Malacca

Woke up with a start when the alarm went off. Set it for 8 as wanted to get going before the heat sets in.

We are really hungry now but the place we wanted to eat was close til 10am. so we had a walk around,/ Went to TI and then ecouraged to a stall to have a durian puff. Never managed to eat durian before as it stinks so bad but e were convinced. It was in like a profiterole and they said put the whole thing in at once. So/ we all decided to do it. OMG it was awful. Marcus spat most out. We then spent a few hours remembering it every time we burped.

10am came and off we went to the Daily Fix and had some yummy pancakes. We then
After breakfast we went on a boat tour for 40 minutes up and down the river. It was greatand we saw some great muriels on the walls oh the shophouses. Had to keep our mouth shut when any water splashed in! After the boat trip we decided to visit some of the sights. Melak having been a portaguese, dutch and English Settlement. There was an old fort and gate and a church ruin up a hill, where had a great view out to the Malacca Straits. We wanted to go swimming after this but the public pool was closed becuse of the holidays. We then tried to worm our way into a 5 star hotel to the pool, but one look at us and it was declined.

Getting hungry again we went to find the Selvan restaurant, a local affair on a croosroads. Its also known as the banana leaf cafe as there are no plates or cutlery. Food is just served on a banana leaf and you use your hands. The boys were bit unsure at first as it was curry and rice but they soon got the hang of it. They had veg Thali and some tandoori chicken and I had a chicken biriyan. It was great fun The staff obviously loved the food too looking at the size of them!

We then went for a bit of a cool off and I checked my to see if Finlay had emailed and I sent him another one.

Then about 4:30 we hired bikes, like dutch bikes. We had a fantastic fun cycling around and getting lost in Melaka. We went out to the coast, where there were huge mud skippers all over the sand where the tide had gone out There was a huge beautiful mosque buit out on concrete legs in the sea. We went through the porteguese settlement and was worried about being chased by dogs! Sometimes the road were a bit hairy, cycling a long a 3 lane carraige way. The guy who rented u the bikes said there were no rules for bikes and we could go up one way streets which we did of course. Took the bikes back at 7.30pm and guess who got a puncture luckily only in the last 5 minutes. Dominic. We were told beforehnd we would have to pay for punctures. They let us off but we gave them 3 MYR anyway.

Back to the hotel with rather sore bums now. I sat down by the river with a beer whilst the boys got their electronic fix

Back out about 8.30 to brave jonker st again, not quite as busy but still mad. We decided to eat on the hop from the various stalls tonight. We had a whole crispy squid chopped up. Popiah, local spring rolls not as nice as the book described them and various bits like coconut ice cream shake. We sat and watched a bit of terrible karaoke on the big stage at he end of Jonker st and then ended up in the geographers cafe playing a game of cards the boys called 'Shit head' apparently! Dominic won all the games and certainly enjoyed rubbing it in and caallinh himself 'king of cards' It was all good fun. We walked back through the market. Easy to spot Marcus as he is taller than everyone else esecially now with hios leather weser hat he bought.

We got back to the hotel about 11.45 and went to bed.

Another lovely day on holiday