We took an overnight bus from Penang to Malacca, the overnight bus from hell. Sub-zero air conditioning, fast corners, no suspension. My seat had only two settings, bolt upright or flat bed, which wasn’t too terrible until the Malaysian muslim family installed themselves behind me. So bolt upright and freezing it was. Luckily we didn’t miss our stop and 6am saw us deposited at the bus station in Malacca.

After a day of relaxing we started to explore, and eat and find out what this town was all about.

Malacca is not as immediately wonderful as Penang, it seems to come alive on the weekend nights when there is a street market called Jonker Walk. All the hotels up their rates for these nights, and the town is apparently buzzing. We are here midweek (fortunately), so the delights of Malacca are a little more hidden, require a little more shaking out.

Plus it is hot and windy, really hot and dry. I think we are staying in the wrong part of town, but it is difficult to get it together to move on. Our holiday is winding down and we are tired and hot.

Eventually Malacca gives up the goods for us. Beautiful old buildings, interesting history, but I feel there is so much more to explore and discover and we are not much for sightseeing, now.

Hello!

We whisked through Malacca, and are now relaxing in the lap of luxury in Singapore. Managed to outsmart their free wireless which requires you have a mobile phone, and am sitting drinking free coffee (free!) in air conditioned comfort in a cafe.

More updates soon.

Except for this beautiful cannonball tree.

More photogs under the cut.
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Yeah yeah, I know already, but still your billboards, signs and all your promotional material shouts it out “Congratulations George Town, UNESCO World Heritage Site”.

Yeah, I think it is awesome, I totally support preservation of sites, but that isn’t what I am here for. I am here to eat. I wish to see the sights, between the many meals of a day (though we do actually do some sightseeing in between all of that eating).

The book told us about a great hawker center by the water in George Town. Walking up there in the delicious cool of dusk, passing grand buildings, traffic and Penangites going about their business and watching the birds fly with the kites in the park gave an insight into this relaxed island life. Unfortunately the Esplanade Food Center seemed to only sell the peanutty delights of Rojak and Satay, but we did share a beer on the peaceful waterfront.
(I love the whole Hawker Center deal, read about it here.)

The dusk here seems incredibly long, and then all of a sudden night has fallen. In the last light we sit by the water, next to Chinese men fishing, super cute muslim couples courting, kids playing and families eating (always eating!).

And then we go and join in, for dinner number 2.

So, professor drug dealer as Felix calls him told us that there were only 2 places worth visiting in George Town, the first being Khoo Kongsi. So visit we did.

I might have said this before, but I believe that there are only a certain number of Chinese temples that one can visit before they become all too similar, boring and repetitive. And after visiting Khoo Kongsi, I know that I am definitely at that point. It was interesting and pretty and picturesque, but it was just the same thing again.

So, we wandered, looked and photographed because it was pretty amazing, and then went to find some lunch.

Because I am at my temple breaking point, we promptly ignored the Professors second Penang recommendation, and found some more noodles to eat instead.