Melaka!

This weekend’s trip started out with a long bus ride to Melaka, a very historic city heavily influenced by it’s colonial past. It was a very important port to the British and is known a “World Heritage City.”

            After checking into our hotel (Air conditioning and hot water!!) we walked around a little to get our bearings. Upon reaching Junker Street, famous for its night market, we split up.

            The next few hours were a pleasurable mix of meandering through the market and browsing the various food stands and shops. I ended up eating a typical Chinese dish, translated as a Radish Cake, but was more like a stir-fried noodle-ish type meal. Very good! I also had to succumb to the temptation of our favorite dessert here, Apom Baik. It’s like a crispy crepe filled with whatever you want plus some sweet nuts. In Melaka, I had peanut butter and chocolate filling. Definitely hit the spot! Shopping was fun too, but always frustrating when I can’t buy shirts. My body dimensions just do not work with Asian clothes. Nonetheless, I found some earrings and scarves that I’m very excited about. 

            One of the highlights of the market was a karaoke stage towards the end of the street. An old woman, probably 70 was singing, while two other old people danced enthusiastically behind her. I positively died when the old man started doing a similar move to the sprinkler. Too funny!

            The night ended with a relaxing cruise down the river, where we got to sit and take in the night scenery. The water was quite stinky, but otherwise it was a very good touristic thing to do. (PS touristic is my new favorite word, because all my international friends use it all the time. That and “shadow” instead of shade)

            Saturday morning we got a free hotel breakfast before heading out to see some of the historic sites. We saw A Famosa, St. Paul Church, Francis Xavier Church, and an old Sultan Palace with relics within. All old, all nice. Apparently Francis Xavier wasn’t granted sainthood until after he died, and it only happened when people realized that his body wasn’t decomposing. So they cut off his hand, and brought it to the pope who granted the title. I guess his body goes on display every few years in Europe, but I’ve never heard about it till now.

            Anyway, after a lunch we all met back at the hotel and left to Kuala Lumpor- capital city!