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 !