UNESCO town to explore
Trip Start
Nov 24, 2010
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86
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Trip End
Sep 23, 2011
Where I stayed
Melaka, Melaka State, Malaysia
Saturday, August 6, 2011
We went out for a walk and took in some of the sights of Melaka. Chinatown is the area that is declared a world heritage sight by UNESCO. The streets are decorated with old shop houses which are adorned with Chinese signs and lanterns on the exterior. At night the streets glow red from the lanterns which give the place a real oriental feel.
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening, Jonker Street is closed off to traffic and a night market is erected.
We also noticed the Portugese influence in the city as the main square had some very European style architecture.
Later that evening we sat by the river and had some tea and watched the sky change colour as the sun went down. After we took a stroll along the riverbank and headed to check the night market out. It was hectic and crowded as people clamboured to the stalls to buy traditional melakan pineapple tarts or steamy bowls of Malaysian delicacies. Lisa refrained from buying anything and Jon refrained from eating anything. Willpower all round! We headed back to our room glad that we'd made the journey here and happy that we had somewhere to lay our heads that night.
We liked it by the river so much that in the morning we had our breakfast in the same area. We then decided that we'd exhausted the Chinatown area so we walked along the quayside to a new shopping mall. Unfortunately for Jon there was a cinema in said shopping mall and Lisa was extremely excited that she might get the opportunity to see the final Harry Potter film. Lisa explained to Jon when he resisted the idea, that he owed Lisa this as she had repeatedly put up with his sport watching whenever we had cable TV in our accommodation. :-) 21/2 hours later, Lisa was happy that she'd seen the film and Jon was happy it was over, we were both winners!!
We had a yoghurt shake in one of the old streets and bought fresh peanuts roasting in an old kettle drum. The day was rounded off with a blog update and dinner by the river again.
Tomorrow we make our way back to Johor Bahru to catch a flight to Malaysian Borneo. We hope this time it wont be as stressful as trying to reach Melaka.
