Melaka Again

The decision to return to Malaysia seems to have been a good one. This morning I walked out to the striaghts of Melaka to get a glimpse at what all the fuss was about. The coast was pretty but unbearably polluted and so I opeted not to go into the water. There is an amusement park right by the shoreline with a large ferris wheel that is meant to imitate the London Eye (the park is called 'Eye on Malaysia'). However the park is closed for repairs today and thus completely desolate. I took a stroll around and felt like this was the perfect place for a Scooby Doo mystery to occur.

My next stop was a small but interesting museum that was situated in a reconstruction of a wooden Portuguese war vessel. The most interesting thing was in the museum was a series of diaramas that essentially documents the true story of the first man to circumnavigate the world. He was a Malay slave by the name of Enrique the Black (his Christian name) and, long story short, he made it around the world through a series of adventures; including being a slave on the failed Magellan voyage. While the museum nevers comes out and says it, the gist of the story is that this guy was the first human to sail around the world. Give the Malays credit here for being understated, the Chinese would have called it the 'Actually we did it first because the rest of you are simple barbarians museum' or the 'AWDIFBTROYASB Museum' for short.

I then went to a local swimming pool with a Argentinian man and a Chilean girl (no relation) I met at the hostel. Upon arrival we, being the two men, were told that we would have to rent speedos because we were not allowed to wear our 'dirty' board shorts in the water. In fact they even asked the girl to remove her board shorts and wear the bikini bottoms instead (Muslim Country????) . Being that it was vactaion I found the longest pair of sliders I could and suited up.

Chinese New Year is fast approaching. If you are single don't worry, on February 14th you can go to dinner alone and simply explain that you are celebrating the coming of the Year of the Tiger. Every Chinese holiday has its own specific snacks and today I gorged myself on lemon cakes and spring rolls. The relaxation will continue into the night.
C. Johnson