| Seaside
city of Malacca, about 150 kilometers to
the south, is the guardian charged with
the reflective task of preserving its past.
Five hundred years ago, an extraordinary
empire rose and fell here, its power and
dreams suddenly caught off-gaurd by the
dawn of the Colonial Era.
The city
was so coveted by the European powers that
the Portuguese writer Barbarosa wrote "Whoever
is Lord in Malacca has his hand on the throat
of Venice." It was a major port along
the spice-route, and its harbor bristled
with the sails and masts of Chinese junks
and spice-laden vessels from all over the
hemisphere. Because the city was originally
built of wood, there are no crumbling and
stately reminders of the power once wielded
by the Malaccan Sultanate, but along shores
of the Malacca River the scene has probably
changed little Over the centuries, the Chinese
and local Malay cultures in Malacca intertwined,
eventually producing a completey unique
society, the Baba-Nyona. This fascinating
microculture reached its height around the
turn-of-the-century, and Malacca's Baba-Nyonya
Heritiage Museum preserves typical Baba-Nyona
household.
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Malacca
Hotels and accomodation 
