Canal walk

Day 60 – Malacca, Malaysia

Si, I stayed an extra night. I really like the city and my hostel and felt like staying a bit longer.

I had glorious plans for more visits, but decided instead that walking and sightseeing was a better bet for my budget. Especially since I tore my favourite pants yesterday (the light, comfy travelling pants custom-made in Vietnam), so I went and bought fabric, needle and thread, and I’ve reconstructed a new pair. Now, I need to find a tailor/seamstress willing to sew the seams with a sewing machine.

(Nothing like walking in Chinese shops on a Sunday asking for sewing supplies and choosing fabrics. I’m lucky that salespeople speak a good English. I also bought glue yesterday and glued back the patch on my backpack.)

So, back to walking. I went to where the river canal make some bends, and the river walk was charming, so I walked quite a bit of it. Basically, you can take to long way and follow the river or walk through the narrow part of the bend and be back at your starting point.

I had breakfast for lunch in a minuscule café that can seat only 16 people, it was charming.

My iced tea had a sprig of rosemary and a slice of dried orange as decoration.

Since it was a green café, the glass coaster is a washable square of fabric instead of throwaway paper.

I went back out to diner (after cutting fabric and sewing the whole afternoon), and chose this time a restaurant that was probably Spanish, I was looking for something closer to the Portuguese influence and found a tapa place. I kind of got mixed-up. Anyway, I made a diner of tapas. I’ll say that some are probably adapted to the local ingredients or tastes, because there were a few surprises, such as a chorizo served bathing in flames… but cold inside when eating it; the bread was so-so; but the tortilla was a delight, and so were the mushroom croquettes.

The night market was a lot quieter than the two previous evenings. My host told me that many people came on the weekend to Malacca but would go back home on Sunday evening, and I guess that’s true.

I’m leaving tomorrow for Kuala Lumpur, and Wednesday morning I fly to Indonesia.