Melakka and KL

Port Dickson to Melakka was one day's riding apart making it nice and easy. We cycled through heavily present military areas; past lots of camps, and green Land Rovers overtook us, all friendly and inquisitive. Into Melakka was pretty easy and we eventually found a suitable place to stay with the bikes and we were central as well which was handy. 

Melakka is another UNESCO Heritage site and rather stunning in itself. There is a lot of history here that dates back to 1400. On the south west coast of Malaysia with the river running inland, Melakka was once a major international trading port for SE Asia, with millions of boats and ships docking here, trading everything you could think of from all around the world. The city was overtaken by the Portugese in 1460 and 130 years later, the Dutch captured Melakka from them and their influence is ever present all over the city. 

We learnt about the maritime trade when Melakka was at it's height in a museum on-board a true sized replica of an old Portugese ship that would have been shut down by Health and Safety immediately, but it's all part of the fun. 

We enjoyed wandering around the city, especially down the famous Jongkor Walk, which is full of boutiques and street stalls which all felt very European. Much to our delight, the street was closed off to traffic at night when the markets come alive with hustle, bustle and really bad Chinese karaoke.    

Captain James on the museum ship

Melakka also saw us strolling around the Dutch Square, St Paul's Church and A'Famosa; all very Western! We also stumbled across a Dutch run cafe where we spent a couple of afternoons planning for our next few weeks left in SE Asia. It was sad to be thinking about going home already but a little planning was needed at this stage to get the most out of our time left and also research the cheapest way of getting our stuff home.  

Melakka offers a rather unusual and entertaining way to get around the city. The cycle rickshaw is all over the world and offers great ways to see places environment friendly and I am totally all for them - I was delighted when they started in London. However Melakka offers the humble cycle rickshaw with a difference! The bigger, the more colourful, the more decorated, the better. Fairy lights are lit up all over them when night falls and the best ones have a car radio rigged up to the motion of the pedals and massive speakers with the latest chart R&B hits blaring out seriously loud, you can hear them miles away!!

Bling with the flowers during the day

Fairy lights at night

We had some good food in Melakka, which in many city centres can be hard to find when massive chains take over any street corner they can. We had a true Indian experience in a canteen style stainless steel table affair, where we were the only white people there... now we're talking. James pointed as various dishes at the front that looked good and over our banana leaf plate came, with four different types of sauce plopped onto it. I got right in there with my hand, which got an approving nod from probably half the restaurant, but James chickened out and used a fork. 

We took advantage of the handy tourist-y-ness of Melakka and left our babies (the bikes) in our hotel and took a coach into the capital Kuala Lumpur. It seemed strange not having the bikes, but the ease of which we found a hotel room made me realise how at times, they can be a pain when it comes to finding accommodation. We spent two nights in KL taking in the sights, which was more than enough time, especially as I didn't really warm to KL. 


We went up the Menara tower, by lift of course, travelling 250 metres in 58 seconds. We also went to KL's Bird Park, which was just so utterly impressive, we ended up spending four hours there. The following day we queued like suckers for the Petronas towers to walk across the sky bridge between the two towers, which turned out to be reasonably enjoyable bearing in mind the time we queued for it! We saw different views to the Menaras and being a little further to the ground allows you to see a different side to the crazy city and I enjoyed watching people down on the street scurrying around like ants. Soon after this, we negotiated a coach back into Melakka which felt like negotiating stocks and shares, the amount of people shouting across the room, people trying to get your attention, people on the phone etc.

The Petronas Towers from the Menara tower.

Petronas Towers

This was a very special moment! I think Mr Hornbill was lonely as he hopped over and passed his papaya to me through the gap in the fence and then took it back off me when I offered it.

Chicks!

We arrived back in Melakka 3 hours later and enjoyed one the best meals of the trip. Satay Celup is famous in Melakka so of course, we had to give it a go and it was so fun and something that could definitely catch on over here. The restaurants are simple with big tables with a hole in the middle. When you sit down, a bucket of satay sauce is bought over and a gas cannister is rigged up and a flame is left opened to heat the sauce, You then take a tray and go to the huge frigdes and pick various skewers that have food items of them and the idea is that you dunk them in the bubbling satay sauces and cook it yourself. The food includes raw pork, raw prawns, vegetables, tofu and various shapes of weird looking stuff that I would expect more in Cambodia. Leave it cook and it comes out tasting delicious and satay infused. At the end, your empty skewers are counted and you are charged at how many you eat; between us James and I had 60 skewers! It was so good!!