Day 221 and 222 The old colonial city of Melaka

After breakfast on the rooftop terrace of the hostel, we set off to explore the former Dutch colonial city on foot. As we walked along the river that flows through the city, we immediately noticed the street art that is everywhere here. Many buildings are adorned with striking paintings.

In general, the walk along the river was beautiful. The old houses that lined the way and the bridges that appeared from time to time made this place a very idyllic spot.

Our first stop was at the «» a replica of an 18th century Portuguese ship. The Portuguese arrived in Melaka for the first time with this ship. A museum has been set up in the ship, which explains the history of navigation and trade.

After the museum, we continued to stroll through the city. But before we returned to the old town, we made a detour to a small bazaar and one of the huge shopping malls to do some shopping.

From there, we visited the old fort on a small hill.

Originally, the fort was a church, which was then transformed into a fort and a viewpoint with a lighthouse and watchtower during the age of colonization. Today, the building is completely decayed, only the shape and the tombstones remind us that it used to be a church.

We then descended from the hill to the old town of the city built by the Dutch. A landmark of Melaka is the Stadthuys, the former town hall of the Dutch. It is located directly on the red square and cannot be missed as all the houses in this neighborhood are painted red.

What is also very noticeable here in Melaka are the brightly decorated rickshaws that transport tourists. These are decorated with stuffed animals and lights, sometimes almost kitschy. And they all played music while they were on the move.

After all the sightseeing, it was time for lunch. We decided to go to a small restaurant right by the river. The restaurant was decorated with countless "wisdoms about alcohol consumption" and we treated ourselves to another Western meal.

After the meal, we took a short detour to Chinatown before strolling back to our hostel. In the evening, the hostel offered a small bike tour of the city. Since we didn't have anything better to do, we decided to join in.

We rode our bikes through the city, exploring the small hidden alleyways where we could admire even more street art. However, we didn't stop, so I couldn't take a photo. Instead, I marked the alleyways on the map so that we could come back tomorrow. Our first stop was at the ruins of the old music and theater house. This building was also completely decayed.

Our second stop was at a hidden field where football tennis was being played. The ball is made of bamboo and must not touch the ground. The players play the ball to each other, sometimes very acrobatically, and try to score a point. It was very fascinating to watch them.

As a conclusion to our bike tour, we climbed Chinese Hill, a small hill that also served as a cemetery for the Chinese population.

The government of Melaka gave the hills to the Chinese when the former sultan married the princess from China. On our way back to the hostel, we made another stop for a late dinner. In a small Indian restaurant, we had rice with vegetables and chicken served on a banana leaf as a plate. Something different for a change. After the bike tour, Moritz and I had a beer in one of the many small bars right by the river.

On our second day, we rented bikes at the hostel and set out to visit the Floating Mosque on nearby Melaka Island. When we arrived on the island, we found that a new district with huge hotel complexes is being built here. They are planning to build hotels with integrated roller coasters and such. Right now, everything is still under construction. When we arrived at the mosque, we could only admire it from the outside, as we had forgotten to bring long pants.

After visiting the mosque, we made our way back to the city, following the coastline. We discovered a kind of ship graveyard near the coast and wanted to take a closer look.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see besides a viewpoint of the sea.

And we couldn't get any closer to the ships. But we did find a great restaurant. As it was technically Moritz's last day, we treated ourselves to a really good meal here.

Feeling full, we made our way back to the hostel to take a little nap.

After a short rest, we set out again to explore the alleys that I marked on the map yesterday to see the street art again.

We also cycled upstream along the river,

so far we have always been downstream, and here too, there was plenty of street art.

and a small amusement park.

Finally, we arrived at a small Malaysian village, with typical Malaysian houses.

In the evening, we visited the weekend street market, including a large karaoke stage,

in Chinatown and tried various traditional dishes.

We particularly liked the Korean Dragon Breath Biscuit. The biscuit was shock-frozen with liquid nitrogen, and when you eat it, steam comes out of your nose and mouth. It didn't taste like much, but the experience was literally cool.