Adventure Babies

Sultanate of Malacca Malacca was founded by Parameswara, a Srivijayan prince who left Sumatra in 1396 in order to further his enmity with the Majapahit Empire. According to a popular legend, Parameswara was resting under a tree near a river while hunting, when one of his dogs cornered a mouse deer. In self-defence, the mouse deer pushed the dog into the river. Impressed by the courage of the deer, and taking it as a propitious omen of the weak overcoming the powerful, Parameswara decided on the spot to found an empire on the very place that he was sitting. He named it "Melaka" after the tree under which he had taken shelter.

Parameswara converted to Islam in 1414 and changed his name to "Sultan Iskandar Shah". What started as a fishing village then grew into the most important port in the region, attracting traders from Java, India, Arabia and China, and served as a stopping point for China-India trade during the two monsoon periods. Mass settlement of Chinese, mostly from the imperial and merchant fleet occurred during the reign of Parameswara, occurred in the vicinity of the Bukit China ("Chinese Hill") area, which had among the best Feng Shui (geomancy) in Malacca then. Sultan Iskandar Shah died in 1424, and was succeeded by his son, Sri Maharaja.

Unfortunately, the prosperity of Malacca attracted the invasion of the Siamese. Attempts in 1446 and 1456, however, were warded off by Tun Perak, the then Chief Minister. The development of relations between Malacca and China was at that time a strategic decision to ward off further Siamese attacks.

Because of its strategic location, Malacca was an important outpost for Zheng He's spectacular exploration fleet. To enhance relations, Hang Li Po, allegedly a princess of the Ming Emperor of China, arrived in Malacca, accompanied by 500 attendants, to marry Sultan Mansur Shah who reigned from 1456 until 1477. Her attendants married the locals and settled mostly in Bukit China.

A cultural result of the vibrant trade was the expansion of the Peranakan people, who spread to other major settlements in the region.

During its heyday Malacca was a powerful Sultanate which extended its rule over the southern Malay Peninsula and much of Sumatra. Its rise help to hold off the Thai's southwards encroachment and arguably hasten the decline of the rival Majapahit Empire of Java. Malacca was also central in the spread of Islam in the Malay Archipelago.

Malacca was conquered on August 24, 1511 by the Portuguese viceroy of India, Afonso de Albuquerque and it became a strategic base for Portuguese expansion in the East Indies. Sultan Mahmud Shah, the last Sultan of Malacca took refuge in the hinterland, and made intermittent raids both by land and sea, causing considerable hardship for the Portuguese. Finally in 1526, a large force of Portuguese ships, under the command of Pedro Mascarenhas, was sent to destroy Bentan, where Sultan Mahmud was based. Sultan Mahmud fled with his family across the Straits to Kampar in Sumatra, where he died two years later.

The Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier spent several months in Malacca in 1545, 1546 and 1549. In 1641 the Dutch defeated the Portuguese to capture Malacca with the help of the Sultan of Johore.

The Dutch ruled Malacca from 1641 to 1795 but they were not interested in developing it as a trading centre, placing greater importance to Batavia (Jakarta) in Indonesia as their administrative centre.

Malacca was ceded to the British in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 in exchange for Bencoolen on Sumatra. From 1826 to 1946 Malacca was governed, first by the British East India Company and then as a Crown Colony. It formed part of the Straits Settlements, together with Singapore and Penang. After the dissolution of this crown colony, Malacca and Penang became part of the Malayan Union, which later became Malaysia.

plants that harm & plants that heal....
The Cameron Highlands are so cool and airy!! When we travel to the Perhentian Islands tomorrow I'm sure we'll have a shock when the heat hits us again, we've got quite used to wearing jumpers and trousers in the cool evenings! We met other people who lost their bags whilst travelling with the kurnia bistari bus company, some fell out like ours, and others had simply disappeared from the bus when it arrived in C.H. So the hostels here are asking guests to use another company wherever possible.
Yesterday we went on an amazing tour. Our guide Kumar made us and the other 4 people on the tour laugh the moment we got in the jeep, with his ingenious method of passing a vehicle emmissions test the police had set up. He has a friend who is a police man who told him they would be there, and has previously shown him how to put a small piece of rolled up newspaper in the engine to significantly reduce the emmissions, and therefore pass the test!! He was a really good guide, pointing out lots of different places and always cracking jokes. We travelled up the mountains in a 4x4 to Mount Brinchang, the highest point on peninsular Malaysia at 6666 ft. The sun was shining and the views were fantastic, if a little hazy in the distance. On the way back down the winding road, Kumar stopped the jeep and we walked down the track. He pointed out various plants, and explained their uses, which varied from medicinal to poison! Bamboo contains water that is safe to drink, but the outer shell contains fibres which irritate the skin and if ingested can kill you, and blind you if they get in your eyes. He spotted a black millepied with red legs which was about 6 inches long he picked it up on a stick and it curled around it. He explained that the bite is so painful that, although it is not lethal, people have committed suicide because the pain is so bad. When he was younger he was amazed by the idea of a pain that would cause someone to take their own life, so went out searching for one of the insects and picked it up and it bit him. He wouldnt recommend it! Kumar showed us many more plants which can heal and harm, and then stopped by a very small gap in the trees of a near vertical slope, which looked as if it had been made by rain water flowing down the mountain. "Now we start the jungle trek" He announced, and there were gasps from a couple behind us. Kumar started to climb and scramble up the slope, which had tree roots & branches to act as steps and handholds above the crumbling earth. Rob followed straight behind, I could sense his excitement, and I followed, equally curious about the trail we were about to take. We climbed under and over fallen branches, and Kumar frequently stopped to explain which plants are used as medicines, and which are vital for jungle survival. We ate cinnamon leaves, and identified the Ti tree, the natural antiseptic (Among so many other plants) we saw the insect eating carnivorous 'monkey cups', and a species of orchid endemic to the cameron highlands. The walk was fantastic, and we didnt want it to end!!
Tomorrow we are heading to the perhentian islands, which are more remote than Tioman, but developing very quickly, maily due to the fact that they are featured in the highlights of Malaysia in the Lonely Planet guide, which we feel is rather irresponsible of LP, as visitors are flocking to the previously pristine island. Well, we shall see when we get there...
They only have electricity for 12 hours a day, and i'm predicting the internet will be painfully slow, so, I'm not sure when I'll next be able to write here, but you can be sure we'll be having a fantastic time lazing around in paradise!!

