Zheng He Tea House and another day in Malacca

A couple of months ago, Leong T. asked if I could host some visitors from the UK office. They were coming to Malaysia for a holiday. I figured, sure. No problem. So I started communicating with one of them, Tracey B via email to make the arrangements. They took me up on an offer to do a 1 day tour of Malacca.

When 26th Sept came around, I was to pick up the party of 4 (Tracey B. Paul C, Mark and Helen) from Traders Hotel. Couldn't believe that I was so careless. I had NO idea what they looked like. I called Traders to check if Tracey had checked in and was told " she had reserved a room in June, but.... had cancelled". Cor Blimey!!

Luckily Tracey did ask Leong for a photo of me, so she could recognize me. Phew!! Turns out they had booked in under Paul's name. not Tracey's. In addition to the party of 4 from UK, I had also invited Alexandra W to tag along if she wanted to get material for a Malaccan writeup. She accepted and so, including my son, we had 7 for Malacca that Saturday.

I had written about Malacca in general just a couple of weeks ago and so this time, I would like to highlight Zheng He Tea House (pronounced as Jerng Her). The tea house is part of a complex of the Zheng He Cultural museum, the Tea House and a Mazu Temple adjoining the museum.

2 weeks ago, we kind of stumbled upon the tea house when we were walking along Jonker street. We came across this strange entrance that was less than 1m wide, with the grilled locked up. Strange entrance, we thought. There was even a thought that this was an entrance to a brothel or something similar. The narrow walkway stretched about 50m in, with high walls lined with creepers. By the evening at 6pm, the grills are unlocked and a tiny Indian lady invites anyone passing by to step in. And that's how I made a new friend in Malacca - Bianca.

As you walk in, you will pass a room made up like the ship hold, with urns on one side for storage of food and a very tall giraffe on the other (or as one of my friends wrote - "come face to face with the BUTT of a giraffe"). This was to represent the ship that Admiral Zheng He used in his voyages to discover the world in 1421. There is a guided tour of the museum (fee not free) that is arranged by the museum people.

Bianca Pak, her husband, Mr. Laiand 3 kids run the Tea House on behalf of the museum and also takes care of the Mazu temple too (again on behalf of the museum). Unlike that very narrow entrance at the back, the front is a very normal entrance with 2 stone lions guarding it. The entrance to the Mazu temple is locked from the street and entrance is only via the Tea House as the Mazu statue is an antique.

Within the ground floor, you can find a 600 year old well, a huge bronze bell in the courtyard, a puppet theatre which shows the voyages of Admiral Zheng He and another area upstairs that exhibits photos and pictures (free not fee).

For a small fee (RM20 or RM30), you can get a pot of tea, with Bianca and family showing you how to prepare and indulge in Chinese Tea drinking. If you have been like many tourists, walking all over the Stadhuys and Jonker Street for a better part of the day, the Tea House offers a short respite to rest your weary legs while enjoying quality Chinese Tea.

I have just learnt on this visit that there is a 2nd floor (3 floors in total) and neighbors of the museum had only just recently fedback that they have been hearing children playing in the museum past midnite. There had also been instances when the drums were beaten around 3am. BUT...... nobody stays in the museum or tea house when it close for the night!!! The Chinese 7th month (also known as the Month of the Hungry Ghosts) just went by. You go figure.

And for this visit, Alex also made a new 'friend'.