journeys into the unknown: Melacca

Last weekend, we visited the historic town of Melacca. It is a 2 hour drive south of Kuala Lumpur in Peninsular Malaysia. We purchased tickets on line to go from the southern bus station in KL to Melacca on Saturday morning for a 3 day weekend. The kids had Monday off as it was Malaysia Day (or Unification Day). This day celebrates when Malaysia acquired Sabah and Sarawak on the Island of Borneo and Singapore to the south to form Malaysia in 1963 (subsequently, Singapore was released from the union, in 1965, I believe).

The bus was very comfortable except that the a/c was way too cold! It was nice finally seeing some of the countryside surrounding KL. Madeline slept, Gabriel read, and Joe and I enjoyed the many palm trees (for palm oil???) and little towns on the way down to Melacca. One thing that will forever stand out in my mind is the many food stalls, food courts, restaurants etc everywhere you look. There are even food stalls along main thoroughfares, all with rice and noodle dishes or Indian fried breads like chapattis or roti.

We arrived in a large bus terminal (with food courts and shopping aplenty!). Then we took a taxi to our hotel, the Best Western. Sad to say, it doesn’t match up to our own hotels in America-not even a much needed swimming pool was present. However, it was within the inner circle of the World Heritage Site, so everything we wanted to see was a close walk. We enjoyed the riverwalk, fresh fruit juices, the Hungry Ghost Festival, Jonker’s street market stalls, a local museum, several beautiful buildings, temples, churches, and shrines as well as the Chinese and Muslim cemeteries, and an old Malay village called a Kampung. Below are some pictures from our weekend.