Travel Blog Post

Melaka – The City on the Straits

“The world is a book”, the cleric St Augustine once said, “Those who do not travel read only one page.” My first impression of Melaka – the city on the straits of Melaka was rather bland like cheap fiction forced upon a traveler on a trip to nowhere. Yet, shortly after alighting from the bus that conveyed me and my classmates, I was forced to open my mind to the possibilities hope had me believe lay beneath the city nicknamed the Historic State.

Our first stop on the cultural adventure in Negeri Bersejarah (as the locals call Melaka) was Kampung Morten – where we were ushered into the home of a resident of the village. Our guest welcomed us into his home with open arms; gracefully responding to the barrage of questions we literally lunged at him about life in the village. “Kampung Morten is a heritage village and tourist attraction”, he said, “inhabited by local Malay people who continue to practice the original customs and tradition of the early settlers in the region”. Any keen observer would quickly realize that Kampung Morten, now located in the centre of the city, edifies the notion of cultural endurance amidst the pressures of modern civilization.

It’s uniquely designed array of houses nestled on the banks of Malacca River bear a reminder to the days of the early settlers in Melaka. Today, it is a cultural site graced among other things an overhead monorail train overlooking the settlement which was once home to a mangrove swamp and the dense Nipah jungle. Despite the increasing invasion of modernity, life in the kampung remained old-fashioned yet in many ways espousing tradition with contemporary architectural style. The aptly termed Living Museum bears true testament to this.

Satiated by the splendid sights of Kampung Morten we headed out to Melaka’s historical centre, known as Bandar Hilir - home to the most important tourist attractions in the city. Located on this stretch are the two most important museums in the city; Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum and the Malacca Sultanate Palace Museum. Next to the magnificent Sultan’s palace lies one of the last remaining legacies of Portuguese heritage – the ancient ruins of Fort A Famosa constructed in 1511. 

High up above, overlooking the grand Sultan’s palace we discovered the church of St. Paul reportedly constructed by the Portuguese and later converted into graveyard by the Dutch invaders at the time. From the summit of this ancient ruin, we caught a brilliant bird's eye view of the entire city; the port of Melaka overseeing the ocean aptly termed the straits of Melaka, the coffee colored pirate’s ship housing the Maritime Museum, the towering Menara Taming Sari (Melaka’s Revolving Tower) and many more wonderful attractions the city prides itself with. 

As the clock wound down to our memorable school trip, my initial stolid impression of city began to ebb as we soaked in one magnificent cultural site after another – little wonder readers are urged never to judge a book by its cover. But all good things must come to an end, so for our final stop we set off to see the Malacca Straits Mosque – the famed white draped architectural masterpiece nestled on grey granite rocks overlooking the ocean. 

Basking in the scenic aura of the holy milieu, my classmates and I grabbed the opportunity to capture Polaroid memories of the graphic mementoes of the visit to Melaka. Like a Magnus opus, the trip to the city on the straits will forever remain etched in our minds – a testament to the notion that travelling is indeed a great form of education – Ala St Augustine. 

The World of Academics

I became an academic the day I decided to do a PhD. “It’s not a piece of cake” an old Greek classmate once told me about his time at Eindhoven University. Nee (yes in Greek) but alas the story is the same everywhere. But why is the case? This will form the crux of this musing. The underlying principle is the academics’ maxim, “publish or perish”. It is the code every academic new or old learns to cloaks from the day he or she walks into the gates of a university to begin the long tortuous world of scientific renown. Even as a sophomore in this school of “hard knocks” it is pretty clear what the doctrine is; prove, disprove and disapprove of whatever you come read or have to read. 

Alas, the primary purpose of university education, two respected academics once said is to; shape an individual’s ability to think, challenge the status quo and in so doing acquire the skills to solve societal problems. As such the academic environment plays an influential role in not only in an individual’s life but on the society as a whole. Little wonder, only the “best brains” so to speak are culled to help train the next generation of scholars even for considerably lower salaries compared to their contemporaries in industry.

