Malaysia. Melaka.

We were travelling to Melaka by public bus today. To get to the bus station we had to take a shuttle bus as the southern bus station was out of town. The bus station we got to was like an airport. It was so organised and you has to check in before heading to the gate. We had numbered seats and mine was the front of the bus. This would have been great if it hadn't have been for our terrible driver. I though it was on something as he was so twitchy and constantly jigging his legs and shaking his face, but we worked out that he was actually knackered. It was the scariest drive ever! He looked so tierd and kept veering off the lane. He was gross too, he kept burping and hacking up a load of phlegm and spitting into a bag which he later threw out the window.  Blurghhh. Thankfully we arrived in one piece and headed to our hotel. 

Our guide took us on a tour and out for lunch. The town is not really full of great sights. It was an old Portuguese town that got taken over by the British. We took a walk up an old Portuguese fort that the britsh had tried to destroy, but could quite finish the job, up to a church to see the views, but they were not so amazing. The most interesting thing we saw were the rickshaws they have here. They are very pimped up with lights and music and Hello Kitty toys, so camp!!

We then crossed over the river, after seeing a small crocodile/large lizard swimming! We got into Chinatown and walked through the beautiful streets to get some lunch. The street reminded my of Hoi An, small and narrow with each building having a small shop. We stopped for lunch in a really cute cafe and I finally had the Malaysia dish of laksa, a coconut soup curry. It was delicious. Much nicer than the stingray that some had! 

After lunch we separated from our tour and me and some others went to the mega mall. It really was mega. It went underground to other areas and very easy to get lost. Our crazy Bristolian Tracy wanted to get her nose pierced and I was being very fussy about where she should get it done. Big cities only and not in Indonesia!! So we finally found somewhere and it looked pretty good and was also a bargain. 60 ringit which was about £12. We all had to wait outside the little shop and we all peered through the window! Then a girl from our group decided she wanted her nipple pierced so for this the shop lady put up a curtain, but didn't really cover the whole window so I sneaked a peek. Looked horrendous with the clamp grabbing the nip and the needle being forced through! She was so brave though! Finally our youngun wanted a couple of piercings up the side of her ear, but nearly passed out! All the piercings done for the day we did a bit of shopping as our lovely American Sarah wanted a dress to wear when we go out in Singapore. With no time to go back to the hotel we had a wander around the Chinatown market, same tat then went for dinner and drinks. On the way home we saw the rickshaws light up and they look hilarious!!