Blogs from Melaka, Malaysia, Asia - page 17

08 - 10 October When we arrived in Melaka / Malacca by bus from Mersing it was already late afternoon. We had checked the web beforehand and had already decided we wanted to stay in Chinatown, opposed to the area further down where most guesthouses are centralised. It takes a bit of searching to find something affordable in China town, but we succeeded and got a room at the Cheng Hoon hotel. Nice place, large foyer to hang out in or use wi-fi. Most evenings there were a bunch of 'old' Asian people chatting each other up in Chinglish with the usual amount of 'lah's' included. It's so funny to hear these people of around the same age (70-ish) from different parts of Asia speak this universal language that is understood by so many people in ... read more

After almost two weeks of traveling here there and everywhere, we were good and ready for what awaited us off the northeast coast of Malaysia…. two glorious little islands, Pulau Perhenthian Kecil and Pulau Perhenthian Besar. A 3-hour van journey on Oct. 11 with a nice Canadian family and a 30-minute speedboat ride brought us there… to crystal clear water, white sand beaches, monkeys swinging in the trees, no roads, shoes optional and 5 days of beachside bliss. And, that’s not all! Each island has a little something for everyone and water taxis are the only means of transportation. They zoom you around from beach to beach for 5-10 ringits so you are sure to see it all. While staying on Kecil for the first two nights, we experienced a tropical rainstorm stocked full of thunder, ... read more

Like the Rough Guide says, Melaka grows on you. We've done a lot of walking around. The first night I left the family asleep and walked a few blocks in a light rain to a big outdoor food court, and had a great bowl of spicy seafood Laksa with a large Tiger beer. Yum. The next day we found an Indian restaurant that serves great roti (griddle flat bread) for breakfast, and fish head curry for dinner. We found lots of other fun/interesting stuff here. The "fish spa" where Melody paid 50 good ringgets to have little fish nibble the dead skin from her feet. The "Museum of Enduring Beauty" which documents self-mutilation in cultures worldwide ("enduring" as in "enduring pain"). Interesting shops in Chinatown (we even encountered some kind of film crew set up on ... read more

Melaka, 3:45 am Left home 3:30 pm Sat, Param drove us to RDU. Changed planes in Houston, changed planes in LAX, EVA Air 13+ hours to Taipei, hung around there for a few hours, then 4 1/2 more to KL. Once there we had to figure out how to buy a SIM card for the GSM phone Melody bought on EBay, get some cash from the ATM (ringgets, about 3 to a dollar), clear customs (long line). After that came the harder part: find a bus to Melaka. We still don't know whether there is one, a carefully guarded secret, or not. We ended up taking the scenic route: local bus to NiLai, local bus to Seremban, then the last express bus of the day to Melaka. Finally a taxi from the bus station to the ... read more

Zajtrk je bil trodelen: najprej dragonfruit od vceraj, potem pitstop pri mamak (jaz najprej roti chanai, ker roti pisang kao no have, potem pa z Edom se tose in cez ginger teh tarik), na koncu pa se kokos pri sosedih. Matr, v taki situaciji bi imela vedno dobre sosedske odnose. Ko sem imela vse spakirano in je bil Ed nared za sluzbo (danes grejo gledat lokacijo za snemanje, t.i. reccee), me je zategnil do postaje KTM. Bye bye Ed, bye bye Kepong, sem jokcala! "Heh, you'll be back," me/se je tolazil Ed. Ves, da bom. Sla sem do KL Sentral (1,30r), tam do info pulta KTM, da poiscem mozne vlake do Kota Bharu. Odlocena sem bila, da ne grem na ekspresni nocni vlak, ker hocem videti cim vec tiste cuvene jungle railway. Ampak ta je baje ... read more