Renaissance Melaka

... some sort of control over the port in the past. All this information and more is found in the somewhat unneccessary 18 pages dedicated to it in the guidebook, boasting the historical town centre, bustling streets of Chinatown, famed cuisine, museums and ruins. A whole page alone was taken up with spiel regarding the display of a life size replica Portugese ship that sunk off the Melaka coast some 500 years ago. In ...

... because if I was ill getting into Singapore I would have been quarantined for week, and missed our flight to Indonesia. It was a race against time!]. Only Chris and Andy ventured outside - they just redid what we did on our first day so Andy could experience it. In the evening, however, Andy, Chris and I went to explore Chinatown after hearing that there was a night market going on along Jonker Walk. Upon arrival at the bottom of this street, an audio advert promised us that ...

... planning to go to KL, but as I then had no money etc, I had to spend and extra day in Melaka. It was panicking as I needed to be in KL to get my flight to Bali on Sunday, and I didn't know if I could get money in time as the banks would close at 4pm on Friday and wouldn't open until Monday. However, after waking my mum and dad up at 5am, and asking if they could get up and transfer money online through Western Union, and waiting until they could confirm ...

... compared to Chinatown) parts if KL. We made it back just in time to have dinner and a few beers with Nigel and Jen who looked exactly like we did when we stepped off our flight from Melbourne. We were back in our hotel by about 11, had another beer and promptly went to sleep. It was good hanging out on the rooftop bar with Jen, Nigel and Milli. I really liked the Indian noodles even if Jen did cry that there was too much chilli. Pfft Lightweight.

... curry. After a busy morning and with the heat defeating me, I headed back to the hotel, stopping in the enormous, unfinished mall to enjoy the aircon (it's very hot in Melaka today!) and do a little reckie of the cinema. I went back to Chinatown for dinner and ate at a lovely little restaurant called Cafe1511 which serves cheap versions of all the Baba Nyonya favourites. The food was great and the little old man serving was so cute that I have decided to come back ...

Malacca: a town that loves to shout about it's heritage; and my kind of place, filled with ruined churches, forts, replica Dutch sailing ships and enough museums for each day of the week! We breezed into town via the main bus station, which is located on the outskirts, but we caught a "town bus" to take us into the centre of Malacca. This was not as successful as it could have been as the bus we hopped onto wasn't the right bus at all, and it wasn't going to the town centre but was heading ...

... for the past eight months or so, but it was cool. Actually got to wake up leisurely the next day, checked out, had some breakfast with the Harvard chick, and tried a local dessert called cendol. Picked up some more duck and rice balls for the road before catching a town bus out to the bus station. When I arrived, a bus was just about to leave for Johor Bahru, so I hopped on and was on my way.

... point because it's also charming, full of all different kinds of interesting people, much less impersonal than Singapore, and most importantly - Malaysian to the bone. That is what I have come to see. If I wanted 5 star restaurants, sun-kissed beaches and regimented harmony then I may as well go to a resort in Spain. Here, the weather is perpetually hot, everything is stupidly cheap, and somehow the people seem to get by - selling a couple of loaves of bread or a wicker ...

... island. We asked the "tourist police" (i never heard about such a police bevore), how to get to the Pulau Besar - a little island with some beaches, only two expensive resorts and golf course. They told us a complicated way to go there by bus. like we were getting up a little bit late, we decidet to take a taxi to the ferry. We where the precristmas-business for the cabdriver and payed to much. At least, we didn't missed the ferry. On the ferry ...