I spent my last evening in Melaka with local couchsurfer Ping, who introduced me to some more of the local cuisine. They have a restaurant here were people sit around a table with a pot of boiling chilli sauce in the middle. All the food comes on sticks and is boiled in the pot before being eaten. Very nice stuff. Ping, being Chinese, could also shed some light on the situation of the Chinese in Malaysia.

Always on the hunt for a local experience, I asked my host where the locals buy their fresh produce. Melaka Sentral wet market was his recommendation. The term wet market refers to the extensive use of water that is used to keep the merchandise fresh and the floor clean (usually resulting in a wet floor) and I have seen them all over SEA. The market in Melaka is of average size and seems to see few western visitors, as a fellow backpacker from the hostel and me were pretty much the centre of attention.

My home in Melaka was the Backpacker’s Freak Hostel. No idea how it got that name, nothing freaky about it really. The staff are extremely friendly and helpful and went out of their way to make my stay a nice one. Being somewhat on a tight budget at the time of my stay, I went for a bed in their only dorm, a 4-share. The room is one of the few (maybe the only?

Melaka River Dutch Heritage I hope She’s not a Bride Shopping Mall

My exploration of Melaka started, how else could it be, with a visit to a nearby restaurant. One of the local specialities is Asam Pedas, a soup-like dish that has a remote resemblance of curry. It is slightly sour and hot and usually served with fish. The friendly staff helped overcome the language barrier and I managed to order… something. Not sure about the details, I just said ok and nodded my head.

I spent my day in Singapore mostly with doing some work online and sampling the local Indian food. In the evening I met up with local couchsurfer Czharina. We had been in touch since my last visit to Singapore and had chatted a fair bit about her native country, the Philippines. Consequently we headed to a Philippine restaurant near the marina to give me an idea of what the country’s cuisine is like.