A Dram in Malacca

It's only Wednesday and already it's been a long week. The kind of week that makes me wish I had a regular watering hole, a comfortable spot where they know me and I know them, where it's impossible to walk in for a pop without leaving whatever's weighing on me at the door, where a bit of idle conversation over a tipple carries erases the work day and carries me to dinner.

If I were in Malacca this is where I'd be this evening: at a beautiful eighty-over year-old timber bar burnished from years of spilled drink and water rings and rubbed smooth from hundreds, probably thousands of forearms. A bar with just few seats and one table, occupying the ground floor of a century-old shop house. A bar run by the great-grandson of its founder and his wife, a shy couple who never really open up unless you stop in a second, and third, time.

We discovered Sin Hiap Hin last May while in Malacca to report on its situation three years after being named a Unesco world heritage site. As I wrote in this post on finding old Malacca (it's not easy, but possible) the old town's prognosis isn't good. Everyone I interviewed for the story was frustrated, even despairing, of the public funds spent on new attractions while the city's historical architecture and living culture deteriorates, evaporates. As one of the local conservationists I spoke with said, "Malacca is overflowing with history and richness and culture. We don't have to create anything."

Sin Hiap Hin isn't in any of the brochures touting Malacca's viewing tower, its reconstructed fort or the shopping mall built on the padang where Malaysia declared independence from British rule. It's not in the "Where to Drink" sections of guidebooks that direct you instead to watering holes along Malacca's sanitized riverbanks or to the bars around Jonker's Walk.

Sin Haip Hin is just a nondescript little place on Java Lane, which in the early part of the 20th century was Malacca's entertainment center. Up the street is Tay Boon Wah barbershop, which also opened in the 1930s. Around the corner was the Chinese Theater. Surrounding Sin Hiap Hin were brothels and other bars and opium dens and cheap lodging houses.

Java Lane is dead quiet now, especially in the evenings. But if you sit in Sin Hiap Hin around sunset you can almost imagine the street outside teeming with life -- with new arrivals and hustlers and theater goers and men and women out on the town.

With a bit of coaxing Lian Suan and her husband will reminisce; they'll talk about the laborers who used to convene here for beers and stronger stuff when the Malacca River was still busy with boats ferrying goods from the big ships docked at its port to the warehouses just across what used to be known as the Iron Bridge. "Oh, it got noisy," she smiles wistfully. "We were open very late!" No longer. Come after 630pm or 7 and you'll likely find Sin Hiap Hin's doors shut tight.

On our last visit we admired the bar's fine vintage dram measures; Lian Suan's husband offered them to us as a gift. We couldn't accept. Family heirlooms they are, not something to be handed over to strangers. But later we wondered if we'd done the right thing. The bar's customers are dwindling, and Lian Suan told us they'll probably sell the house eventually. What will become of that beautiful timber bar? Will those dram measures be treasured by the couple's children or their children? Or will they be viewed as junk and tossed in the trash?

Sin Hiap Hin, 5 Java Lane. A wide range of Chinese liquors (try lychee-scented Boon Kwi Loh) sold by the bottle or by the shot, plus ice-cold beer and non-alcholic beverages from the fridge.

Comments

[Nate @ House of Annie]

How can something like this be preserved? All the money in the world can't keep this bar's doors open forever. Thanks for doing your part to keeping this place alive.

[Robyn]

Hi Nate, I think that the point of the interviewee I quoted is that with some careful, creative thinking -- and some of the funds that have been put into frankly idiotic development in Malacca (the viewing tower, the monorail to nowhere, etc etc) is that some -- not all maybe -- but some places like this can be preserved. This place could be a tourist attraction -- not in a ticky-tacky way (and that's always the danger). But Java Lane could be, there could be ways to draw pple over here. This could turn into a book so I'll try to keep it short. Malacca is in such a state compared to George Town. None of the public millions that have been spent there have even gone to putting together a decent walking map of true heritage sites. Compare George Town -- you can pick up an "old trades" walking map of a "historic foods" walking map. I've seen tourists using these maps and they often stop at the places noted to, say, have a serbet or buy a songket. So there are ways to promote real and true heritage without turning it into a circus.
But the will (and a little insight and true understanding of the **value** of heritage), on the part of those in charge, has to be there. And in Malacca it just is not. And that is not going to change, I'm afraid.

[Showshanti]

There's a desire for me to want both the familiar watering hole and exotic destination in one. I have yet to find both sides of that ideal in one Beijing bar. This post conjures beautiful images in addition to the photos accompanying it.

[Kalyan]

Wow i never really go out looking for bars when I travel. Coffee shops work as watering holes for me. But after this post I want to go to Malacca. For the 3rd time

[Robyn]

Thank you Shanti. You may be 20 yrs too late to find that kind of bar in Beijing. ;-)

Kalyan - gosh, local watering holes tell us as much about a place as its eateries. We like a pop before dinner so if we're somewhere where that is done (openly) then we usually keep our eyes peeled when we're out wandering for a place to return to after the good photo light has faded in the evening.

[Doug]

Another wonderful article showcasing a hidden gem. The "Disney" approach to development appeals to those looking solely for entertainment, resulting in glossy, nondescript tourist centers ignoring the very heritage they were supposed to protect.
Coffee shops, bars, warungs--any places where locals stop to relax and talk are great to get the measure of a town.

[Albert]

Great post. Although drinking at home is always a lot cheaper, especially here in North America, but there is something undeniably comforting about hanging out in a friendly neighborhood bar.

[Katie]

Hi, my husband stumbled upon this delight after having a haircut at the Tay Boon Wah barbershop. Lian Suan was a delightful host and to sit at that magnificent bar and watch the sun set on the small community was our favourite activity in Melaka! Lian Suan had served a group of Aussie travellers the night before and perhaps, if we can spread the word on this little local magic she will be able to stay afloat for some years to come.

[Chen Shiwei]

I wonder if this quaint little place is still open now? would love to visit it if i have a chance