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Published: July 24th 2007
So we took the bus to Melaka and into Malaysia on Sunday morning, it was about a 4 1/2 hour journey but it passed pretty fast with all of the jungle scenery and tin hut villages going past. We also had our first over land border crossing from Singapore into Malaysia. Was easier than expected (minus a little hastle from our bus driver). We went through customs on the Singaporean side then got back onto the bus to cross the water and had to get off again on the other side to do the same.
On arrival in Melaka we were accosted a few times by hostel touts, one turned out to be from the hostel we booked so the guy introduced us to the owner who in turn gave us a lift to the hostel with a very informative whistle stop tour of the town on the way there and also a tour of the best places to eat ( we found out on Monday that Pak Putra, an Indian one was well worth a visit for tandoori chicken ad a snip at 3.50GBP total!)
On the first afternoon we had a wander around the town, looking at all the shops selling handmade items, alot was really nice. I'm not a shopper but I wanted loads. The town itself is meant to be famed for its antiques and you can see why as there is an entire raod dedicated to that type of shop. We picked out a few things and then headed up to St Peters church at the top of the hill. I think it was built during the Dutch occupation of the area but left to ruin by everyone else. It seemed to be quite the attraction. That night we went to the market down the main street in Chinatown but unfortunately the rain meant not so mant stalls were out and it wasn't so pleasant to wander around as it otherwise would have been. We also went for a beer in one of the lacal bars and met a friendly local who was really interested in waht we thought of the area and what we had planned. We found another guy similar on the way back that night who was equally interested and friendly and seemed to be there and say 'hi' every time we went in and out of the hostel! One other thing, they have Kareoke everywhere here, even in the public square!
On the second day we went to the 'Museum of Enduring Beauty'. It had plenty of displays on how humans changed their body to look better including tribal facial jewelry, tatoos and ritual sacrifice. Very strange but also interesting. After that we went to the A'Famosa fort also built by the dutch but torn down after they were kicked out. I think it was built out of and on top of a former Mosque of the origional inhabitants of the area before the Dutch raided. Whats left is only there because Raffles stoped the British from tearing it all down.
Today we caught the bus to Kuala Lumpur but thats another blog...
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Diane
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Intrepid travellers!
The things you've both seen and the places you've been to sound amazing. I'm glad you're both keeping these blogs so you'll never forget anything and we get to keep up with what you're doing! Carry on adventuring! Loads of love, Diane xxx