Melaka

flying back to malaysia is always a mixed feeling for you. you try to avoid the capital (kuala lumpur) at all cost because it is just not your kind of city. since the initial plan to the kyushu island of Japan didn't come true, you ended up with extra days and melaka seems to be a decent choice in term of food, culture, history and a special project that you are working on. your last visit to melaka was probably some 15+ years ago and there's not so much you can associate and remember in that sense but ths trip you are particular interested in the straight chinese or peranakan or baba/nyonya culture, a heritage that close to an end, because such cross races (between chinese and malay) inter marriage will no longer produce baba and nyonya but only the malay muslim.

 some traces of dutch remains in the city, the stadhuys (literally city hall) area are painted in red

inside a former baba nyonya house now converted into a hotel, you love the confluent of portugese, malay, chinese and british styles all under one roof and uniquely expressed through the architecture and interior design, a true and most beautiful manifestations of a mixed cultural influence under one roof.

 a more chinese influenced front door of a teahouse among the old town shop houses

and taking a stroll along jonker street (now jalan hang jebat) during the day and at night just give you the snapshots of the old melaka where the nyonya delicacies, the smells and the sense of exotic nyonya food, the uniquely melaka specialty of the chicken rice balls, the noise of the night markets, the ramblings of tourists, the off the pitch uncles and aunties singing karaoke in the public or inside the clan house (association house) mingle with the humidity and the heat of malaysia weather, it's a unique experience on its own. 

a true statement of malaysia, your home country.

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i am already at my hometown home.

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