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After a heavy lunch, we decided on taking a rest before we head out on our last night in Melaka. But again, we got distracted. Since our hotel is so close to the St Paul's Hill (the perks of having your hotel in the centre of everything), we gathered what's left of our energy for a final tourist task.
The leaf placement was not done on purpose. I didn't even notice it until we were playing back the photos in the camera. Kinda reminds me of the characters of the Ribena berries TVC a long time ago. Wee!
Follow this trail and it'll lead you to some of the major 'must see' places.
- A Farmosa (the most famous landmark which we missed!)
- The ruins of St. Paul Church
- Cultural Museum
- Historical Garden
- Independence Memorial
In 1952, a statue of St. Francis Xavier was built to commemorate the passing of the saint. You must be wondering what happened to his right arm. On the morning after the consecration ceremony, a large casuarina tree fell on the statue which resulted to a broken right arm.
That was many years after St. Francis Xavier died in 1552, canonized and was made Goa's Patron Saint. His body was incorruptible - does not decay! According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "in 1614, by order of Claudius Acquaviva, then General of the Society of Jesus, the right arm was severed at the albow and conveyed to Rome."
Now, I really wonder is there's any connection to the broken and missing right arm of this statue.
St. Francis Xavier was a member of the Jesuits society founded by Ignatius Loyola. His embalmed body now rests in the Basilica of Bom Jesus, Goa. In fact, this whole place here reminded me of my trip to the Old City of Goa which was under the Portuguese rule in 1510. A while later the Portuguese settled in Melaka.
It was a beautiful evening in Melaka. Sunny but the breeze from the straits of Melaka was very welcoming. I love how the rich blue sky complemented the white and green foreground.
There's this sudden want to visit the Greek islands. Perhaps it's because of the white buildings and blue skies.
We were now entering the ruins of the church.
Taking pics of myself entering historical ruins is so typical of me.
Plenty of monumental tombstone were scattered around because the church was used as a Dutch graveyard when the Dutch took over the Portuguese in 1641.
It wasn't all about taking pictures of the ruins and landmarks. We had our fun too.
To be continued.. what's the deal with satay celup?!
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