Melaka-malacca-malaca-mellacca-the place after Kuala Lumpur

So,the journey down from K.L  wasn'nt too bad. It took around 2 hours and the scenery was class
                          
                     
                          
                       

                                        Photos taken between K.L and Melacca





When I arrived at the bus terminus at Melaka Sentral, I had a go at some Nasi Lemak-->Ayam Berempah (Ayam is the Malay word for chicken) washed down with Sirap Banding.I am not sure what this drink was but it tasted a bit like washing up liquid (The 'fairy' kind not the tesco brand!) There was a hint of strawberry to it.) As for the Ayam, it consisted of a chickens foot I think (or  something that suspiciously resembled one and it had a bit of a kick as I found out later that evening!)    

                       


                                                      Sirap Banding with  Ayam Berempah 



 After finishing my lunch, I grabbed a local bus from Melacca Sentral to the  main street in Melacca [around 10 minutes of a journey] .I had a look around (as I was sitting at the back of the bus). I SEEMED to be the only westerner on the bus.I wasn't sure of exactly where I was going to grab a hostel so I jumped off the bus when I saw a load of people get off (assuming that this could be the main part of town.),
I ended up walking into a shop whereupon the owner tried to convince me to stay in his hostel for the couple of days I was that I was staying here.Now, I am brutal at bargaining but I didn't really have a great feeling about the place so I moved on in the direction of the 2 main malls (located right across a HUGE road from each other.)
    I found a location of a few hostels on Melaka Raya and decided to stay at the travellers inn (Hotel Jaya).The room was ....ahem.... different! It was a single room which was more like a loft where you had a bed and not much else (well, apart from a cockroach but more about that later.
                                        

                                      The bottom floor of the room. Yes, that's the door on the right! space is at a premium!

                                                                              The bed at the top of the stairs (Making use of all the space)





      There was a fan in this room .If you left the fan off, it was hotter than hell. Well,that's only a guess but it's definately hotter than Donegal on a summers day [Donegal town,  maybe Letterkenny is hotter]...I think my face is starting to resemble the 'irish tan' (i.e: red) at this stage.

       I decided to head out and have a lookaround the place.In case you dont know Melaka was a huge port rivaling Penang and Singapore when the Malays were in charge (pre 1500s). You could access the port free of charge.But, once the Portugese (and subsequently the Dutch) decided to start asking for money, the value of the port decreasd.The Portugese were here in the 16th- 17th century, then the Dutch (17th-18th century) then the British (18th - 1941) then the Japanese (1941-1945) then the British again (1945-1957) and then back to the Malaysians after independance/Merdeka. so , as you can guess,the architecture around the place is fairly mixed.
Down by the port, you can visit a ship that resembles a Portugese one that was used centuries ago.
                          
                          

                                    A Portugese ship as it would have looked 500 years ago 

   I took a boat cruise around Melaka, here are some jpegs from that cruise
                                 
                           
                          
                          


    After getting off the boat, I visited the square at the centre of the town
                         
                         
                          




    I decide to head up the backstreets where I found this tea shop which sold loads of different styles of teas!
                          
                          
                          

                                                                          An Authentic Tea shop



    In addition to this , I saw loads of massage parlours
                         

 There are an unreal amount of massage parlours in this country.

Malaysia is FULL of
1. Massage parlours
2. Toll roads
3.Mall after Mall after Mall

   I reckon if payzone could create software on a terminal such that a user could pay for a massage while waiting to pay his toll, they would make a fortune (Especially, if they created a payzone card that could be used in every mall :-) )

    Anyway, I had a quick stroll through little India, This was really small (although you can see Indian shops dotted all over the place.)
                           

     Note: Melaka is also a heritage city !
                           


     The following represent a history of Melaka (the  Stadthuys holds these artifacts ,it's located in the town square.
                           
                           

                           

                           

     I had a look through Chinatown. The entrance to the place was easy to spot as the was a huge dragon with water spurting out of his mouth there!  

                            
                            

                                                                                 Can you see the water! class!


 This was erected for the celebrations for this years chinese new year.
                               
                               
                                
                                
                                

     The Portugese influence over the city can be seen from this pic

                                

     There seems to be a few statues in honour of Mr Asia 2008 who happens to be from here.
                                 


 He must be really respected over here  as I saw at least 3 statues of this guy!
     If you want to have a good arial view of the city, there is
                                 


 a 'menara saming' revolving tower between  the 2 malls which is 80meters high.
   
   
By the way, the rules of the road seem to be fairly laid back here. you can see cars double parking on the side of the road
                                 


oh yeah, I forgot to write,I had a foot massage the other day! Well, It started out as a foot massage (Initially, the massage person had to check my feet as they are actually blistering quite badly at this point.I THINK I am allergic to flip flops!) The guy in the massage place gave me a deal for RM37.50  where I could have a back and foot massage.That was cool,So I went into the back room (where there were about 16 chairs and a kickass Tv screen which seemed to be playing a Chinese soap opera (As a side note, are soap operas any different in any part of the world? I hadn't a clue what they were saying but like all soap operas , somebody said something- then silence for 2 seconds , then somebody shouts in a loud voice, then the music appears. ))
Anyway, this woman who must have been about 4' 10'' came in and told me to put my feet in BOILING hot water while she proceeded to crack all the vertebrae in my body! At one point , she held both my arms back and then kneed me in the back rally hard.To be honest, it was really cool.Then after the back was finished the feet had been soaking in the watwer for 15-20 minutes so she proceeded to crack all the toes and then hit all the bones in the leg (tibia ,fibula,femur)At one point I though she was trying to break my thighs! It was an interesting experience, made better by the fact that she brought some coffee half way through! (If only the soap opera was subtitled :-) )  
     Oh yeah, as for my cockraoch friend (who henceforth will be known as cocky the cock roach).I was relaxing , just about to nod off (remember, there sre no blankets in this hostel as there are no need for them due to the heat) when I heard something odd.Them I felt something creeping up past my shoulder.I jumped up and cocky did a runner to the end of the bed.I turned on the light and He pretty much legged it back under the bedcover (covering the mattress) I didn't hear nor see him again!! I hope it wasn't a female cockroach who deposited some of her eggs on my shoulder.  mmmmmmmmmm eggs, Nasi lemak time again!


Before I sign off  (I am actually waiting for a bus to take me to  Mersing and then onto Pulau Tioman,so I have tonnes of time to do nothing\write some stuff )...here are a few more tid bits (Is tid bits a word?)

* In Malay , orang meaning "person" and hutan meaning "forest" , so Orangutan means people of the forest.
* If you are ever in chinatown in Melaka,look out for a  cool shop which sells facemasks,Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name of the place and you are not allowed to take photos at that shop, but trust me - it's definately worth a visit!
* I am reading a book 'honk if you're malaydsian - lydia teh' which shows off the Malaysian (well, hers anyway!) sense of humour. It's worth a read if you can find it.
 *I was talking to a lad from Singapore and he was saying that They have similar prices to Malaysia IF 1 Malaysian rinngit = 1 singapore dollar. Unfortunately, this is not the case.i reckon I will give singapore a wide birth anyway.

* Was talking to 2 french girls back at the hostel one night and they nearly keeled over when I started mentioning that famous french song (les lacs du Connemara )  It's a grower of a song! --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l11GyqVu_-o    

* when I was walking through one of the Malls ,a guy tried to flog me some skin product with aloe vera in it.He put some of it on my hand and started rubbing it for around 10 seconds. My hand is a bit blotchy now (That was 2 days ago) .I wonder if I could be allergic to aloe vera (well, I am DEFINATELY allergic to buying skin products!!)?