Melaka melting pot.

18.11.11

Today we arrived at our first stop in Melaka. We woke up late with Chris soon

knocking on our door, saying he had to go as his flight was earlier than

he though (5 hours earlier -oops!). Luckily he made his flight home. It's

been really good fun having Chris with us for a couple of weeks, it's

going to take some adjusting now he's gone and feeling like we're back

on the road again!

Anyway it was only a 2 hour bus ride to Melaka. We arrived at the main

bus station, Sentral, and got a taxi to the hostel we had booked. It

was all a bit confusing trying to get a taxi - there was a booth, but

no sign in English but lots of willing drivers. So we told them

where we wanted to go and the guy in the booth consulted his list then

there was a bit of discussion between the drivers and a call out over a

tannoy system and another man appeared who was to be our driver. We

agreed a price for what we had expected (15Mr) and off we went.

Our hostel, Sayang Sayang, is clean and the staff were really friendly

and helpful. Our room is a double decker, so you go in to the

'living room' with a small sofa and then you go up some stairs to

your bed. The bathroom was shared, but this seems to be the case

throughout Malaysia in budget accomodation. Unfortunately this place

is fully booked for the next 2 nights and so it seems are lot of

other places, because it is the school hols and there's a arts

festival going on, so we have to move to their other hostel Sayang

Sayang 2 tomorrow night.

It was now late afternoon and we were told there was a night market

going on at Jonkers Walk at 6, so we did a few jobs on the internet and

then headed out. Jonkers walk was really busy, with loads of stalls

set up along the street selling souvenirs, jewellery, flip flops and snacks.

You know instantly you are in china town by looking at the traditional

chinese architecture and the trinkets on sale. We really

enjoyed walking up and down the street soaking up the atmosphere. We

eventually decided to go in to one of the cafe was some local cuisine.

So we setlled on the famous chicken and rice ball meal. A very simple but

tasty dish in a popular cafe.

So far we are really excited about our few days in Melaka and expecially

about sampling as many local dishes as possible!!