We arrived at TBS, the main bus station in Kuala Lumpur, a little earlier than we wanted to. It’s very lucky that we did as the queue to collect our tickets took 45 minutes. Wow! Things really are done slowly in Malaysia. We booked our bus to Melaka quite a while back and for £3 each we would be in a VIP bus for 2.5 hours. The bus station at KL was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was like an airport, with security checks and gates. After a quick cup of coffee, we were only 10 minutes early to the gate, despite getting to the airport an hour earlier than we had planned. Really really lucky. The bus was all we had hoped it would be. Our seats were like living room reclining chairs. The only problem was how cold the air con was and after about 2 hours, I was freezing.

We made it to Melaka in time to go to the Sunday night market on Jonker Street. Everything you could imagine was on sale here, from food to gadgets, clothes and souvenirs. Some of the weirder items we saw included, but are not limited to, a samurai sword umbrella, matchstick guns and deep fried fish heads. It was lovely to just walk along the market and eventually we stopped at a restaurant called the Geographer for dinner. I had a sour plum juice and Jonker street chicken satay, which were both delicious. Simon had a sweet curry and also really enjoyed that. We walked down to the river and stumbled across the Hard Rock cafe, so bought the glass, obviously, before heading back to the hotel.

A photo of the Geographer taken in the light of day. 

The next day was very full on. We only had the one full day in Melaka so really wanted to make the most of it. We started by having breakfast at this lovely little cafe called The Daily Fix. The food they served was delicious and a real fusion of Asian and Western flavours. After this we walked down to the Dutch quarter and saw the very typical red coloured buildings that Melaka is known for.

We went into Christ church, which was a very typical church on the inside.

Next we found some cannons at the Melaka fort. We obviously made the most of this.

We spent the next 90 minutes or so walking around the Flora de la mer, the Maritime museum and the Malaysian Navy museum. We learnt a lot about the history of Melaka and how this town used to be a huge hub for trade around the World. Melaka was colonised 5 times in history by the Portuguese, Dutch, British, Japanese and British again. Unfortunately, every time that Melaka was colonised, part of its trade was destroyed and eventually the town lost the glory that it once had.

We’d been told to try a Hokkaido cheese tart whilst in Melaka. It was yummy, but very strange. It was like cream cheese in the middle and the pastry was sweet.

We enjoyed a white coffee (Malaysian coffee) after this and escaped the heat for a while. Mine was iced and came with cendol, which meant it had red beans, gelatinous rice and grass jelly. The coffee was great, the cendol, not so much.

We needed a bit of a rest for a few hours and also we needed to do some research for our time in Singapore so we headed back to the hotel for a bit. After our rest we went for a walk down to and along the river and enjoyed the beautiful buildings, flowers and street art.

We walked down to the sea to see the Straits of Melaka, but there wasn’t a lot there.

We stopped for dinner next in Little India, where we enjoyed banana leaf curry. This is a very typical dish served in Southern Indian. It was unbelievably tasty and super cheap. We weren’t brave enough to eat with our hands though.

Some more street art that we enjoyed on our way to a reggae bar for a beer. Yes, they had dinosaurs.

We had a couple of hours the next day to explore some more of Melaka. After returning to the Daily Fix for another scrummy breakfast, we walked up Bukit St Paul to the old church, which gave some good views back over the town. Unfortunately, the weather had changed and we were getting a bit wet.

We saw some more ruins, A. formosa I believe.

Simon found a dinosaur.

And to finish our time in Melaka, we enjoyed a drink in a pub by the river.

Melaka had been really lovely. For me, it joined Chiang Mai, Luang Prabang and Hoi An in my top places in S.E Asia. Any places that are listed UNESCO World Heritage seem to become an instant favourite with me.