Melaka: A Night in a Brothel

Cabin fever set in yesterday so I decided to take a quick bus ride out to Melaka for a couple of days of sightseeing. Melaka is one of Malaysia's oldest port cities, influenced by years of occupation by the Dutch, Portuguese and British. The architecture reflects this quite evidently, but more on that later.

I arrived at the bus station at around 11:00 in the morning with a vague idea of my surroundings based mainly on a built in compass in my watch and the map in my lonely planet guide. Given the lack of street signs at the station, I headed in what I believed was the general direction of the town center. None of the street names further down the road were showing up on my map and I was starting to think I took the wrong bus to the wrong city. It also brought to question the state of my sense of direction. It turned out the lonely planet guide had marked the bus station at a different location and I had inadvertently wandered about two kilometers into the suburbs. I took a cab to re-orient myself with the town and everything worked out in the end.

I went with the Cheong Hoe hotel, right in the historic district of Melaka because of its convenient location, low room rate and Chinese shop house ambiance. The architecture, much like many of its surrounding buildings and Chinese temples, has an open courtyard in the middle, allowing sunlight to flood in during the daytime. It seemed idyllic at the time.

Nothing all that interesting happened until later that night when I headed to the shared bathroom for my shower. An old man sitting in the common area outside my room (I think he was waiting for me) offered a late night massage by two freshly imported Thai Chinese girls. $RM60 ($18 CAD) cheap? The room was ready and all I had to do was say the word. Now, my aunt in KL tells me how great legitimate Thai massages are - she gets one every time she's in Chiang Mai. This late night offering, however, seemed a little suspect. I told the guy "Not tonight buddy, I have to wake up early to see the town, but thanks though" before rolling my eyes and continuing to the showers.

Though my Chinese isn't so good, I did hear the girls talking about Aids in the lobby later in the night.

I'm going to have to check for suitable alternatives for accommodation in the morning.