posted by Rach at Saturday, July 08, 2006

Cameron Highlands Tea
We arrived in the Cameron Highlands from KL last night, after a very hairy bus journey! Apparantley there are 635 bends on the road from Ipoh to Tanah Rata, and our bus driver was driving like a frustrated racing driver, swinging the bus from one side to another, we were holding on to our seats praying that the oncoming traffic coming around the next blind bend was going to sound its horn. After closing my eyes for a long time and turning my knuckles white gripping on to my seat, I looked out of the window, and a large black object passed through the bottom of my vision.... and another... and another...... .. what were they??? Our bags were flying out of the hold below!!!　When it actually registered in my thought processes, I shouted at the bus driver to stop and Rob and I ran down the road with another guy to find a truck had stopped and a guy was picking them up... he claimed he was going to bring them to us, but somehow it doesnt seem that believable. After that the bus driver slowed down slightly, thankfully! We're staying in Father's guesthouse, which is in a beautiful peaceful location on a hill overlooking Tanah Rata.
In Penang we were mugged by a guy on a motorcycle, who drove past us and swiped our bag, then sped off. He stole my bag and its contents, no cash, but my phone, camera, and, unluckily my passport. It was the first day in weeks that we'd taken a bag out, and I'd only taken my passport because we'd checked out of the place we were staying and there was no where secure to put it... We'd bought tickets for the overnight bus to the Perhentian Islands, where I'd planned to spend my 21st birthday, instead we were in the British High Commission in KL applying for a new passport.
We thought we'd seen the last of KL, as when we were there before I ended up spending the night in hospital with suspected pancreatitis, which turned out to be an acute stomach infection, but it wasn't the most pleasant experience!
Now we're in the Cameron Highlands, we aren't particularly looking forward to the journey back down the hill, but we may get a bus straight to the jetty to catch the boat to the Perhentian Islands on friday. Rob & I bought one of the cheapest camera we could find, as I need to be able to take photos!! I'm trying to attach some now, but this connection is quite slow.

So... we've been rather unlucky... or as my Viv pointed out to me very lucky.... lucky that I didnt have acute pancreatitis, or something worse (from the pain I was in I could hardly walk). Lucky I didnt get more precious things stolen, lucky neither Rob or I were hurt (we've read stories on the internet about people getting dragged into the road), lucky I saw our bagage falling from the coach.

We walked trail 9a today- they only recommend taking 2 trails alone, as the forestry department have refused to maintain the trails for 3 years, so they're very overgrown, and also the aboriginal people go hunting in the jungle and make lots of trails of their own. People have been lost in the jungle here for 23 days!! When we finished the trail we started walking towards the Boh tea plantation, which we thought was a half hour walk, and some locals in a car stopped and explained to us it was 5 km away! So we paid them 6 ringit to take us there. We had some Boh tea and cake, and walked up to the top of a hill to take in amazing views of the tea plantations. From the tea factory we were slightly worried that we would have to walk the 5 km back to the main road to get a bus, it had also started to rain heavily, but then we saw a school bus pull up and lots of children got off so we spoke to the driver who agreed to take us back to Tanah Rata for 3 RM each! Thankfully this was a slow old bus, which couldnt do more than 30mph, so we didnt have to hold on quite as hard as yesterday. Tomorrow morning we're going on a trip to the jungle with a guide,and to the highest mountain in peninsular Malaysia, hopefully I'll have lots of impressive photos!!! Well, I think that's about it for today, watch out for the next edition of Rach's corner.

view all my photos!!! just click shackers just up on the right hand side of the website and you can enter my online world.. which will outlive us all in dedication to techo posterity...........

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