Melaka Holiday – Day 1: Venturing Around and Lunch

After arriving at Dutch Square, I decided to wander around the area and enjoy the atmosphere – it had a real buzz as people were milling around, and the Cars and Bicycle Rickshaw – they were everywhere (the latter that is), and some even hooked up stereo systems and music blared at the back of them – ranging from Freddie Mercury or Michael Jackson or Britney Spear hits (to name a few of the artists!).  But it was fun watching them cycle around the area.

I then decided to try to locate my Guest House (hostel) where I was going to be staying for my two-day stay in Melaka.  It was over the bridge from Dutch Square, and then I turned right along the Lorong Hang Jebat (First Cross Street), and then the third left along Jalan Kampong Pantai – and then Roof Top Guest House was down the road at No.39 Jalan Kampong Pantai.  The hosts Mani and Raymond were very hospitable and provided helpful advice on where to eat and where to visit around Melaka. The guesthouse itself was very comfortable and safe, they had lockers in the dorm, and the rooms and shared-showers were very clean. They even provided baked cakes and provided bananas for each of the day I was there – marvellous. They also own the Rivervide Guesthouse down the road at Number No.94-96 Jalan Kampong Pantal. I do highly recommend a visit to one of their guest houses – very pleasant indeedy.  I was told that I was going to have others staying with me in the Dorm, but they were still on their way from Singapore, so I was the first -yay!  It turns out that the others were from mainland China but working in Singapore, and came here for a 2-day trip.  They seemed quite friendly folk in any case (even though most of their conversations was in mandarin 🙂 – Ha! ).

I sorted myself out, and then ventured out again and explored the area around the hostel.  They provided an overview of the eating establishments (very important in Melaka) and the main areas – luckily they had a City map, as the one at the Tourist Information cost RM5 and wasn’t that impressive!  I located the first restaurant, located on Jalan Hang Jebat just off Jalan Tukang Besi – I can’t remember the name, but I stopped here because it had some people inside eating lunch, and most importantly – I was starving 🙂  I had Chicken with Green Beans, Ginger and Onion with Rice – accompanied by a Coconut Drink – yummy!

The hostel was perfectly located just on the outside of China Town, but very close to the night markets and the heart of the City. By the way, if you didn’t realise, Melaka (Melacca) was the Capital City of the state of the same name.