Malacca (Day 2)

Yesterday's walking tour stayed predominately on this side of the river.  Today we tour the other side.  First we need breakfast.  Instead of the usual food stand on the side of the road, we opted for a fancier place. We went to a restaurant called Gravy Baby that is obviously owned and run by someone from the UK since their specialty is pie with gravy.  Well...guess what?  They also serve proper English Breakfasts that we were so ready to have.

Tim ordered the Big English Breakfast and I went with the Vegetarian English Breakfast.  

Double Meat.

Veggie Breakfast.

As you can see from the photo above, we were seated right along the river.  As I peek across, I spotted this Monster Lizard taking in the sun on the bank.  He seemed to be enjoying himself even when a tourist boat went by and made the water splash him.

After breakfast we started the walking tour with the first area called Heeren Street (Gentleman Street in Dutch).  This is the street that all the rich Chinese traders had their mansions.  Speaking of which, here is one know. This one is called the Chee Ancestral Mansion.

And here is the Eng Choon Association Clan House with an amazing doorway.

We arrived at the end of the street, made a double left turn, and wound up on Jonker Walk.  This is the famous street here in Malacca lined with souvenir shops and food stalls.

We pretty much ignored all the souvenir shops since we don't buy any and we ignored all the food since we are full of English Breakfast.  But, it was hard to ignore this strong man hiding out in a courtyard along Jonker Walk.  This is Datuk Wira Dr. Can Boon Leong, a local politician and Mr. Asia in 1956.  He was a major contributor to getting Malacca named a UNESCO city.

On the way to the next part of the tour, we were passing a museum called Cheng Ho Cultural Museum, a place that we would pass without thinking twice, but there was a boat inside the window that caught Tim's eye.  For the cost of 15 MYR => $3.30 US, Tim wanted to go it, so we paid his admission as I walked around the area and sat in the air conditioned lobby.

Here are some of the photos he took inside the museum.  Lots of boats and some displays of the life of Malacca back in the days of Cheng Ho (1371-1435).  Cheng Ho was a mariner and explorer and is regarded as the greatest Chinese sailor ever.

Back on the tour, we turned onto Temple Street that had many temples along the way including Buddhist temples, Hindi temples, and mosques.

At the end of the road was the most famous of the temples, the Cheng Hoon Teng Chinese Temple.  It is the oldest Chinese Temple in Malaysia, dating from the 17th century.

I loved the wooden ceiling inside this temple. So amazing.

The tour wound up at the river and we walked along it back towards town.

There were more murals decorating some of the buildings along the river.

Malacca really is a beautiful city here in Malaysia.

Check out the way the roots of this tree grew into and around the steps.

Towards the end of the town is a nautical museum that includes this awesome ship.  This is a replica of The Flor de la Mar (flower of the sea).  It was a 16th-century Portuguese carrack (a large trading ship), wrecked by a large storm in 1511. The ship sank off Sumatra, the island just west of Malaysia, full of incredible amounts of treasure, and the search for her continues to this day.

It was hot and we were tired, so we didn't take the time to tour the ship. All we wanted to do was get something cold to drink and relax in air conditioning.  So, we headed back to our hotel room to do just that.

We came out of the hotel room 3 hours later for dinner,  I found a restaurant that specializes in crab.  Tonight is our last night in Malaysia, so I figured it is time to splurge.  I read the reviews and ordered what others said was delicious, Salted Egg Crab and Cheese Shrimp.  I had no idea what to expect with either, but I was willing to take the chance....and I was glad I did.

Check out this crab.  I ordered 2 of the largest crabs they had.  It was cooked in some kind of salty, eggy, deliciousness.   Such a unique flavor that I would have never thought of ordering.

By the time the shrimp came out my I was elbow deep in the crab, so I couldn't get a photo.  You may catch a glimpse on the table.  I have no idea what the sauce was made of, but it was shrimp and noodles with a white, somewhat creamy sauce with a little bit of sweetness, but not a thick creamy sauce. Maybe shrimp broth with a bit of condensed milk?  I have no idea, but it was total delicious as well.  We also ordered a green vegetable of some sort and a couple of watermelon juices to wash it all down.

This is the mess that was left behind when we were done with this delicious dinner.  The cost for all of this was 237 MYD => $52 USD.  The crabs were pretty expensive, but worth it.

Here are more of those crazy rickshaw, bicycle things that are decorated and lit up at night.

Since we had a nice break in the middle of the day and were not too tired, we decided to take a night boat ride down the river.  Everything was so nicely lit up including all the bridges over the river and the river itself.  It was a really nice 40 minute ride.

Wow...there weren't many people around the I ♥️Melaka sign this time of night, so we finally got our chance.

We got back to the hotel around 9:45 PM.  We watched a bit of TV and then called it a night.  Tomorrow we take a bus to Singapore, but the bus isn't until 3:30 PM, so we can sleep in and have a relaxing last morning in Malaysia.  Until then...