Enso sail

The bus trip to Melaka was pretty interesting—We had a very chatty guide who talked almost the whole way. It took a while for him to understand that we were all living on our own sailboats and hadn’t shown up on a cruise ship. He was from KL-Kuala Lumpur- and had the bus driver stop for coffee and restrooms when asked. Major guide points. 

I spent bus time stitching on a top I’d cut from a dress I’d never worn. It had great fabric and I’d basted it to make sure it’d fit and was now sewing more secure seams. It’s rayon and the seams will ravel if I don’t serge them. Hand sewing is so slow. Imagine how many stitches it took to make the huge gowns of the English court and all the undergarments and fancy pleated vests and embroidered coats. Mind boggling. All that fabric and stitching and all by hand! And someone had spun the thread and woven the cloth by hand. (I recently listened to The Fabric of Civilization, How textiles made the world by Virginia Postrel. (Hoopla has it.) She writes in detail about the premise that civilization advanced by way of cordage and all the associated crafts involving everything from hunting to sailing to dyeing to weaving and many more. Interesting book and I happen to know one of the persons (there are a lot) mentioned in the book.) 

We arrived in Melaka and went to the center of town for a whole 20 minutes of shopping—I found some fans and bird whistles—then toured an old Portuguese church. There was an artist with watercolors and acrylic paintings. I found a watercolor I liked and purchased and gave him a tiny one of mine. He seemed very pleased. I was quite chuffed that he liked it. 

We learned from the museums that the Portuguese had to lay siege to Melaka numerous times over many years to capture the city and finally got help from Singapore (or Johor) and then somewhere in there were the Dutch starving out the Portuguese. Melaka has a rough history. 

We also toured the Portuguese ship replica in the middle of town, Flor de la Mar. It’s pretty small for a ship that crossed oceans and went around the Horn. And rather top heavy and round bottomed. There was a friendly schoolteacher leading a class (all girls) who wanted to chat with the white lady. (Me) She had excellent English. Quite a few people here speak English, which is very handy as I’ve learned no Malay. She wore a headscarf and a long sleeved dress in school colors and so did her girls. The schoolboys we saw wore tees and shorts. So unfair. It’s such a hot country. 

We had lunch at a rather nondescript restaurant that catered to tours. (The tables next to ours had boys from Kenya.) They served Baba Nyonya cuisine. (That is Straits Chinese for man & woman.) Drinks were chosen out of a fridge by the table and food was served family style. We had rice, red curry prawns and yellow curried fish, cabbage, bok choy and more. Most interesting was a popular dessert called Chendol that was coconut milk over shaved ice with kidney beans and some little green noodles made with mung beans and pandan powder. There was a brown coconut jam on top that you were supposed to stir into the whole thing and then enjoy! I wonder how they came up with such a weird dessert. I would never have ordered it or tasted it on my own. It was surprisingly good, even the red kidney beans. 

After lunch we took a boat ride on the river. They’d gussied up the buildings with colorful murals that were fun to photograph and we took turns with another boat taking pictures of a goanna (water monitor lizard) that was snoozing on a tree branch leaning over the shallows. 

After such a busy day we went to check in at our Chinese style hotel close to Jonker street. We were encouraged to explore the night market and try the street food, which I can’t eat, so we stopped at a tapas place for appetizers. We tried to find an open art gallery (no luck). Found some cool coiled earrings and neck pieces but couldn’t decide—too many choices and they were really too big for me. 

We went back to towards the hotel as it started to rain; put up our umbrellas and jostled with the other umbrella people and stall awnings. It was like a calliope—some went up and some went down; some went sideways and sometimes the stall person would unhook them as they went by, caught on the awning. 

We stopped at a Japanese restaurant that had sashimi but no sushi. It was delicious food and I saved the leftover edamame for breakfast. Jon had some sake served in a bamboo vessel. He said similar cups were made on a survival hike he did in the Philippines. It was a very good sake. 

I was upstairs on the last day trying to shop quickly while the tour bus came for us. I kept an eye out for the bus (which never showed up) and my family was trying to find me as the rest of the tour walked off to find a grocery store. I finally showed up (not more than ten minutes, I swear) later and we were all heading in the direction they’d taken but they’d disappeared. Gone. There were lots of buses on the street but none were ours. Simon tried calling the guide but no answer. He then had the brilliant idea to text the group on what’s app and after way too long we finally had a direction to go to meet them at a mall. It was a big relief to see the guide appear again. We wouldn’t have to arrange other transportation to get back to our boat! Whew!! I’m much better at staying with the group now. And occasionally someone will go shopping with me.