Advertisement
Published: August 25th 2008
Edit Blog Post
So, on Wednesday we journeyed to Malaysia. It was a very nice coach - comfortable air-con journey! As soon as we crossed the boarder there were cows and goats just rocking about at the side of the road!
When we arrived in Melaka the heat was intense! Less humid than Singapore but it felt hotter. We got on a local bus to take us into town. It was a total rattletrap and was packed full - we had backpacks on knees. Made for one sweaty journey!
Arriving in the town square we realised Malaysia was going to be totally different to Singapore! Now we really felt like we were abroad! There were taxi/trishaw drivers everywhere shouting at us trying to get our business and monks too! Although they didn't shout. Melaka was a real preserved historical town, stuffed with museums and red brick Dutch buildings. Was very nice to be somewhere small we could walk around easily. We went and found a guesthouse out of the Lonely Planet that sounded nice - called Sama Sama Guesthouse. We loved it immediately! It was really...rustic. I suppose in the UK it would have been a bit damp and crappy but here
it was charming. The 5 or so rooms were set around a small courtyard. The walkways were wooden and you had to take your shoes off at the bottom. The room was very basic, but lovely. Really picturesque - proper backpacker stuff and all for the bargain price of 35 Ringitt (About 5.50!)
We spent Thursday exploring Melaka. It's only a medium sized town, so we managed this in a morning! Everything is historic preserved (possibly fake) buildings. Most noticeably the red Dutch buildings of the town square. We did the saddo tourist thing and got a trishaw tour around town. The guy peddled us around town, to 2 museums & a viewpoint. It was a good laugh, I couldn't stop giggling! The first museum was on a replica of a Portuguese ship that sunk off shore. The second was in a replica of the Sultan's Palace! The viewpoint was by a church ruin on a hill (which was built by the Europeans and used for gunpowder storage by the British. Nice.) from which you could see the straits of Melaka. Apparently there are still pirates out there.
As for our Melaka eating adventures...in the evening we ate
at a self service satay restaurant where you pick up your own sticks of various disturbing foodstuffs and cook them in the boiling pot of sauce in the middle of your table. We ate such delicacies as skin & ears. The morning we left (Friday) we had breakfast dim sum, again eating god knows what and drinking green tea. We were the only Westerners in the place and the locals were staring at my interesting chop stick technique. They're always suggesting I improve by using my right hand. That really doesn't help!
Drinking is expensive in Malaysia. We went to a bar for one drink each and it cost more than dinner. Quite a bit more.
On Friday we caught another coach to the capital of Kuala Lumpur.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.153s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 8; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0692s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mum and Dad
non-member comment
Hi Your blog makes great reading. Bill Bryson has a rival.