Day 1:
After finding the guest house we chilling out over a coffee in the reading area and met Isabelle (an old American from California who has travelled all her life). She had some good stories to tell and was talking about how she goes around setting up libraries for the disadvantaged.
Melaka itself is a really nice place - very friendly people and nice on the eye. The night markets were in full flow so we ate on the aptly named food street. Dinner was a bit dodgy but ok. Didn't do a lot more as we wanted to get back to our lovely guest house and chill whilst watching the river boats go by.
Hit the sack at about 11pm after hunting down a mossie for a while.
Day 2:
Got up, had a coffee and saw a monitor lizard swimming around - huge! Met Alain who was the owner of the guest house. He suggested we go out to get local breakfast so we went along with that. Isabelle came too and Alain took us out of the tourist part and to a very busy local cafe. He ordered loads of food and I had some noodles with chillies and prawns and stuff. It was really nice but as it had prawns in it, Claire couldn't have any. Shame as it was delicious!
Alain then drove us through the old Portuguese settlement and we saw a family of dogs with their puppies running around. They were cute. We headed to the coast to stop and look at the Straits of Melaka for a while. There were lots of big ships but no pirate ships from what I could see.
As the Riverside One was fully booked for the Saturday night we had to find other accommodation so Alain took us round loads of places to find a good room. We found one in Discovery Cafe which, although it was a bit grubby, did the trick. We had a balcony too so quite nice.
Offered to pay for breakfast but Alain had none of it - he's a great guy, really friendly and helpful.
Walked around Little India but it was pretty dire really and the food looked dodgy so walked back into the main town and found a place that did banana leaf curry. Several washes of the hands later and we were stuffing food into our gobs quite literally. It was tasty.
Had a siesta, then walked along the river to get a river boat. This was not bad but very tacky music was blasting out and the commentary was about twenty seconds out so a bit confusing.
Walked through the markets (again) and ended up having some spring rolls and fresh veggie rolls for dinner. Then we went back to watch the band at Discovery Cafe. The owner, David, insisted I get up and play but I said no, no, no. The singer sounded a bit like Tina Turner crossed with Rod Stewart but she was pretty good. The guitarist (called 'Man') came over and we talked music for a while and he tried to get me to go up and play but again, I resisted.
Had a couple of Tiger beers and then went to bed.
Day 3:
Got up early and went downstairs (spiral staircase) for breakfast. This was atrocious. Cold coffee and cold toast with lard. I was going to laugh and say good one - April Fools and all that but I don't think it was supposed to be a joke. Left it all and saddled up for our journey to the Cameron Highlands.
Had to get a local bus to the bus station, then a two hour bus to Kuala Lumpur, then a LRT to Pudujaya bus station and then a four hour coach to Tamah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. There was a crazy guy the Melaka Sentral bus station who had no arms so I didn't really feel too threatened by him.
Took all day pretty much but the scenery here is fantastic and it is actually quite cold! Looked around some guest houses and hostels and they ranged from the classy to the comical so we took a classy one. Haggled on the price a bit and got a decent deal for two nights. Went for some dinner. I had pepper chicken which blew my head off. Claire had some veggie curry effort. It was all nice though.
Retired to the balcony to watch the night market and have a beer and then fell asleep.
Just woken up and had to fix the computer so that I could update this blog. The mist is hanging around the hills but it looks like it's going to brighten up soon. Had a great night sleep so hopefully tonight I'll finally make it two good nights sleep in a row!
Going to try and get more photos up now so keep 'em peeled.
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