Melacca Malaysia

Ana Requested some pictures from Melacca, and here my attempt to fulfill that request. We took the bus there--Singapore is connected to Malaysia via a bridge. Asian has an interesting definition for continent. Because Singapore and the islands above it are connected via a bridge they are deemed part of the Asian Continent; thus Singapore is literally the southern most point of the Asian continent even though it is an island.

The highways are roads were in great condition. For some reason I had thought Malaysia would be poorer than it is. I should have guessed by the exchange rate (1USD = 3.5 Malaysian Ringgit), which is the second highest of the countries we have been too. ADVISORY: When traveling to Malaysia, make sure you have small coinage and bring lots of your own toilet paper. It costs money to use the 'toilet' as they are labeled and TP is extra. You may consider practicing using the 'toilet' without your fanny actually hitting the toilet, because there are actually not any toilets in the 'toilet'. We call the squatty potty (official term). I can't speak for the hotels--just the places we visited--tourist centric places and customs/border patrol location. You have been advised.

We only had about 5 hours to look around and 1 of those we spent eating and 1 shopping. Luckily the historical sites are are centrally located and we hit the big items--Several churches, the fort, and a Portuguese Man of War. This picture was taken in front of the oldest church in Melacca with the Man of War in the background. Miriam was very happy we were taking another picture--I just love my kids.

We did do the touristy attraction of the trishaws--cousins of the rickshaws, but with a bicycle. They were decorated very nicely and our driver thought he was king as he honked at everything in his path. I rode with Miriam and she loved it. We also bought Miriam and Emily some leather shoes for about $8USD, but I managed to step on her foot yesterday and now she claims they are 'broken'. c`est la vie

oh, more pictures of Melacca can be found here. Sorry there are no captions--all this recording takes a lot of effort and I am on VACATION!! Again I would encourage anyone traveling this far to make it a two day affair. :)