Melaka, Melaysia
I'm trying to write every other day instead of every day so that I can spend a bit less time recording the journey and a bit more time living it:). But memory is not my strong point and I'm finding u can't even remember yesterday enough to write anything about it. Oops! Notes. Gonna have to write some notes.
Speaking of writing, yesterday I did record a lot of the words I was seeing on the roadside stalls so that we could look them up later. That has helped to increase our vocabulary quite a bit. We can say:
No meat, no milk, no sugar, rice, ice, water, fruit juice,
And we understand many more!
We got into Melaka mid afternoon. A city! Traffic! But we're good at negotiating the cars so that's no problem. Sylvia had researched that the collection of hotels was down near the river. Since last night we spent more than usual, I wanted to cut costs a bit. But still wanted: clean, window, 2 beds, air conditioning (ya me! It's necessary here with the heat and humidity.)...and a place for Myrtle and Blaze, our kids:))
The first place was too expensive - $60/night and the kids would have to stay outside. No go. Right across the street was a more budgety hotel for only $40/night and the kids could sleep under the stairs. Perfect. More like a Motel 6 high rise, but works for us. The shower reminds me a little of Nepal. It's a rain shower head in the middle of the bathroom!
Last night after our daily showers (best part of this type of touring:)) we hit the town! There are ruins here from the Dutch settlements and forts and churches and wonderful architecture of wooden shutters. (And of course I don't have any pictures of all that. )
We did find the trishaws which are popular here: wild decorations and loud, lively music. It's Deepavali festival time now and it's bigger than Christmas...if that's possible. So there are crowds of people. Was lots of fun walking the streets after dark with the lights and music.
Strangest site was seeing other Caucasians! Didn't realize it until it happened that there just hasn't been any anywhere...until here.
Sylvia's researching tomorrow's ride by reading others' journals who gave ridden through here. Thank you, Sylvia! We may have to stay in a resort tomorrow night if we can't find anything else along the way. The next town is a bit far for one day: 50 miles. But maybe it will happen.
Not if I don't get any sleep...
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BagLady
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