visit to a world heritage site

What a bliss it was to have a good night's rest and even to my surprise, the medicine really kicked in. I have to admit that it was a short one but still, better a few hours of sleep than nothing at all.

Not totally cured yet, but already feeling a little bit better, I was more than ready for another day of sightseeing.

Today we booked a daytrip to the old town of Malacca, which is said to be a World Heritage Site, so this basically means that there is heaps to see, but by the time that we arrived at the place around 11 AM, I was a bit disappointed.

For some reason, I expected it to be a more authentic town, but this one didn't seem to be all that special, to me that is. I can be wrong of course, but the old buildings I saw were nice, but not all that spectacular and I guess the town is more interesting for its history than for its buildings.

One thing however was peculiar. The market place was filled with some kind of riksja, but instead of a normal tricycle, these ones were all decorated with bright colors and fluffy dolls. Especially the once with a "Hello Kitty" were popular and we saw almost a dozen of them riding around. This truly was a funny sight and to me this will be an everlasting memory, more so than the buildings itself.

During this trip, we were lucky to be with only 3 persons and joining us today was a young guy from Melbourne, which is kind of funny since we seem to keep on bumping on people from our favorite part of the world.

While we were in Malacca, we got some free time till about 3.45 PM and together with having a quick lunch this was just ample time to find all the historic buildings, but still, we managed to find them all, so that wasn’t such a bad thing and even Joe made it back in time since he was already waiting in the minivan. With everyone back in time, we could leave again for the trip back to the big city, which was about a 2.5 hours drive away.

Sadly enough this was also the end of our blitz visit to Malacca and when you come to think about it, we spend more time driving to and from the place than that we actually stayed at the old city itself. Go figure!

On our way back, our driver told us that if we wanted, we could choose another drop off point other than our hotel and since we still wanted to visit the big shopping mall with the indoor theme park, called Times Square, we made sure we got out there, but not before we first dropped of Joe and saw him walking inside the hotel safe and sound.

We were up next and about half an hour later (more or less), we arrived at the right spot as well and said goodbye to our driver.

From the outside you have no idea how big it really is, but once inside it really is huge and while we just randomly started walking, we first wanted to go and look up the theme park, which we found a few minutes later. First I thought it was just a normal roller coaster but when I saw that it was going overhead, I lost my appetite of going on it. Speed I like and I can handle, but things that go over my head (literally), that is just a big NO - NO in my book and the only thing I could do was just watch and hear the screams of the people sitting in the speeding karts.

On our way down again, we wandered along many shops and with still a bit of Malaysian ringits in our pockets, we went for one last massage. While Tania opted for the foot therapy, I myself went for the neck and shoulders one and I must say that it was a whole new experience for me.

Most of the time the massages are firm but doable, but this one, it really did hurt and in an odd way I loved it. After almost 45 minutes of sitting with my head in some kind of plastic thing, I was completey of the planet but at the same time, it also felt really good. When I talked to the guy performing the massage, it turned out that my shoulders were really blocked and although not knowing it, I somehow could really feel a difference. What is it that they always say … no pain, no game or something like that??

After so much "relaxation", we went further down to find a local food court and tried some more noodles, which this time were spicy but doable. Maybe I am getting used to the food. That can be of course, but I guess, they just put less peppers in the meal.

One look at our clock told us that we needed to head back to our hotel, it was already getting late and since we still wanted to take a few pictures at the twin towers, we opted for going back by monorail, which on itself is quite an experience.

By the time that we had walked to the towers and back again, it was already 11 PM and we still needed to pack all our stuff. This was going to be a late night that’s for sure coz by the time I finally hit the sack, it was almost 1 AM and we needed to get up at 5 AM, talking about a very short night!