Historical City of Melaka

I had a good day today. I had organised a trip for reporters to take a trip to Melaka to look and understand some of the conservation and restoration works undertaken by my new client, The Department of Heritage. I took Najihah with me to expose her a little to Melaka and its history. She enjoyed it too although some parts were a little boring for her.

All in all it was a good trip and I learnt a little myself about how tedious it can be to actually undertake such a task as restoring something that not many people really give much thought. It is quite sad actually that when you talk about it, restoring and preserving I mean, people will look at you blankly. When the historical items are gone they begin to question. When they are preserved and made brand new for our rakyat to enjoy and remember the history they ask why. Whatever it is, what the department is doing is a commendable job. I am not saying that just because they are my clients but because I too want to share with my children and possibly with their children how our country came about. Wouldn't you?!?

Our first stop was in Kota Melaka itself where we were taken to the old HSBC building on Jalan Bandar Hilir. It is a very old building which has not been torn down and the department has taken over. They plan to restore it to its original look and feel. Once thart is done, they will use the building as a gallery for all to enjoy. The good thing about this is I learnt they will use the original paint colour of way back then. That is so good to hear because honestly, our municipal and some Government offices just do not know how to use colour wisely. They do not seem to understand warm and hot and cool colours. They also do not seem to understand how colour can set the mood and tone. Can you imagine how ugly the fire department looks like all bathed in pink. I mean really ...come on lah! Go for a course for god's sake. Learn some colour and aesthetics.

Okay ... back to the story. After a few sights around Kota Melaka, we went up to Merlimau. This is bordering Johore. There is an old house there dating to 1894. It was owned by a Penghulu or village leader. Very nice house! Typical kampung Melaka house. He was also very rich which is why his house used paint. It was a very colourful house, looked almost like Lego if I may add...

This is Najihah and me at a pelamin or dais found in the main part of the house. I wonder what he did with it!

This is the house. It looks very quaint and is really a pleasant sight when you drive by it. It is taken care by one of the family members. He is the 8th generation.

The house had all these old tiles. Some are replicas because the original ones were broken. But I love these old tiles. At one time I wanted to look for them and place them all over my kitchen but they would cost too much and I didn't want replicas.

This is one of the department's offices explaining how they found the original paint of the old HSBC bank. I was quite impressed that they actually had the inkling to use the original colour hence the picture.

The old bank actually had the safe room still intact. The department also plans to keep the room and the door there. How nice!

This is Najihah at the water wheel. It overlooks the Straits of Malacca and is situated just next to the Bastion Middleburgh, which is the old fort used by the Dutch. Oh ya ... you can see the Eye of Malaysia from here. It is standing on reclaimed land by the way and the ride is cheaper now that it has been moved to Melaka. RM10 only. I wanted to take Najihah up initially but it rained in the afternoon.

Najihah standing on the fort of Bastion Middleburgh....very clean and well landscaped place. Across the water is Jonkers Street.

This is just outside the HSBC building and is Bastion Frederick Hendrick. It is considered an archaelogical sight and they had discovered 4 skeletons there over the years.

I didn't get the time to look around the rest of the city. But I did catch glimpse of the many colourful beca's or trishaws driving around with locals and tourists. The trishaws were a little too made up for my liking and they had radios blaring too. Not a bad idea but now when reggae or techno music was blasting from the speakers.

I wouldn't mind going to Melaka again. Maybe just a day trip lah!