Backpacking Asia

Melaka

June 29, 2008 at 1:34 am (Uncategorized)

Better late than never, right?  We stayed in Melaka, Malaysia the 26th and 27th.  Melaka is a GREAT city-if you go to this part of the world, you have to go there.  There’s a lot of Dutch & Portugese influence in the building since it’s been under Portugese, Dutch, British, Japanese (WWII), and finally their own rule.  The town center has a fountain, a clock tower, and lots of red buildings such as Christ Church Melaka which is the oldest church building in S.E. Asia.  The red paint on the outside of buildings is kind of Melaka’s “thing”…it’s all lit up red at night, too, so don’t get confused like I did and wonder why you’re walking through one big red-light district   We’ll do pictures in our next post since this computer’s USB drive isn’t working.  We took a walking tour you can follow in the Lonely Planet books and it was SO cool!  If you’re into Asian antiques, this is your Mecca.  The shops were amazing and we wanted to buy half of the stock of every one.  Not at all cheap, but amazing to browse through.   

We couchsurfed with Yee Ching Meng (or “Yee Tea” as he liked being called) and his wife Susan.  They own a tea shop near the town square and were SO gracious and nice!  They’re probably some of the most charitable people I’ve ever met-very involved with a Bhuddist charity organization.  We got to take a 2 hour tea class at their shop…very cool!!  The first part was how to perform a tea ceremony and correctly serve, etc. and the second part was a tea tasting where we tried a few green teas, a Taiwanese red tea, a flower tea, and an herbal tea.  After that, YeeTea took us around the town square and showed us some nice views of the coast, interesting building (including the ruins of St. Paul’s Church, which is significantly older than America    ) and pretty parts of town.  If there was any question, THAT is why we couchsurf!!!  They also took us out for dinner at some stalls and then breakfast the next morning at a dim sum place near their house.  I always have to remind myself that Asians tend to be into savory stuff for breakfast instead of sweet stuff.  Fish balls, bitter cucumber, chili sauce and rice noodles are quite a wake up call!!

Onward to Singapore!  I’d like to have thought that we’d arrive by bamboo boat through the city’s water streets and be greeted by the Singaporian captain in the last Pirates of the Carribean movie…but it’s not really  like that.

Unfortunately.

Although I did say (very menacingly) “Welcome….to Singapooooore!” just like him as we pulled into the country by boring bus. 

No swords came up from the floor for us to defend ourselves with.