Bamboo Hotel Melaka

With nothing to do on Tuesday, I took a day trip to the historic city of Melaka. My guidebook had warned me that Tuesday was the worst day to go there, since many of the museums are shops are closed. But I had no choice, and plenty of stuff was still listed as open. As it turned out, pretty much nothing I wanted to see was closed.

I made it to the city around noon, and quickly hit all the tourist spots in the downtown ...

... from the facades.

The following day with the sun high in the sky, shopkeepers pulled their display stands along the pavement now thriving with activity. Waves of garlic, tamarind and fresh spices drift from open kitchens. Streets that yesterday stood silent and grey were now busy with cyclists, cars and people on foot weaving their way through fruit stalls alive with colour.

Across the river the new ...

... quickest coconut slicer in the whole of Asia was performing a show that night and his fast hands would pierce coconut shells before our very eyes. Sadly we never saw it. Instead, we wandered along past market stalls and their relatively reserved owners (at least compared to Thailand!) and middle-aged Chinese women doing humorous karaoke/ aerobics/ line-dancing in temple lobbies. We eventually settled for a beer at the end of the walk next to a big stage where locals were ...

... by calling WU at 7am, I managed to get money at 3pm and was able to leave for KL on Sat morning. The guys that owned the hostel I was staying in couldn't have been nicer, they gave me breakfast and lunch and told me I could stay for free for as long as I needed. I had also received an email from an American man called Buddy I met on the bus from Singapore, he was travelling on to KL with a Canadian guy called Dan, they'd met in Singapore. They emailed to ...

... didn't get to our hotel until about 3pm so we just walked around Chinatown and went back to the Beatles bar to chat with the guy running it and to have a peach flavoured sheesha with some beers while it poured outside. The next day we went to the City (and state) of Melaka - The first Islamic state in Malaysia, and at one stage a colony for the Portuguese, then Dutch, and then British. Milli really wanted to go and as I couldn't be ...

... farm and a golf course, among others.

One of the most interesting spots that we were able to see while in town is the Mini Malaysia and Mini ASEAN Park. The sprawling complex features 13 life-size replicas of Malaysia's traditional houses typically found in each state as well as a cultural village where you can see the ...

... you have your own car. We spent most of our time at the casino and did pretty well. We lost about $25 each, but that is not too bad for as much time as we spent gambling. Blackjack here is different than in the US. Players can ride on other player's hands. Basically, we could bet on someone's hand besides ourselves. Also--the dealer gets his second card after all players get their hands. If a player gets 21, they automatically win and get paid, even if ...

... that it is actually Autumn in NZ at the moment and will be Winter by the time we'd leave, so as we only have shorts, sandals and t shirts for clothing, we thought some warm weather gear would be an idea, and the clothing in Malaysia is so cheap!! The lure of Twenty called us back by about 3pm, and as everybody was out, we took advantage of the P&Q and watched some of the many rip off dvd's that they guys have next to their huge wide screen TV.

... muito impressionado com o orgulho dessa gente em descender dos lusos e tentar manter as tradições lusas Após o regresso ao centro da cidade, ainda tentei visitar a vila ...

... but it wasn't exactly what we'd expected. Many people had compared it to Georgetown (a city which, if you'll remember, we loved), and most had preferred Malacca. We weren't sure why: Georgetown had so much more character, and, unlike Malacca, it had retained many of its beautiful old buildings - much of Malacca's older architecture has been razed in favor of newer malls and office buildings. Nonetheless, it was a nice side trip, and we'd enjoyed ourselves - now it was time to hit the beach!