We've now come down to Melaka town itself. Sadly we're only going to be
spending two nights here, which means that we're not going to get much time to
explore, which is a bit of a shame because I think both Liz and I are
really going to like this place!
Malaka is UNESCO listed as an important heritage town, and its biggest claim to
fame, of course, is its incredible maritime history. So we're here at the
Maritime Museum just to find out a little bit about it we don't know
anything, we've done no research, we'll find out about it inside. This is
the entrance and it's a replica of a Portuguese ship that was sunk off the
coast 500 years ago or so, and it's called the "Flor de la Mer", so let's go
have a look and see what's going on in there.
This is a replica of what the captain's cabin would have looked like, and if any
of you have seen Pirates of the Caribbean it does bear some resemblance to
the Disney idea. The sign tells us here that we should be looking at all of the
equipment that the captain used and that will give us some idea of what we've
learned over the centuries. Melaka's unique maritime history is rich with 700
years of influence from east and west. It was established and developed as an
important trading post from the early Malacca Sultanate through to the
Portuguese Dutch and British eras. In the 14th century this sleepy fishing village
was named by Parameshwara, a Hindu prince from Sumatra, who had been kicked out of
Singapore by the Siamese. He developed it into a trading port. It's protected
position in the malacca strait meant that traders in exotic spices and other
desirables from Arabia, India and China were able to wait out the monsoons in
comfort before catching the trades home to their respective countries. Many
traders settled and married the local Malays, leading to the intermingling of
multiple cultures. Even today Malacca is a rich blend of influence and heritage.
In 1405 the Chinese Muslim Admiral Cheng Ho arrived in malacca with gifts from
the Ming emperor, and the promise of protection against groups from
neighbouring Johor, Siam and Aceh. By mid 15th century the port had adopted Islam
as its main religion, but when the Portuguese arrived in 1509 they set
about converting Melaka citizens to Christianity. While their superior
firepower made it easy to conquer the port, they could not force Muslim
merchants from Arabia and India to continue trading there. Although their
main interest lay in Indonesia, in 1609 the Dutch took over from the Portuguese
and re-established Melaka as a center for trade. They built public buildings
and churches which still remain today. By 1824 Melaka was under British
control, but Singapore rapidly eclipsed the old port and it returned to being
the sleepy backwater of earlier times. That was the first
bit of the museum inside this replica... it's absolutely brilliant, it's beautifully done!
The best thing for me were the the mannequins, the Dioramas,
with their beautiful bronze figures
fantastically detailed. But the best thing of all, and I think great Jaime
probably agrees, were the ships the models of the ships going way way back
for hundreds and hundreds of years. There's an incredible British galleon, some
Portuguese ships, all the local barques and all the different types of ships
they used. The detail's amazing! Melaka, of course, was a very important trading port
and what we learned was how significant it was. In, say, the 1500s there were 83
languages spoken in this area! There were four harbor masters and the port of
Melaka could house up to two thousand vessels at any one time. So that kind of
gives you an idea of how important this was on the east-west trading route of
the seas.
That is super busy Jonker Street on a Thursday.We've been told that at the weekends this place gets so busy they end up with lots and
lots of traffic jams, which is a shame really because this is the main walking
street. It's very nice, and we're pretty tired after our walk around the museum, so
we found this little coffee shop right here which
does superb coffee. It's so good I had to have two. As I say, it's starting to get
really busy and it's not even the weekend yet so I dread to think what
it's like at the weekends. We're just going to relax here, have something
to eat and then we're going to find a shopping mall, and then we're
going to do something a bit cultural... I forgot what it is, but it's probably have a
beer.
After a hard day's shopping in the shopping mall, buying our new "activewear" which is
obviously for sailing... we're knackered and we need a drink. So what
better way to get back then on one of these completely offensive cycle
couriers. He's doing a grand job here because he's having to cart around
probably twice the amount of weight that he's normally used to. What's your name? Shah!
Shah. He's doing a really good job and I think the thing is that who are we
kidding? We're tourists, and we're where he gets his bread and butter
from. So why not help the guy out?
I'll give you five pounds if you can guess which beer is mine and which beer is Jamie's?
It was a super early start for us this morning, 4:30 to be precise. We did a live
broadcast this morning from Port Dickson and now it's time to get the boat ready
to leave. We have a couple of clear days of not much wind. Most the wind remember
is southerly, so it's pretty much on the nose. So we think we're probably going to
leave today to take advantage of having no wind. At least we're motoring with
nothing on the nose or little, wind on the nose. Inshallah! Anyway just
getting ready now we've just had our guy Pani who's based here, and he does the
diesel run for us, so we've just taken on another 130 litres in jerrycans.
Meanwhile Liz is doing her job which she has been tasked with, and she's very, very
good at it. You may have seen in previous episodes, and that is
to check the batteries, which she's doing now in her underpants. So if we have a
look down this way... You're not gonna see my underpants I hope! Anyway, two
batteries done, two to go. Specific gravity is extremely healthy, and they
just need a little bit of topping up with some distilled water.
Love these Trojans, they're are so easy to use! If you remember a couple weeks ago we took
apart the VHF and found that we couldn't replace the handset because it's all
integrated and weather sealed, so we got a new one. Just taking this apart now, and
examining it it looks like the connection is there. So it's a case of
popping that off, putting the new one in. The only problem is actually trying
to get... you see here, that's where the cable comes into the unit, that's the bit
that seems to be a little bit tricky. This is glued in place inside here, and
this piece here if you can see that... that drops down like so to hold. Look at
the profile of the other one, so effectively that drops in place.
And that's it done, really there wasn't much to show you apart from putting the casing
back together. Just did a quick radio check as well on channel one six, and
got a reply back straight away, so all good. That is now working so at least now
if we run into trouble down the Malacca Strait I feel a little bit more
confident that we'll be able to communicate. As you can see some people
are busier than others...
And so here we are having left the marina. It was all pretty straightforward,
actually. We didn't need any help from the the rope guys. The "rope guys"? What on
earth is a "rope guy"? Anyway you know what I mean, the guys that work in the marina.
It was a bit of a tight spot, you probably saw when we came in, but we just
allowed the wind just to blow us out. Liz is just clearing up the lines - I did
volunteer to do it but she was quite happy to do it herself.
Overcast, hot weather forecast, should be pretty straightforward, although we do
have to watch out for those big Sumatras. We had one of those that came
through the other night from the West, which was pretty nasty. We were in the
marina, but we do know people who were out to anchor at the time, and they said
it was quite full-on. But anyway, it's nice to be back on the water and
moving.
So, with full tanks, a VHF that works, batteries that are really in tip-top
shape, and a really nice dose of culture, we were ready to head south to Singapore.
If you're up-to-date with our movements in real time, if you follow us on
Facebook and Instagram, you'll know that we made it all the way around to the
east side of the peninsula and we're here right now in Tioman. We're about
to head off to the Anambas Islands, that's quite a long way out into the
South China Sea, and we're convinced there's absolutely no Wi-Fi when we get
there. But don't worry because we have worked out a way to upload our weekly
vlogs while we're away. The only problem is going to be that we're not going to
be able to answer those wonderful comments, incisive remarks, that you guys
make below the videos. But do keep making them, and when we're back we'll
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