Melaka (Malacca), Malaysia

The city of Melaka on the south-west coast of the Malaysian peninsula had its heyday in the late 1400s when it was a world-famous port and market, trading spices from Indonesia and textiles from India. At any time, up to 2,000 ships could be seen at anchor in the bay.

But beginning in 1511 Melaka’s world was turned upside down when European colonialists moved in and forcibly took over. The Portuguese were the first conquerors, holding on to Melaka for the next 130 years. But in 1641, after a five-month siege and many previous failed attempts, they were finally routed by the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch then controlled the area for a century and a half until they in turn capitulated to the British in 1795. But Melaka’s decline under Dutch rule continued under the British, exacerbated by the formation in 1819 of the free-trade port of Singapore. Then, in the 20th century, Melaka was overrun by the Japanese during World War 2, suffering further privations.

Melaka has obviously been through a lot over the past 500 years, but its turbulent history has resulted today in a fascinating settlement with interesting architecture and its old town centre was recently added to the World Cultural Heritage Register. In all other respects, Melaka today is a growing, fast-modernizing city and popular destination for day trippers from Kuala Lumpur. Like us last Saturday. Lee Tuan’s sister and brother-in-law and niece took us down to Melaka and we spent a couple of hours strolling around the old historical centre. It’s a lot busier and more touristy than when we were last here 15 years ago, but it’s still very nice and well worth a visit. We walked through the history museum, then around Christ Church built by the Dutch in 1753 to commemorate the centenary of their occupation of Melaka.

At the top of a nearby hill overlooking the Straits of Malacca we looked through the ruins of St Paul’s Church, originally a small chapel, Nosa Senhora, built by Portuguese Captain Duarto Coelho in 1521 and later enlarged. The Spanish-born Jesuit missionary, St Francis Xavier was a regular visitor to the church around 1550 and when he died his body was interred here for nine months before being exhumed and taken to its final resting place in Goa, India. When the Dutch took over Melaka from the Portuguese, they changed its name to St Paul’s and used it for 112 years until their own church, the Christ Church, was built in 1753. Fifty years later the British moved in but in a break from tradition they used the church not for worship but for storing gunpowder. At the bottom of the same hill we inspected the crumbling white-washed gate of Porta de Santiago, all that remains of the Portuguese A Famosa Fort built under the supervision of Alfonso D'Alboquerque using the forced labour of 1,500 slaves in 1511.

On our way out of Melaka to return to KL we drove through the small Eurasian settlement on the eastern side of the city, home to today's descendants of the early Portuguese settlers who married Malay women.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Winter having come to Adelaide, we took to the skies again and flew north to Kuala Lumpur via Perth. We spent a day in the latter walking around the city centre including a long stroll through Kings Park, an excellent, sprawling botanical park with great views of the Perth skyline and the lake-like Swan River that winds through the city.

Kuala Lumpur on our arrival was pleasantly warm and mercifully not too humid. After checking into a hotel in Chinatown in the city centre we made straight for the nearby food stalls stocked with the best food in the world, a medley and fusion of Malay, Indian and Chinese cuisines. We resolved to have only one substantial meal a day but all the spices, smells and sizzles easily overpowered that notion. And the tropical fruits are in abundance – rambutans, pawpaw, mangosteens, lychees, jack fruit, dragon fruit, longan, mangoes, bananas and pineapples to name a few.

There’s a lot to see in and around Kuala Lumpur, including:

* Merdaka Square that contains the best collection of colonial-style buildings in the city. A well-manicured cricket field in the centre of the Square now marks the spot where on 31 August 1957, Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman declared Malaysia an independent nation after centuries of foreign meddling and colonial rule. KL thus became the nation’s capital 100 years after its own first settlement as a tin exploration shantytown by Chinese prospectors and Indian labourers. A lot’s changed since then – KL is now a developed, modern, green city with plenty of gleaming high rise and tangled expressways.

* Petronas Twin Towers, the headquarters of the state-owned oil company that tower over the city and the enormous shopping centre beneath. These grand, elegant buildings sited on what was once the Selangor Turf Club stand 452 metres high and were until recently the tallest in the world.

* The nearby 420 metre high KL Menara communications tower with a fantastic 360 degree view over the city and across to the Petronas buildings.

* KL Bird Park, the largest walk-in free-flight bird park in the world, home to over 3,000 birds of 200 local and foreign species including fabulous hornbills, macaws and toucans.

