Double Dipping

Standing in front of one of Asia's oldest Christian churches...
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It’s often hard when one is nearing the end of a long trip to find ways of maintaining the excitement and not succumbing to the ‘going back soon’ blues. I guess this is, in part, why I find retrospective travelling (that is, revisiting places you’ve been before) a good way to calm the nerves and comfort the soul.

Of course, some people do this habitually. For instance, most Australians in Bali are asked the standard question ‘how many times you come to Bali?’ because the standard answer is usually three, four or more. I suppose that some places just gel with some people and after several visits, such places become second homes (and yes, Felicity and I have imagined having a holiday home somewhere amidst green rice fields and waterfalls!). On the other hand, the intrepid traveller knows that there are just so many places in the world, and to dwell on one for too long is to miss out on others.

It’s certainly places like Melaka that make you realise how important visiting a place twice can really be.

Felicity gets up close and personal with this impressive Dutch tombstone...
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Here in Melaka for the second time though, three years after my first visit, I feel acutely aware of change: how this place has changed, giving birth to megamalls, more frenetic campaigns for what the Malaysian ministry of tourism regards as ‘quality tourists,’ more Starbucks, more taxis and more garishly decorated trishaws. I’m also aware of how I’ve changed, being three years older and perhaps a little wiser.

Felicity having oven-baked spicy squid at the Portuguese village...
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Though as anyone who comes here will tell you, it’s not the short term, quick-fix kind of change you really discover in Melaka. It’s the gradual change over hundreds of years and many lifetimes, to cultures, languages, empires and governments that draws you in. You can see it in the mind-boggling array of colonial architecture spanning five hundred years, with everything from Portuguese forts, Dutch cannons, and quaint English shop houses. You can also see it in the spicy mix of European, Chinese, Malay and Indian cultures with delights such as devil curry, Dutch pastries, ‘eggs Benedict,’ roti canai, nasi lemak and Peking duck.

Felicity and I on a ferris wheel on our last night overseas together...
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It’s certainly places like Melaka that make you realise how important visiting a place twice can really be.