Travelling in Asia has a bad reputation, but our bus from Singapore to Melaka was a first class VIP most amazing bus ever. With only 3 seats across the row and plenty of leg room even for Ben, our 4 hour journey was genuinely a pleasure.
Melaka is a funny little place and the sense of adventure and anticipation we felt for our first Malaysian town and the beauty of the scenery as it rolled past our coach window was marred slightly by the appearance of a huge advertising board proclaiming that Tesco had arrived in town. At the bus station we were met by a friendly chap who put us in a taxi and sent us on our merry way to our hostel. We were not really sure what we were doing for food and after skirting around some dubious looking hawker food markets ended up in a noodle bar. There have been a steady stream of people and guide books telling us that in Malaysia we would be in food heaven for the price of a fizzy cola bottle, but we were having very little luck stumbling across these places. It wasn't until Georgetown that we were able to experience what the fuss was all about.
Every Malaysian town has a Chinatown, a Little India and a Colonial district and in Melaka we explored all of these as well as the Palace museum. Most of Chinatown was displaying red and gold decorations in time for Chinese New year. It was Ben's first taste of a proper Asian town and I think he was a bit taken aback, what with there being no pavement and most of the buildings crumbling down. The immense heat was a perfect excuse to stop off, very often, for fresh fruit juices.
They obviously put a lot of effort into the business of decorating their trishaws in Melaka. Everything is brightly coloured garlands of plastic and real flowers, bells that play 'She'll be coming round the mountain...' unbrellas and all manner of other things. There was even one done out in the Arsenal colours and another blaring out happy hardcore music... he didn't get that many rides.
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