Blogs from Melaka City, Melaka, Malaysia, Asia

Our second day in Melaka was just as wonderful as the first. The staff at the Malacca Majestic are simply wonderful. It is a funky, wonderful little hotel and so far has been the highlight of our trip. We went on walking tour today and saw amazing back alley sights with a local (Miss Cho) who explained the ins and outs of both old world Malaysia and lots of current political commentary. Apparently, there is lots of political corruption and public funds are often misspent. (not much different than home) The current political party has been in power for 55 years and apparently basically a monarchy of sorts. We met a Kiwi guy on the tour and had lunch at a Nynoya Baba resturant called Jonkers 88. Check out Nyonya cuisine. Tasty stuff. We had dinner ... read more

After singapore our next stop was Melaka, a small city once controlled by the Dutch, Portugese and British. We stayed near Jonker street, the main market street in china town. Highlights included a half swiss half brazilian man we met on two nights out who was clearly on a ecstasy fueled weekend. Our hostel owner also showed us that mc lovin from superbad had also stayed at our hostel before, a great claim to fame. From Melaka we bused and ferried to Tioman Island, rated in the top 10 most beautiful islands in the world. We stayed here for 4 nights, the first 3 of which were beautiful sunshine, snorkling and drinking in the evenings. Susan, who we'd met in melaka, had also come and eneded up sharing a room with us. A day trip with ... read more

Nach den drei Großstädten und vor der nächsten ziehen wir uns für einen kurzen Erholungsurlaub in das kleine beschauliche Städtchen Melaka zurück. Auf dem Weg dorthin treffen wir die britische Opernsängerin Camille, welche zwar in Berlin wohnt, aber nur auswärts Arbeit findet und gerade in Singapur ein Konzert gegeben hat. Nach einem Abend beim Essen beim Inder in Chinatown trennen sich unsere Wege wieder. In Chinatown hängen überall rote Lampions und chinesische Girlanden herum und hier und da mal ein Drache. Nett anzuschauen sind auch die kleinen bunten chinesischen Tempel, wenn zwischendurch dann der Muezzin ruft, passt das aber so gar nicht ins Bild. In den vielen Geschäften in den teilweise schönen und stuckverzierten kleinen Reihenhäusern gibt es nur „Kunsthandwerk“, also Touristenkitsch, zu kaufen. Dieser ehemals bedeutende Handelsknotenpunkt der vorherigen Ja... read more

Driving half the length of peninsula Malaysia is always going to take a long time. Luckily on Chinese New Year's Day the vast majority of people were already visiting relatives so we had a fairly clear run all the way - until we got South of Kuala Lumpur. Then the heavens opened, visibility was reduced to a minimum, the traffic started to crawl but still several drivers thought they could drive like idiots. Thankfully we avoided any trouble and never witnessed any accidents. After about 5 hours we reached Melaka, or the outskirts at least. Then the traffic ground to a halt! Eventually we parked up at a posh hotel to enquire about their rates (way beyond our budget!), left the car there and walked towards town to find some accommodation. We looked at several options ... read more

T – Two gaunt-faced and sweaty backpackers have just boarded the super cheap Penang passenger ferry that sits next to Butterworth’s bus terminal (which sounds like a brand of mints you’d find in someone’s car). It’s another steaming day made even more steam heavy by the burning temperature of my forehead and Kiran’s waterfall of a runny nose. We flop into the wooden seats in the centre of the deck seemingly uninterested in the beautiful sea view afforded to everyone by this crossing to the island. It takes only ten minutes and we disembark with 100 plus others onto Georgetown’s busy streets. We bypass the taxi men in favour of walking to our guesthouse and 40 minutes later are about ready to let the crows take us (for there are many here) when we finally collapse ... read more