Red is the colour
People i met here who contributed to, and improved my trip: Julia (Russia)
On our first night in Melaka, Julia and I took a walk around the city, to get our bearings and see some of its tourist attractions lit up. It seemed a pleasant enough place, although there were once more rats everywhere, making Julia extremely jumpy. I've actually become more scared of her reactions giving me a fright, than the rats themselves!
The following day we retraced our steps from the previous evening and headed towards the Town Square and Bukit St Paul, passing the Maritime Museum on the way. Around the square are the impressive red brick buildings of Stadthuys, Christ Church, a clock tower and also a pretty little fountain and windmill. Stadthuys was built by the Dutch and used as the town hall and governors residence, although it has now been converted into the Historical, Ethnographic and Literature Museums.
A short steep climb up Bukit St Paul then led us to the ruins of St Pauls Church, which had been built by the Portuguese in 1521. The ruins weren't very impressive and were extremely crowded with school children, so we beat a hasty retreat back down the hill and set off to take a look around Chinatown. The maze of streets were a pleasure to walk through and were dotted with interetsing temples and architecture at every turn. After spending an hour or so walking around, we took a quick look at the Sungai Melaka river and dock area and then went to see the attractive St Francis Xavier Church.
In the evening we took a trip out to the bus station to book our tickets to Singapore for the following day. The public bus system within the city is fantastic, both economical and regular. The rest of the night was spent having some Dinner and doing some reading. As Malaysia's beer is so expensive, most nights were spent trying to fill in the time and i'm really manging to broaden my literary experiences and have read a few classics of late. To Julia's delight, my favourite author is fast becoming Dostoevsky, although i'm always quick to remind her that England is better than Russia in everything, which really winds her up. What can i say, im a trouble maker :)
