A Big Adventure

Wednesday 21st Janaury 2009, Melaka, (Malacca), Malaysai

After a crappy nights sleep in single beds!!! We got up and got ourselves ready,

We had arranged a driver to pick us up at midday and take us all to Port Dickson which according to both our guide books is a seaside resort that the KL residents head too at weekends, with dirty sludgy water and a 15km long beach, The Rough Guide says “The rather dismal strip of the coast” “polluted sea” “It’s not much more than a few shops and banks”. So you can imagine we were rather unsure about it, but decided to take a risk and, guess what?

Yep, we had a great time on a soft white sandy beach in a crystal clear, bath water warm sea.  The road from Melaka to Port Dickson was full of interesting towns and lush greenery.

So we all went into town and ate at a very local only type of place (menu in Malay only), we choose blind a bit of a lucky dip but we enjoyed the food, especially the fact that it cost just about £1.20 each including drinks.

Our driver was superb, more than happy to take us around with a smile on his face. (If you every find your self in the area (Malacca) call Zack of Bella Bel Transportation (0)17 2336552 we had used him to take us to KL and back again also).

Then we walked through the shops to try to find something to wear for swimming in because of course after reading the guide books we had not bothered brining anything with us.

Sofia got a tube of Malaysian fabric (very pretty) to wrap around herself, got Basty some shorts, Sasha can’t swim due to a new tattoo and I only wanted to play football and paddle anyway. We then drove back to the beach, at some shops there Gabrielle found a rather glam sarong in black with large red hibiscus blossoms.

Sofia’s flip flops which have lasted the last 2 ½ years finally died and the pavement was burning her feet so she basically grabbed the first pair of flip flops that would fit her.

The water was very, very warm and felt lovely and there were very few people on a very long beach.  We stayed chillin’ on the beach until 6:30pm then headed back to Meleka which is about an hour drive. We saw monkeys on both trips and Sofia asked the driver if the rivers had crocs in them and he said yes.

Back at the hotel we freshened up ready for the evening. We also booked an extra two nights as there is still lots to do here and we also asked if we could move to a double bed tomorrow, we can.

Upon returning to Melaka we headed out for Sushi and all had our fill and enjoyed it. We also tried a place called Zen for coffee and beautiful looking cakes – but it was all illusion the coffee was shit as were the cakes. Leaving the kids back to the hotel then Sofia and I went to get massages, there was a 40 minute wait until 11:00pm so we went for a walk and found a café for a drink and some cards. The café seemed to specialize in toast, I must tell the kids they would love it. Chocolate Toast and Peanut Butter Toast were just two of the options.

Back at the massage spa, I had full body aromatherapy massage and Sofia had a foot massage.Back to the hotel for two more episodes of Boston Legal, only three episodes left.

[mappress]