Melaka

I like Kuala Lumpur. It's modern and open, with efficient transport. Clean and relatively quiet. A lot more green than I imagined. We were up early to have breakfast and pack, so we could whiz across to the Petronas Towers and try to queue for viewing tickets before they all went. Managed to get onto the end of the queue at 8:20, and snag 10 AM tickets. The view from the Sky Bridge was nice, but it was only halfway up the building, and you could only see half the skyline. Oh well. At least I can say that I've been up.


At 10 AM we raced back to the hotel and checked out. Strode to the light rail and took two separate lines to get to the interstate bus terminal. Bought tickets for the 11:30 AM bus. Only 10 on board the luxury bus. Unfortunately there was a bad accident on the freeway between a truck and bus, so we crawled for well over half an hour and arrived late. Almost got off at the wrong stop, as the driver didn't say anything at all from the time we got on, and pulled up at a terminal and opened the door. Oh well, it just wasn't my day.


Took a taxi to the hotel which was huge, and the room really nice. Walked into Melaka and saw lots of things -- the Maritime Museum, the Information Centre, the Stadhuys which is the Dutch word for City Hall. They have converted it into a number of museums of Malaysian history and literature which a really good. Saw the Dutch/British governor's residence, and St Paul's Chapel where St Francis Xavier was buried. The red Christ Church which was closed was next on the list, and then over the bridge to the Chinese part of town. Everything was closed for Chinese New Year! Passed the Nonya museum, Chee Mansion, the Kg Hulu mosque and Cheng Hoon temple. Up and down Jonkers Street, which would have been great if it had been open.


The heavens opened up so we retreated to Pizza Hut which was handy for tea while it stopped. The fort wall and Independence Memorial in the dusk capped off a busy tour. Coffee at the local arcade then back to the room.