Our previous days misadventures in Malacca clearly didn’t put us off as after a healthy few hours under the 30C sunshine with cloudless skies by Alicia’s pool and a tasty late Lake Club lunch of marinated roast chicken, steamed rice and a pallet cleansing slice of water melon for Leon and Egg Noodles with fresh water prawn for Alicia, we made our way to Sian’s house for a 3pm rendezvous prior to,”lets play tourist”, part two.
Alicia, Sian , Pete and I chose the LRT from Bangsar to make our way in to town. The LRT is a driverless monorail with one main line and several smaller connecting lines similar to the London DLR. Its price tag (1RM or 15p for a 2 stop journey) and it being driverless makes the LRT a cheap and efficient way to travel and I was surprised by the cleanliness of the carriages as well as the presence of air con.
A 15 minute ride and we arrived at Central Market, an indoor market specialising in official, genuine Malaysian arts and crafts. There are several excellent stalls selling quality goods ranging from Batik shirts (Malaysian national dress which is colourful, heavily patterned and roomy, I presume to allow for the sometimes cuff air) and Songkok (traditional hats which look like smaller oval flat topped fez without the tassel), as well as various crafts and home ware. However, I failed to feel at one with the authenticity of the market due to the abundance of typical tourist tit-tat and the hard sell of some of the shop owners. Still worth a look in if you after looking to decorate your home or buy souvenirs.
From here we took a 5 minute walk round the corner to the China town market. If you want, “genuine imitation very good quality sir”, bags, watches, polo shirts, trainers, pens, wallets or belts, this is the place to go…If your bartering skills are up to scratch and you can hold your nerve, it is easy to walk away feeling like you’ve struck a good deal, even if the product purchased disintegrates, falls apart or simply doesn’t work within 24 hours. I managed to walk away with a Gold Casio watch, Mont Blanc ballpoint and Lacoste polo Shirt for under 50 ringgit (about GBP9). I am happy to report that 24 hrs later and all my purchases are still functioning as they should do!
More shopping loomed courtesy of Sungei Wang Plaza followed by a mediocre to bad dinner for both me and Alicia at the Pavilion food court.
A hairy cab ride took us from town to The Social, a bar/eatery/pool house in Bangsar, for a few glasses of beer a game of pool and some cards with Pete and Sian. A few defeats at both pool and cards later for Alicia and it was time to take my ultra competitive/ ever so slightly bad loser of a girlfriend home to sleep………..
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