Malacca

 I have not written a blog for a couple of days as Darren has been a bit poorly. He's much better now though, so normal service is resumed.

Yesterday we caught a bus down the coast to Malacca. Not any old coast though, this is the Strait of Malacca.

It is a centuries old trading route, or as it says on this monument, The Maritime Silk Road.

Earlier today I took a stroll along the River Malacca which has brightly coloured buildings all along it's banks.

I passed a plant display that I would love to copy, but first I would need to find an old Volkswagen Beetle and cut it in half.

I particularly liked the cat that was asleep in the boot. Continuing with the animal based theme, I saw a smallish lizard on the path and spoke to someone who said that they probably don't bite, but to stay well away if I see a big one.

Ten minutes later I saw this giant that was at least eight feet long. It looked closely at me, but I felt safe on my little wooden walkway.

They seem fairly common as I saw three more giants and one smaller one in a few hundred metres.

Fortunately I arrived safely back at the hotel after passing more lovely scenery.

This evening we went to a show in an enormous new building on the waterfront.

It was an amazing show with lots of special effects and many dancers. 

The show was all about the history of Malacca but we didn't understand most of it, so I am not going to attempt to explain it.

Afterwards we posed with two of the dancers, and I think that I might be standing next to the queen.

Tall buildings and fountains

Last night we went to see the singing and dancing fountains at the Petronas Towers. It was only a five minute walk from our hotel and we have seen them many times before over the years, but they never lose their attraction to me.

I am still enjoying looking at and studying tall buildings, so today we set off to see a new building in KL called Merdeka 118.

It is not quite finished inside yet, but it is the second tallest building in the world, only beaten by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

It is 678 metres tall, but that seems a bit of a cheat because that includes a huge spike on the top that has no rooms inside it. However, it seems to be copying the Burj Khalifa which also has a massive spike.

This viewing platform is the nearest that we got to it, and then we nipped into a brand new mall to enjoy a bit of shopping.

We then turned around and walked for about 20 minutes to see The Exchange 106 building, which comes in at number 19 on the world list.

Strangely, the Merdeka 118 has 118 floors however the Exchange only has 94 floors, so that's misleading although it has no spike and is only 453 metres tall.

But this building is fully open and underneath it is a fantastic mall with beautiful Christmas decorations.

I think that we have now seen enough tall buildings for at least this holiday, so I won't be mentioning the subject again.