Malacca (views and impressions)

It's taken us a few days to adjust and orient ourselves, but we think we could do quite well in Malacca. We've been staying a few blocks away from the interesting but somewhat touristy center of the old China town, called Jonker Street (pronounced "yonker"). The majority of the tourists are Chinese, however, so it doesn't feel as touristy as it might, to us.

Jen has a linguistic theory about the origin of the name "Jonker" street. Malacca was controlled by the Dutch for a long time, and she thinks that perhaps the word Jonker comes from the Dutch name for the Chinese sailing ships called junks.

Just as many of the cities in Peru had roaming stray dog populations, Malacca has stray cats everywhere, which I greatly prefer. I expect it's probably a good way to keep down the cities rodent population, as well.

We're really growing to like the familiar sights around our daily routine in Malaccal. Here is a bridge that we cross every day to get to the hawker center.

And the Dutch church on the other side of the river...

Malacca seems especially beautiful and welcoming at night. There's something very safe and comforting-feeling about night-time in a very warm and humid place. There are always lots of people out eating and enjoying themselves, everything is lit up very beautifully.

There's a Chinese temple across the street form our house which has, for three nigths in a row, had a large banquet, music, a lion dance, and ceremonial burning of paper on the street. I thought it might be associated with hungry ghost month which is happening soon (maybe now?) but our host Howard thinks it's something else.

There's also a mosque a few blocks away, so we've been enjoying hearing the muezzin call to prayer 5 times a day. It's very beautiful, and I'm sorry I haven't made a recording of it yet, but we should have plenty of chances later.

Finally, a random picture we took outside a pet shop on one of Malaccas many side-streets: