Day 3. cont...

Inside the Chinese Temple

We drive through the Portuguese Settlements where Portuguese descendants still live and then proceed to the gateway “Port of Santiago” and the ruins of St Paul’s Church.

Port of Santiago

Fort near St Paul's Church

We have a nice lunch at a local restaurant then go on to further explore the place, next comes a visit to Cheng Hoon Teng Temple – the only place where you can find 3 major doctrines of local Chinese belief under the same roof, ie Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. We then take a stroll along Malacca’s Jonker Sreet, which ends by the banks of the Malacca River near the Christchurch plaza. Being a Saturday the Plaza is a hive of activities and plenty of tourists are taking advantage of the tri-shaw to get around. Our final stop before our return trip, is at the full size replica of a Portuguese Galleon which exhibits the varied maritime history of Malacca during its seven eras; Malay Sultanese era, the Portuguese era, the Dutch era, the British era, the Japanese era, the British again and finally the Malaysian Independence in 1957.

Jonker Street

Malacca River

Decorated Tri-shaw

A quick stop, at the request of one of our fellow passenger, at a market stall, to give all of us the opportunity to try a Malaysian fruit known as durian, not that pleasant to smell or taste. All in all, a very pleasant day spent in very good company visiting a lovely, busy and at time loud place.

We are moving on to Singapore tomorrow, so after our dinner at our little cafe down the road, we return to the hotel for a well earned rest.

Day 3...

Today we are going on a tour of Malacca.

We get picked up right on 8.45am and quickly make our way onto the main highway to Malacca. Our driver has us speeding along, following miles of palms and coconut tree plantations. Everything is so green and lush. Two hour later we find ourselves into the old city of Malacca. 

St Peter's Church

Making our way through narrow streets, we first visit the church of St Peter (1710) – the oldest Christian Church which is still in use now. We then, travel towards the largest Chinese Temple and cemetery outside of China, which is located at Bukit Cina (Chinese Hill), a quick stop to check out the temple and the Sultan’s Well and climb the small hill to view some of the old graveyard site.

At Bukit Cina, Chinese Temple

Inside the courtyard

Cemetery at the top of the hill

Day 2. cont...

Afternoon tour of the Batu Cave, Pewter and a Batik factory. 

We get pick up by a very nice gentleman by the name of Mohamed who takes us on a drive out on the outskirt of the city where the Batu Cave is. We could not believe that this huge cave made of limestone was at the city’s door steps.

Batu Cave

Long Way Up

Half Way Up

There is only 227 steep and narrow steps to climb to the top, but what a view over the city; absolutely amazing. Plenty of tourists around and by the time we get to the top, it’s time for a large drink of water. It’s a little cooler inside the cave and we take time to have a good look around at the limestone walls and other Hindu statues. As we make our way up and group of Hindu performers arrive which provides me with a good photo opportunity.

Happy Faces

At Top of Cave

Spend some money at the Pewter factory, buying a wonderful pewter jug for us and some shot glasses for Damian. I hope he will like them. Also could not resist the beautiful hand painted batik cotton silk sarong at the Batik factory.

Back Street of KL

Back to the hotel for a well deserved rest and cup of coffee. It is now getting hotter and the humidity is quite high now. 

We find a nice café for our dinner, and then go on a walk around one of the shopping centre near the hotel. Quite a variety of shops and goodies are on offer, some cheap and some not so cheap but overall the quality is good. But we have plenty of time for shopping, so no rushing into anything.

Hotel Capitol

Day 2...

Early to rise after a good night sleep, we go down to the mezzanine floor for our breakfast.  Again the service is very good with plenty of fresh and varied food made available for us to tuck into.

5 minutes walk from our hotel

Varied architectures, the old and new blending together in the skyline.

Open cafe, cooking breakfast

We decide to take a walk around the streets and slowly make our way to the Petrona Twin Towers. The architecture is so varied with old and new, with rich and poor living side by side; the streets are very narrow but the traffic seems to flow ok. A lot of new constructions are going on. There are a lot of cafés and outdoor eateries, with people making their way to work; the city is slowly waking up after a busy and late night. Shops don’t open till 10am but stay open till 10pm.

Skyrail

Popular mode of transport

Approaching the Petrona Towers

Petrona Towers

The weather is getting quite hot and sticky, getting a little tired from our long walk; we make our way back to the hotel via air-conditioned taxi. A very clean, cheap and quick service with a very pleasant and helpful driver.

Day 1 of our trip...

     Time to pack our bags and get organised to leave, even Buster thought he should come too.

We took the bus to the airport. The ride was quite rough due to our driver being a bit of a lead foot. I actually got to go on the O’bahn, not bad considering it has been running for 25 years, and this was my first time on it. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, no queues and going through custom was a breeze.

We didn’t have much time to wait before we were called for boarding.

Buster

     The flight was uneventful apart from some occasional turbulence. Our travelling companion who sat between me and Richard was on his way to Vienna; he and Richard had some good conversations. The service was excellent with great food and deserts. I watched a movie and read some and was also able to walk around which helped my back and legs. 

We landed at the airport one hour ahead of schedule. What an amazing place, so clean and well organised except we went looking for our baggage in the wrong place; never mind.

Room 911

     We were taken to our hotel by taxi, black car and uniformed driver. A four lanes highway took us all the way into the city, with a couple of tolls to be paid for, along the way. Once in the city, the traffic was frightening with cars and scooters going in all directions with the appearance of complete disregards for others on the road. It was a case of the quick or the dead.

Finally in our room with the unfortunate 911 No, it is good to relax with a good cup of coffee then off to bed.

View from our room