KL Day 2

We took a whole day bus trip to Melaka (Malacca). Half the time - 2 hours each way - was spent driving on motorways with not much to look at except palm oil plantations. The guide grew up on a rubber plantation and talked more about rubber than palm oil, but I only spotted two small plantings of rubber trees. Whatever Sime Darby does, it uses a lot of palm oil. 

Malacca was not terribly interesting once we got there. It had periods of occupation by the Portuguese, Dutch and British, who all built churches. 

Much more colourful were the lavishly decorated trishaws (tricycle rickshaws) almost hidden under plastic flowers. At least some have sound systems for the entertainment of their clients. One very pink example had fitted a boom box that thumped out rock music loud enough to hear all over town. 

Maylasia is proud of its many cultures that, they insist, live harmoniously together. The tour lunch was Chinese and very good it was, too. It's rather sad when the lunch is the highlight of the tour. 

In the afternoon we had a little explore of Jonkers St. It has a couple of small temples and some interesting shops. In one of the latter we tried a durian puff. Durians are a large, prickly fruit with a strange, unpleasant smell. Many people think the taste is a delicacy so we popped them in our mouths and ate. Eve described the taste as very concentrated mango "with a touch of poo". I liked mine. 

The oil palms were even less exciting on the return journey. 

The hotel advertised a Japanese buffet that evening so we took advantage of the 30% discount offered to hotel residents. The buffet tables were thronged by locals; families and groups of youngsters. It's obviously very popular. 

We joined the scrum and pillaged the offerings for sushi, tempura and other dishes with no names. I was puzzled by the lack of regular boiled rice. Apparently the locals simply prefer fried rice or noodles and customer demand trumps authenticity. 

After eating we wanted un-Japanese coffee. We went downstairs to the coffee shop and were served excellent coffee. It was chased down by a staggering bill - 24 ringgit (over $10) after residents' discount.