Melaka, Malacca

And so, day 2 begins. Elliot starts by chilling out.

We hit the busy streets.

Murals near Jonker Street.

Amazing street artists.

Orangutan T-shirt art by Charles Cham.

Mark gets his fix in the coffee jar.

Boys at the bar.

This mega queue is for a small cafe, must be good.

Love the buildings here.

Whisked watermelon.

Dutch square.

Freshly cooked Banana fritters, doughnuts, potato and sardine parcels, coconut rice and spicy noodles. Delicious and just £2!

Mmmm, banana fritters.

We climb to St Paul's Church ruins.

And at the bottom a crowd has gathered to watch a photo shoot.

We are looking for the river cruise but come across the Gyro tower instead. We head 80m up for views of the city.

Then it's off to find Pak Putra, tandoori and naan. (Thanks Steve for the recommendation, we loved it)

A real buzzy place, it was packed. We feasted on naans, daalh, spinach, tandoori chicken and curries, fab.

Jonker Street is mobbed again.

We manage to convince the boys to skip these Trishaws tonight. Tomorrow night there will be no escape.

And down our street a celebration is taking place.

It's a peaceful, semi religious group, this was like their Christmas. Mark was chatting to a guy who was explaining but it was so noisy!

Minutes after this photo the sky's opened up and it poured down. We watched the parade hurry along the streets.

Malaysia

So,we should have heeded advice and gone no where near Malaysia on a weekend, especially not a long weekend. We are so relieved to get ourselves on the bus on time at 8.30am, we have no idea of what's ahead! What's ahead is sitting in a queue of buses for 90 minutes!
                           
Then, first stop is passport control. Everybody off the bus and join one of the countless queues to get passports checked along with hundreds of others. At the desk the guy asks us for the bit of paper we were given at Singapore airport. Ahhh, that'll be the one l that the boys and I cut up and stuck on our journals!! Luckily Mark didn't cut his and manages to peel it out of his journal.
                     
Back on the bus, that wasn't too bad. It's now after lunchtime, let's go. Hang on, 30 minutes later we are bundling off the bus again this time with all our luggage. There's a building with one set of double doors open. There is no queue, about 300 people are trying to get into the building from all angles. We join the crush in the heat as more buses unload. Another hour or so later we make it through ok. Back on the bus, Yay! Let's get to Malacca. Driver stops again for his lunch break!!!!

                     
                          Goodbye Singapore.
                      
                          Hello Malaysia.
                     
We arrive in Malacca around 5pm along with most of Malaysia and Singapore it would seem!
                      

      

Yes, there's a flippin Tesco!

      

Here's a beautiful, spacious room in The Old Town Guest House.

After​ a comprehensive run down by only of the accommodation and Malacca but also the rest of our trip from the owner Chua, we head out onto the street for food.

Singapore it ain't! It's dirty, there's litter and strange smells, things don't quite look finished. But it's so lively, people are so friendly the atmosphere is buzzy and there's a real genuine feel about it all. Mark and I are grinning lots.

In Little India we have an amazing meal. I think we ordered about 6 or 7 different things plus drinks. £8.70!!

Everyone wants to know where we are from. We do stand out abit!

Then we meet an Indian Movie Actor who was given by a motivational speech upstairs.

Boats tear up and down the river.

These Trishaws are mad. Frozen, Spiderman, Pokémon etc, all garish and flashing with Bruno Mars blasting out the stereo. Tomorrow night for sure.

We attempt Jonker Street night market but get immigration flashbacks. It's so busy and it's been a long day.