Since our ground shipment has still yet to arrive (we've heard rumors that it may have made it to China, but I'm not holding my breath), we decided to take the opportunity to go a couple of hours south of Kuala Lumpur and check out the port town of Melaka, established originally by a renegade prince from Jakarta, then taken over, in turn, by the Dutch, Portuguese, English, and finally part of Malaysia once it obtained its independence 51 years ago.

We left in the late morning on Saturday and it didn't take us very long to get there (Malaysia's road system is quite modern and well-maintained; of course, this comes at a price--in this case, a RM15 toll after exiting the highway). The first thing you drive through is a bit kitschy, but the city itself is quite natural. We checked into the Marriott Renaissance Hotel (a bit of a splurge, actually, although the per night charge for this 4 star hotel was less than we spent at the Holiday Inn Express in Jackson, MS just six weeks ago) and then headed to the old town to check it out and get some lunch.

We stopped to take a photo at one of the remnants left behind from the British, a fountain dedicated to Queen Elizabeth at the end of the 19th century, and then walked in Chinatown checking out the antique shops and trying to find an open place for dinner, using the Lonely Planet guide to direct us somewhere. We eventually found a place, but by that time both of us were very hot. In the future, we must act like natives and quit trying to walk around between 2 and 4 pm.

In the evening, we returned to downtown, stopping at the canal where barges used to bring the trade goods up to the shops for a picture, then on to the Geographer's Cafe for a quick drink before dinner. The drink was not quick (somehow they lost our order), and then we wandered about for a half hour or more trying to find a restaurant that both of us swore we had seen earlier in the day (turns out you can only see the English sign that announces it one way on the street, as we had actually walked by it once and maybe twice). We settled for a couple of panini sandwiches and headed back to the hotel.