Melaka

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OK, so this is a bit late as we left Melaka a few days ago now, but we've been busy as ever!

We had a bit of an eventful journey from Singapore: just as we left it began to rain so we got a bit wet on the way to the bus station. Not too much of a problem, but then the bus broke down 20 minutes from the bus station and it took 3 and a half hours for a replacement to turn up (so much for Singaporean ultra-effieciency), so our journey time ended being double what we expected! But on the plus side the other passengers on the bus were all very friendly and kept us informed of what was happening.

When we finally got to Melaka in the evening, we headed for town (via the surprisngly chaotic bus station) and to our hostel. The town itself is very old and also quite small so we could walk friom our hostel to anywhere we wanted to go. The people there (and elsewhere in Malaysia too for that matter) are incredibly friendly and just stop you on the street to say hello and welcome! Which is nice.

What wasn't so nice, was that it started raining at lunchtime on our first full day (Monday) and never ever stopped before we left on Wednesday! Luckily we managed to see a few of the big sights that morning and then hid under umbrellas for the rest of the time. We took a trishaw around the town which was a cool (if touristy) experience although our driver, Mr Ongi, was 80 years old and no more than 5 feet tall and we couldn't help but feel a bit bad while he seriously struggled to cart our heavy Western asses up the hills etc! But we saw a lot of the towns historic buildings, as the town used to be a big trading port in days of yonder, and also see Chinatown and it's interesting shops selling all kinds of antiques etc.

And then once the rain started we ended up either in our room, under a brollie, or in a cafe or restaurant. The food here is great and very cheap- if anyone comes here we recommend eating here which was delicious (seven dishes for about 2 pounds each!). Our hostel, Tony's Guesthouse, also did some good brekkie and Tony is a traveller who knows SE Asia really well and was really interesting to chat to!

So in summary: delayed, sightseeing, rain, eat, rain, eat, rain, eat...!

Ta ta!

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Photos

Melaka town square
Our trishaw!

Melaka town square
Our trishaw with Mr Ongi!

Melaka town
Part of our whistestop tour!

Melaka town
LN's T-Shirt provided by Cult-Clothes Ltd. To purchase this and many other great designs see www.cult-clothes.com

Shiny happy people!
Merry Chrimbo everyone!