April 4, 2010: Melaka

Our 1 total solar daytime inwards Melaka dawned fine as well as hot - besides hot to larn adventuring anywhere for breakfast, hence nosotros settled downwardly for a fairly disappointing buffet at our hotel. It was all pretty meaty, but nosotros did larn to bring our start sample of kaya, which was a pretty tasty process (although non pictured).

The principal innovation for the solar daytime was to wander through the Lonely Planet's Melaka walking tour. Our start halt was Hokkien Huay Kuan, an impressive Chinese guildhall decorated lavishly amongst warriors as well as tigers.


Then it was a quick jaunt out of Chinatown to the historic town centre past times the Melaka River.


The centrepiece of historic Melaka is the Town Square, surrounded past times the Dutch Stadthuys, the Queen Victoria Fountain as well as overrun amongst Melaka's famous blinged upwards tri-shaws.



Then it was upwards the colina to the ruins of the 16th Century St Paul's Church. Perched on the exceed of the hill, the church building ruins grab the sea-breeze as well as are in all likelihood the coolest business office of the town. They're also impressively moody as well as atmospheric.



Down the other side of the colina is the final remaining chunk of the one-time Dutch fort A'Famosa built inwards 1512.


Having worked upwards a hunger amongst all this walking, hill-climbing as well as sweating, nosotros decided to pause upwards the walking tour as well as rails downwardly some lunch. Weirdly, the map inwards the Lonely Planet direct to Melaka had a whole department of the town missing, but luckily the streets were numbered logically, as well as nosotros managed to rails downwardly Mei Lin Vegetarian Restaurant without besides much trouble.

It's a mock-meat Chinese eating seat amongst blessed air-conditioning as well as an astonishing carte du jour - at that spot were dozens as well as dozens of wonderful sounding dishes. Clearly most of the Westerners who come upwards through their doors are a fleck hopeless - despite our best efforts, nosotros were forced to swallow amongst forks, every bit shortly every bit nosotros pinched chopsticks from a spare house setting the waitress came past times as well as cleared them away - twice! We settled on iii dishes - ii mains as well as an entree. First upwards were the 'chicken' satay sticks (RM6, $2). The faux-chicken was good pose together, but was actually only a vessel for the wonderfully spicy as well as peanutty sauce.

We couldn't resist ordering the fanciest affair on the carte du jour every bit 1 of our mains - the chef's speciality ginger fish (RM28, $10).

This was the most amazing faux-fish I've e'er tasted, amongst tender 'flesh' as well as slightly crispy skin, swimming inwards a rich ginger as well as coriander sauce. The fish had been embedded amongst a few big chunks of ginger every bit well, giving it a depth of flavor that took it good higher upwards the park faux fish delights.

Finally, nosotros also went amongst the Ayam Masak Merah (red-cooked chicken, RM8, $3), a tomato plant as well as chilli based dish amongst only the correct amount of bite.

We had a great luncheon at Mei Lin - maybe the best faux-meat repast that I've had anywhere, as well as for sure the best value. As nosotros were close to leave, 1 of the other customers friendlily grabbed us as well as told us close ii other nearby vego places: MG's cafe as well as Simple Life, neither of which nosotros ended upwards trying. Still, MGs hadn't turned upwards inwards my meshing searching during our Melaka-planning, hence it was practiced to know that at that spot were another well-located options out at that spot for vegos spending to a greater extent than than a solar daytime or ii inwards town.

Re-energised, nosotros headed dorsum out into the estrus to complete our walking tour, wandering generally to a greater extent than or less the streets of Chinatown. The dragons adorning the Eng Choon Association edifice were a item highlight.

Again the estrus started to knock us around, hence nosotros ducked into a cafe for our start shot at a weird Malaysian speciality: Cendol.

Cendol is an icy concoction made upwards of kokosnoot milk, light-green noodles, cherry-red beans, saccharide as well as shaved ice. It's a piddling strange, but incredibly cooling as well as quite tasty. We'd provide to cendol a few times inwards the coming days to assistance us larn through the sweltering Malaysian heat.

We had a fleck to a greater extent than walking left inwards us, swinging past times the Cheng Hoon Teng temple:

and past times the Kampung Kling Mosque (where nosotros heard the evocative telephone band to prayer).

Then it was dorsum to the hotel for a quick residue earlier dinner. Unfortunately nosotros didn't bring a Fri nighttime inwards Melaka to sample the famed 10-dish vegetarian feast at Selvam (which goes for a ludicrous RM6 or $2), but nosotros decided to banking concern jibe this eating seat out anyway.

The vegetarian thali came inwards at RM6 ($2) each, as well as was served upwards on a kokosnoot foliage as well as amongst no cutlery.

The thali consisted of a big pile of rice, ii fairly dry out vegie dishes, a daal, some pickles as well as fresh naan breads. Having watched a few to a greater extent than coordinated people calmly smoothen these off amongst their bare hands without smearing it all over themselves, nosotros decided to brave it without begging for cutlery. It wasn't a pretty sight, but nosotros chop-chop stopped caring, besides caught upwards inwards the spicy delights inwards front end of us. Life's pretty great when you lot tin materials yourself to bursting signal amongst curry, bring a lassi as well as a beer as well as nevertheless walk out having spent less than $6 inwards total (for both of us!).

We wandered habitation via the Chinatown markets, grabbing some dessert inwards the form out of Melaka's Portugese-inspired custard tarts, which were minor plenty for us to crush inwards as well as tasty plenty for us to desire seconds.