Malacca Straits Hotel Melaka

... the canal before taking a river boat cruise through the town. The tour guide was incredibly detailed, if not a little crazy, so we got to find out some useful and not so useful information. Heading back to our room for a nap we were welcomed by yet another broken aircon system, but with a fan available we had a rest for the afternoon. Later on that evening when we woke up I wasn't very well. I think I must have had ...

If Kuala Lumpur is the symbol of Malaysian development and progress then Melaka represents the countries cultural and historical heart. The cities 500 year past includes successive capture by colonizing forces from Portugal, Holland, and Indonesia with a healthy dose of Chinese traders thrown into the mix. The result is one of the nicest colonial towns we've seen.<br><br>We found a cheap guest house in china town and explored the ...

... t so great as I was put in a tiny room right at the front of the building. The hostel is on Jalan Parameswara (named after the founder of Malacca) &amp; is one of the main streets of historical Malacca. It's extremely narrow &amp; very busy. The hostel is very tranquil but unfortunately there were some party girls staying. They got lost while out &amp; the police brought them back, then they went out again &amp; were not back for curfew so Firus had to go ...

... boat for warm showers all round. In the evening it was Captain's dinner. Guess what? We were on the Captain's table. So meet Captain Serge, the Big S at 7:00 for cocktails followed by a lovely meal where he told us all about himself and the ship - great fun. After that it was the talent show. First act, you've guessed, Captain Sergey singing three songs accompanying himself on the guitar - what a (Ser)guy! Then all the crew got ...

... Street in China Town, which is where the night market is held at weekends. It was all very Chinese, with dragon statues, Buddhist temples, incense, red Chinese lanterns and people everywhere. It was all very bustly. There were loads of snacks for us to try at the market but we had not had dinner, so we went to try the Malaysian national dish of lacks (noodles with seafood, coconut milk, egg and spices in a soup) which was good but ...

... by on our way to our room and seemed to know everybody there by name. He quickly showed us around the facilities of the guest house which included sellf-serve coffee and tea, drinking water, showers and toilets, laundry soap (and lines to hang your laundry) and a great roof top patio for tanning or just hanging out. There was also a TV room with a DVD player and assorted movies and free wireless Internet (and a computer for 2 RM an hour if you needed one ...

... a great time but with the myriad differences between 41 and 25; Venus and Mars; spiritualist and scientist; tomAHto and toMAYto... it's very nice to be moving independently again... Off to Singapore tomorrow... and the guarantee of a good cup of coffee... oh the excitement! (The following photo was snapped outside a shop in Thailand and I did a real double take, thinking the mens cuecas brand was Colloby...!)

... to be blissfully unaware of our conversation. Older travellers, especially the lifetime ones, have a habit of imparting their wisdom to the younger backpackers whether they want it or not. You can sense in them a worry as they talk, that a lifetime of battle-hardened global knowledge about people and relationships could go to total waste unless they offload as much as possible on impressionable minds they find along their way. But maybe that's fair ...

... de faire du KARAOKE!!! Une ENORME scene, ou il y avait UNE PERSONNE qui chantait toute seule, in Chinese, with 2 random people DANCING (strangely) all around in front. Hilarious. Today we visited some boring stuff--finalement 1 1/2 days est ENOUGH/assez. Demain matin, very early/tot, on part a Tioman Island, (7h de trajet, bus + bateau), if you want to make ...

... for Malaysia, and then get on another bus to go to the main bus station in Johor Bahru. At Johor Bahru bus station, we swapped buses for one bound for Melaka, and found that Malaysian buses tend to be more luxurious than we had expected. Rather than a four seat across Stagecoach like vehicle, we found ourselves aboard a coach with three seats per row, consequently giving wider seats, and also with fewer rows, giving much more leg room to stretch out. We settled back for the journey ...