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Malacca

Dear Friends and family,

It was Friday the 11th when Tomas, Herman, Tim, Sanne, Dagmar, Franklin, Maarten, Robert and me took the bus from KL to Malacca. A bus trip of 2,5 hours for 2 euro! After a long week everybody was exited to take a break and when the bus left the city most of us opened the first beers. Because I had a heavy week I fell asleep after 2 beers to wake up in Malacca!

Brief history of Malacca
The Portuguese occupied this city from 1511 till 1641. In 1641 the Dutch took the trading post over, after an 8-month siege and a fierce battle. In 1826 we traded the city with the British, which stayed there till 1957 with a short Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945. Malacca is situated on the west coast of Malaysia what an ideal stop was for trading ships and a perfect place to control the “channel” between Indonesia and Malaysia. These day’s there is only a small harbor, the trading is mostly done close to KL and Singapore.

First night
We arrived in the hostel and the owner was giving us a warm welcome. He took us to his partner who was playing guitar in a local pub and we sang along as loud as we could. The mood was good after a few beers, and we asked the hostel owner if he knew a good club. Sure! and he send us away with a taxi to one of the nightclubs. We found out soon that this club had more on the menu card than only drinks! The club next door wasn’t much better either so I decided to go home for a good sleep, finally.

Saturday
Getting up early to see the history! We led us drive around the city with a little bicycle wagon, which had place for two. I was lucky to share mine with Sara, a 32 year old lady from London. The Dutch history was still visible in the VOC sign on the gate of the old fort “A Famosa”, a few houses one of them called Gemeentehuys and some old graves. After a few hours we decided to split the group, a few went to the pub and the rest of us to the museum and a bike tour around the city. Finally I was doing my Dutch daily routine again after 2 months, bike riding!!
The end of the day bought us to the terrace where we found our fellow travel mates, who turned the whole place upside down. We decided to go for a beer and not to join in their beer game. Sitting there, relaxing with a well disserved cold beer and talking with the rest gave me a great feeling. It’s good to go away with fellow students! After a few beers we took off to buy groceries and the drinking group decided to go for a swim in the channel. The difference here with the channels in Europe is that they are still being used as an open sewer! Cheers guy’s!!

The evening was very relaxing, sitting on the roof terrace of our hostel, enjoying a BBQ, to sip a beer and laugh with the rest. Life can be good sometimes…

Sunday
Because we had seen enough of the culture yesterday, we went for a 1,5 hour quad ride into the jungle. Andrew trained me in Canada how to do this so I took of as an idiot uuh as a responsible guy I mean. As little kids we played around and we came out of it, all in one piece, although I believe that I will push it too far one day.
After a quick zoo visit we took the bus back to KL. It was a great weekend again, with a lot of waiting and great fun! 

Groeten Bas

Ps. As usual pictures are coming soon! It’s going to take a bit longer this time because I couldn’t take any pictures with my own camera. Because of my early preparations I forgot to recharge my camera battery ;).