Just after we got off the motorway at the Melaka junction the driver pulls over and tells everyone to get off except for me and a Chinese chap (OK this is odd). He loads all the other passengers onto a different bus, they were not going to Melaka he was just bringing them this far as a favour to the other driver.. or some such randomness.
Anyway rather than take me all the way to the station he says he is going to drop me near my guest house which sounds great, its nearly 10pm. Anyway the Chinese guy got off the bus a few minutes ago and i am trying to get out of this 'will you be my friend?' conversation with the bus driver he wants my number so he can call me (He is telling me he cannot afford the 'fee' for the woman his family have found him and so he cannot marry her, oh and he sleeps on the bus). i am a little concerned about this conversation, especially when he admits he is actually driving in the opposite direction to the guest house.
He lets me off the bus at a petrol station with instructions to walk that way and ask for directions! nice! i think i would rather have gone to the bus station (if that was where he was going) there may have been taxis!
Its not actually too bad after about 5 Min's i get to a shop which fortunately for me is opposite the road i need to turn down, so far so good. 15 Min's later when i get to the end of this road i now do not know if i need to go left or right! OK so there is a small office open i am going in there- it turns out to be the head office of a water filter company who are having a birthday party in the back office (they actually sing happy birthday in English which i find rather odd!)
4 slices of cake, 2 bottles of water, 2 bags of crisps and much talk of Manchester United later the chaps at the water filter company drop me off at my guest house (another 10 minutes drive away!) and wish me happy travels- nice guys. Fortunately Jay and Malik the brothers who run Emily's Travellers Home are still up and i am shown to my room.
In the morning i get to eat all the toast and drink all the tea i want as breakfast, i also get to meet Playboy, he is the resident rabbit and has free range of the guest house gardens. This is a really fantastic place to stay its a converted Chinese shop house and the guys have made it into an unusual place with ponds full of fish and turtles, the showers are decked out to feel like jungle waterfalls and the coffee table converts into a BBQ!
So i like Melaka, the town is not massive you can go and see whats left of the old Portuguese Fort, they actually arrived before the Dutch. The Dutch soon got wind of them being there and took it from them so there are lots of old Dutch style buildings round the square and there is a windmill on a traffic island. Next to the square there is a fountain dedicated to Queen Victoria, the British had ousted the Dutch, but we were nice and gave it them back after a while!
The Maritime museum is in a replica of an old style dutch merchant ship, shipping is still big here with the Melaka straights being one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world!!
Of course there is China Town here with its weekend night market, it doesn't sell a lot but it does have an enormous karaoke stage at the end of one street which is very popular. During the day its interesting to walk around the shops and the temples here
This is a relaxed town and i really enjoyed the few days i spent here. Jay and Malik & Playboy were great hosts. I have no idea how we got onto the subject but we did sit up till 3am discussing Malik's own personal brand of religion which is something like a combination of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and the state of the world in general. Evolution is dismissed, doctors are shunned and the whole idea that the earth orbits the sun is a cause for hysterics- it was quite mind boggling.
From here it was very easy to get the bus into Singapore, and it only took a couple of hours to get there.
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