23/52 - Road trip to Malacca

Week 23 of 52
Malacca River by night
Malacca, Malaysia

We had a day and half off of work this week for the Indian holiday of Deepavali.  Instead of just hanging out in Singapore my friends and I took a road trip to Malacca, Malaysia.  Alan and I take road trips all time back in the US but I've never done one here in Singapore.

This was us starting out the trip.  We stopped for some lunch before heading out so that is why Sonya is about to take a giant bite of her sandwich.

Since they drive on the opposite side of the road here I was out voted for being able to drive so got stuck sitting in the backseat.  Oh well...at least I got out of Singers!  To get to Malaysia you have to go through an immigration and customs checkpoint in Singapore and then again in Malaysia to enter the country.  I even got a stamp in my passport!

The is us on the bridge between the Singapore and Malaysia checkpoints.

Once you get into Malaysia it is only about a 2-2.5 hour drive to get to Malacca.  It took us about 3 hours due to some pretty bad storms and a couple of accidents.

This is us stuck sitting in traffic due to one of the accidents.

It may seem a bit odd but it was so nice to see lots and lots of green.  Living in Singapore you get used to being in a metropolitan area.  There are buildings and concrete everywhere.  While I make an effort to get out and enjoy the fabulous park system here it isn't the same as seeing green all around you.

Boring photo of the side of the highway in Malaysia.

Malacca itself is a great little city.  It is much bigger than I expected but could be best described as being quaint.  It has an interesting mix of being a typical Asian city but with a very noticeable Portuguese presence. 

The streets are all very narrow and the majority of the buildings are row houses like those above.  Some of them are split in the middle so there are separate things if you enter from the front versus the back.  Some have maintained the original structure and they are very long.

Along the river was a great area with tons of restaurants.  We stopped at one that served typical Nonya style food.  It is local to the area and is a mix of Chinese, Indian, and Malay food.  Is pretty spicy but oh so tasty.

We had a great dinner and evening on the river.  I would highly recommend eating the local food and enjoying the view.  Wednesday morning we wandered around the town a bit.  There are a lot of great old churches to see.  One of the most photographed is this one...

It was a lot of fun to get in the car and take a trip versus having to go through the ordeal of dealing with an airport.  I would certainly go back to Malacca and do some more exploring.