Melaka (April 19-21)

I spent my last days on Malaysia Peninsula in Melaka, my favourite city in Malaysia till now. I was lucky to catch a bus on Wednesday afternoon from Mersing to Melaka after I had returned by ferry from Tioman Island. In Melaka I went directly to the same guest house as the first time, for me one of the best places I have stayed during the whole trip in Southeast Asia. I arrived there late in the evening at around 10pm. A Spanish couple opened the door for me because the owner wasn’t there. The couple told me that he had gone for a bike tour and would return soon. I saw that the room I stayed in the first time was free so I didn’t have to worry that they were full. I waited for around two hours but the owner didn’t show up. I had a shower and when I finished he still hadn’t returned. I was so tired and it was almost 1am so I took they room key from the reception and confiscated my old room. I left him a message to explain the circumstances and wrote my details into the guest book. I would call that “self check-in”. I mean it’s so cool, these things only happen in backpacker hostels and they make your trip more interesting. By the way, when I met the owner in the morning he didn’t seem really surprised about my nightly action, maybe he wondered why I waited so long to enter the free room.

There were very interesting people in the guest house, from China, Korea, Japan, UK, Spain, Denmark and the US. Friday and Saturday we went to the famous weekend night market in Melaka and I took advantage and stuffed myself with loads of food. It was so good! Apart from eating I didn’t do much. I found a very good German book in the shelf of the guest house and I even finished it within two days. That means I didn’t have to exchange it for one of my books. In the evenings we watched movies from the guest house owner’s huge library. It was almost like spending the time in a real home, not in a hostel. I almost forgot to mention that yesterday evening we also went to a pub –drinking real beer! Doesn’t really sound extraordinary but in Malaysia it is because alcohol is so expensive. The guest house owner knew a place with a good happy hour until 8pm. That meant paying around 2,50 Euro for a pint instead of 5, not too bad!

I’m now sitting in the airport terminal (with free Wi-Fi!) waiting for my flight to Kuching (Borneo). I’m pretty excited!