Georgetown, Malacca and Lumut, Malaysia

Georgetown and Malacca are combined to form a World Heritage Site for their colonial history and architecture. This area was originally colonized by the Portuguese, then the Dutch and, finally, the British. Both cities were key ports on the Malacca Strait, through which 1/3 of all shipping traffic around the world passes. The Malacca Strait also has the honor of being home to the most acts of piracy in the world—many more than the Red Sea. Piracy is small time, however, and generally involves container ships around the 1^st of the month, when crew have just been paid. They quickly board, get whatever money and electronics they can and disappear. Cruise ships are not victims—way to many people to deal with.

Picture 1 shows the huge Kek Lok Si Buddhist Monastery of Supreme Bliss outside of Georgetown. It’s a climb of a couple hundred steps though souvenir shops to get to the top, with lots of Pagodas and Buddha images. The pagoda on the right is the Pagoda of 1000 Buddhas. It’s interesting because the lower floors are Chinese in style, the middle floors are Thai style and the gilded pinnacle is Burmese. There were hundreds of red and gold lanterns hung in preparation for Chinese New Years. The main celebration of New Years was this past weekend, although the celebration continues through mid-March.

Picture 2 is the Blue House, the home of Cheong Fat Tze, who in the 18^th century was the wealthiest man in Asia. The house has 38 rooms and currently is a guesthouse. The extensions on either side house the guest rooms around a courtyard. In the center of the main house is the courtyard shown in Picture 3. The latticework, lacquer work and carvings were amazing.

From Malacca, Picture 4 is the heart of the oldest Chinese temple in Malaysia, Cheng Hoon Teng. This is a Taoist Temple and the main area is surrounded by smaller altars, where worshippers pray to a variety of gods, including the Tiger gods shown in Picture 5. The Chinese people consider the tiger the King of Beasts and Tiger gods can dispel bad luck, afford prenatal protection, calm crying babies and assist in business ventures. Interestingly, the statues of Tiger gods, such as this one, are placed in a niche below the altar.

Also from Malacca, Picture 6 is the oldest mosque in Malaysia. Malaysia is an Islamic country, but is very religious-tolerant. You’ll see about 50% of the women dressing in Islamic fashion, but the remainder are western-dressed Moslems, Christians, Buddhists and Hindus.

Picture 7 is Dutch Square, or Red Square, in Malacca. It was the heart of the Dutch colonial period. It’s called Red Square because all the buildings are painted red. The buildings were built from bricks carried from Holland as ballast in the ships. They were then painted this very distinctive color. The church is Christ Church, which was built in 1753 and lacks many interesting features inside.

Picture 8 is Villa Sentosa, a typical rural Malaysian house. It’s part of the Kampon Morten Living Heritage Museum. Built around a central courtyard, Picture 9 shows the very open interior—good for air movement, but not for privacy!

The final 5 pictures are from our stop in Lumut. It’s not well-known or colonial, but offered a couple interesting sites. The most interesting stop was the turtle sanctuary. This part of Malaysia is a nesting area for green turtles. Picture 10 shows a maturing turtle with its natural color, which is brown. So why is it called the “Green” turtle? Its body fat is a nasty green color!

With the population of green turtles declining, the sanctuary pays locals for finding turtle eggs. Prior to this, people would rob the nests and sell the turtle eggs in the market. Now, it’s easier to bring them to the sanctuary. Once there, the eggs (typically 100-120) are buried in the sand for the incubation period. Picture 11 shows one of the sites where eggs are buried. You’ll notice this one is covered with a fine mesh net. These eggs will turn into male turtles. To get female turtles you bury them in the sunshine! The 5-degree difference in temperature is what determines the sex of the babies.

Once the baby turtles hatch from their ping-pong-ball-sized shells, they are delivered to the ocean, where most are quickly eaten! Only 10% survive to reproduce. But that’s a lot more that survive than used to, prior to the presence of the sanctuary. A small number of baby turtles are kept at the sanctuary to insure that a future generation is available for breeding. Picture 12 shows a baby that is between 1 and 3 days old—how cute is that!

We also visited the Tua Pek Kong Chinese temple in Lumut. This is a Temple of Prosperity, where you go to get rich. Picture 13 shows a view across the temple from the wall. It was kind of a cross between a temple and Disney World! There was even a giant dragon you could walk through that represented the Under World. Picture 14 shows just one example of the terrible things that can happen to you in the Under World—how would you like to be hung upside down, stabbed and thrown to the sharks?????

It has been great seeing some of these lesser-known places in Malaysia. The culture is fascinating. The next stop is Bangkok, where we will disembark and head to Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh in Cambodia. I’m sure there will be beautiful and chilling sights there. We’ll rejoin the ship in Saigon.