Tag Archives: Melaka

Day 163 – Batu Caves

Trying to find breakfast in Melaka is almost as hard as finding dinner after 7pm. The Lonely Planet suggested cafes but when we got there, it was either closed or didn’t exist (to our knowledge). Not feeling like indulging in yesterday’s Western-style cafe, we ended up in the same Indian restaurant we were in the night before. THEY open at 7.30am, serve coffee and chai AND we were quite certain we would be able to find SOMETHING to eat. And we did. Despite Flo’s best efforts to get a savoury doughnut with chili and spices in it that you dip into curries and chutneys, we had yummy Roti Pisang which is the Indian version of banana pancakes.

Final lap. This is the southernmost point we will reach on the continent.

Thus filled, we rode our ‘good-bye lap’ through the city center and left towards Kuala Lumpur. Since we had the whole day, we had planned for the scenic route along the coast instead of taking the motorway. It turned out to be not scenic at all as the GPS showed us the coastline right next to us but all we could see was a row of houses. Also, the road was rather boring. A short stop at Port Dickson didn’t convince us to stay longer so after lunch, we hopped on the motorway again. Being so early gave us the opportunity to see the Batu Caves today.

Maybe we should have read about who this is …

I knew before that the caves are not far from the city but truthfully, they are IN the city. They are also a major tourist attraction which is why traffic picked up…nothing you particularly want after being steam-cooked on the motorway in the afternoon heat. After finding a parking spot, we had a cold drink before starting on the 272 steps up into the largest cave. It has Hindu carvings and a temple in it as it plays a big part in a celebration coming up at the end of January. The two caves used for this purpose are HUGE. Certainly as big as a cathedral and also the biggest cave we’ve ever been in. Preparations for the celebration were going on: Floor newly resealed and parts of temples newly painted.

Apart from looking at the grandeur, there is nothing to “do” in these caves though. It is very cool to go and see the caves (it’s also free) but we had the feeling, we wanted a bit more out of it. Luckily, next door there is the “Dark Cave” leading tourists in and out again in 45min tours. The “Dark Cave” is a habitat for bats, cave spiders and other creepy crawlies and also part of a conservation effort for limestone caves. Flo, being a big fan of limestone caves, and me being kinda meh about the whole thing, signed up for the tour. We only had to wait 15min for the next one and when we were fitted with hard helmets and torches, I got very excited about it, too.

All excited now and ready to go!

Our guide was a woman whose English was excellent…unfortunately, the same could not be said about our fellow tour participants who violated rules every so often because they hadn’t understood them. We didn’t see any of the bats (it’s not a good idea to shine a torch on 200.000 bats on a cave ceiling) but you could definitely hear them; not to talk about all the guano on the ground. We managed to see caves spiders, venomous centipedes and cave crickets. Also, one part of the cave system has light coming in from above and it looks so much like Moria that it made me miss a step. 😛

There was less sunshine when we came back out again and also less tourists. Given that it was also 5pm, we guessed that the caves close around that time. We, now,had our next place to visit: Sunny cycles. On the way down to Melaka one of Rocinante’s warning lights went on and stayed on for the entire trip south. While the manual assured us that this particular warning light is not for anything crucial, Flo wanted to have it checked out. It took about 30min and stripping the bike down to pull the engine up (again) before it could be fixed. The “air intake hose from the air filter” (Flo-speak) was unplugged. Once this was plugged back in, the guys from the workshop forgot something else which led to nine warning lights going on. This was also fixed with plugging something crucial back in.

So after riding, sight-seeing and working on the bike, we arrived back “home” at Sonja’s place and were treated to delicious pizza, a shower and a cozy,comfy bed.

: Wohoo, one more. Timor-Leste is still missing, though.

: Final lap. This is the southernmost point we will reach on the continent.

: Weird hotel complex on the water near Port Dickson

: Still way cool, no doubt about it.

: Maybe we should have read about who this is …

: I can appreciate religious idols with some nice colour

: A temple structure outside the cave

: All quite monumental

: Standing watch at the caves mouth

: The stairs in the back lead to another level

: The lights were a bit distracting

: Checking out the ceiling high above

: All excited now and ready to go!

: One female with an egg sac and another one. 6-7cm

: poisonous spider eating centipede of doom. 10cm long.

: Stalac-everythings!

: Great guide with divine patience

: They let us come close so we got this portrait

: Trying to get some sugar or caffeine out of the rubbish, huh?

: Checking Rocinante’s warning light

Day 162 – Hostage in Melaka

Uncertain about what to do in Melaka we booked into our hostel for two nights last night. After our first round of sightseeing though, we felt like this would be a bit excessive. Turns out, canceling one night was harder than we thought though, so we ended up staying to not waste those $20.

Coffee, tea, muesli, toast and jam…it had everything that we wanted

It was not all bad though, since this gave us a chance to finally fully catch up with the blog and get some postcards sorted. Not before a good long breakfast, though. Unfortunately, the 3 year old Lonely Planet turned out to be useless once again. No Chinese breakfast treats for us then. Instead we found a cute and cozy western style cafe. The prices were steep, comparatively, but the food and coffee were excellent.

