Bicycle touring Malaysia: Tampin to Malacca

Well, sort of bicycle touring. Still in a little hurry to make it to Singapore in time for our flight home, Ferda and I took the train from Kuala Lumpur to Tampin. There’s one daily train that allows bicycles. Don’t miss it.

In Tampin we stayed in another large Chinese hotel, had a good Indian dinner, and found these street murals.

The next day we actually did pedal our bicycles a little — all the way from Tampin to Malacca! Like Kangar and Penang this was one short day of riding followed by another city break, this time Malacca (aka Melaka).

For some years Malacca was the busiest port in the world. This must have been the time when the famous Ming Dynasty admiral Zheng He (aka Cheng Ho) sailed the huge Chinese fleet across the Indian Ocean in the early 15th century. Here’s a Chinese map showing the route from Nanjing to Mombasa at the time.

It’s a fluke of history that the Chinese took their navy (the most powerful and technologically advanced in the world) back to China, leaving the Indian Ocean trade routes for the Portuguese to take over a few decades later.

The importance of Malacca declined with Portuguese monopolistic practices and later the British preferred to develop Penang and Singapore.

As 21st century tourists it was easy to spend three days exploring Malacca checking out Malaysia’s typical mix of Chinese, Indian, and Malay. On Harmony Street (aka Jalan Tukang Emas), for example, within about 100m there’s Buddhist Sanduo Temple, Hindu Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthi Temple, and Muslim Kampung Kling Mosque.

Or by food — Chinese, Indian, Malay:

As in Penang it feels like the Chinese culture is dominant.

We visited yet another (after Penang) Baba and Nyonya Museum/Mansion.

These museums usually had examples of the fine bead work often done on Chinese women’s shoes. Then Ferda and I came across a man in a shop who was actually doing this work. He was happy to show Ferda how it’s done, and she sat down and gave it a try.

Ferda and I were in Malacca for the end of Ramadan holiday so some attractions were closed like the 100-year-old wooden Malay house of Villa Sentosa

and the reproduction of a Malay sultan’s palace, Istana Kesultanan Melaka,

but we got to see families dressed up for the holiday. We were invited in for food and drinks multiple times.

Oh, we can’t forget the Europeans. This is Dutch Square with, I believe, a British church.

Mostly we spent the holiday doing what many Malays do, wandering the streets of Malacca.

I never did get used to the huge monitor lizards in this part of the world.

One evening at a food stall I sat down, pointed, and said, “I’ll have what she’s having.” Turned out to be cuttlefish, perhaps my first time eating cuttlefish, not an experience that needs to be repeated. It was tasty, but cuttlefish? Really? Oh well.