Place: Melaka, Malaysia
Language: Malay (and some Portuguese)
Hello: Apa khabar (apa kabar)
Thank you: Terima Kasih (terima kasee)
After a whirlwind first day in KL, we decided to head 1 1/2 hour out of town to a port town called Melaka. For such a small place, it sure has lots of spellings: Melacca, Malacca, Melaka, Melaca, etc. I'm going to go with Melaka. Don't worry, I hadn't heard of it either. My godmother, who lived in Malaysia and Thailand for 15 years and gives me wise advice like how to use the squat toilets, suggested it because having lived in Malaysia, she knew we would get bored if we spent all our time in KL. So, with the help of my colleague who hired a car for us for the day, off we went.
The ride down there was fairly uneventful until we got to the main town square and saw the tri-shaws. It seems that, like in many other Asian countries, the favored mode of transportation (particularly for tourists) involves a really old guy and some permutation of a bicycle decorated to within an inch of its life with fake flowers, Mardi Gras beads, stuffed animals, twinkle lights, you name it. It's like a competition for gaudiest transportation vehicle every day! After carefully inspecting each one, we chose our trusty steed complete with an awesome built-in CD player. Don't ask me where the power for the player and the speakers comes from because I don't have a clue. Maybe our driver conducts electricity when he pedals, who knows.
Melaka is an old Portuguese settlement and you can really see the Portuguese influence in some of the buildings. 
Nestled on the west coast of Malaysia, it is also a port town, so it really had a beach-town feel to it. I could smell the salty sea air as we took rode in our tri-shaw, stopping every once in a while to pop into a shop, historical site or a Chinese Buddhist temple. Honestly, I don't know how the Malay people don't have an identity crisis when they have Christian, Chinese, Portuguese, Buddhist, Indian, Dutch, Muslim, Hindu, British influences - all in one tiny port town! But it really did make for a fun ride around town.
I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and say that this is the only Dutch windmill in all of Asia. I bet they even plant tulips around it when they are in season and if I didn't know any better, I would have thought I was in the Netherlands, except of course when we turned the corner and found ourselves in Chinatown.
This is a really neat picture that Marc took of a villager in his coolie hat washing the ornate roof of a Chinese temple.
I'll save you the many other pictures of the Chinese temples and monks since they are basically the same as the other ones I've posted. Apparently after you've seen 50 Chinese temples, they all start to look alike. Not that I'm jaded.
And right in the middle of the town was all the historical stuff. The sole surviving relic of the old Portuguese fort "A Famosa" is Porta de Santiago, an old crumbling gate dating back to 1521. It was approximately 528 degrees at this point, so we quickly took some pictures and headed up to higher ground where it was cooler.
At the top of Bukit St. Paul (the hill), we found the ruins of St. Paul's Church which was a Catholic Church built in 1521. I'm guessing they didn't have things such as "roofs" back then which was unfortunate for us because it didn't give us much shelter from the piercing rays of the sun.
Zapped of all remaining energy, we asked our tri-shaw driver to drop us off at a local restaurant to try the local delicacy of chicken and rice balls. Don't laugh, *several* people told us that we absolutely could not leave Melaka without trying it. We arrived at the place and there was already a line forming outside. Hey, when people willingly line up to wait for a table at a dive restaurant when there are plenty of immediately available food options within a stone's throw, I want to see what all the fuss is about. I haven't been disappointed yet. As we reached the hostess, I realized that #1 - I didn't really know what this chicken and rice ball thing was, #2 - I didn't know how to ask for it in Malay or Chinese, #3 - there wasn't a menu or even a picture for me to point at in an attempt to order, and #4 - I really had to go to the bathroom. All my fears were allayed when the Chinese hostess took one look at us, assessed correctly that we were Westerners that didn't know what to do, and instructed us that we were going to have 2 orders of chicken and rice balls with a side of vegetables. And indeed we did. The name is a bit misleading as it is really rice balls with chicken on the side, but semantics aside, it was quite good and the standing in line was worth it. Oh, and in case you even had to ask, yes, it was a squat toilet... man am I getting tired of those things.
Sated and happy, we made our way back to the main square to check out Christ Church, an exceptionally bright pink building that is celebrating its 255th anniversary this year and is still being used as a church.
Having seen all the sights, we made our way back to our driver who would take us back to Kuala Lumpur.
However, on the way to the parking lot, we passed by yet another long line of people this time waiting to get ice cream from a vendor with a street cart. We couldn't pass that up, so we stood in line yet again for a delicious afternoon treat. There was only one choice of ice cream, so I elected for 2 scoops and looked at my melting dessert. It was unlike any ice cream I had ever seen with yellow, purple and brown swirls. I tasted it and it was unlike any ice cream I had ever tasted so I summoned up the courage to ask the ice cream vendor what flavor he had given me. He said "Chocolate, corn and yam." Sensing he had missed the foods lesson in his English class, I just said "Oh, it's really good, thanks!" But the more I licked my ice cream, the more I realized he wasn't joking. I knew that if I had asked before I got my ice cream, I probably wouldn't have eaten it, but since I had already tasted it and wasn't gagging, I happily slurped it all up on the ride back to KL. When in Rome, er, Melaka!
