Day 46: Malaka

Mood: Sleepy
Music: REM - Accelerate

The train last night didn't allow for too much sleep. There was the leaving Singapore border check to contend with first, by midnight we were back in the cabin en route with a man at the door offering us food in little polystyrene boxes. The rice was quite good but I really don't think there should be that many bones in such small pieces of chicken! After that we had to wrap up warm against the bitterly cold air conditioning. In our bunk beds that wasn't too easy as the blankets were barely big enough to cover me head to toe. I guess I am a fair bit taller than the average person in these parts.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 6:30am and stopped briefly to buy train tickets for the next northbound leg of our trip in a few days time. After breakfast we tried to locate the monorail station that should have been attached to the main terminus. After a bit of trial and error we found a map which firmly placed it the other side of a large construction site which covered the direct links on the map to the station. A change onto the overground local service later and we were heading towards the bus terminal, or at least where we thought it was. Thankfully a lady getting off a couple of stops before where we thought we were headed told us that, for the last month, most of the overground coach services we running from a new terminal at the stop we were about to arrive at.

The coach ride took a couple of hours and cost about as much as the taxi which took us from the bus station to our hotel in the centre of town. Either way this part of the trip was dirt cheap. The hotel room we are in is a large room overlooking the river here and costs £30 per night.

This afternoon was spent going for a walk around the locality and visiting a few of the local museums. One of which is a full size replica of a Portuguese trading ship (where Rolf is today). The inside of the ship is a museum with various displays chronicling the history of the settlement of Melaka through the ages and the numerous people who have ruled over it during that time (Portuguese, Dutch, British, Japanese, British, Malaysian).

Looking for dinner this evening was more of a challenge but we settled on a nice place which had seating down by the river. My curry was rather nice although the chicken used was in no way breast meat. I've a feeling I'm going to have to get used to that...

Night for now.