You say Malacca, I say Melaka

Malaysia, the home of the Proton car, laksa, and in preparation for Chinese New Year, the McDonalds Chicken Prosperity burger!

The bus from Singapore to Melaka takes about four and a half hours and getting through the border was a dream compared to borders in Central America. I stopped at Sentral for a quick bite then headed out to find somewhere to stay. Turns out Melaka gets busy on weekends so it took a little while and then I found a nice, comfy shithole to bunkdown in for the night.

Melaka is proud to now have UNESCO heritage listing and it is a gorgeous little town that has been colonialised by the Dutch, Portuguese and English. And probably anyone else who came along.

Most of the tourist activity takes place in Jonker Walk in the Chinatown. The two nicest things about being in South East Asia (compared to Central America) is the abundance of really good cheap food and cheap massages.

I spent most of my time wandering around, shopping, eating, stopping for a coffee while reading the newspaper - you know, all the leisurely things one does in a place like this.

On Saturday night I headed out to a restaurant called Capitol Satay. Now this is a great idea. Kind of like Korean bbq but in the middle of the table is a boiling pot of satay. So you go and pick up the satay sticks of all kinds of all animals and sea creatures, and some veges, and you dunk it in the pot to cook. The place has a huge reputation as can be evidenced by the queues outside from the minute it opens.

I rounded that out with a walk down Jonker walk and a bit of people watching over a beer in a nice bar there. On the walk back I happened across a bit of a street performance. Sadly I didn't have my camera with me but this was fantastic. The guy was Ho Eng Hui, a Malaysian and Guinness World Record Holder for piercing the most number of coconuts with his index finger in under one minute. Google him - he's amazing. The show included some comedy, audience participation, sales of his own personal herbal remedy, intermixed with soundtracks from Superman, William Tell Overture and I think Rocky as well.