"When in Melaka.."

Once on our bus, we trekked 4 1/2 hours (but in reality much longer due to traffic and customs) to Melaka, Malaysia, a historical town on the south western coast of Malaysia, about two hours south of Kuala Lumpur.  Going through customs around 8:30pm was pretty painless and we arrived around midnight at our awesome homestay, Apa Kaba, in Melaka, Malayasia. Needless to say, we immediately fell asleep after our long day. 

We woke up to a beautiful day in Melaka, had a nice breakfast at our homestay and headed out for the afternoon. We scoped some local historical landmarks - a Dutch graveyard overlooking the city with tombstones as old as 1650 -  marking the burial of early settlers - checked out a Malaysian architecture museum (which is influenced by the Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese and British), St. Paul's Church (built in 1591, which overlook the famous straits of Melaka) and Stadthuys museum - which covered the diverse foundations of Melakan culture. 

We had a traditional lunch of chicken, rice balls and cabbage and a cool Tiger beer - for about $3 USD or ($12 Malay ringgit - RM) each - we were pretty pleased. We spent the rest of the afternoon checking out Chinatown, scoping the local mall and taking a ride on the Melaka Tower (Similar to the drop zone ride at Kings Dominion - but spins in a slow circle as it goes slowly to the top) to see some cool views of the small city. We entertained ourselves (and everyone around who saw us) as we rode fake pedal ponies for $5 RM..be sure to check out the video. 

Laura made an astute analogy that Melaka is like the Williamsburg or Jamestown of Malaysia. There were tons of tourists from all over - but we were definitely the only white people around. 

After a long day in the sun, Kerri was not feeling so hot so returned back to Aba Kaba. Laura and Alexis went to a satay place for dinner, recommended by the owner of our homestay. In the middle of the tables were large pots of satay/peanut/curry/awesomesauce that you cooked your selected skewers in ($0.90RM per skewer - or $0.30USD). After perusing the options - Alexis and Laura stuck with chicken, greens, tofu and wontons - unsure about most of the other items available. Although the whole restaurant stared at us, it was delicious and pretty fun! Our waitress (who did not speak any English) was wearing a VA Beach shirt and it was our cue to leave when we asked her about her shirt (she definitely did not understand) and we think she may have thought we were asking about her chest (as she became very shy and ran away). Welp.

We write while en route on a bus bus to Kuala Lumpur- we are all looking forward to our next few days in Malaysia!

Xoxo, 

Kerri-ear-ache, Alexis-whooping-cough and Laura-allergic-reaction