Chinese New Year Weekend Trip

Saturday Jan 24th

Saturday morning David and I hop on the express train to the colonial town, Melaka. The train is by far out favorite form of transportation in Malaysia.  Even though it takes a bit longer, you don't have to worry about traffic, there's plenty of room to stretch your legs, and you don't have to listen to a driver tell you his whole life story! 

The green looking burrito in the picture above is actually a very yummy dessert that I got with my breakfast at the train station. The outside tastes similar to a Dutch pancake, or crepe, and the inside is filled with sugary coconut. yum! I will try this again in the future. 

After a two hour train ride to a small town called Tampin, we quickly grab our bags and jump of the train and search for a teksi driver to take us to Melaka, which is 38 km from the train station.  We find an available teksi driver and ask him for the price. He says the price is RYM 70. Pause. I glance quickly over at David and then back at the teksi driver and say, 'RYM 70? NO WAY! ' 'We'll do it for RYM 50!' We go back and forth. He says '70 is cheap', we know that it's not.. 

We get rescued by a married couple from Canada who also need to get to Melaka!  The tesksi driver finally agrees, 'OK, RYM 50 per couple.' So, after an hour of interesting conversation, and almost 3 near accidents in a tightly packed and no A/C vehicle we finally make it to our hotel. 

We drop off our bags in our cozy hotel room with a interesting rooftop view (photo above) and head out to Jonkers Street.  We walk past antique shops, art galleries, bars and restaurants, at that only a block away from our hotel!  We grab some lunch.  We're not impressed with our cold food and David's luke-warm beer.  But no worries!  Our tummies are full and the busy atmosphere keeps us going.  

Next stop is the colonial Dutch Stadthuys (city hall) and a church both built in 1641.  David takes a picture of me in front of a windmill, which I believe is not built the 1700's.  I just feel right at home!  Ja?

From there, we visit The People's museum, and then resume our walk in the heat of the day to the top of a hill with a view of the ocean and look at another colonial church built by the Portuguese (former tenants) .  Siesta Time!  We make usage of the inviting lush green grass after hours of walking around town.   

Next, is a tour of the maritime museum which is a replica of an old ship used back in the day. David checks all the ropes to make sure that they are all tight and secure. This is a very interesting sight by the way. 

Ok. Time to go back to the hotel and relax!

Two hours later David accomplished watching Terminator on television and me a wonderful two hour nap!  Rejuvenated, we head out again to hunt for some good street eats!  We walk from stall to stall and try anything and everything.  Blackened tea eggs, dim sum, Laksa noodles, barley iced drinks, fresh coconut water, fried vegetable cake and a Melaken dessert called Cendol.  The small streets are lit up by hundreds of red Chinese lanterns.  Jonkers Street is energized by the smell of the food, the sounds of tourist searching for souvenirs, and Chinese New Year music blaring from restaurants. Hours go by and we finally decide to check time. 1:30 in the morning? Oops!  We better get some sleep because our bike ride starts at 8:30 a.m!