156. The fairy gaymothers (Malacca Day 2)
[This is a continuation of Day 1 of Malacca]
I woke up the next day around 8:30AM. Malacca wholeheartedly welcomed me, but I haven't had a chance to savor it much. I decided to have a lie-in and play on my phone for a little bit before taking on the day. Most businesses open around 10 AM and I just needed some rest.
I laid in bed, tapping away on Instagram messages and WhatsApp chats. I looked back at the photos and videos in my photo album that I haphazardly took while I was in the club and giggled. Throughout the early morning, I was updating my friends in the morning about my adventures. A bunch of them were laughing at me because it seemed like I replaced one French person with another French. However, this time- she's way more fun and she commits to the plans that we make.
Ok, I was still feeling bitter about the guy who ditched me. After the big night yesterday, I was still feeling a bit bothered. I had such an amazing time nonetheless. Before we said our goodbyes and went different directions to our respective hostels, I told my new French friend that I will stay one more night in Malacca at her hostel and then head back to KL. I truly felt like I needed to look around the city more.
Around 10 AM, I left the first hostel and walked towards my new friend's hostel. Before heading over, I stopped at this vintage shop and ate some breakfast and bought an old copy of High Fidelity by Nick Hornby.
The vintage shop had such a nice vibe to it. I figured out what kind of breakfast to order on the menu while I was listening to three German tourists politely argue with the waitress about why butter wasn’t vegan when they asked her about certain dishes on the menu.
When I got to the hostel, I saw my friend feeling hungover and tired, lounging on some beanbags. I waved to her and had a bit of chit-chat before she went off to breakfast and I went off into the town. The hostel wouldn't let me check in until 2PM, but allowed me to drop some of my stuff off and lock it away from strangers.
Around 12:30PM, I borrowed a bike and took it towards the river. I had some time to kill before checking in and I needed to explore a bit more.
I rode the bike alongside the river and checked my map on where to head off to next. I decided to head towards the Christ Church in the middle of the Malacca city center. I sat on the ledge of the big fountain in the square and heard some funny cackling and loud voices. Three people walked past me and were complaining about the weather in a rather humorous way. I instantly recognized that they were speaking Tagalog to each other. Just some Filipino tourists enjoying their holiday together. One of them were carrying a Taylor Swift tote bag and I thought they seemed like energetic good people to be around.
As I was sitting by myself, I watched the three of them parade around the fruit stands, taking photos and laughing. The vendor gave them a free sample of the watermelon. The watermelon looked juicy, especially on such a hot spring day, so I made my way across the street.
I approached the watermelon stand and gingerly asked for a slice before buying the watermelon shake, but I was refused immediately. I was a bit peeved off and returned to my spot on the fountain. I came back and saw that my kababayan1 were enjoying themselves, munching on their watermelon shakes and taking many pictures on an iPhone timer. I mustered up the courage to talk to them.
"Gusto mo ba ng picture, po?" I said to one of them as I gestured towards their phone sitting on the table. They all laughed and smiled at me and handed me their phone. I tried to take the best picture of them on the plastic table as I possibly can, showing the church and fountain in the background. After the mini photoshoot, they asked me to sit with them and engaged me in conversation.
"I thought you were Korean!"
"I get that often"
The three of them around the table were quite curious about me. Maybe it was a bit off-putting to approach a group of people randomly and make conversation these days. As I sat down, I was a bit nervous talking to a panel of strangers. I tried to me as genuine and approachable as possible. They explained to me that they actually saw me first and thought I was pretty (oh hehe). I explained to them that I was Filipino too. Perhaps that shared culture and identity was part of the reason why it was a bit easier for me to approach them, instead of them approaching me.
They asked me why I was out here by myself. I was bit embarrassed, but I ended up telling them the reason why I was in Malacca alone. All in all, I was simply heart-broken and using solo-traveling as my antidote. Talking with other people could just take my mind off of things. I didn't want to trauma-dump right then and there, but I tried to hide some of my sadness and say it as succinctly as possible. The three of them listened to me rant about this guy for a good two minutes, before I sighed and slumped back down on my plastic stool in the hot sun.
"You know that Sleeping Beauty movie and the blue, green, and red fairies helping Aurora get dressed for the party? We'd be honored to be your fairy gaymothers."
I laughed my ass off, then accepted the offer.
From here on out, I shall describe and dub my new companions as the fairy godmothers and guardians, who appear in the Sleeping Beauty (1959) film.
Out of my new group of friends, Flora, the leader, was our outgoing, androgynous (does drag on the side) kababayan from Calbayog City in Philippines. They explained to me that It seems like the group appointed them as the leader of their little trio, carrying around a golden fan (bought in Chinatown!), providing them the travel itinerary, and cracking all the loud jokes- in general, keeping the group morale up. After much discussion, I found out that they actually live in KL, actually quite close to me!
The Fauna and Merryweather characters are from Cebu and Bohol respectively. They are actually boyfriends who attended the Singapore Taylor Swift concert together (hence the Taylor Swift tote bag I spotted before I approached them). After the concert, they had a little bit of holiday time to spare and headed up north, stopping at different Malaysian cities along the way. Flora decided to meet up with them in Johor Bohru and take them around Malacca and KL. I thought it was a wonderful trip.
My fairy gaymothers let me tag along to visit the St. Paul's Church on top of the hill. As you move on from the A Famosa fortress, you will see a white flight of stairs along the slope. These are the stairs which will take you to the St Paul's Church. The church can be reached easily by climbing up the stairs for about 5 to 10 minutes depending on your speed of walking. It actually took us about 15 minutes because it was so freaking hot. Upon reaching the top of the St Paul's Hill, we saw the entire city and a historical church.
We had another impromptu photoshoot on top of the hill. I was pushed into the limelight and ushered into the church by Flora, who told me to do different poses and turns. I felt really pretty, actually.
After the church visit, we visited Jollibee. I thought they were kidding when they said we were going to go to Jollibee. I happily munched on my Chickenjoy and rice.
After this quick trip, I had to return to my hostel and call dibs on my bed. I was actually one of the last people to check in, and only got a mattress on the floor. It was a very comfortable mattress, despite the small size. It's alright, I'm a small-sized person.
I took a quick afternoon siesta in the hostel before heading out again.
~ briar rose,
<3 K
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kababayan = countrymen↩