We came to Malacca because of its incredible history. I remember from school and stamp collecting days that this was once the ‘
I know that you must be tired of me going on about our hotels, but the choice can greatly iinfluence how we experience a place. In this instance, I chose what I thought was an old heritage hotel on the outskirts of the city centre. The web photos showed a beautiful stained glass dome in the lobby and a very ornate exterior. You can therefore imagine our surprise when we arrived to discover it was 5 years old. But it was surprisingly luxurious for $70 CDN a night. Again we were spoiled with a separate study area, dimmer switches and night lighting in the bathrooms, separate shower, lots of marble, and a well designed bar, dressing and closet area. The latter is important since it makes it easier for me to forget my clothes when we check out; something I have now done on a couple of occasions!
While we were disappointed with Malacca’s crumbling streets and sidewalks, and generally run down appearance in many areas, it has an attractive historic precinct with museums and historical sites dating back to the 15th C. But the city needs a Director of Tourism. There is little to help visitors find their way around. There are few brochures, few operating tours, and a very poor Tourist Information Centre. This is quite different from just about every other city we have visited. Given Malacca’s roots and its place in
It was here that we tried to celebrate the first night of Passover. Since I can remember, I have always had a seder with family. We had originally hoped that we would spend Passover with Michael Goldberg who has lived in
While I did check the ‘Kosher Malaysia’ website to seek out Jews in the city, I had no luck. Furthermore, the stores must have been sold out of Manischevitz wine and matzoh since there was none on the shelves. But we did our best. We ordered one of the few bottles of red wine in the Hotel. Sally substituted papadams for matzoh; she put something that looked like matzoh balls into something that looked like chicken soup. I found a dish that resembled my mother’s famous chicken fricassee. We had eggs and many other traditional Passover foods. We recited a few excerpts from the service; but we didn’t miss out on the four cups of wine, nor the one we poured for Elijah. We chanted the ten plagues while doing the customary dipping of fingers into the wine as we counted to ten.
Of course, all of this confused the Moslems who were seated near us in the hotel restaurant. I tried to explain to our waitress what was going on, but it was difficult for her to understand. For one thing, she didn’t know what Jews were, let alone a seder! But I think we may have started some new family traditions. Next year, instead of the traditional Odessa Chicken, we may well have a nice curry, and papadams along with the matzoh! And as for Goldberg….of course he’s invited!
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