So what is art?

Sunday 28th November 2010

MP3 track of the day: Voodoo Chile - Jimi Hendix

Weather: Hot, but cloudy.

Okay so after I blogged last night I went out with three guys (One British, one Norwegian and one Aussie) to the Chinese night market located on the street opposite ours. As we arrived music was being played, food was being cooked, people were everywhere and it was a complete assault on all the senses. We had a quick look through the market however we were ultimately looking for something to eat; as an appetizer I had a freshly cooked spring roll, which was lovely. I then went for another Melaka Lasaka, which was a lot spicier than the previous one I had earlier within the day and therefore I couldn't eat it all (Still it was only 70p) and so I had another spring roll to fill me up.

We then went out to find a pub; the other Brit in the group was a big fan of Manchester United (and he lives in London, what a shocker another Man U fan outside of Manchester) and so we went in search of a pub playing the beautiful game. I had a coke ... for five ringgit! which is petty expensive considering I had paid only one ringgit at the market; I then had to remind myself that five ringgit was one British pound and so I was okay after that.

It was midnight before the game ended (Manchester United 7 - 1 Backburn Rovers) and the other guys wanted to head out to a club. I wasn't really that bothered however I tagged along for the experience, but actually it was the fact that I didn't fancy walking back to my hostel, on my own, in Melaka at midnight.

After a little bit of searching we couldn't find a club; we asked someone who said that there weren't any clubs, only karaoke bars ... karaoke??? We found a karaoke bar and reluctantly went in; the girls singing were actually from China, paid to sing in the bars to attract business. Considering that this was Saturday night, they weren't doing a very good job as there were more staff, within this bar, that customers. The beer and coke (eight ringgit of a coke!) was the same price as within the UK and therefore expensive. The staff were pretty pushy, trying to make us drink more than we wanted and so we left after one drink and got back to our hostel around 2am.

Waking up at 11am I got ready and eventually headed out, for breakfast, at noon. After this I went to see the only two attractions that I wanted to see within Melaka: The Stadthuys Museum and St Paul's Church both of which are located within the same area, on top of an hill. The museum was the first choice for the day because I wanted to get out of the midday sun.

It only cost five ringgit to enter and the museum, which was packed with a wealth of information about the history of this very interesting place (so much so that I couldn't read it all). The nice thing about this museum was that the Melakan history was represented by pieces of art, with an explanation below, of that period of Malaka's history. The bad thing about the museum was that it wasn't very well laid out and I constantly went the wrong way,;also it wasn't air conditioned and so I lost my concentration quite quickly. Melaka is a lot more interesting, historically, than I ever imagioned and if you're interested you can click on this link and have a quick read (Please note that this is a link to Wikipedia and so the information isn't gosple, however it seems pretty much correct).

After this I headed for some lunch before returning to St Paul's church. Located on the top of a hill St Paul's church, built by the Portuguese in 1521, is now a skeleton structure without a roof. It wasn't that interesting however Melaka was having a 'performing arts festival' today and there were performing artists all over the hill. One artist was wearing a black leotard all over himself - covering his face - with black mickey mouse ears on. He was wondering around to music ... at points it looked like he was dying. As I watched I actually wished he was dying as it meant that the piece would end sooner ... it was very weird and frankly dull; I thought to myself that this can't be art.

After that delight I wondered around for a little bit longer before deciding to retired back to my hostel. Tonight I plan to head to a light festival, on the hill, at 9pm. After this I'll have to see what the other guys are doing ... it's actually quite nice to just chill and chat to other travellers, last month was quite frantic. Melaka's okay, there isn't a lot to do here but it is a nice city to just chill in.

Toodle Pip!