Mouthwatering Melaka

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The bus down from KL was hot and long, but apart from that Melaka was all kinds of wonderful!

Showing up mid afternoon we caught the bus into town, the familiar sights guiding us once we jumped off the bus and headed over the bridge into the Old Chinatown area. We decided to get a room at the Sama Sama Guesthouse, a 300 year old plus Chinese house filled with plants and lazy cats. The owners are a friendly Malay guy and his eccentric Swiss German wife, but they make the place totally liveable, and the cute decorations make it all very homely. We were lucky as just after we'd got inside the heavens opened and all hell broke loose. Water cascaded down everywhere, and the central courtyard was like an outdoor shower on full pressure. The skies were black, sheets of lightening flying across them like a whip of white light and thunder so loud and fearsome that the building actually shook, it was awesome.

We'd planned our one night here so that it coincided with the weekend night market, and we were fortunate that the rain let up enough for us to get out and all the vendors to set up their stalls along Jonker Street, the heart of Chinatown. We started with barley water and lime and prune juice, then had baba (coconut) laksa which, to quote Jane, was a bowl of deliciousness! It was exactly what we had dreamed since we left Melaka last time, and after chatting with a friendly local lady, we learnt that the place we were at was *the* place for baba laksa - yum! For dessert Corb had a durian cendol which he admitted tasted like it smelt, but I was less brave (or wise) and had the mango ice kacang which was delicious: shaved ice, mango, strawberry and choc sauce and sweetened condensed milk. There were kidney beans and corn kernels at the bottom, but it was good 😊

Wandering the markets was awesome, and my tummy was sorry that it was so full it couldn't taste more of the delights on offer. The town has a really nice, relaxed vibrancy about it that almost made us wish we had another day to re-explore our fave spots, but after a quick purchase of some nonya pineapple tarts for the bus ride, it was off to Singapore!

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