Garden City Melaka Service Apartments

... bus came into the bar and sat down for a coffee, He looked like Tarzan of Greystoke but was a old skool traveller by the looks of him. We finished our drinks and went our seperate ways, i went and found a place to eat and had a Malaysian curry which wasn't bad. The malaysians have this thing about putting meat on the bone in all their dishes and some of the meat is really poor, but this wasn't ...

... are roomy and comfy, a luxury compared with a lot of the transport we've taken on this trip. I slept pretty much the whole way.

Melaka is an old Portugese colony so apparently there's a lot of historical sites and cool old architecture to check out. So far, we've been to the mall, lol. Tonight (after going back to the mall to see the new Harry Potter movie!!!) we're heading into Chinatown to see the weekend night market, and since we decided to stay ...

... us to a room and declared the owner Sam was our. "For how long?" I asked. "could be 20 minutes or 2 hours!" he then carried on with surfing the Internet. Lurch looked like he'd been traveling for years. Rather more scarily though he looked like he would eat you given half the chance. Sam arrived later just as Lurch had predicted.. Although 20 mins to 2 hours does give you a large margin for error!

Heading out to take in the sites of Malacca we ...

... signed, after we promised the man we weren't importing any chewing gum or toy guns, we were off to do what we promised ourselves. A drive down Orchard Road and then a trip across the Island before heading off. But all of this had cost us a couple of hours, so it was back to the hotel to load up and check out. The nice staff didn't mind the late checkout so we were off in about 15 minutes, down Orchard Road, with a large raspberry to the locals, then around the Island we went, but not before ...

28.3. Heute heißt es früh aufstehen, denn unser lieber Hostelbesitzer hat für uns eine Höhlentour organisiert. Zusammen mit ihm und einem Freund von ihm, Teh, fahren wir hinaus aufs Land. Aber zunächst einmal gehen wir zu viert frühstücken, die beiden Malayen suchen einen Platz für uns aus. Als wir bestellen wollen, stellt sich heraus, dass es nur Suppe mit Fleisch oder Fisch gibt. So müssen wir erstmal erklären, dass das deutsche Frühstück doch sehr anders ist und wir nicht ...

... quite a substantial saving (to be fair only 1 pound!)only to realise that our boat came without a commentary, so we spent an hour or so navigating the Dutch influenced canals looking at buildings that meant nothing to us! We did however spot several water monitor lizards swimming in the dirty water and they were huge ('This Big', as Rach would say!) The two of us set about visiting the waterfront but as with many other places in Malaysia there was lots of building work ...

... kitsch, surrounded by perfect flowerbeds and even a little windmill, all next to the river making it appear very much as though you were in Holland, not Asia! It was a very good example of Melaka's history and the influence the Portugese, Dutch and English had over Malaysia's towns. While searching for the Museum Rakyat (People's museum) I encountered a slight diversion, finding myself next to the maritime museum - a dramatic representation of a Portugese ship which ...

... mud. The map Alphonso d'Albuquerque drew had been lost for almost 500 years. Robert Marx went to look for the ship, with the found map. When Tony got to that part of the story our neighbor asked; 'where are you from?' He happened to KNOW Robert Marx and is a professional diver, hunting for treasures, even wrote books about it. He called Robert Marx 'a fool' and told us many more stories. If he would not have given his business card, I would not ...

... be quite spicy!! Here was saw the Dutch town hall and residence called Stadthuys and the relic of the Portuguese fort Porta de Santiago at the foot of the Bukit St Paul (St Paul's Church) which was built be a Portuguese sea captain in 1511. Also, the Baba Nyonya Heritage museum was very interesting (and the guide hilarious!) which was a captivating museum set in a traditional ...

... lovely buildings and temples. Got caught up in the middle of a downpour which cleared the air for a bit. Chilled out in the Discovery cafe over a couple of Tiger Beers and then made our way back to the lodge. The next day I headed out on my own without a map. Thought I would manage having spent the past day wondering around the place. Checked out the shopping mall's as I had to buy another watch because I stupidly lost the one I bought with me ...