* The beautiful blue Shah Alam mosque and Islamic educational centre west of the city. The mosque can accommodate 24,000 worshippers.

* Satellite city of Putrajaya 25 km to the south, established 10 years ago as Malaysia’s federal administrative centre. It features impressive government buildings and the rose-tinted granite Putra Mosque.

We caught up with Lee Tuan’s sisters and brother and respective families who live in KL and they showed us some of the sights in and around the city while keeping us well-fed with great Malaysian food. KL is a tourist-friendly, multicultural place and as a result attracts tourists from everwhere, further adding to its appeal. There would be few better places in South-east Asia to spend a few days than KL.

Venus Bay, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia

From Locks Well we moved further up the coast to Venus Bay, a 100 square kilometre expanse of sea water connected to the ocean only by a small narrow channel squeezed between two rocky headlands. We hiked the short South Head Walking Trail and saw pods of dolphins effortlessly surfing the large breaking waves speeding towards their demise on the cliff faces.

Back at our hired cottage in the tiny Venus Bay township, Geoff and I made up some more surf fishing rigs while Lee Tuan took a bag of flour and packet of yeast from the cupboard and conjured up some pizzas ready to be popped into the oven on our return from Mt Camel Beach, a nearby salmon fishing spot. We were last here about 15 years ago with three children in tow and all five of us were up before five and on the sand before the first light of day peeped over the dunes. We all have pleasant memories of the good fishing that morning and we hoped to repeat it now. But this time it was well into the sunny afternoon before we were standing on the water’s edge at Mt Camel casting the first pilchards into the surf. The fish here were fortunately smaller than those at Sheringa and Locks Well and just as plentiful and hungry, quickly seizing the baits and lures we threw. But as soon as our bag was full we were drawn like a salmon to a pilchard back to the cottage where the pizzas and red wine were waiting. But not before 32 freshly caught fish had to be scaled and gutted at the fish cleaning station down near the town’s jetty, overseen by a court of patient pelicans that looked on longingly. We didn't let them down. Over the following days we returned to Mt Camel Beach several times before dusk when the salmon came out to play and feed, and we left each time with a plump bag of assorted fish. A very welcome change from our usual piscatorial frustrations.

On Tuesday we hired a small boat and motored out on Venus Bay in search of King George Whiting, considered by many to be Australia’s finest table fish. Its flesh is white and fine and delicately flavoured. Heavy-handed culinary treatment is not the way to bring out the best in this fish. Lee Tuan has just the recipe:

Ginger Infused King George Whiting

In a cooking pot place four whole King George Whiting on a mesh or slotted plate above a small amount of water. Cut a clump of ginger into matchstick size pieces. Place most of the sticks on the fish and cover with tomato slices. Drop the remainder of the ginger sticks into the water. Cover the pot with a lid and steam the fish gently for 15 to 20 minutes until the eyes (the fishes', not yours) turn white and pop out. While the fish are steaming, finely chop some garlic and fry in a small amount of mild olive oil until golden. Drizzle the oil over the fish when it is finished steaming and serve the dish immediately with steamed Thai jasmine rice and steamed spinach, and a glass of cold Eden Valley Riesling. Heaven can wait.

Locks Well & Sheringa Beaches, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia

South Australia’s far west coast on Eyre Peninsula is an eight hour drive from Adelaide. With a sparse population and hundreds of kilometres of rugged coastline, the region still offers good fishing opportunities for keen shore-based anglers like us. Along with my sister and brother-in-law we hired Oaklands Cottage, a basic but very comfortable fisherman’s haunt located on a sheep station run by friendly owners and perfectly located just five minutes away from beautiful Locks Well ocean beach. Winter is a good time to come here; the weather is relatively mild and schools of Australian Salmon frequent many of the beaches at this time of year during their annual 3,000 kilometre migration along the south coast of the continent towards Western Australia.

