Melaka 30 April

Last weekend while wandering around little India and photographing the morning worshippers we came across a little temple down a side street (and across a paddock) which was looking a little neglected (like the day after tomorrow), one of the fish on it's entrance arch was falling off, looking like a salmon that had given up on the swimming upstream it had resigned itself to staring forlornly at the ground. As I took a photo of said fish on it's desultory swim south, the podgy and snaggle toothed old preacher beckoned us in to his temple. As we came closer it became clear that they were in the midst of rededicating the temple to Hanuman and as such were hoisting a statue of said God onto a pedestal out the front of the temple.
I was immediately reminded of my recent visit to a comedy club gig in Phuket where the comedian had wryly noted as a youngster he had chosen christianity (the only religon offered to him) But as a grown man when he had heard of Hinduism and it's blue monkeys he couldn't understand why everyone was not Hindu. (I mean come on, BLUE MONKEYS!!!). Anyway, it was great to have the opportunity to watch a temple dedication ceremony as I had not seen one before. The locals down here are so friendly it's almost scary.
The weekend market here is also class, from the guys selling cuts of meat off a wood slab on his motorbike to the dude selling chickens from a sack, not to mention the guy who refuses to take his motorbike helmet off all the time he's working, (he really wanted to play american football but this is as close as he can get or what?).
News coverage in Malaysia is not all it could be, papers too critical of the government are closed down on a whim, while other papers quite often happily report that black is indeed white, and the public seems to buy it. Not of course at the level of the Chinese media but I suspect a little aspirationally inspired by them. In regards to the olympics papers here are towing the line that sport and politics shouldn't mix, I seem to remember that argument being used way back when about Rugby and South Africa, idealism vs realism not that refusing to play a game of any sport with anyone ever changed a governments policies on anything as far as I can figure.
There was a Chinese ancestor day last week as well where people bought cardboard versions of everything anyone could want from designer handbags to cans of beer, from entire houses and cars (complete with chauffer) to computers, t.vs and footspas. Or if you don't know what to get, for the spirit who has everything, just some "hell money" it"s always good (it has pictures of the king of hell on it just so you know). Then they burned all these cardboard artefacts in the temple furnaces or just in the ones outside their own houses, amazing.
Traditional Malay architecture is single story wooden houses evocative of nothing else as much as the standard kiwi beach side batch, and most of the furniture in these houses matches what you'd expect to find at Otaki as well. I rather like it, though I suspect that's because it's so comfortingly familiar.
Melaka is an interesting little town literally divided up into it's different ethnicities, but they all superficially get on quite harmoniously, which I think is in no small part due to the governments ceaseless addressing of the issues, there are of course simmering tensions here which need to constantly be held in check, due in no small part to the fact that unless you are (ethnically)Malay you are not entitled to receive any government benefits or subsidies (including free education for your children, healthcare, cheap cars, etc. If you are Indian or Chinese (or any other race) forget it, even if your born here, even if one of your parents is ethnically Malay forget it, you need to prove yourself 100% Malay, no wonder inter racial marriage is unusual, how the Chinese and Indians who have been here generations cope with this I have no idea.
And on that note I'll depart.
Besos Nikki Jayne.