Melaka, Malacca, Malaysia

Well we have finally left the palatial surrounds of Hotel Curran in Singapore.

We cannot thank Michelle and Andrew enough - their hospitality and support has been nothing short of amazing.

Anyway - a short bus ride to Lavender MRT to find a whole lot of confusion on how to check in and get on the Singapore --> Melaka bus awaiting us.

Not just us, but every other non-local. Oh well. I'm REALLY glad we went their the day before to suss it out....

A couple of immigration checkpoints later, and we're in Malaysia.
The next 4 hours that it takes us to get to Melaka flies, as we have a little snooze...

I guess it's pretty obvious that you've left the strange, pristine democratic-dictatorship of Singapore. Things are dirtier here, and people stare. Ahh I'd forgotten that lovely feeling.

The image below is the centre of Melaka.


I'm not sure why it's painted red - but allegedly it was the British not the Dutch, so...

This is the Christ Church in the main square - if you've ever read anything on Melaka, you'll probably have seen this picture - although it's more pink than the red that was in one of our guide books!


Just a view of the fountain in front of the church.


This is St. Paul's church which was originally built by the Spanish in around 1521.



It's pretty much in ruins now, but it's kind of amazing to be standing in something that was built so long ago.

Inside the church are still a bunch of tombstones from the 15 and 1600s...

This is a detail shot of one of the tombstones, I believe it's from one of the Dutch people who lived here.



Seems like back in the day they had plenty of time for:
(a) taking over foreign lands
(b) dying and
(c) carving tombstones.

Guess you get good at it with a lot of practise.

I liked this tombstone because of the nice skull and crossbones.



Who's THIS handsome chap though... and how did he manage to wear a matching t-shirt to the tombstone?!



The local cuisine is amazing - last night we had the best Kang Kong and Rendang I have had in my life.

Tomorrow we're going to go to some island that's near here, and then on Monday we're off to KL.

Stay cool....