Locks Well and Sheringa Beaches in particular are favourite haunts of the migrating salmon and we fished both of these with surprisingly good results. We were on the sand at Sheringa with our first pilchard baits splashing into the cold ocean water before dawn. The fish lurking in the pounding surf were large and hungry and we caught 9 pounder after 9 pounder until our arms and shoulders ached and our primeval urges were fully satisfied (for the moment at least). We kept as many of the smaller fish as we could possibly eat over the next two or three days and released all the big ones to continue their own long westerly journeys, including one that had recently survived a shark or seal attack judging from the deep toothy gash on its side. Had it been a lucky or unlucky fish over the past week? By 9am the salmon action was fading and we moved on to a quieter beach nearby where we fished in deep blue-green pools near the shore, reeling in a few big King George Whiting and parrot fish. We would eagerly have swapped some of the salmon for more of the much better–eating whiting but were still very happy with the weighty bag of fish we hauled back to the car.

We also did some night fishing off the jetty in the nearby town of Elliston, hoping to catch squid but we caught none. On the way back to the cottage we had an unwelcome wildlife encounter when a kangaroo jumped out from the dark in front of the car, instantly extinguishing both itself and our car's front left headlamp in the now-dented bodywork. Ouch all round!

The following day we fished at Locks Well Beach, a beautiful expanse of white sand that runs along the bottom of a cliff, and access to which is via a steep 288-step wooden staircase. Going down is relatively easy but the climb back up with the fishing gear and a sack full of fish is tough going. Like Sheringa, Locks Well turned on the action for us and we continued to haul in and release large salmon well after we had enough smaller fish in the bag for eating. Salmon, mullet and tommy ruffs, the most common catch here, don’t freeze well so there’s no point keeping more than can be eaten within a few days. Needless to say, we’re now eating fish for breakfast, lunch and dinner while closely observing each other for the onset of involuntary flapping of the feet, the first sign of Omega-3 overload.

The Australian Salmon is a great fighter when hooked but unfortunately the eating qualities of the larger specimens are not good. The smaller ones, however, are quite OK; in fact, in Lee Tuan’s hands they become one of the tastiest fish dishes you could ever hope to enjoy.

Lee Tuan’s Crispy Spicy Australian Salmon

Take an Australian Salmon about 30cm long (one for each person). Create a pocket on both sides of the fish by cutting down along the backbone. Grind and blend together a clump of ginger, lemongrass, dried whole red chillies, shallots and a few kaffir lime leaves until reduced to a paste. Add a third of a teaspoon of shrimp paste and stir in thoroughly. Fry the mixture in a small amount of vegetable cooking oil, then stuff both pockets (the fish’s, not yours) with the paste. Sprinkle both sides of the fish liberally with finely ground salt, then shallow fry in vegetable cooking oil. Don’t turn the fish until the eye turns opaque. Then turn and fry the other side for the same time. Serve immediately with steamed rice and steamed green vegetable, and cold crisp white wine.

Rocklands Dam, Victoria, Australia

Rocklands Dam sits across the upper reaches of the Glenelg River in Western Victoria. The dam was built in 1953, creating a 7,000 hectare expanse of fresh water with a perimeter of 400 km. Since then, water has been pumped from the reservoir to the farming communities to the north, for both stock and domestic purposes. Over the past five decades the reservoir itself has been a popular recreational destination for boaters, fishers, water skiers and campers. But sadly, that’s all changed in recent years. The worst drought in a century has seen the water level fall every year over the past decade until today the dam is "filled" to only 2% of its capacity. The surrounding countryside is parched and even some of the hardy local Australian Eucalypt trees look stressed.

My sister and brother in-law have been having their annual family holiday at Rocklands for many years and we joined them last week for what may be their final visit – the camping ground is closing soon, another victim of the drought. With fishing now poor, we spent the time walking and driving in the surrounding ruggedly-beautiful Black Ranges state park, and lighting the camp fire early each afternoon. We were well-stocked with food and wine, and with ample dry firewood all around, each night was an occasion to look forward to. Dusk also brought out the kangaroos and prolific bird life that still thrive around the dwindling dam waters. Just the time and place to listen to some Australian songs:

Galleries of pink galahs
Djarimirri
Tenterfield saddler
And the band played Waltzing Matilda

We returned to Adelaide via Mount Gambier where we picked up my father at The Oaks nursing home and took him on drives around the coast. We stopped for a couple of hours at the idyllic small town of Nelson on the Victoria / South Australia border where the Glenelg River flows into the ocean. The Glenelg is one of the most picturesque mid-sized rivers in Australia and the estuary section near the coast remains in pristine condition with high water levels and good stocks of wild black bream and mulloway. We look forward to returning here one day with a boat.