A sleepy backwater.

That's Melaka- but it was not always so. Fought over by battling colonial forces since the 14th century, it is halfway between China and India, and attracted merchants from all over the East. Before that time it was peacefully ruled by a Sultan, but in 1509 the Portugese decided they needed the port for victualling and atering, and sent the Sultan packing south to Johor. After an 8 month siege in 1641 the Sultan and the Dutch, who already had most of Indonesia, took it back. In 1795 the British, purporting to help the Dutch out when they were involved in a war elsewhere, took over. But as was usual with the Brits, they wouldn't leave, and deported the Dutch residents to Penang up the coast. Melaka though, gradually declined as Singapore became the major port in the Malay area.

So it has a chequered history, and has left a mixed Chinese, Portugese, Dutch and British population who have become Eurasian over the years. The modern city is built round Chinatown, two or three streets that contain old shop houses and temples.
We were lucky, Silver, our taxi driver, is a very knowledgeable guy who took us to many of the places that were worth seeing.

There are at least a dozen museums of all types in Melaka, we visited just two of them which gave us an insight into the past of this great city. The first was a general museum, in the Stadhuis, the former Town Hall and Governor's residence. It is beleived to be the oldest Dutch building in the East, built shortly after the Dutch occupied Melaka in 1641. Many of the buildings in this area are red, the story has it that the British decided to paint them this colour   after the original  Dutch white started to wear off leaving the red laterite stone showing!

In the museum are displays of Chinese and Malay weapons and ceramics, as well as a reconstructed Dutch bedrooms and a dining room of the period. A large room portrays Melaka's history, and in another uniforms from history are on display.

The second museum we visited is in the shape of a 14th Century Portugese ship, a maritime museum which tells of the early history of the city.I have to say it is too small to do it justice, but it does give a fair outline of the time.

We spent two days in the city, seeing many historic sites that I could bore you with, including a 16th century ruin of a church which was visited by St Francis Xavier and where he was temporarily interred before being transferred to Goa, where he remains to this day.

The Brits made it into a store for Gunpowder, put a lighthouse there, and a lookout post.
We had a tour by rickshaw, where we saw some of the old city walls, which originally came right down to the port, but because of reclamation in the last century are now some half a mile from the sea. We also saw a transport museum, that consisted of a Train, a plane and a hole in the ground.

Melaka is certainly worth a visit, we only saw the half of it, we did not for example take a trip on the river which is highly reccommended, or a lift up the tower to see Malaka from above. There are many more museums of interest, and much more history to learn about the area.

I will append a few more pictures below, to give an idea of some of the other sights we did see.