I found Mr Titi at his gallery in Melaka, Malaysia, in 2016 and just had to buy one of his bright paintings, which still hangs at the bottom of my stairs.
Melaka is a great place to walk around with a lot of street art and beautiful buildings and the river runs through the centre, which you can take a boat tour on or walk alongside. My hotel, Pines, was right next to the river and I had a wonderful view from my huge room on the 14th Floor. I rearranged the room so I could write my blog looking down on the river.
The view from my room complete with early morning mist
Melaka was declares a world heritage city by UNESCO in July 2008 and has places of worship of many different religions to match its diverse population- Christian, Muslim, Hindu etc
It is very simple to get from Singapore to Melaka- on a coach . At the border between Singapore and Malaysia (yes they are different countries with different currencies as I found out in Singapore!) first they check your passports on the coach. A bit further along you have to get out, get your luggage, have it checked and then reload the coach.
The place name is spelt differently by Google- Malacca!
The coach and ride were very comfortable and made a change from all the planes I took on my summer 2016 trip ( see my flipbook, Travels in Asia , by clicking this link https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/p/travel-flipbooks.html)
The coach that took me from Singapore to Melaka
My regular readers will know I love trying new foods and in Melaka I discovered Nasi Goreng which became a firm favourite of mine ( and Corleen!) and was served at the café opposite the hotel.
I often had meals in the café opposite the hotel, but the hotel food was good too!
The afternoon hotel served at the hotel- in my room- was supposed to be for 2
One night I got hungry and walked along the river and found a small chinese store open and they suggested various traditional Chinese foods I should try- I went back there a couple of times as the food was good and cheap.
One of my late night Chinese Picnics in my room
Back in 2016 I was spending a month a year travelling alone and often got fed up of eating in hotel restaurants alone so I used to enjoy my picnics looking out of the window as the sun went down and the city lights came on.
One of the things that interested me at The Pines was the hotel signage- this can be very boring- " the kettle is hot", "Put your laundry here" " Order breakfast here " etc but the Pines had put some thought into their signs and guest notices- check these out:
This was on the 8th floor where the pool, playground and café were
The hotel van did not escape the artistic theme
On ever floor as you came out of the lift, so you knew which way to go!
Even the laundry bag was cute, good to see Asia has got rid of plastic bags
I saw this sign by the river and it inspired me to get walking. There were also several maps around the town so it was easy to get around town.
If you were fed up of walking you could just get in a boat and see the town from a different angle- I loved all the pretty flowers at the riverside all over town.
The town of Melaka is very pretty with lots of brightly painted buildings, both visible from the river or by walking around and plenty of places to sit and rest. I was there in 2016 but nowadays they would say it is very Instagrammable!
I loved the pedestrian streets, trees and Murals, which made the town so pretty
Note the shoes which I made famous in my eBook- see the link above
After a day walking around the town one could relax on the hotels 8th floor with pool and sun lounger's, showers and café. The pool wrapped around the hotel and in some rooms you could climb from the bedroom balcony straight into the pool, great for families with kids.
Another useful touch was the information screen in the room with places to eat and walks. Overall the Pines hotel was very impressive and I had a very enjoyable time there.
Hello, I am The British Kabayan! Feel free to read my stories.
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