मलाच्चा

While I was in Malaysia I took a day trip to Malacca. It is about a 2 hour drive south from Kuala Lumpur. Along the drive I was able to see many palm plantations and monkeys! Malacca is an old port city that was first built up by the Portuguese in the early 1500s. In fact, St. Francis Xavier lived there for a few years before moving on. The Dutch took it over after 150 years and added their influences and then wan Sir Stanley Raffles "settled" the Malay Peninsula for the British in the 18th century, Malacca was handed over to the English in return for Dutch control of Indonesia. Throughout all of this, the port remained an important destination for trade between Europe, Africa, India and Asia. And there were lots of pirates. It's a really interesting and beautiful city.