Wrecked

One of the thing that catched my eyes during my short trip to Melaka was this graphic road safety campaign. Underneath the usual accident statistic board was a car totally wrecked. Now if that does not knock some sense into your head, I don't know what would.

p.s.: sorry for the earlier gramatically horrifying entry. That's what happened when you simply cut and paste.

Melaka Historical City

I got a malay wedding invitation yesterday. The place - a friend's house in Melaka. Thinking I could still find my way, I didn't bring the invitation card - the map was in it. I haven't been to Melaka for quite some times. Some of the roads looks different. Needless to say, I made a huge round before finally reaching the destination.

By the time I reached the house, the 'kenduri' (eating part) was pretty much nearing the end. The 'bersanding' and 'makan beradat' has very much ended. Thus, I could not elaborate on those. The food was delicous - 'nasi minyak' (rice cooked in herbs), 'daging masak kurma' (beef cooked in spices and coconut milk - i think). After meeting the bride (my friend) and the groom, as well as the mother of the bride, I left.

I went for a drive in Melaka town for awhile before stopping at some of the shops in Jalan Hang Tuah. Hang Tuah is actually a lagendary Malay warrior. He and his friends, Hang Jebat, Hang Lekiu, Hang Kasturi, and Hang Lekir, are better known as Hang Tuah Lima Bersaudara (somewhat translated into The Brotherhood of Hang Tuah).

Back to the shops in Jalan Hang Tuah. There were side walk cafes. The cafes were more like up-scale foodstalls. What grabbed my attention was the sign board "Tempat bertemu / Meeting point". The shops mostly sell clothes and textiles. After browsing through the materials, quality goods with reasonable price, I left.

On my way back to the highway, there were a "Pasar Malam" (night market). Night market is most probably a Malaysian affair. Malaysian love to go to their "Pasar Malam". There were a lot of people at the "pasar malam". You can find almost all essential things - raw food like beef, chicken, fishes; clothes; cooking utensil; etc. If not all, most, at a very cheap price. However, the organization of the stalls was not to my liking. Raw meat was sold next to cooked food. Unlike other "pasar malam" that I've been to where the 'wet' and 'dry' goods are segregated.

Even so, I enjoyed my shot trip to Melaka.

National Library

This is one of the buildings I passed during my quest for National Art Gallery. The National Library is located along the same road with the Art Gallery. Unlike the Art Gallery, the library's main entrance could be seen from the main road.

The library is at least four storeys high. Anyone can go in and browse the collections. But you need to be a member to borrow a book. They have good collection of magazines. I among magazine I found were recent copy of Reader Digest, National Geographic. There were other magazines but mostly older copies.

The books in the main building are only reference books. To borrow a book, you need to go the adjecent building (Bangunan Sejarah). I only went to the 3rd floor and found that the have quite recent books on ICT. Other books are mostly older edition.

In my brief moment in the National Library, I found that there are many books on a wide variety of topics. However, books are mostly of older edition. If they are not old, they look old. Maybe due to the many hands that have handled the books. I definitely need to spend more time in browsing the books and check if they have recently publish reference books.