Marvelous Melaka
Trip Start
Jan 03, 2008
1
28
84
Trip End
Ongoing
Melaka,
Melaka State,
Malaysia
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Matthew and I decided to go and try the famous Melakan dish, Chicken and rice balls. It was actually really good and very cheap (less than $2 with a soda). After lunch, we decided to go up the sky tower. Basically, you got in at the bottom and it lifted you to the top where is then did a complete rotation
Amazing Mall
. It had beautiful views of the city and the sea. After that, we decided to check out the mall. It was so huge! The mall boasted a huge cinema, bowling alley and tons of shops. We literally spent a few hours just going around to look at everything. Then we decided to go to the Maritime museum which is a museum that is located in the inside of a ship. The museum itself wasn't that great but it did have air conditioning which was worth the entrance fee ($1). We went up on the rooftop deck and enjoyed the view. We were able to see lightening from a storm out at sea. Luckily, it wasn't raining on us.The next day Matthew and I got up and went out for a late breakfast. Raymond, the owner, actually walked us to this local place and ordered us these fabulous banana pancakes. This got us energized for our busy day. We took a river cruise to learn more about the city. Melaka has a strong Dutch and Portuguese influence. Around the 1500's, the Portuguese occupied Melaka and some of the original buildings still exist. During the cruise, we were also able to see the typical Malaysian houses which are built on stilts to allow more air flow, protect against flooding, and to allow extra room (some even had easy chairs underneath there). The Malaysian government is actually paying for the renovations to the houses along the river. They have already started on a few buildings and they look great. Not only are they paying for the repairs but homeowners will also get a monthly stipend to keep up the maintenance. The government hopes to have the riverfront renovated by 2011 and to earn back the title of the "Venice of the East." I would love to come back and see the positive changes. During our tour, we also got to see alot of large lizards. One in particular was 8' long and was swimming along side our boat. They call him Sean Connery. All of the large lizards are named after famous people
Maritime Museum
. Even walking along the streets you often see these huge lizards. After our cruise, we decided to hike up this hill to see this beautiful old church. It had great views and was definitely worth the walk. For lunch, we had this amazing spicy fried rice with scallops, shrimp and chicken. It was only around $1. I still can't get over how cheap everything is over here. We decided to head to the night market in Chinatown. They had this huge stage set up for karaoke. I guess it is a world wide phenomenon that all of the worst people get up to sing. Even though they were singing in a different language, most of them still sounded awful. Most of the stuff that was being sold was junk. However, this didn't stop us from looking. We also watched an amazing stuntman perform all kinds of tricks like fire breathing. After the fire performance we almost started clapping but realized that no one else in the audience was clapping. However, when that same guy asked a Canadian guy if he knew who Jackie Chan was and he said yes, the crowd started clapping like crazy.
