway from Dambulla to Jaffna, especially from the Indian government and a fine two lane road now replaces the windy narrow one of the past. Very few trees have survived the war and it was amusing to see a couple that remain, now right in the road.

Road through Kilinochchi

We were travelling through at the end of the dry season. I well remember what these dirt roads were like during the wet when getting around is not so good. In this area there were a few mud/coconut roof houses but a little further south we saw quite a number of very small box-like houses built by the Indian government which would like to see refugees return home from there. It didn't seem that many had done so, as almost all the houses looked uninhabited.

Near Kilinochchi

Fresh air home for rent.

House, Kilinochchi area

After a lunch break near Iranamadhu turn off we hurried south, fortunately experiencing fewer delays than on our northward journey, eventually arriving at the Lakeside Adventist hospital in Kandy where Sam received some additional medical attention, averting complications.

Now that some time has elapsed since our visit, we are happy that we went despite the uncomfortable feelings, even emotional pain, that we experienced.

Nallur Kandaswarmy Temple

After our visit to the Jaffna Fort we drove around the city looking for another place to stay for our second night. This turned out to be quite a problem as every guesthouse and hotel we looked at demanded crazy room only prices - Rs5000 and upwards for varying standards from passable to horrible. Finally we came to one such place, Serendip Inn, and I, an obvious foreigner, was kept out of sight while my companions went inside to enquire about availability and to inspect the rooms - we needed two. All their rooms were available, checked for  cleanliness,  deemed reasonable and two selected for Rs2500 each. Bags were carried in, the owner was phoned by the young manager to get permission to give us towels and a second bed sheet. I was then allowed by my family to put in an appearance. Suddenly the price was Rs5000 each room, pay now. This made my family so mad that the bags were soon out, the registration form torn up and we were back on the road. As one with a family interest in a guest house (same rates no matter where you come from!) I cannot understand the logic of being happy with nil - negligible occupancy rates - the outcome for many places that we checked out late afternoons and evenings - when, if the rates were stable and reasonable, a steady income and good reputation could be assured. This nation wide avarice in tourism sectors and the often heard mantra that if you are from overseas then you should pay more for everything  is really at odds with the generosity and friendliness of the rest of the population.

In a way, this experience was all for the best as I realised that Sam's asthma wasn't getting any better and that he was not really well enough for a lot of sightseeing.  I suggested that we visit the Nallur Kovil before heading back to Kandy where we could obtain additional medical assistance if needed and, with notable relief, this was agreed.

Finding the Nallur Kandaswarmy Temple proved to be a bit of a challenge because our Southern Tamil driver was literally given the run around by the local Tamils who surely must have known exactly where this important and famous landmark was. After four massive misdirections - kilometres away in the opposite direction - we finally got the location from a Sinhalese army guy. As an aside, from Omanthi north, the Armed forces were highly visible everywhere to ensure the safety of the people, I was told. I'm unused to seeing lots of soldiers with guns at the ready so this had the opposite effect on me. This time, however, we were indeed assisted very well.

Hindu Temple, Jaffna

Confident of finding the Nallur Kovil at last, we came to this temple in an area near the Kandaswarmy Temple.  I have not been able to identify it so if anyone reading this can do so, please do comment. We had driven past it so I had to walk back while my companions waited for me to take a brief look. Oh, to have more time to explore!

Hindu Temple, Jaffna

Hindu Temple, Jaffna

Isn't it stunning? I ventured in the gate to see if anyone was around but the place was deserted in the midday sun so it was back to the waiting van, my curiosity unsatisfied.

Round the corner we went, following the distinctive red and white walls, and came to the Nallur Kandaswarmy Temple. It was set back quite a distance from the road, standing back behind an ocean of light sand which was visibly radiating heat. Taking in the line of shoes at the outer fence, I complied and danced crazily across the burning sand until I found myself on the cool tiles of the entrance hall. I stood there for some time, allowing my heart and mind to become still and cool, taking in the strong colours and patterns around me.

Nallur Kandaswarmy, Hindu Temple entrance

 There were few people around, which I appreciated for I am not comfortable in crowds, so I was able truly relax before I ventured inside. I found myself in a wide, open space in the Great Hall with the shrine in front of me and courtyard to my left.

Nallur Kovil

At first I was somewhat amused that my two companions who had immediately entered the temple on arrival were both worshiping here together. One was a devout Buddhist and the other an equally devout Catholic! This was far away from my childhood Christian experience where one couldn't even enter another Christian church of a different denomination - not even to attend a family wedding! As I walked slowly around the inner temple courtyard, however,  I, too, was affected by the atmosphere and the idea of that strangeness wafted away in the cool breeze that accompanied me.

Nallur Kovil

My knowledge of Hinduism is almost less than basic but I did know that individual temples have different deities who have their own symbols. The deity of this Temple is Lord Muruga, the God of the Tamils and also known elsewhere as Kartikya, Skanda and Subrahmanya. While walking around the inner courtyard looking at the statues and wall paintings I noticed that there were several representations of peacocks and have now learned that the peacock is the emblem associated with Muruga, as is the vel or spear that symbolises his divinity.

Nallur Kovil

The first Nallur temple was built around 949 AD but was destroyed by invaders and rebuilt again after each invasion and destruction. Of course it was not the sturdy, colourful and statue filled structure it is today. Eventually a more substantial one was built of bricks and stones but this was destroyed by the Portuguese who replaced it with a Christian church. When the Dutch took over from the Portuguese, they were more relaxed and gave permission for a new temple to be constructed. Even so, the one built here in 1749 AD was much smaller, minus the clock tower, courtyard and ornate work. These were added gradually over time until 1964 when the Great Hall was built, statues added and wall paintings renovated, making it the beautiful place it is today.

I could have stayed much longer in this beautiful temple however my companions had long made their exit and I was aware that Sam was waiting under a shade tree, feeling too ill to come across the hot sea of sand and join me inside.

 I left slowly, feeling much calmer and in tune with the world around me than I had felt on my arrival.