Sleepy Melaka

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So this blog should hopefully make a little more sense than the last considering I am now a little more awake than the last time I posted. Our last 2 days in Melaka have been spent mainly catching up on lost sleep and chillaxing before another busy 4 nights in Kuala Lumpa.

Melaka was originally founded in the 14th Centuary by a Hindu prince from Sumatra. The city was protected by the Chinese, then dominated by the Portugese, Dutch and more recently the British in 1795, which is apparent in most of the architecture around the UNESCO protected historic quarter. It's seems to be a very popular holiday destination for the local Malay's and is super duper busy - think Benidorm for Brits with lots of wrinklies, neon lights and ghetto blasters strapped to push bikes which are overly decorated with plastic flowers! Yet in tucked away river back streets this place exudes calm and tranquility, it feels so relaxed time seems almost non-existent and we found ourselves walking slower than a snail's pace and sleeping for 35hrs out of 48hrs here.

We arrived via coach from Singapore into the main Sentral Bus Station 3km out of town. Quickly grabbed our backpacks, a handfull of Malay Ringgit currency and a super cheap McDonalds meal. Scott wont be ashamed if I mention he's probably had 3 Maccy D's already and is planning on making this a part of his calorie intake for the next 6 months where possible, we'll see if he can be weened off them soon but for £2 i very much doubt it! So we made it to the hostel after deciding to take the local bus for a measly RM1 = £0.25p each! This place is a pleasant suprise from pricey Singapore, but we were still strugling with yet another currency change and had to keep reminding ourselves that were not in Singapore Dollars anymore, and that Taxi we just batered for and turned down was actually only £2.50... tight buggers weve become already!

Ater throwing down our heaving packs, to our horror we realised we had no air-con in our seemingly plush hostel room that was instantly likened to a fan assisted oven at approx 180oC ...and so we became the chips :-( But can we really complain for £3 a night each, probably not. It was clean and inside a lovley historic building filled with origional wooden beams and creaky floor boards for added character.

The next 2 days were spent sleeping, updating blogs, uploading photo's from the Singapore trip and organising our next leg here in KL. We did venture out and spent yesterday having a wander around the town taking in the local sights such a the Town Square, Bukit St Paul Church amonst a few other intresting photo stops. We meandered round Jonkers Night Market both evenings; a very lively area within China Town which is lined with food stalls and tacky fare but this made for interesting people watching for me from the side-lines whilst tucking into my curry & a nice cold beer.

Mum - You'll be happy to know we did our very first load of washing...whites, colours and everything inbetween in one go - Got to keep it cheap at a quid. So my whites are now blue and i think the dryer shrunk my shorts too...hooray! We've also decided we need to lighten the load so expect a few packages home of shoes & clothes not needed, I think we both agree we feel and look like luggage mules and less is definately more.

I'll have to cut this one short as we are literally just pulling into Kuala Lumpa City now on the coach and I need to get a wriggle on and get sorted.

Peace Out!

Nat

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