The People You Meet

Me, Cat, and Thomas out on my last night in Melaka

Ken, Leon, Jasmine, Felix, Ines, D, Mark, Auntie, Richard, Nora, David, Thomas, Cat.  These are all great people I have met during my travels in Malaysia.  Some residents of Malaysia and others like myself on a journey.  All of them unique and with their own story.  All of them very kind, giving and thoughtful.

The Melaka River at night. My last night in Melaka.

Melaka was a great wrap-up to Malaysia.  The hostel I stayed in – Jalan Jalan – which means walkabout in Malay – was excellent.  Clean, quiet, comfortable.  The people staying there were also great.  From the moment I arrived everyone welcomed everyone as family.  David, Nora, Sarah, Lee, Thomas and myself were key in the group that bonded for the three days.  David, 42, was an Australian and a walking encyclopedia.  He knew so much about many things and lots of useless (yet desirable) trivia.  He has lived much of his adult life elsewhere than Australia – places like Japan, Indonesia, elsewhere, and now Singapore.  Nora, 25 from the Netherlands, is a graphic artist.  She has been traveling for 2 years.  She has been living in India, Indonesia, (other places which I forgot) and now Melaka (well for the past week).   She is wise beyond her years.  Her advice to me was that having dates and deadlines around travel if you are on a journey, can be a bad thing because then you can’t change your plans when a place resonates with you and opportunities tell you to stay instead of go.  To this I agree as I have already experienced.

The back gardens of Stadhuys - the Dutch administrative buildings built in the 1600s in Melaka - cool cool cool - what else can I say

Sarah, about my age, is from England.  She can’t really live in England because something about being there gives her allergies.  She has lived in India and Indonesia and is happiest in Southeast Asia.  She is a quiet calm person.  Lee, also about my age, has been on the road for about a year and a half.  He too is from England.  He is helping Sam, the owner of Jalan Jalan, working there for free but doing what he is doing because he wants to.  He has been in Melaka for 6 weeks.  I can’t remember where else he has been.  Thomas, 42, is from Germany.  He lost his job last July and decided in October to go traveling.  He returns to Berlin on Sunday and is not happy about it.  He has fallen in love with Southeast Asia and does not want to return to Germany.  He has a quiet confidence about him and lots of interesting things to say.

Central Melaka - Historical Melaka

So these were my mates for three days.  This added to the Melaka experience, to so quickly fall in with some people.  I attribute it to Lee and the hostel.  Our conversations covered everything from toilets, men and women, traveling (of course), politics, religion and the like.  There was rarely a dull moment and it made blogging and focussing on writing a low priority.

Although these are just part of a model, these are the houses in Historical Melaka and a restaurant we spent a lot of time at - Baboon - was two of these in one long line - it was amazing.

Actually, that is one thing I found during Malaysia, was the different energy and desire to blog.  Lots went through my head but when it came time to sit down and write, I either didn’t find the suitable time or didn’t feel like it.  I think it was just a phase since there were days in Malaysia that were humdrum.  But my time in Melaka rejeuvenated me and was amazing.  I recommend Melaka to anyone!

The Baboon - where we hung out