Adventures with Roy in Malaka

After a few days in Kuala Lumpur, a very average cosmopolitan city with lots of convenience and not much charm, we were excited to travel to the smaller historical town of Malaka (Malacca) further South on the Malaysian peninsula.

After a refreshingly easy bus ride from KL (departed on time, functioning a/c, arrived at the destination we were promised-- outstanding in our book!) We met an extraordinarily nice traveler from Shanghai, named Roy. Roy was amazingly patient with us upon arrival in the town as we wandered around the streets for over an hour lost and unable to decipher Lonely Planet's map. After politely allowing us to flounder, Roy quietly used his knowledge of Mandarin to ask directions from some local Chinese Malaysians. Sweaty, exhausted, and ready to collapse we finally spotted the 'Eastern Guest House' we booked online the day before on a side street in the Chinatown neighborhood. It was only when we reached our guest house that we realized that Roy knew where his own hotel was all along, he was only walking around with us to help us.

When the proprietor of the establishment walked us up to our room, I struggled not to cry. The room was nothing more than a mattress in the middle of a filthy floor. Dirty, chipped paint, various bacterial life-forms growing in the ceiling, no a/c, a shared bathroom down the hall (equally nauseating) and, I kid you not, the words "BEWARE BED BUGS" carved crudely into the wall, presumably by a former tenant.

It took all of two minutes to realize that this was $10 we would just have to eat. We decided to use the room as a storage facility for our backpacks as we set out on foot to find more hospitable conditions. When we walked out front we were disappointed to find that Roy was gone (after waiting five or ten minutes for us, according to the proprietor) and we had no contact information for him.

Thankfully, after inquiring at two hotels which were fully booked for the night, we found the Orkid hotel. Never have I been so relieved to see a Holiday Inn style hotel room. To us, it was paradise.



That night we walked around the crazy "Jonker Walk" in Malaka, filled with bars, restaurants, street vendors, and comically, five or six venues in which old Malaysian men had gathered to listen to one another sing karaoke.



The next morning we were delighted to run into Roy in the center of town. The rest of the afternoon with Roy was one of the nicest experiences Tom or I have ever had. Roy took us both out to lunch at a Chinese restaurant he had discovered the night before. The food was all new to me, but definitely a cool experience to try with our own Chinese culinary guide.










































I'll admit, I was excited when he ordered each of us one of these for dessert:
























But it turns out that when that melts, it looks like this:

















I try to be open-minded, but it's hard to get on board with a dessert containing vegetables and legumes. I certainly appreciated the sentiment, however, and I ate as much as I could manage with a smile.

After lunch, Roy suggested we go for tea. We were hopeful this would give us an opportunity to pay him back for his generous lunch, but again he insisted that we were his guests. In his words, "If we were in the United States, you could pay for coffee."

I am so thankful to him for showing us this tea house. Hidden on a side street we would never have found, unmentioned in the Lonely Planet, Roy took us to an elegant 400 year old authentic Chinese tea house. Over the next hour, the owner of the tea house provided samples of some of his best teas for us and talked to us about the tradition behind tea in China.



After tea we were scheduled to go on a river cruise and Roy needed to return to the bus station to head to Georgetown, Malaysia (yes, Gtown girls, there is a Georgetown in Malaysia). We are hopeful that this is not the end of our adventures with Roy and we will be able to meet up with him later this Fall when we make it to Shanghai.