A Trip to Malacca

View of Jalan Munshi Abdullah, from the hotel window towards direction of Perigi Hang Tuah after and before the heavy rain. Next is the view of the Perigi Hang Tuah. Perigi means well. Bottom is the Emperor Hotel

Morning of 5 Jan 2008, My wife & I drive across the Causeway to Malacca. We took our sweet time with stop over at Pasar Tani to buy some groceries and take-away breakfast in-the car. Then we stop at Kempas Toll gate to top-up our Touch-n-Go Toll Card. We also stop at Machap, about 100km for lunch.

We arrive at Mahad Tahfiz (Quran Memorizing School) Batu Berendam in Malacca at about 2:30pm with a stop at at near-by mosque for our noon prayer. We did Qasr-Jamak of 2 zuhr and 2 Asr prayer. It was so arkward to see a young lady to clean the mosque.

At The Mahad Tahfiz we handed, to the principal, the charity for his Quran Memorizing School which was trusted to us by a friend. This school is dedicated for girls only, ranging from the age of 8 to 22 years old.

After completing the 4-year quran memorizing program , the girls will continue to with Islamic Studies for another 4 years. Some of the girls had completed both term there and one of them is in South Africa and another in England pursuin further studies in Islamic Education.

We chit chat with he principal and his wife and meet up with one of the girls whom we adopted and sponsor her studies there. The principal is our distant cousins.

Then we proceeded to Perigi Hang Tuah, to buy roasted belachan for friends and relatives back home, but felt tired along the way. We checked into Hotel Emperor as shown in above photos. Shortly after check-in, heavy rain started to poured all over Malacca Town, and our trip to Perigi Han Tuah was disrupted. We took the oppurtunity for a short quality nap. We had satay for dinner at the food court across the road.

Next morning, 6 Jan, we proceeded to Perigi Hang Tuah at Duyong District of Malacca. It was about 10km from the hotel.

Hang Tuah was a lagendary Malay hero during the time of Malacca Sultanate around the period of 1500. He made Malacca popular during the time of the Majapahit, Pasai and Acheh Dynasty within the Malay Archipelago. He also fought against the invasion of the Portugese into Malacca. He was said to be an expert in Malay Spiritual Martial Arts and was equivalent to, if not superior than, the Shaolin Monks.

Along with him lived the legendary Hang Li Po and some other Chinese famous figures of Malacca. The Chinese was said to have come to Malacca during the time of the Voyage of Admiral Cheng Ho from China to Malacca. And during the British administration of Malaya, more Chinese migrated into Malacca and other states of Malaysia.

Belachan is a very famous preserved shrimp paste originated from Malacca. It is used as flavoring for Malay and Nyonya cuisines.

With the will of GOD, I will try to continue this episode another day.