The Fast and the Flowery

Earliest bus available with seats to Meleka was 11:30am with my watch strap breaking on arrival, so that lasted less than 24 hours.

Flower Cyclo

The bus station is quite a ride out of town so took a local bus into it with the conductor repeatedly telling me "Next stop" after each one as if he knew where I wanted to go. Strangely he did as I was dropped off almost on the doorstep of my pre-chosen guesthouse which was not only a clean cosy place but came complete with free cookies!

With it now being mid-afternoon I set off on a whirlwind tour of the town, a lot of which I had actually already seen from the never stopping bus journey, but it did come across as a picturesque little place but with almost as many museums as there where flowery covered cyclos. These were brightly coloured cyclos covered from wheel to handlebar in flowers and decorations almost forcing you to put on your sunglasses to look at them topped off with cheesy summer hits music jingling away as I wondered if anyone ever had the nerve to forgo the embarrassment and ride in one as I saw a convoy of them trundling down the street full of waving Chinese. Bless em.

Lights

Picking a museum I opted for the maritime museum more to do with the big kid in me wanting to climb up on the huge replica Portuguese merchant ship they had sitting outside authentically reproduced from the timber mast right down to the in cabin air conditioning.

Getting the ticket along with a free plastic bag I soon realised what it was for on seeing the rows of shoes outside the entrance to the ships interior which with a pile of school kids just having taken off their shoes certainly added to the realistic sweaty sailor smell.

After a bowl of curry mee a kind of spicy noodle coconut-curry soup and Cendol a garish but delicious concoction of green strands mixed with coconut milk, crushed ice and syrup I began to wander back to the guesthouse to see the cyclos now lit up with equally garish flashing lights.

Melaka

Some had gone one step further though in pimping their ride with neon under glows and I'm sure I even spotted some fluffy dice hanging from one.

Pimp my Ride

Ship