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Published: September 29th 2008
Ruins of St. Paul's Church
Portuguese in the 1500's, then Dutch in the 1600's...Malaysia and Singapore....the two most built up countries in Southeast Asia
Well, we arrived in Malacca, not quite too sure of our plans from then on. This was the beginning of something special (and expensive, relative to our budget). Jodi and I arrived wondering where we were going to stay, as usual, but ended up staying at the nicest place to date. We decided to treat ourselves to the Hotel Puri, which has been restored and was built in the 1800's. This place was great! We had a real bed, king size, and a shower that didn't wet the heck out of the toilet (for once). It was nice but not our usual place to rest our heads.
We loved Malacca and it's beautiful buildings. The people were by far the nicest to date, and we had some great food at the local food stalls. Jodi says that I am not allowed to eat byriani anymore cause I stink up the room! I guess she smells like roses.....
Malacca is a port city that has been occupied and under the supervision of the Dutch, Brits, Japanese (who came into the city by thousands of bicycles, during WW2) and others. Jodi is
UNESCO designation
and Dan's acrobatics again the historian, and this is my blog entry! Which means that you will get the non-librarian version....which subsequently means less info! The city is a mix of modern and historic. The malls are in the middle of the older buildings which is a bit surreal, but a welcome place to escape the heat when you have sweated for the last three hours!
I think we could have stayed longer but we had to get to Singapore before the Grand Prix race started. So off to Singapore.
Well, the only thing that Jodi and I could muster was "shame on you Singapore". This in regards to the price inflation at all the hotels over the upcoming Grand Prix. The rooms at hostels were being charged 4 times more than usual. We were not impressed and decided to leave the following day instead of three days later as we had hoped to. We stayed the one night at the YMCA which cost us more than the three nights, in the nice hotel in Malacca. The city is very modern, vibrant with a great vibe (especially down by the quay). I am pretty sure I have never seen such lavish digs as
A'Famosa (Portuguese)
Fortified gate to old city of Melaka in some places located around there.
I wish we could have stayed, and we may regret it, but we jumped on the next Jetstar flight to Bangkok. I kind of wanted to get some pics of the race, and from what we heard on the TV and from some locals the race was a bust. Not enough interest, the government spent millions and the tickets were being given away for under face value.....but not the hotels, which matter most when you don't know anyone!
By the way....it is our 2nd anniversary today, which started out with a trip to the hospital for me to get a Rabies shot after being bitten by a dog in the Chang Mai market last night!......Jodi is not happy with me right now!
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Christine
non-member comment
best museum ever!
Hey guys! That's too bad about the over-pricing of Singapore, I was there for 24 hours on my trip to India 2 years ago (I flew Singapore Air) and I had a blast, and the Museum of Asian Civilizations (that you have the pic of) was one of the best musuems I've ever been to. Did you get to go in? It was actualy included in my stop over package! They incorporate multi-media wonderfully! Also, being in Singapore reminded me very much of Japan..so if you are heading there, be prepared for expensiveness especially in big cities - but go, it's awesome! Happy Belated Second Anniversary! :)