Blogs from Melaka City, Melaka, Malaysia, Asia - page 11

Everyone has had a slice of dear Melaka; the dutch, portuguese, british, chinese, invading armies of islam. It is quite the colourful place, literally, the british painted the whole town red at one point to assert the place as the dutch had left every building bleach white. The food here, whenever restaurants happen to be open is varied and great. The hours suck and we often have to wander for nearly an hour to find a non-western/corporate (ie mcdonalds) place to eat. There were never any exports from Melaka so the invented themselves as a megaport and all trade routes passed through here to seek protection from the monsoon winds. Nowadays it is kinda boring and there is not much more to do other than eat and look at nice buildings. Many restaurants 0have this deal ... read more

Squat toilets. Seriously, whose bright idea was that? Yes, we’ll go to the trouble of constructing most of the infrastructure necessary for a proper sit-down toilet, but fall at the final hurdle and instead just put a hole in the ground. But wait, we’ll try and cover up our laziness by craftily disguising said hole with a toilet bowl seat set into the floor. Then, for good measure, we’ll install a garden hose that can perform the functions once so successfully carried out by bog roll and flushing. The entire system is an affront to the memory of Thomas Crapper (inventor of our much beloved loo). I understand that part of travel is embracing the cultural and lifestyle differences that exist between countries, but this is taking the piss (or more precisely, making it a balancing ... read more

I'm in love with Malaysia. KL was clean, efficient, diverse and very tourist friendly. Melaka is just plain gorgeous. It took us two hours to get here from KL, on the most comfortable bus I think SE Asia must have to offer. It was luxury! The cost? 5USD. We arrived to Melaka Sentral around 2pm, the bus station just outside of town, and immediately purchased bus tickets for tomorrow to Singapore so that we wouldn't have to deal with it later. Then, a nice taxi driver who spoke English drove us to our hostel, the Kancil Guesthouse. Our hostel is very unique- it's a family's home and sort of in an open courtyard format. Our room has no AC, and just a shared bathroom. But hey, for a little over 10USD a night, I can't complain. ... read more

Luckily since the lens of my camera had defogged itself in the hot room during the night I could take some snaps during my daytrip to Melaka. I left my bags in the lobby as I finally managed to sort out a dorm but before 12 no check-ins are permitted. I walked to the Carrefour for an ice coffee and the vendor next door who made my breakfast, Roti Pisang (banana Roti-similar to naan). The bus to the station took about half an hour, as soon as I got there I went to the ticket stand for transnational, a company recommended to me, I got my return ticket to Melaka and my ticket for Penang my next stop. I waited by the platform one of the station stewards pointed along the way pointed out. with 5 ... read more

We made our way from Singapore to Melaka, Malaysia. We got a coach from Singapore and went through immigration at the Malaysian border, Johor Bahru. We got another bus, which took us to our station at Larkin before we took another coach to Melaka! On the way, there were rows and rows of palm trees and forestation, concentrated together like we've never seen before. The scenery was so incredibly green. When we got to Melaka, a quick hop on a decrepid local bus took us round the corner from our hostel The Traveller's Lodge. The owner was really laid back and wanted us to rest before giving him money or anything, the room only cost us 7.00 a night for both of us! We rested for a short while, then headed out. Having eaten already, we ... read more