Melaka

We got a bus from Singapore to Melaka (Melacca) which took about four hours, the coaches over here are excellent, very comfortable and perfect if you’re trying to keep within a budget.

Melaka was our first stop in Malaysia and we were straight away impressed, lovely weather, great town and very affordable. Melaka is a strange mix of Portuguese, Chinese, Malaysian and a whole lot more. People are friendly and everyone thankfully has very good English.

One thing we did notice was that in any shop we were in we were followed around, I’m not sure if it was cause we looked dodgy or they were all on commission. Either way it was very very off putting.

So the first day we just relaxed in the hotel, the avalon legacy hotel which I’d recommend, as we didn’t get much sleep in the hostel the night before (Sleepy Sams, how ironic!). Most hotels have outdoor pools and this one was pretty nice. I’m getting a bit better at the swimming now between the beaches and the pools we’re using.

So the next morning we finally made it down before 10am and made breakfast and we were a bit surprised. I guess the Asian breakfasts are a bit different to the European ones, chicken sausages, noodles and all kinds of weird stuff for breakfast, I just went with the toast.

The second day we had a look around the town / city, had a look at the red building (A Portuguese or Dutch style building), visited Junkar markets, the night market looked pretty good! The heat was getting to me a bit at that stage to had to retire early.

There is also a massive shopping mall in Melaka which Sue was delighted with, prices were very reasonable. I also managed to break (and then fix) my camera. The camera being a bit sensitive to the desert sand of Dubai.

So that was about it for Melaka, a pretty short stay but a nice introduction to Malaysia all the same. All ready KL is looking a whole lot different but I would recommend Melaka as a different version of Malaysia anyway.