If you take a bus two for two hours south from Kuala Lumpur, you’ll find the costal town of Melaka. It’s a pretty little place – nominated as a world heritage site only one month ago – and therefore has big pseudo-Chinese gate advertising boards stuck up all over town to celebrate! Very traditional!
We only expected to stay here a night or two, but got off to a bit of a bad start. Our lovely Rough Guide placed the bus stop quite central to town on the map, but unfortunately for us it was wrong by more than 3km. So we trekked, rucksacks and all, from miles to the north of town before finally getting to our hotel. And as it seemed a nice place (and we fancied passing out for the afternoon) we thought we’d stay a night or two more.
Melaka has the distinct feel of a cross between Louang Phabang and Macau. It’s a small colonial town first developed by the Portuguese, but then taken over by the Dutch, and finally by the British. Before going to full Malaysian control again. So it has weirdly European buildings in places, ruined churches and forts, all surrounded bys distinctly Asian regions – there’s a particularly nice China Town for instance (which is where our hotel is). Altogether a quiet, sleepy place - nice for a few days rest and relaxation. Our hotel has been great too – it has a piano in the lobby which guests are allowed to use. This is the first time we’ve seen a useable piano in a hotel in all our travels, so Gary took full advantage and gave two brilliant performances – especially considering he a) didn’t have music and b) hasn’t played in over 6 months!
Anyway, now we’re moving on again, another early start (groan), across to the East Coast of Malaysia. We plan to spend the next week in Pulau Tioman, an island 2 hours by ferry away from the mainland. It hasn’t really got any roads, and so the only way to get from village to village is by walking or by boat. And as we’ll probably be staying in a wooden shack we may be out of contact for a while! But hopefully it will have some nice rainforest trails and diving to keep us entertained. We’ll post some more when we get back to civilisation!
We only expected to stay here a night or two, but got off to a bit of a bad start. Our lovely Rough Guide placed the bus stop quite central to town on the map, but unfortunately for us it was wrong by more than 3km. So we trekked, rucksacks and all, from miles to the north of town before finally getting to our hotel. And as it seemed a nice place (and we fancied passing out for the afternoon) we thought we’d stay a night or two more.
Melaka has the distinct feel of a cross between Louang Phabang and Macau. It’s a small colonial town first developed by the Portuguese, but then taken over by the Dutch, and finally by the British. Before going to full Malaysian control again. So it has weirdly European buildings in places, ruined churches and forts, all surrounded bys distinctly Asian regions – there’s a particularly nice China Town for instance (which is where our hotel is). Altogether a quiet, sleepy place - nice for a few days rest and relaxation. Our hotel has been great too – it has a piano in the lobby which guests are allowed to use. This is the first time we’ve seen a useable piano in a hotel in all our travels, so Gary took full advantage and gave two brilliant performances – especially considering he a) didn’t have music and b) hasn’t played in over 6 months!
Anyway, now we’re moving on again, another early start (groan), across to the East Coast of Malaysia. We plan to spend the next week in Pulau Tioman, an island 2 hours by ferry away from the mainland. It hasn’t really got any roads, and so the only way to get from village to village is by walking or by boat. And as we’ll probably be staying in a wooden shack we may be out of contact for a while! But hopefully it will have some nice rainforest trails and diving to keep us entertained. We’ll post some more when we get back to civilisation!
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