Melaka... Wandering the streets

Today we checked out of Voyage guesthouse (where Chelsea had the worst night sleep so far as she was paranoid there may be bed bugs) and into our lovely new home stay Monkey guesthouse which we are staying in until Wednesday for £3 each a night. The rooms are really clean, there are hot showers with shower gel and shampoo, hair dryers, wifi and clothes washing facilities. It is ran by a young Malaysian called Andy on his own who makes you feel extremely welcome.

We decided to take it easy today and wander the streets. We walked around Chinatown and had some breakfast before going in search or a post office as Liam has brought the room key from Singapore with him. We couldn't find it anywhere so Chelsea enquired in a shop and as its Sunday it is closed so that will have to be a job for tomorrow.

We then had a look around Dutch Square. The buildings here are more formal and are painted red. We walked along the river in the afternoon and spotted a huge monitor lizard in the water which climbed out of the river and onto the footpath. Liam was alarmed.... He is scared of everything appearently over here, every buzz or flap of a wing he jumps out of his skin.

There was a big downpour in the afternoon so we sat on the steps of the historical museum until it eased up.

Down the riverside all the houses have been painted with murals and apart from the faint wiff of sewage every so often it is really nice.

That's about all we did today, we then came back for a shower and changed to go out for dinner. It was pouring it down when we went out for tea so we went out in our rain macs. Chelsea kept getting funny looks in her bright floral rain mac. We were planning to go to Capitol a famous satay place but the queue was huge so we decided to go there earlier another night. We ended up at an eating house that had only locals and us in so we were stared at throughout our whole meal by curious locals. The place served only one type of dish with different variations. It was a rich savoury broth with slices of pork loin, pork belly and tofu. On the side you got a bowl of rice and extra chillies. With drinks it cost around £1.70 each.

We then had a walk down Jonker Street around the night market again. We bought a Taiwan barbecued sausage each and this long spiral of potato that was deep fried and flavoured on a long stick. It was like a long spiral crisp.

An early night tonigh so we can plan for the next few days and catch up on some sleep.