Adventure 2011 (2): Malaysia

Malaka, or Malacca, Town, is in Malaka State, on the south west side of Malaysia. It's origins go way back and has a diverse mix of people and lots of culture. One of the main tourist shopping streets is Jonker Street, where it has antique shops, food, souvenir and lots of other crap to spend your money on. This hat was 10 Ringgit (£2)

You can go up to a viewing point to see the place

There's loads of museums and historical sites to wander round

Bomba means fire

All round the town are these trishaws with music and bass louder than any 'boyracer' back home - seriously

These are in front of the old Portuguse Fort

'Quick, where's the gunpowder?!'

This is all that's left of the old Portuguese Fort built in 1511, Porta de Santiago, which the British mainly tore down until a British man saved all he could - this. They controlled the area in the 1500's, the Dutch in the 1600's, then the British after that until 1956/7 when the Malays were finally left alone.

You can go up St Paul's Hill above the fort, where you can get an alright view of the city and out to sea

A British built lighthouse in front of St Paul's Church, or what's left of it anyway

Had to get a piccie of Paul at St Pauls, obviously

This is a tree bearing fruit that I can never remember what it's called, but looks like a hairy gentleman's bits, but tastes very nice

On the way there, the train broke down, but we got there eventually...

Originally what Malays would've used for transporting everything and anything. A lot of the Malays came here from Sumatra, Indonesia in the 14th and 15th Century and not much changed for a while, even with an influx of Chinese and Indians, until invasions of the Portuguese, Dutch and British

This is a replica of a water wheel on the Malacca River, presumably from which the state and town takes its name. It was an immensly important port for the area until the river mouth started to silt up and the British put their efforts into trade out of Pennang, to the north

Lots of goods came through Malaka until that point, so customs had a big presence here and there's a museum to all they did which we took a wander round as it was soooo hot. This is an old safe that I'm sure is of the same make as the one at my last job

In the museum are loads of confiscated items, these are toys

This old Yamaha was used to smuggle in tin. They could fit 50kg in the seat and tank area. Must've handled like a bag of spuds

Model of an old British vessel in the Maritime Museum

This is part of the Maritme Museum and is a replica of an old Portuguese vessel, The Flor De La Mar which sank off the coast of Malaka

The Stait of Malacca is a 50 mile bit of sea that links the Indian Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. It's the main route of lots of trade, even today (25% of all oil passes through there), so lots of fast customs boats and armed vessels to stop piracy are needed, such as this one

And boats need air support

Couldn't help but notice that the 'Double Matthew' looks a bit rude

We had a wheely good time - sorry

Here's me playing with my gun

There's loads of old buildings, temples and such down near the old town near Jonker Street

Some of the architecture has been kept in good condition and are used to their full extent

A fountain dedicated to Queen Victoria

Something to do with the Dutch, I imagine

With the area being so mixed, there are even Christian Churches about. This was build a couple of years after the one in Manchester I used to serve at, but looks sooo different