Ancient Port, Modern Dive

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Arriving at Meleka Bus Station (which has been moved from the Lonely Planet prescribed positon) for the first time on my trip I found myself not knowing quite how to get the next place, and not knowing if anyone around who would understand me.
Fortunately after getting on the wrong bus a couple of times, I managed to get pointed to the bus to take me to the city (stupid tourists).

I spent a couple of days in Meleka, partially just to chill out and take things easy, and partially to kill time, because I wanted to have my stitches out in Malaysia, not Indonesia.

Meleka has a lot of history to it. It has been occupied by the Muslims. Portuguese, Dutch and the English, and is now occupied by rampant development.
I found it quite sad, because I think a lot more could have been done to preserve the historical feel of the city, but isn't done. Multiple story buildings now seem to dominate, and except for Chinatown, most of the historic buildings seem to be falling through the cracks.
One of the saddest things is that the city wall was destroyed by some British fool, because they were worried about Meleka going back into Dutch hands. I think that it they had survived, the city would have had a much more rustic feel to it.

Managed to catch up with a number of other travellers, including a guy from New Zealand, which was good.

LOST IN TRANSLATION:
I've been trying to pick up abit of the language, however in trying to say "Hello", I was mistakenly saying "I love you". Ops.

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Photos

River
With a beautiful a esplanade on one side, and crumbling houses on the other side.

Meat on a Stick
Out to dinner with other travellers at a Satay Resturant. We got to pick from a range of sticks, then cook them in the pot of boiling satay on our table!

Comments

[Gareth]

Jealousy
I'm so incredibly jealous. You bastard.

[Gareth]

Bali
Bali doesn't really seem your style, but I bet there are some pretty good deals going there at the moment. Not that I'm suggesting you take advantage of other people's misfortune.