"MELAKA WHERE MALAYSIA BEGAN" a Melaka Travel Page by cochinjew

You may not believe it..for months I have been wanting to return to Malacca.. why? to savour Hotel Puri and also have yet another meal at Seri Nyonya with Chef Bong.
I had one day free on this trip: Friends Food and Far east trip. so after arriving in Singapore from Siem Reap yesterday and having lunch with Ming, decided to take the bus, four and half hours, to Malacca. I was overcome by all the affection and friendliness shown by the staff at Hotel Puri and the owners had put aside an extremely attractive suite for me: aesthetically very pleasing. I had the best rest of this trip. Today at Lunch time, I went to Seri Nyonya and the staff at the reception, Liyen and concierge Amin couldnt be friendly enough but the best was: a nice nyonya meal prepared by Chef Bong who introduced me to his assistant Yenny. So it was more than worth it for me, after the lunch I took a taxi to the Central Bus Station and then on to KL and now waiting at Hotel Genesis for local VT dignitary Jen to show up for a few drinks and hopefullly a nice Malay or Chinese meal..
In fact Melaka is far more multicultural than other parts of Malaysia..
Apart from the three predominant racial groupings.. MALAY, CHINESE AND INDIAN
there are distinct groups of people not found elsewhere (not in such numbers)
they are
The Portuguese
who speak an ancient form of portuguese, similar to cristao de macao
Chetty.. originating in India and prominent traders who played important part in the forming of the Malacca Sultanate and some of them were Bendahara ( prime counsel ) to the Sultan. They intermarried with the local malays but maintained their hindu religion but adapted many of the malay ways including the dress
Baba and Nyonya..Like the Chetty from India, these are off springs of the union between chinese merchants who married local malays and settled down in Malacca. They like the Chetty adapted malay ways, developed their unique cuisine, developed an art of their own but did not forget their chinese origin and identity.

It was a pleasure for me to practise Portuguese of all places in Melaka! with some malacca portuguese..
No visit to Malacca would be complete with out visiting the new museum dedicated to Cheng Ho Zhen He right in the heart of the town

The opportune monsoon winds that created great trading empires of the East such as Angkor, Funan...also aided in the foundation of Malacca. Traders from India bringing in goods from Middle East and India and traders from China bringing goods from their region, needed a place to rest and trade which suited the tradewinds of the two different monsoons.
The golden age of Malaysian history was the Malacca Sultanate from its founding in 1400 by sailendra prince Parameswara ( who later converted to Islam, but still maintaining Indianized forms of syncretic worship, lording over Malay warriors and Indian counsel ( chetty Indians who arrived at the outset of the sultanate), intermarrying with various kingdoms in the region to strengthen themselves.
Portuguese arriving in 1511, heralding the golden era, called it the venice of the East.

The father of the modern Malaysia is considered to be Tungku Abdul Rahman who was the first prime minister. Since Independence in 1957..there have been only
Tun Abdul Razak, Hussein Onn and the recently retired Dr Mahathir at the helm of this very successful but humane experiment in asian democracy and enrichment. Mahathir was a recalcitrant and rather igrnorant person fueling hatred, especially towards Jews, which is the reason why many adult Malays harbour antisemitic feelings. The current Premier Badawi seems a moderate and it is interesting to note that Malaysia is spared the riots of the Cartoon Flames.

Approximate periods of foreign domination in Melaka...

1511 to 1641 Portuguese
1641-1786 Dutch
Until 1957 British

Historically, Malay Peninsula was under the tutelage of

Funan
Thai
Kambuja
Sri Vijaya
Chola
empires