We made up for the expensive breakfast a while later, when we re-emerged from our hotel to have lunch in a nice Chinese Vegetarian restaurant. For about a third of the price of our breakfast. We also found our Malaysian go-to drink in the form of lemon iced tea (That is tea on ice with lemon juice). Cheap as and so refreshing.

View along the river towards our guest house

After lunch, we walked once again to A’Famosa and the area with all the attractions to get stamps from the post office. On our way back, we took the scenic route along the river. It is very pretty, a bit reminiscent of Amsterdam, but would be improved dramatically if it were not for the smell. We got rewarded though by spotting a pretty large reptile swimming in the river.

By this point I almost dread going into detail for another meal, but for us the last attraction of the day was going to an Indian banana leaf restaurant. Banana leaf, because instead of a plate, you get a large piece of banana leaf put on the table in front of you, a bit like a place mat. On that the waiters put the rice and a couple of veggie / stew things plus some curry over the rice. it was, once again, delicious. After that, we rewarded ourselves with a coffee and chai – Nina remarked that it was almost as good as dessert 😉

Yeah, Melaka, lot’s of food 🙂

: We thought it is pretty. One of the many mosques around

: Cozy cafe with outdoor seating

: Coffee, tea, muesli, toast and jam…it had everything that we wanted

: Colourful trishaws waiting for customers. Many also blast loud music

: Large reptile we spotted

: Typical street view

: This is the expensive side…not where we are staying 🙂

: View along the river towards our guest house

: The Chinese characters are strong in this one =P

: Coffee and yummy Chai as a dessert

Day 161 – Melaka

Monday is a good day to start again. Monday was the day we were leaving KL to explore more of Malaysia. If we could only get this packing done…

In our defense, we had stayed longer at Sonja’s place than we usually do in any hotel plus we had sorted things out that we didn’t take on our special trip to Thailand. And, we were probably more thorough than at other times. We noticed, for example, that the oxo cubes in our kitchen box had somehow drawn water and were disintegrating…a mess that we cleaned immediately, with running water and swipes so nearby, rather than leave it. So yeah, packing took until lunch time.

beautiful!

It didn’t impede much on our plans though. The city of Melaka, a Unesco World Heritage Site, is only 150km away from KL. Also, Flo had picked a small town half-way in between to have lunch as he read a lot about Malaysian food lately. Going on the motorway still delights Flo and we even listened to some audio book, a thing we haven’t done since we left the Australian Stuart Highway. This fact, probably more than anything else, should tell you in what a great shape the roads here are.

Cautious at first, but it was pretty good

Stopping in Seremban at a small but well-frequented eatery (Lonely Planet suggestion), we realized that we didn’t even look at the language section so far. Luckily, most of the words for foods are exactly the same here as they are in bahasa Indonesia so we already know a lot. One phrase needs to be added to my vocabulary “sayuran saja” (gemüsig ich bin) and then I should be sweet for the rest of our time here. In the end, we had noodles in some kind of tomato sauce with fried tofu and tried a cendol as dessert. Cendol is like nothing I knew and it is surprisingly un-sweet. You get a bowl with shaved ice cubes, jelly noodles, little crunchy things, coconut milk and some sort of red bean mash. Not bad but very new for my taste buds.

Riding another 80km down to Melaka didn’t take long anymore. The city is probably still better known in the West as “Malacca”, first a Portugese trade hub, then taken over by the Dutch before being handed over to the British…Flo could give you a history lesson if you are interested. =P

Still not sure why, but cool motto

Today, “Don’t mess with Melaka” is the slogan here. After we found a place to stay and cooled down a little again (man, you forget how hot those motorcycle clothes get), we explored the old center a bit. Crossing the river got us to the “Stadthuys” or town hall next to St. Peter’s hill. There used to be a fortress on the hill but after having been taken a couple of times by force, one settled for a church up there now. It is an odd place, filled with the old grave headstones which are nowadays used as props by the tourists. We even saw a couple taking their wedding pictures there.

Back down from the hill, half molten by the heat, we once again stumbled into a massive mall. The AC was on “freezer” temperature, I think, but the mall had many perks. First and foremost, it had massage chair which I used for 6min. Don’t bash it before you’ve tried it…it’s not the real thing but it’s still better than no massage at all.

ICE CREAM!!!!!

Second, it had a real ice cream stall. The advertisement went from “natural ingredient” to “freshly produce”. BUT, the ice cream was YUMMY and it made me happy as the picture testifies. Flo had a very good but very sour “Lemon Lime” flavour which he balanced with “Snickers” while I had the more classic combo of “Chocolate” and “Berry yogurt”.

This refreshment gave us new energy to keep on exploring colourful alleys around the river. We also started looking for a dinner restaurant when the sun started to set, just to notice that most places were already closed. Cafe-style eateries close at 5.30pm here so we were more than an hour too late. Wandering the streets, we had to settle on a Western restaurant which meant that the food was expensive and not spicy enough.