Took an impromptu day trip to Malacca for a laksa lunch and portugese dinner (and did a penta-cache run of the geocaches in the area at the same time). As we’ve already seen most of Malacca on our previous makan and sight-seeing trip, we just took a brief walk around the town and enjoyed the food and atmosphere this time round.
St. Pauls Church
The Portuguese wall (Middleburg Bastion) and Maritime Museum
We did however visit two new places slightly outside the main tourist district. Kampung Morton being one of them – Kampung Morten was founded around 1920 to resettle people whose homes had to make way for a market to be built in Kampung Jawa. It was named after Joseph Frederick Morten, the land commissioner who helped in the resettlement of the people. Two imminent locals, Othman Haji Muhammad Nor and Deman Haji Abdul Ghani, each chipped in M$10,000 to purchase the land, which was until then dense mangrove. The opening ceremony of Kampung Morten was carried out by Morten in 1923. Today Kampung Morten is regarded as a living museum.
Kampung Morten is a traditional village in Malacca Town. It is located on a peninsula surrounded by a loop of the Malacca River. Kampung Morten is recognised as a heritage village in Malacca, along with Banda Kaba, Bukit Cina, Chitty Village, the Portuguese Settlement and Chinatown. We walked here via Jalan Bunga Raya Pantai and window-shopped along the way and headed back to the town centre via the river trail. The views on boardwalk and path along the river was beautiful with mural painted houses lining the street.
For dinner, we drove to the Portuguese Settlement for some Portugese seafood. There were Christmas carols playing in the background, and we enjoyed the Christmas lights in the surrounding houses, as well as the stage performances on at the square tonight. The atmosphere here is quite unique and we suddenly felt like we were no longer in Malaysia.
The settlement’s 120 odd families are spread along its streets bearing Portuguese names like Dalbuquerque, Taxeira, Daranjo, Squera, and Eredia. The heart of the settlement is the village square just by the seaside. Recent development by the authorities has modernised the square, with a seafront promenade and a jetty that extends out into the straits. The settlement’s quaint community centre, which doubles as a museum, lies just to the side of the square, adjoining the open air food court that faces the sea. Various stalls offering a wide variety of Portuguese dishes, like Curry Debil and Sambal Capitang, are located at the food court. A simple shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary stands at the very centre of the square, a quiet yet eloquent symbol of the community’s devout traditions and its famous celebrations.
