thanks for the free wifi, little shop on the corner with the graffiti

Melaka is an old, historically important seaport slowly giving way to the new: large shopping complexes, air-conditioned theaters, Carrefour and Starbucks. 

The old gives way to the new.

So anyways, since I see that Matt has typed up a nice little history of the place, I will focus on my three favorites: browsing Chinatown, seeing a movie, and cendol. 

1.)    Browsing Chinatown.  Unfortunately, browsing was all I could do.  But what I really wanted was to buy a couple paintings from the City Art Gallery (just over the bridge into Chinatown).  There was a really great watercolor of food stalls at a night market, as well as others with scenes from local life.  Sadly, I don’t have the cash to spare for a painting of that caliber, much less to ship it home.  After parting with the paintings, we popped into a fun little antique store, which may or may not have been selling actual antiques, but nonetheless the selection was really fun and ranged from colorful tea sets to Buddha statues to brush paintings and everything in between.  I settled for a couple postcard replications of Chinese calendar adverts, since I have no desire to cart around a tea set for the next four months, no matter how pretty it looks.  Outside of the shop, on a mellow backstreet, I enjoyed another form of pottery—tiles.  They made for a cheery addition to the rows of old houses.

2.)    Seeing a movie.  27 Dresses.  So the ending was pretty cheesy, but overall I liked it, and a chick flick in a proper theater was a nice change from watching movies like Die Hard during long bus rides.

3.)    Cendol.  Iced desserts in general are just lovely and refreshing.  For anyone who’s ever had a popsicle on a hot day, this needs no explanation except that cendol and other iced desserts are 10 times better.