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Published: November 1st 2006
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Shiver Me Timbers
Glynn wonders what he has to do to get a part in the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie... It seems I have been neglecting my duties of late and haven't been blogged for a few days now (shame on me) so it's update time again - hooray! We're still in the delightfully laid-back city of Melaka in south Malaysia where we've been doing rather a lot of two things: sleeping and walking (though thankfully not at the same time).
At first glance, Melaka seems like a pretty compact sort of place and on our first full day out, we felt like we had covered a lot of ground. We started off at midday with a late and overpriced breakfast in the Fair Haven Cafe, although it was our own fault we ended up paying too much. Instead of opting for one of the set breakfasts, I fancied scrambled eggs on toast and Glynn decided to have the same. It wasn't strictly on the menu but wasn't much of a deviation from omelette and toast, I thought. Well, had we gone for the omelette it would have only cost us 8 RM instead of the whopping 18RM we were charged instead. I couldn't figue the pricing out but as we hadn't checked the price before ordering, we couldn't really
Melaka On Sea
Not quite the seaside image we had in mind! complain. You live and learn.
After breakfast, our feet took us up to the seaside where we expected to find beaches and plenty of touristy things due the the number of hotels and guesthouses lining the waterfront but we couldn't have been more wrong. Aside from murky brown water lapping at the shore, the most interesting thing we saw was a tiny beach made entirely of unbroken white shells that contrasted brightly against the near-black rocks surrounding it. Most of the buildings were derelict and the whole area had an oddly forgotten feel to it.
We followed the shoreline up to the estuary and walked inland beside the river where we spotted the biggest monitor lizard we've seen yet on our travels. He was easily a good 4-5 feet in size and came swimming leisurely up to the bank where we were standing. We both had to do a double-take as we first thought he was a crocodile but he was as frightened of us as we were of him (well, not me really - I wanted to give him a cuddle) and quickly swam away again. We then continued on to some of the main tourist attractions
Life's A Beach
This is about as close as you get to a beach in Melaka! such as a replica Portuguese galleon, Stadthuys, the old colonial Dutch town hall and Christ Church, the oldest church in Malaysia I think. All buildings were painted in a dark salmon colour that kind of didn't look right to me. There were masses of tourists swarming around everywhere due to it still being a public holiday so we didn't hang about for too long.
We resisted the urge to go for a ride in a trishaw (40 RM per hour - ouch!) although it looked a like a lot of fun. All the bikes were festooned with garlands of plastic flowers and painted bright colours, topped off with decorated umbrellas that were styled into everything from peacocks to giant daisies. Add to this madness a soundtrack of music that conjoured up a chase scene from a dodgy 60s TV cop show and you've got the general idea. It was as if MTV's 'Pimp My Trishaw' had recently paid a visit!
With the heat of the sun bearing down on us, we took refuge in yet another shopping mall although this one was brand spanking new. It was so new, in fact, that they hadn't yet finished building it!
Old Jetty
This rickety old jetty actually looks like it's still in use - eek. Aside from some impressive architectural details, we didn't really find anything of interest in the plaza probably due to many boutiques being closed for the holiday period (it's like Malaysian New Year here at the moment). I did spot a Kitty World store with its rollershutters down and made a silent vow to drag Glynn back there as soon as the holidays are over! On the roof of the mall was a large market area, which on closer inspection was just as deserted as the waterfront had been. Of about 60-odd stalls, only 4 stalls were open and they all sold identical tacky souvenirs and t-shirts. That didn't stop them pumping out Malay pop tunes at high volume on some giant speakers to try and attract business but their efforts were largely in vain.
Our day finished with a bit of a novelty event - we cooked dinner for ourselves for the first time since leaving England (not including cup noodles or the beans on toast we rustled up in Langkawi that is)! We tucked into a home-cooked pasta meal lovingly prepared in a saucepan with no handle on a dodgy old gas cooker in the hostel - it
Ghost Town
This was taken by the waterfront. These buildings were full of shops, restaurants and hotels but there wasn't a soul to be seen anywhere. was almost like camping again! The irony with cooking for yourself out here in Asia though is that it actually works out to be more expensive than eating in a restaurant. Still, we did feel a disproprtionately great sense of achievement for such a routine task so it was worth the effort!!
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