22nd March - Molucca - Heeren House - water monitor - Baba Nyonya house

Saturday 22^nd March

Molucca is so lovely but…so hot.  And there is so much traffic in the little narrow streets we get very tired of ducking and weaving and stepping onto non-existent footpaths.

Thank heavens for our beautiful peaceful Heeren House… Seen here from the bridge

Yesterday I spent a lot of time leaning out the window gazing at the river.  I was looking for water monitors – we saw them mating under the bridge, last time we were here.  Why wouldn’t there be more of the same, this month?  No sooner had I voiced my wish when…

along swam a most splendid monitor, so cute, with its little paws tucked up on its back.  Probably 1.5 metres, maybe more.  I was VERY happy!

On the other side of the river there is a constant stream of people, taking photos, in various groupings and pairings.  The people posing are, I am sure, oblivious to the watery life below them…large monitors, small fish.  And – if you look carefully at the photo above, taken from the bridge, you can see a small dot. 

Aha!  I have enlarged it so you can see it is a man, inexplicably swimming around in water which really isn’t very clean at all…He is there every day, busying himself mid-stream, and then doing something arcane on the river bank.

We wandered the streets for a few hours in the morning, and spent a happy hour in one of the Baba Nyonya houses which is open, with a guided tour.  So very interesting, and beautiful.  Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos – not really sure why... Our guide, who was a delightful local man, explained that maybe people would take photos and misrepresent the house, on the internet… They did say, however, that I could import photos from their webpage so…I hope I am not misrepresenting this glorious mansion.

It is lovely from the outside, too.

A nice thing – at the tea ceremony for newly married couples, who really only meet for the first time at the beginning of the twelve-day wedding celebration, they feed he bride and groom sweet and sticky food.  Sticky so they will stick together, and sweet so they will have sweetness in their lives.

So many beautiful sights to see, in Molucca…I love all the details on the rooftops, the terra cotta tiles, the phoenixes and flowers.  The shops all suddenly came to life, around 11am.  I wanted to go and look in a bead shop, hoping I could find some beautiful (not too expensive…) beads for my little girls in Tasmania.  But no – this shop only sold beaded items.  Mainly…shoes.

OH so beautiful!  Pete was not as entranced as I was… The shop owner had photo displays, and there she was, proudly, with Jimmy Choo* who had come to visit her little workshop, and to learn from her and her staff.

I am still mildly anxious re my disappearing money…it is still leaving my visa account, in $500 amounts, although my card has been frozen, cancelled, squashed.  Westpac have already sent my new one – we have heard it is in Singapore, patiently waiting for me.  I rang the bank and talked to yet another kind and helpful person – Lynne, this time.  The fraud department had gone home for the night so she couldn’t check on the progress of the investigation, or the re-funding, but she was very reassuring.

Temples and churches and mosques…many of these, in the streets of Molucca.  I find myself a bit baffled and bewildered by so much religiosity.  What does it all mean??  Why three Chinese temples within a few metres of one another??  I do love some of the imagery…

These lovely tigers, for example:

and a splendid dragon:

and this poor sad lion/dog/whatever…

Mysteries of the East!

Today we are leaving lovely, tranquil Heeeren House.  Weng Wah and Nelly have invited us to stay with them tonight, to eat Baba Nyonya food – such a treat!  They are picking us up here at 10.  And tomorrow – Singapore!  We have tickets on a local bus, which looks very swish.  The tickets cost 24 ringgits each…($8) for a four hour trip to another country!

Calligraphy Of The Day

* VERY very famous maker of VERY very high heeled VERY very expensive and fashionable shoes