Melaka/Malaca, Malaysia – 2/2/14 - 4/2/14

Year of the Horse

Got the most comfortable bus I’ve ever been on to Melaka. Only 3 seats in a row, with so much leg room I couldn’t even touch the seat in front if I tried.

View from the loo

Got a local bus to town, but due to Chinese New Year still going on (15 days! That’s longer than we have for Christmas and New Year combined!) the streets were all messed up and part closed, so we hopped out and wandered past lots of people practising their dragon dancing and making floats to the riverside in Chinatown.

Such a pretty girlfriend

Muscles

Some serious squatting

Only took a little of our normal running around to find a good room and down to our budget, then we went out to get our bearings. Somehow, Melaka was even bloody hotter than KL. We were dripping, so came back to our air-con room to chill. We then headed out for the weekly night market Jo was insistent on us seeing. I can imagine it’s a pain in the arse at the best of times, but with a good few thousand extra tourists thrown in, it was manic, and we nearly didn’t eat at all as every stall/café/restauran had queues outside. Finally got some chicken thing and some local spring rolls which are rolled in chicken skin. Wandered back up the market with ice-cream in hand, then followed the river back to our hostel.

Got some bikes before breakfast, then proceeded to ride around the sites of Melaka. Saw the old chapel, fortress and a load of colonial turn of the century buildings. Was so hot we hunted down a mall to cool down for a drink. Carried on riding and found a cool little coffee shop in Little India.

We went to return the bikes, but in doing so somehow signed up to an evening bike ride, so we went and got the camera, some local delicacy pineapple puff things and some water and headed off on the bike tour with a few other travellers, lead by the guy running the bike shop/hostel. We were taken out of town along a dual carriageway, and then straight across 6 lanes of high speed traffic. One Korean girl with us was fearless but suicidal. She would accelerate as hard as she could, but wasn’t best on balance or direction. This coupled with not looking anywhere but straight ahead made me very surprised she arrived alive. A german girl at the front of the pack didn’t quite click that in Malaysia they drive on the correct side of the road, and headed the wrong way up a dual carriageway after a roundabout… with us all following. Luckily not much traffic at this point.

'Floating' mosque

'Floating' mosque after sunset

Somehow arrived in one piece at the “floating mosque”, which is actually built on a load of concrete piles and not floating in the slightest, but very pretty all the same. Sat there for a while taking photos and watching the sun go down, then cycled back for the same fun and games, but this time in the dark with only a few of us having working lights!

We dropped off the bikes, sat by the river for some curry, then got Jo a cindal, which is a bowl of crushed ice with coconut flesh, treacle and kidney beans. Bit odd, but tasty.

Went back to the room, ready to start early for Cameron Highlands.