Albert Goes to Melaka

At the center of the Melaka old town is the Dutch Square. At the center of the square is Queen Victoria's Fountain. Surrounding the square are the Malaysia Youth Museum, Christ Church, and the Stadthuys - all of them in bright salmon pink. Off to one side is a clock tower (also in the same color scheme) called the Tan Beng Seng Clock Tower. Beside it is a big cannon. Due to time constraints, I concentrated on the Stadthuys. A fine example of Dutch architecture, the Stadthuys was built in 1650 as the official residence of the Dutch Governor. It now houses the Historic and Ethnography Museum. The entry ticket is actually a 5-in-1. Once inside Stadthuys, you also have access to the Governors Museum, the Democratic Government Museum, the Literature Museum, and another one which I already forgot. The museums are not really that nice - just some paintings and artifacts and metalware and pottery and mannequins in traditional clothes and old books, etc. I walked through most of the museums in half an hour or so.

Atop St. Paul's Hill is the ruins of St. Paul's Church. It was first built in 1521 by Portuguese Captain Duerte Coelho, and was originally called Our Lady of the Hill. This church was later enlarged into two storeys and a tower was added. When the Dutch came, they renamed it as St. Paul's Church and used it as a place of worship until Christ Church was completed. It is said that St. Francis Xavier used to visit the church. He was later enshrined in the open grave in 1553 before being shipped to Goa, India. The church fell into ruin, and was used to store gunpowder by the Dutch and the British. Inside the church are still tombstones with Latin/Portuguese/Dutch(?) inscriptions on them. Outside, a statue of St. Francis stands guard with his right arm missing. On the grounds of the church lie many graves of Dutch noblemen. At the base of the hill are the ruins of A' Famosa. When the Portuguese captured Melaka in 1511, they built a fortress to protect themselves. It sustained heavy damage during the Dutch invasion, and would've been totally demolished by the British had Sir Raffles not stepped in in 1808. Further off are the Malacca Sultanate Palace and the Proclamation of Independence Memorial.

It was getting late, so I had to force myself to face the issue of getting back to Singapore. After asking a few people, I found some buses at the back of this shopping mall. I got on one of them, and fortunately it brought me back to Melaka Sentral. I went to the ticket counters to find that most bus tickets to Singapore have been sold out for the day. (A lot of Malaccans go to Singapore for work.) Worse, I don't have enough ringgits on me for the fare. I went to the information booth, and the lady informed me that the money changers have all gone home. If I want to change my SGD, I have to go to the city. But I don't have money to the city, and I wouldn't even know how! She then suggested I go to one of the booths, which might be able to help. And help me they did. Due to increased demand, that particular bus company decided to field another bus, and yes, they accept SGD. I was so relieved to be on the bus, I didn't even mind my talkative seatmate. Come to think of it, that's 10 hours of travel time (round-trip) and two hours of actual sightseeing. Bah!