Melaka

A Walk in the Park

Whilst in Melaka our main pastime was walking. Near our hostel was the one of the oldest cemetery's in the world,  which had amazing views of the city and we met a very large lizard living in a house within a deserted model village.

**** Eating **Melaka**

We pottered through the markets, watching the hawkers prepare various dishes and tasting the local cuisine including:

• Breakfast muffin things which taste like bread.
• Laksa - tasty noodle soup a bit like a curry
• Cendol - crushed ice with coconut milk, beans and jelly
• Popiah - a Chinese wrap filled with onion, fried pork, egg, tofu, beansprouts and various tasty/spicy sauces
• Pineapple tarts - overrated pastry tarts
• Capitol Satay - like fondue but with satay sauce

The Forbidden Gardens

Near the Dutch Square is a very peaceful little garden area which was nice to walk around and Dave couldn't refrain himself from taking part in a little pole dancing when the opportunity arose.

Jonker Street

The tourist haven in Melaka, Jonker Street in Chinatown was a very pleasant experience despite being jammed with tourists. What made it interesting was that they were all Asian, nothing was tailored for a western audience. There were awesome clothes shops and an interesting market with plenty more local foods to try, all at very reasonable prices. Harmony street is also in Chinatown, with buddist temples, mosque and hindu temples all on the same street.

The Portuguese Settlement

One of the evenings our hostel manager offered to drive us to the portuguese area of Melaka so we could have a nose around and try some fish. This was very stressful! As you attempt to walk along the sea front to try and pick where you would like to eat you are literlly bombarded by people trying to take you into their restaurant. There was 4 or 5 talking at us all at once and although we have experienced it before we found it really put us off eating there.

In the end we went to the one we had noticeably less people trying to get us to go to called Pescado, which was almost full. For dinner we had fish cooked in a Portuguese sauce to perfection which made up for all the stress. The coast line is not so scenic along here but it was interesting to see the Portuguese style houses.