Malaysia - Hike

We were on vacation, but this was just a weekend for Dave and Teresa, so they still had to be responsible and do work (suckers). It was Sunday evening, and Dave had a little work he needed to finish before work the next day, so stuffed with cheese, chips and crackers, us and T-bags headed out for a little hike and a walking tour to give him time to work and to work up an appetite for dinner.

Posing with Ambor
(It might actually be Amboi, we're not sure. Non-English, neon cursive is tough to read.)

Malaysia has, hands down, the most dangerous sidewalks in the world! Whether it's loose tiles, roots or an open drainage canal, one bad step and you're a goner.

The police station

Being a pig in Malaysia is an all inclusive deal. In every other country, once an officer clocks out, he gets to leave the station and head home. Not in Malaysia! The tall building on the right is apartments where the police officers and their families live. Strange.

Old Malaysian cemetery

This one is dated 1412, and 1991...

We couldn't really see the monkeys, but we had no problems hearing them jumping around and shrieking in the trees above us as we walked.


At the top of a hill across from the cemetery, we found an old Portuguese (and later Dutch) fort. Beginning in the early 1500's, the Malaysian state of Malacca was conquered and occupied by the Portuguese who used it as their main port for expanding and trading in the East Indies. Portugal controlled Malacca until 1641, when the Dutch came in and wiped them out. The Dutch, already occupying and utilizing the nearby port of Jakarta in Indonesia as their trading center, simply wanted to damage Portugal's claim to the area and the trade. The Dutch maintained control of the city for 150+ years, until the turn of the 19th century. As a result of the near 300 years of occupation, the city is littered with interesting Portuguese and Dutch relics.

It's really nice to have a third person with us so we don't have to use the tripod and timer to get a picture of the two of us! Thanks, T!

Freud would certainly have something to say about these!

Malacca and beyond

Awesome double spiral staircase

The neighborhood near one of Teresa's schools

Tropical Bamboo

The houses on stilts were awesome

Malays make paper chains too!

Teresa at the entrance to one of the schools she works at.

ESL School Musical!

make-shift gutter

Durian

It would be no exaggeration to say that Andrew was obsessed with durian while on this vacation. He really regretted not trying it while in Thailand, so he was going to do his best to sample it in Malaysia. For those of you that don't know, durian is a unique fruit native to Southeast Asia. It's known for it's hard, sharp exterior shell, but even more for the strong, foul fruit inside. The smell and flavor is most commonly compared to anything in the area of sweaty gym socks to rotten onions. It's so offensive that laws have actually been passed banning the fruit from many public spaces throughout Southeast Asia.

As if eating something so awful it's illegal in places isn't reason enough to sample it, he also wanted to do it because that pussy, Andrew Zimmern of The Travel Channel's 'Bizarre Foods' couldn't even eat it (when eating gross shit is his job). It had to be good!

The night before he had some durian in a street pancake, which wasn' t good, but he still wanted to try it 'fresh.' He opted out of having it at this place and decided to wait until the next opportunity arose. Sadly, that opportunity never came. ☹ He managed to still eat some dried durian and a durian filled donut, which all tasted the same, and terrible, so he got a taste of durian at least.



On the way back to D&T's apartment, we found an awesome looking hawker stall that we decided to check out. We were on our way back to go to dinner, but that was no reason we couldn't have just a little snack!

Assorted meats on sticks!

100 Plus Duck Rice!

Ground, seasoned meat molded around a stick

Duck Rice

A lot like barbecue pork in a Chinese restaurant stateside, but juicier and covered in a delicious Asian BBQ type sauce. Heaven on a plate!

Wheatgrass Juice

Fresh Popiah

At the first hawker stall we ate at, Andrew got a fried Popiah. Most groups of people eating had at least one of these, so we had to try it.

It wasn't bad. The fried Popiah, we decided, was Malaysia's answer to the spring roll. With it's size and texture, the fresh Popiah would definitely be their answer to the soft taco!