IN & ONwards: Melaka - First stop in Malaysia

As soon as you're out of Singapore, you're in Malaysia. The border between the 2 countries is the most organized we have ever seen but unfortunately no photos were allowed. So we continue in our super VIP bus for another 2 hours until we reach the colonial town of Melaka in Malaysia.

Malaysia is a real surprise, since it's much more developed than we expected. Well, it's not quite true, since we did not know what to expect actually, but it's just much more developed than India, which is the only place we can compare it with. The highway linking the South to the North could easily compete with the best European motorways! They also have the automatic electronic tolls.

Melaka has been colonized over time by Portugal, England and Holland, and there are a lot of buildings from back then. The oldest pieces date back from the 16th century like this old church, almost contemporary to Columbus.

Since it is only about 3 hours from both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, there's a LOT of local tourists over the week-end and buses keep arriving all the day!

Local version of a bicycle tuk-tuk

The food in Melaka is great and super cheap, so we could eat in the fanciest restaurant for no more than 10€ for both of us, including fresh coconuts and fruit juices.

They have this funny tool here which makes a hole in the coconut just big enough for the straw. It's the first time we see this, and it's much safer than the machete where they always look like they're going to chop off their hand.

Local dragon fruit

At night, the central streets are closed to vehicles and a huge market of both food and cheap Chinese stuff fill up the streets. The atmosphere is really nice and feels quite authentic since it's full of locals and not made for western tourists.