So why do these egg heads remain in university? Most a quick to point to the liberty academic life affords them to explore, stimulate societal change and attain scientific fulfilment through scholarly research. While some preach this epistemological dogma, make no mistake some are simply just along for ride. For most, it is a quest to gain scholarly renown, respect and reward. And so somewhere along the line, the world of academics became a cutthroat world euphemised by the so called academics’ creed, “publish or perish”.

This understandably means academics constantly need to come up with new ideas, theories and discoveries “to be shared” in publications otherwise known as journals. But this is not enough; the egg heads must also search for grants, oversee academic chairs, attend conferences, teach classes, grade exams, all in a bid gain respect and repute among their peers – a view aptly voiced by the widely read article “The disposable academic”. So why bother with a PhD or life in academia? 

An excerpt from the article points to this and more;

         

“Many students say they are pursuing their subject out of love, and that education is an end in itself. Some give little thought to where the qualification might lead. In one study of British PhD graduates, about a third admitted that they were doing their doctorate partly to go on being a student, or put off job hunting. Nearly half of engineering students admitted to this. Workers with “surplus schooling”—more education than a job requires—are likely to be less satisfied, less productive and more likely to say they are going to leave their jobs.”   

However some might be inclined to think it is simply reality show for nerds. Whatever your thoughts are, what is evident is that it is not only not a peice of cake but an end in itself. In drawing a curtain to this discuss, I dare add that, life in academia affords its beneficiaries with the requisite cognitive skills to contribute to most important debates, actions and aimed solve societies most pertinent problems - Saul Lemkovitz and Mike Agho are right in many respects.

PhD: all the hot air

Every writer has a muse, the source of their endless measure of motivation. Over the years I have come to realise H2O is my muse. It’s that simple. Life on the hand is not, so is writing. But go on we must. I have come to realise that day time and life is quite slow in this part of the world. Work on my research is still going on albeit in a “Nothing Dey really Happen” kinda-way borrowing from the words of Tuface Idibia. However, in a few months it will be one year since I began this journey and I promise to do an in-depth blogvaluation of my time in Malaya. One thing is certain, it has not been easy – but what is easy in life erh? My old man’s words keep ringing in my head – nothing good comes easy; so I trudge on with my research and all the baggage that I must now stomach living in Asia. It’s rather miserable because some days I get out of bed lack motivation go to university, but I do and that’s what counts.

Perhaps, indeed motivation is truly the hardest thing about doing a PhD.  Last week I discovered to my greatest dismay that a friend back in Holland quit his PhD – he got fed up with it he said. The news shocked me - I must confess but knowing what MSc students let alone PhDs go through in Holland I didn’t blame him all that. The pressure can be unbearable,  still remember the last days before my MSc thesis presentation at the Reactor Institute, well I take that back I don’t want to remember. They were hellish, sleep deprivation, bad eating habit and you name it. But that’s all in the past. As if that was not bad enough, last week another friend (PhD) started playing the same “I want to quit” melody in my ears. Hmn…I quickly changed the subject, or else before long, I’d humming the same tunes. God forbid sha.

To make sure, I have decided to take it easy take one day at a time, do what is possible and pray to make progress. Alas my kid bro keeps hammering in my olfactory that a PhD – is a marathon, not a sprint – perhaps he should be doing the doctorate in my stead. As he is right – I must say. In my case I have had little to worry about to be honest, I have made somewhat good progress in the last few months and my professors have been wonderful - as they give me all the freedom to explore the boundaries of my research without worries. 

Save for the neck wrenching bureaucracy life is my university is okay. Thankfully though, in a few weeks my reactor will be up, and the real ish will start – and it’s all the way back to my Eindhoven and Delft days again; fiddling with bolts and nuts, pressure valves and temperature controllers aplenty - now that’s chemical engineering for shizzle – need I say more. I can’t wait tho. However before then, there is the “small matter” of modelling the gasifier reactor – uuuuuuuuuhh. As you can guess I am not too eager but simulate I must, and with it all that mathematical modelling blah blah blah ish…oh well. That’s hours with MATLAB and what not.

Well that’s all I have time for today people. Have to run to catch the bus. You can tweet me tho; @bemnyax. Thanks for reading, till then take care and be yourself, life’s too short…Terima Karsih