Hallmark Hotel Melaka

... varying from cultural dances, opera, songs, traditional wedding ceremony . . . We were personally greeted by the Governor and also invited to dance with the locals. We felt very fortunate to be there at this time especially when they had been nominated as a UNESCO site by the Province of Quebec, Canada!!!!! <br><br>Before we knew it we were back on the bus and on our way to Kuala Lumpur.<br><br>

... started filming the entire thing, if only we had gotten hold of a copy. <br><br>[Tom: During this evening, I also played a game of Carrom with Zen<br>(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ca rrom)- an Indian game like billiards<br>apart from the fact that it's played with draughts pieces and your<br>fingers (that's honestly the best description I can come up with). It<br>is safe to say that he absolutely thrashed me with his 35 years of<br>gaming experience. I only potted one in the ...

... more to see and do - 29 museums in about 4 block area, lovely huge malls, empty wide streets and such warm friendly people who wanted to talk and visit and know why you were there and why you could not stay longer. Like Nimh Binh in Vietnam - getting off the beaten track allows for a completely different experience and I was so glad I picked Melaka and was open to its charms. It made me wonder what else I missed in Malaysia and maybe I should return to find out. On to Singapore.

... very narrow but long and with an internal courtyard. This helped to evade the window tax.. Food hot and spicy mainly rice, noodles and chillis but Paul found fish and chips and washed it down with a bottle of Guiness. Lots of walking, followed the river walkway to a typical Malay living museum set within a stilted village. I spent the day in ...

... off i went through. The bus stopped half way at a random eatery where all buses seemed to stop, the driver just walked off, none of us knew what to do but we soon guessed we went in and ate! got my first go at squat toilets.. which i suppose are good cause ur bum isnt on a random seat, but man, i like my traditional toilet or my log in the bush!! anyhow, got some yummy rice noodles and orange juice and then eventually our bus driver returned to the bus to take us ...

... a few seagulls here. Apparently, the weekend is the time to visit - not on a Tuesday and not during Ramadan. So we caught a taxi back... A couple of things about Melaka: shopping for antiques and don't visit on a Tuesday (most restaurants are shut that day), stay in Chinatown (a bit more history, local culture to enjoy here) and yes, don't mention the Portuguese (we had the feeling that the ...

... sort of flood protection embankment or another boardwalk. The colourfully painted wooden houses of the village combined with large porches covered in pot plants and "traditional ornaments" gave the place a bit of a Disneyland feel, although the houses were clearly occupied by locals. One of the largest homes, right on the river bend itself was the Villa Sentosa. The family who live there have opened their sprawling house to visitors and so we and a British couple took ...

... C'est tout du contraire. Ils sont de petites tailles, très dynamiques et plutôt maniaques. Les 'Baba-Nyonnya' de Melaka sont en fait les descendants des Chinois installés en péninsule malaise qui ont adopté les coutumes locales tout en intégrant les leurs... Bienvenue donc a Melaka, ville des babas qui ne boivent pourtant pas de rhum, top humour et bal musette-spears-attrape-la-floche.

After spending the morning repacking our backpacks and shipping home a whole bunch of clothes, we boarded the bus bound for Melak in Malaysia. We were pleasantly surprised that the buses were so clean, spacious and air-conditioned.....and cheap! Cost us just 5 pounds each for a 5hour bus trip. The border crossing was entertaining to say the ...

... i still had 8 boreing poxy hours to kill in jerantut. i met an english guy and a couple of german girls and we went for a beer but no where sold booze so had to settle for a mango juice instead. My train left at midnight and got meself a sleeper bunk which was cool.. the sleeper bunks here seem a lot better than the european ones ive been on and got into Tampin at 6 ish in the moring still pitch dark... so i waited a little while for it to get ...