TRAVELOGUE  »  Why Did We Spend 4 Days in Melaka, Malaysia?

I got sick … so we stayed!

Poor Carrie! First she gets sick in Bali and goes a little stir crazy trying to recover. Then, no sooner than she starts to feel better I get a case of the belly and have to hole myself up for a few days.

This is how we came to Melaka: a small coastal city that our guide described as a backpacker’s haven. In reality, it was a small town with little to do and nary another backpacker in sight.

On occasion I did drag myself out of bed for a little sightseeing. Highlights included a nice fort, the seaside and the mall. We also visited the local museum with exhibits on kites, spinning tops, Melaka’s history and abnormal beauty practices around the world.

This one was the most fascinating, as it had sections on African lip discs, foot binding, neck stretching and all the other things societies do in the pursuit of beauty. However, we never made it through the whole thing as the AC was broken and the entire beauty exhibit was around 100 degrees.

A Trip to the Emergency Room

Still not feeling better despite having almost finished the pharmacy-prescribed meds, we finally took me to the ER of the local hospital to see a doctor.

First, let me say this was terrifying. I had completely convinced myself that the doctors were going to diagnose me with Swine Flu and quarantine me.

What really happened was the doctor tapped my stomach a few times, asked about my symptoms, told me I had food poisoning and sent me on my way.

Food poisoning that lasts 5 days? What a dummy!

We demanded a poo test for all parasites and other possibilities which he begrudgingly agreed to.

The next day when I got it back I saw that he only tested for food poisoning: which was negative. Thanks guy, I just wasted $30 to find out nothing!

Jonker’s Walk – a Night Market in Chinatown

Anyway, I was feeling a bit better on our last night so we headed over to Jonker’s Walk street market in Chinatown.

Consisting of four streets, the place was filled with street stalls, local restaurants, red Chinese lanterns and delicious food.. It is amazing all the crap that was for sale too.

Tables were covered in little plastic toys, hair bands, bootleg tee shirts, watches and more. We spent a few hours walking up and down, soaking it all in and eating before calling it an early night…we were off to Singapore the next day!

Here’s a street vendor making spring rolls from scratch in Jonker’s Walk