We liked Melaka immediately. Was originally a spice trading port and at various times was controlled by the Portugese, Dutch and English. The old town is considerably older than KL and full of character. The slow drive down Jonker Street, the main street in Chinatown, gave us plenty of opportunity to check out the weekend food stalls, shops and niknaks. Somehow I'm struggling to find the words to describe it, but will give it a go...
Our guest house was near Jonker Street, but much quieter thank goodness. Joti, the friendly and helpful owner, thinks it is about 150 years old and was likely to have been built by an Indian family before passing into Chinese hands. The current house is half of the original, which was demolished and replaced at some stage. It still stretches from the street to a little lane at the back.
The house is two stories with an open central courtyard. Our huge and very comfortable room was upstairs and had a lovely balcony overlooking the street.
We apparently struck a particularly busy weekend; a public holiday, school holidays and the end of the leave year for many employees coincided, so a large number of Malaysian and Singaporean tourists descended on the city.
After dropping off our bags, we tried a local specialty for lunch, chicken and rice with chilli sauce on the side (tasty, but not as exciting as other foods we've tried since being here!). Adrian and I then took it in turns to explore a little while the kids relaxed in our room. Adrian headed over the river to the town square. I wandered down Jonker Street. What an experience! It is not pedestrianised during the day, so hundreds of people compete with cars, motorbikes and stalls for space. It was crazy-busy, but the atmosphere was relaxed and friendly. People are very patient here!
We decided not to tackle the crowds for dinner, so retreated to a little cafe by the river. Cooler, quieter and very relaxed - perfect! Melaka has a delightfully authentic and historic Chinatown, and is a dreamy spot for exploring down little alleys and coming across garish temples and weird little curio stores. We loved it.
The following day we found a lovely little cafe named Lavendria for breakfast. It even had eggs and sausages as well as pancakes with peanut butter and chocolate sauce on the menu, and good coffee. Something for everyone! Jonker Street was still busy, so we walked it, visiting shops along the way, then crossed the river to see the town square, Portugese sailing ship, visit a playground and buy a couple of new books for the kids from an excellent bookshop. Lots of Enid Blyton!
After walking up the hill to see the ruins of St Paul's church, we had a trishaw ride. Trishaws are bicycles with little carriages attached. In Melaka they decorate the carriages in themes; Frozen, Hello Kitty and emergency services seemed the most popular. Some also blast music as you ride along. Eleanor and Leo loved it! That evening we found a restaurant just off Jonker Street where we could watching people sing karaoke on a nearby stage along with a number of others sitting in plastic chairs in front of the stage. There are some pretty impressive singers out there! Adrian enjoyed returning later on for a night walk and bit of photography.
The next day we were leaving for Ipoh on the 2pm train. Eleanor woke up with a sore tummy and proceeded to throw up in the cafe at breakfast, in the car on the way to the station and on the train. Poor thing! It was miserable, but she recovered remarkably quickly and was largely back to normal by the time we got off the train in Ipoh.
Ipoh was really just a way to break the journey between Melaka and Georgetown. And that was pretty much it. The main site you can visit the interior of is the train station. We had a good breakfast for about ($9 NZ) at a local's local restaurant (M.Salim, Adrian recommends the Nasi Lemak). Even if there wasn't a huge amount to see, it was an interesting stop and the people are super-friendly. Our post-breakfast walk to the station gave us the chance to see a little of the town. From there we caught the train to Butterworth and ferry to Georgetown.
Tampin station
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