Melaka

Melaka was our second big adventure into Malaysia. The town lies on the west coast of Malaysia and the trip was going to be a long drive. A sailing friend of ours, Annette, gave Melaka rave reviews. Apparently Melaka has been the center of many dramatic historical events. Europe apparently found the port important as this town saw the Siamese (who brought the Muslim religion) fall to the Portuguese in 1511, followed by the Dutch in 1641, then the British followed (of course), eventually falling back into the hands of the Malay around 1957.

There's a huge amount of history, graveyards of Europeans, European houses and lots of shopping. Sherrell and I took a river boat tour through the city to see how extensive the European influence was. Many of the houses were built on bricks brought from Europe in the hulls of the ships (used as ballast). Many are still standing after hundreds of years.

Even the town center has a traditional clock tower:

The influence of the Chinese is inescapable almost anywhere in Asia:

We also took a quick trip to Port Dixon, as we had read in a sailing magazine they were putting in a new modern marina. We couldn't resist checking it out. As luck would have it, the marina is still under construction and is only partially completed, but very impressive. The break water is held at bay by a massive man made spit. We had our lunch in the resturant at the sailing club, eyeing all the little boats doing bouy races in the bay. Sherrell and I shared the same thoughts of returning here one day in our boat.

Here's the marina:

Just kidding....

In the meantime we settled with our land locked car, and explored some of the beaches. We came across an amazing site. As we approached the water, the sand seemed alive. We crept closer to see thousands of tiny quarter-sized red crabs scurying around the beach. There were so many it looked like a red cloud was rolling over the sand.

There was only so much shopping and history Sherrell and I could take. We decided that Melaka was good to see once, but it was time to explore deeper into the jungle. If we can only find our car.