Day 38: Chillin' in Melaka

Taking it easy was the name of the game, i.e. we could not be bothered with any more museums today. We spent the day wandering around town before I suggested we try out the reflexology centres. This seems to be a big thing for tourists to go do, so it seemed a good idea at the time. Half an hour later, flinching with every move the reflexologist made, I wasn't so convinced. JP loved it, but he likes feet massage too, whereas yours truly is not a fan. It was interesting and hopefully it helped my ropey tum, but I'd have to be persuaded to try it again any time soon.


After that, we went to the teahouse down the street for a tea ceremony and learnt lots. The owner must have seen JP coming, as she was able to convince the man who doesn't even like tea back home to buy not only a tea set, but also two lots of very expensive tea. It made me chuckle how into it he was getting, as if I ever have tea at home he turns his nose up. The tea set is very lovely, but whether it will make it home in the right number of pieces is another matter.
Whilst we were there, we saw the owner's little girl, who was just back from school, and it made me smile to see that it's not just us foreigners who get worn out by the heat :)


We wandered to get our laundry across town (yep, still have to do the mundane tasks like laundry, as there is only so much handwashing I can cope with!) and as we walked over the bridge across the river, JP spotted movement in the banking. I was too slow with the camera, so all you can see properly is the tail, but this is a monitor lizard which had crawled out of the river into what looks to be the storm drain. It was about three feet long!

On the way back to the hotel, we were hot and bothered again, so we stopped off to try one of the local desserts, chendol. It is shaved ice heaped up in a pile on top of green jelly pieces and sweetened kidney beans, with coconut milk over it, and then topped off by black treacle. Very odd combination, but it tasted really good, which surprised me. There are similarities between desserts in all the countries we've been to, mainly the need for ice and the appearance of coconut milk and jelly in them, but they've all been tasty.


We also went on one of the trishaws today. I picked it based on whether it was completely tacky or not - i.e. I wanted lights and music and flowers. We ended up with Boney M playing us round Melaka for an hour. JP was not that impressed :)

It was back to the good old Geographers Cafe, scene of our first evening again for the night, as it was jazz night again plus they did good veggie food and after Pizza Hut, I wasn't about to chance trawling through town with no success again. Nadia and her father were playing, as they had been on Monday night, and they are great. He plays keyboard whilst she sings, and it was a great evening. She took a shine to us as we were the only people paying attention and clapping on the first evening, so tonight she was keen to play songs we liked. A great end to a really good day.