Face To Face - Artisans Of Melaka

As I walked through the busy by lanes of Jonker street in Melaka, I came accross this first shop.It was a small shop with a name board saying Shoe Maker.I was wondering how in this highly automated world the old age tradtion of making shoes by hand was still here.I could see two Foreigners looking interestingly into the products of the owner and the owner was explaining the art of hand woven shoes to them.

Little away another small factory with fire oven inside caught my eyes.I do not know whether the present generation youngsters have a chance to see a small smithy shop in which day to day usage of small articles used to be manufactured.This one contained an anvil and a Blacksmith was busy bent upon hitting a hot metal to make a small knife.I did not intrude into his work and moved on further.

May be he was making some interesting artifact to decorate this horse drawn wooden cart which was stationed next to his shop in the lane.I had seen this horse drawn carriages in Intramuras area in Manila which being used to take the Tourists around the old city.They form part of reducing carbon emissions in the air and help us to breathe a green fresh air.

In one of the shops tourists were crowded to see the glimpse of Fascinating Batik painting demonstration.There were quite good amount of paintings in display for tourists to buy and take home.

The artists do not allow their shops to be photographed and they shoo away the tourists who tries to take photographs.But I find the paintings were so good and I came to know that many Europeans have made Malaysia as their second home, live here and earn also.

The Jonker street had a quite a good amount of  art galleries and museums which caters to different tastes of the people from all over the world.One needs to see the shops in the day time as it will be less crowded and can do a reasonable bargain 

I could see many Tourists wearing the protective Sun gears going around the by lanes of Jonker Street and selecting the pieces.Come evening the whole street gets transformed into a busy Night market and vehicles were not allowed inside.It will be even difficult to move around in that excited crowd .