Dec 21 - Melaka Old Town

 One of the great things we have discovered here is Grab.  This is the Malaysian version of a ride/food delivery and more company.  And it is really cheap.  We cannot walk to any sights or even the mall from our house.  We can see the AEON Mall from out our window, but because of the major roads on either side of us we can't walk there.  There are no sidewalks or pedestrian road crossing any where.  Luckily Grab is very inexpensive.

Today we took Grab into the old town Melaka area.  We had him drop us off at "Dutch Square".  This is the focal point of this UNESCO Heritage zone.

Stadthuys was the former town hall and governor's residence and dates back to the 1650's.  It currently houses the History & Ethnography Museum

Building across the street.  All the trees in the area above have sparkly dangles.  Maybe it is lights.  

On one end of Dutch Square is Christ Church.  In the front is one of the colorful trishaws that wait around the square to take tourists for a spin.  The theme of the trishaws seems to be childhood magic.  I saw one in the theme of Frozen.  The music they play also seems geared to children.  High pitched and annoying.  But still it might be fun to ride one for a short time.

The inside of the church is not that exciting - but here are a few shots of the interior.  At the back of the church were a couple of Chinese lanterns.

An interesting building.

Malaysia passed into Dutch hands around 1641 leading to about 150 years of occupation.  There are many Dutch touches around Melaka.

Influence from India maybe?

Even Melaka has a Hard Rock Cafe!

From Dutch Square we turned the opposite way and crossed the Melaka river.

One of the river cruise boats.  We have been told we can't miss going on the night cruise to see all the lights.

Heading towards China Town.

Reflections on the ceiling.

The start of famous Jonker street.  

We chose to walk down a side street.  Just some street scenes.

I'm not sure if this station is to chase down bad tourists or to help tourists.

There are so many temples.

This is actually a mosque now - see below.

We passed many temples.  We just walked around today.  We will go into these temples another day.

A very decorated building.  At the front is a food shop.

They offered everything coconut.

A must have according to foodies - is the coconut shake.  Made from coconut juice, coconut pulp, ice shavings and ice cream.  It was refreshing as by this time we were tired and very hot.  I prefer a little sweetness with my shakes so not a fan.  Michael had coconut juice - again no additives such as sugar.

A couple of more street scenes before we called it a good first day out touring and called a Grab to head back to our local mall and lunch.  After eating we got a few groceries - and another Grab home.