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Laptop almost restored! We started our tour of the town by exploring Bukit China, this is an extensive Chinese burial ground north of the old town. Paul captured a photo of a yellow bird in the trees here. We walked round the old town which is testimony to Melaka's colonial past featuring the remnants of a 16th Century Portuguese fort and several red Dutch buildings (in Red/Dutch square) from the 17th century. The more notable ones being the Stadthuys (Town Hall) and Christ Church. The British ousted the Dutch in the 1800s and finally Malaysia gained its independence in 1957. The other main influence is from the Chinese, traders settled down with local Malays and formed the Peranakan culture. There are many Chinese temples and shopfronts in the photos. Our river cruise took us up to Village Morten a 'traditional' Malay village, we took a stroll along the riverbank to see it close up. We saw a couple of swimming monitor lizards in the Melaka River on our cruise - see photos. Yesterday we took a 3km walk to Medan Portugis, a portuguese settlement, mainly based around fishing. The settlement celebrated its 500 year anniversary in June. Portuguese sailors intermarried local Malays and even some Portuguese women were shipped over to widen the gene pool. This community still survives and you can see the portuguese features in the faces of the locals - must be a bit like Neston / old town Runcorn nowadays though! Not much of note, visually, there but it was interesting that the locals still speak Cristao a dialect of Portuguese that is now dead in Portugal. We enjoyed some delicious baked fish in a spicy chilli based sauce - a bit like Piri-piri. Later that evening we walked down Jonker street, back in Melaka, which hosts a lively night market at the weekend and this week as it is Hari Raya. The road is lined with hawker stalls, karaoke stands and souvenir stalls. By day the street is lined with beautiful antique shops and renovated shophouses now opened as restaurants, cafes and other establishments. Melaka is crazy busy at the moment with local and Singaporean tourists - a bit like a bank holiday. Everywhere people queue for local delicacies such as chicken rice balls and satay. The streets are crammed with brightly lit and decorated trishaws, which blast out dance and RnB songs. Today we tried the chicken rice balls (er..just as it says on the tin) served with roast chicken, very nice when it was all dipped in soy sauce and chilli sauce. Tonight we will sample the hawker stalls, they sell a range of foods - pineapple tarts, durian spring rolls, dumplings, potato swirls, chicken feet, tongue, radish cake, egg tarts ... interesting!
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