The End.
Aha! Just kidding! How could I post about KL and NOT talk about the Petronas Towers! Well, lucky you, I saved the best for last. Back in KL, we got all gussied up for a fancy dinner and drinks at the famous Sky Bar at the top of the Traders Hotel. This is the place to see, be seen and drink in the Petronas Towers in all their lit up glory. Little did we know that you have to have a reservation for one of the lounge areas right next to the windows but we did manage to sneak by and snap a few pictures before calling it a night.
The next morning, while Marc was tuning in to some Carolina basketball game (something about a Final Four?), I went back to the Petronas Towers where I stood in line for an hour to get passes to take a tour of the skybridge. The tickets themselves are free, hence the line, but you have to get there early or you risk not getting a ticket. I knew this so at the ungodly hour of 7:30am (on a Sunday while on vacation mind you!), I trudged back to the towers to sleep-stand in line. Luckily, I got the tickets and went back to the hotel to have breakfast and pick up my groom.
I was still sleeping when we left the hotel and I realized I left the tickets in the luggage we had left at the front desk after checking out. So, our poor taxi driver took us back to the hotel and for the third time that day, went back to the Petronas Towers. The tour was really interesting. We learned all about the history of the building and they even showed us a 3D movie about Petronas Gas. I swear that movie had subliminal messages in it because now whenever I hear about oil prices going up, I feel happy! Nonetheless, we looked pretty suave in our aviator 3D glasses.
So now comes the part that will bore everyone except my civil engineer father. Feel free to just look at the pretty pictures, I don't mind. The skybridge is the platform that connects the 2 towers and it actually serves as the buildings' emergency evacuation route. Should one tower catch fire, the people inside it can use the skybridge to get to the other tower and exit safely. I have no idea what happens if both towers are in jeopardy. It is not, as they suggest in Entrapment, the headquarters of
the World Bank, nor did we see any duels on the skybridge while we were there. We did learn that the bridge sways up to a foot in either direction and is not actually affixed to either tower. It is held up by huge diagonal "legs" and swivels on huge sockets (like your shoulder ball and socket joint) because a static bridge would not be able to withstand high wind speeds. I didn't feel it swaying but that's what they say.
The Skybridge is located on the 41st and 42nd floors (yes, it is 2 levels) of the 88 floor towers. The Towers are tied for the third tallest building in the world after the Sears Tower and Taipei 101, although not for long as the new Shanghai tower, some building in Dubai and the new monstrosity they are building in Kowloon will all be taller when completed.
For those of you that want to know more, DAD, you can read more about it here or just go visit, after all, it's free and there is even a mall on the ground level for Mom!
I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and say that this is the only Dutch windmill in all of Asia. I bet they even plant tulips around it when they are in season and if I didn't know any better, I would have thought I was in the Netherlands, except of course when we turned the corner and found ourselves in Chinatown. 
This is a really neat picture that Marc took of a villager in his coolie hat washing the ornate roof of a Chinese temple. 
However, on the way to the parking lot, we passed by yet another long line of people this time waiting to get ice cream from a vendor with a street cart. We couldn't pass that up, so we stood in line yet again for a delicious afternoon treat. There was only one choice of ice cream, so I elected for 2 scoops and looked at my melting dessert. It was unlike any ice cream I had ever seen with yellow, purple and brown swirls. I tasted it and it was unlike any ice cream I had ever tasted so I summoned up the courage to ask the ice cream vendor what flavor he had given me. He said "Chocolate, corn and yam." Sensing he had missed the foods lesson in his English class, I just said "Oh, it's really good, thanks!" But the more I licked my ice cream, the more I realized he wasn't joking. I knew that if I had asked before I got my ice cream, I probably wouldn't have eaten it, but since I had already tasted it and wasn't gagging, I happily slurped it all up on the ride back to KL. When in Rome, er, Melaka!
I was still sleeping when we left the hotel and I realized I left the tickets in the luggage we had left at the front desk after checking out. So, our poor taxi driver took us back to the hotel and for the third time that day, went back to the Petronas Towers. The tour was really interesting. We learned all about the history of the building and they even showed us a 3D movie about Petronas Gas. I swear that movie had subliminal messages in it because now whenever I hear about oil prices going up, I feel happy! Nonetheless, we looked pretty suave in our aviator 3D glasses.
So now comes the part that will bore everyone except my civil engineer father. Feel free to just look at the pretty pictures, I don't mind. The skybridge is the platform that connects the 2 towers and it actually serves as the buildings' emergency evacuation route. Should one tower catch fire, the people inside it can use the skybridge to get to the other tower and exit safely. I have no idea what happens if both towers are in jeopardy. It is not, as they suggest in Entrapment, the headquarters of
the World Bank, nor did we see any duels on the skybridge while we were there. We did learn that the bridge sways up to a foot in either direction and is not actually affixed to either tower. It is held up by huge diagonal "legs" and swivels on huge sockets (like your shoulder ball and socket joint) because a static bridge would not be able to withstand high wind speeds. I didn't feel it swaying but that's what they say.
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