Lovely Melaka: The Sacred Island & The Tatoo Artist

I'll be leaving tomorrow morning for the jungles of Taman Negara in Malaysia. The last few days have been busy but I'm out of energy to write. Left Cambodia on a bus. Spent a boozy night on Khao San Road with Chris, Kevin and Tanya. Flew the following day to Singapore. Spent a night in mall land and was afraid to litter. Took a bus the following day to Melaka on the west coast of Malaysia. Spent the last two nights at this awesome guesthouse and hung out at the tatoo parlor. Then had dinner at the tatoo parlor cooked by KC, the tatooist.

Went to a sacred island today.

A huge pilgrimage site for Muslims in SE Asia.

It has a golf course and beautiful white sand beaches where I sunbathed.

I'll fill this bit in more later.... Here is a picture of the dinner I had a couple of hours ago.

We took a hellish bus ride from Siem Reap to Bangkok. It took all day. The road is not sealed because a certain airline is paying a certain government to not fix the road so people will be forced to fly.

It's high season despite the bombs on New Year's in Bangkok. Khao San Road has a heavy police/gun presence. There were teams of six to seven cops walking around the streets in the tourist ghetto and the road has been sealed on both sides with barricades and more police officers. Tanya and Kevin were in town and we ran into them by chance on Khao San. That led to some debauchery at the Shell station that turns into a bar at night. We filled up on some beer before moving the show to a pub for some more refreshments including 'the tower'. We shared some of 'the tower' with a Thai pro (that's prostitute to you) who took a real liking to Tanya and I. She wanted nothing to do with the boys. I think she was craving some female western companionship so she could legitimise herself in the eyes of the westerners as just another 35-year-old woman hanging out at the bar with 20-something-year-old boys.

The following day I said goodbye to Chris for the fifth time. I flew to Singapore and landed in the evening. No buses to Malaysia, so I checked into a hostel in the city. I pretty much slept in the hallway on a bunk bed.

Singapore scares the crap out of me. I was afraid to litter. For sure I would get caned like those American boys did a few years back. "Singapore is Disneyland with the death penalty." That's the only quote about a country that I can remember.

The bus ride to Melaka was fairly painless. Malaysia is clean, clean, clean. It's beautiful. Melaka is an interesting city. It's one of the most famous port towns in the world. Back in olden times spices were to Europeans what oil is to Americans today. Apparently the crusades were launched by Europeans to find a spice trade route into Asia but once the Portuguese colonized Melaka they were called off. The city is also known for it's fortune tellers and healers. But, most notably, it is the site through which Islam entered Southeast Asia.

The Sama Sama guesthouse in the old Chinese quarter is instantly charming. There is dirty laundry all over the place. The owners are probably the most laid back Malay-Swiss couple in the world. He speaks fluent German because he squatted in an old apartment building in Hamburg for two years in the late seventies. I checked in for a night and promptly met some of the other guests. Anna checked in for a night three weeks ago. Mike checked in for a weeks a month ago. A 80-year old British lady keeps coming back to the place every other year for a month. The local tatoo artist dropped by and hung out for a while.

The following day I did my tourist duty of getting up at noon and sauntering through the tiny town. I spent most of the afternoon hanging out at the tatoo parlor with Anna. Then we were invited for dinner by him that night. Mike and Mats also came over. Mats decided that he would be leaving with me for Taman Negara over dinner. However, first we wanted to check out this sacred island of the coast of Melaka.

Bright and early the following day Anna, Mats and I packed our bathing suits and headed to the ferry. We landed on the uninhabited island and had traditional rice breakfast. The tombs of two Iraqis are located on this island. Pilgrims were arriving on the ferries in full hijab. We crossed the golf course, found a private little beach and took a nap under overcast skies. Then we dipped briefly into the water before heading back to the mainland to discover that both Anna and I had burnt oursleves to a crisp. Mats was fine. Figures that the olive skins get burnt and the white dude gets brown. A quick visit to the weekend market and it was off to bed for some tossing and turning until 7am.