Melaka

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Our bus to Melaka left at 10am on 22nd July. It was only half-full, and we hadn't even needed to book. There was also a rule about not eating or drinking on the bus that luckily everybody seemed to ignore (it was a four and a half hour journey!)

We had to go through a checkpoint on exiting Singapore, and another to enter Malaysia. The former was simple, but the latter involved the bus driver getting irate at me and Aaron because we took longer than everybody else because we hadn't been given the card that we were meant to fill in on the bus (despite having asked for one earlier). He decided we were having 'passport problems' though, obviously our own fault and nothing to do with him. We got through eventually, and carried on into Malaysia.

We arrived in Melaka at the main bus terminal, and there was the usual touts asking people where they were staying and if it was sorted yet. We somehow ran into one from the hostel we were booked into and ended up having the owner drive us there and give us a guided tour of the town. He was a really nice guy, but we only met him that once, there was another man working there who was sterner and in charge for the whole time we were there.

On the first evening we sat St Paul's Church, which is up on a hill and to do with Melaka's Dutch and Portugese heritage. It was really busy even at that late time, and it was impossible to get a photograph free of random people.

Later that night we went out into Chinatown to see the market - but it was pouring with rain and most stalls were either covered with plastic to keep dry or being packed away. We ended up going to a local cafe and ordering somewthing the waitress pointed out with turned out to be a mundane beef sandwich which Aaron ended up with (we were hoping it'd be an exciting Malaysian dish!) - I think she thought we were after Western food. I ended up going to a Chinese stall and getting a vegetable fritter-type thing and something involving sweet potato. Both really nice, but very greasy. Aaron tried sugarcane juice - I didn't like it but he claimed that he did.

Then we went into a local bar and got talking to a really nice man who seemed to be really interested in where we were from and why we were in Melaka. We met loads of really nice locals - everybody seemed to smile and say hello in the street.

The next day we visited 'A Famosa', which is an archway and gate of a fortress (the name is in Portugese). It was really beautiful, and eerie - it had been preserved in that state that it was when it was nearly destroyed.

We then visited 'The Museum of Enduring Beauty', which featured information on different cultural ideas about beauty - like Chinese foot binding and tribal facial adornments. It was an unusual place to visit, but very interesting.

Today we got the bus into Kuala Lumpur - and am currently on the computer in the hostel. There's the most violent thunderstorm that I've ever heard going on outside! I'm glad we came back when we did.

KL itself seems to be very busy and hectic - also smoggy and dirty. We'll have a better look around tomorrow, and there are some nice things we'll see then so fingers crossed my first impressions are wrong.

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Comments

[Marc]

Hi. I hope it turns out to be good now you have had a chance to have a proper look around. The four hour bus journey sounds tough! The sugarcane juice sounds unusual, there must be a lot of food there you haven't tried before.

[Mum]

Ele-phantastic!
You two sound like well seasoned travellers now! Glad that everything is going well in Asia. Looking forward to hearing about your exploits in the jungle! Loads of love, Mum XXX

[Heather]

mmm rainy
Ironically it's sunny outside for a change. It sounds quite romantic having a thunderstorm in a hot country - a bit like Casablanca except with backpacks. I want to visit Kuala Lumpur just so i could say Kuala Lumpur alot when i returned from Kuala Lumpur. Be safe kids, and keep writing. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ......kuala lumpur!