day trips - melaka

clearing some leave these two weeks and decided to do an impromptu day trip to melaka yesterday. and instead of taking the expressway (which will take me about 3hours), i decided to take the coastal road. have never taken this road before and thought it would be interesting. 

and after clearing the customs, i took the route less travelled and drove through pontian, batu pahat, and muar, and a lot of smaller kampongs before arriving at melaka late afternoon. the whole journey took me almost 7 hours. but it was an interesting drive. have not seen the kampongs along the coastal areas and it was indeed refreshing. reminded me of my childhood days as well as the brunei kampongs when i did my national service back in the 80s. what struck me most was the clear segregation of malays and chinese as i drove. it was not difficult to identify chinese houses vs malay houses. and i also do not see them interacting like the way we do in singapore. perhaps this is the outcome of their race-based politics. anyway, that's malaysia.

melaka was a huge disappointment. it has totally lost its old world charm. used to visit it in the 80s, 90s and early 2000. then, jonkers street was full of life and you can experience lotsa street/ hawker stores selling all sorts of local goodies and crafts. very authentic and very lively. these days, and i suspect it was after the awarding of the world heritage status, the place was so crowded and commercialised, many shops were replaced with new manicured shops selling souvenirs (that looks imported from china), and the local food that does not taste anything like it used to, and you even get international brands like h&m selling clothes! i entertained the thoughts of driving up to ipoh taiping. i thought i would be nice to pay a visit to my uncle (if he is still alive). my mum had spoken very fondly of him when she was alive. was glad i managed to hunt down his number and they had a short chat. i didn't head north in the end. it would have been another 400-over km to drive and i didn't think i was up to it. arrived back in singapore close to midnight.

was a very tiring trip. nothing much per se but i supposed such "throw-back to the past" trips are wonderful fodder for the soul once a while. i will be heading to kuching tomorrow with my ex-colleagues and will return on sunday. the last time i visit this city in east malaysia was in 1994 (?) and it reminded me of singapore in the 60s. i am not expecting too much this trip too. perhaps some nature visits, or trekking. most importantly, i am looking forward to the company.