Historic Malacca

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Left KL and the very helpful Equator staff, for a two hour bus ride to the historic maritime town of Malacca (Malaka). The town has a colourful past and has been influenced by numerous cultures - including the Malays, Portuguese-Eurasians, Chinese and Indians, with Portuguese, Dutch and British influenced architecture.

We are staying in a cheap but clean hostel called the 'Travellers Lodge', which has a great roof terrace overlooking a view of the sea. We enjoyed an Indonesian style lunch, before heading off to the city centre. We first noticed a lot of bicycles covered with umbrellas, tinsel and flowers - a common method of transport for tourists! We were very surprised with the amount of tourists visiting the town. Then we had a look at St Paul's church, Christ church and saw a huge replica ship displayed on the Jalan quayside. After we had a look around the Sultanate Palace (cultural museum), which is a wooden replica of a 15th century Malay Palace, which has been constructed without any nails! Then overheated we went to a cafe and ate ice cream. During the night Ellie became acquainted with a cat exploring the hostel, who seemed rather timid!

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