Melaka

After some time in Kuala Lumpur's city metropolis, Ben and I decided it was time for a change of scene. Melaka is a quaint and sleepy little fishing city....well I would call it a town. It's small, very friendly, welcoming and laid back. For my southern folk, it has the feel of Charleston...probably because of the whole thing about it being a port town thing. However, the influence of architecture in this city is anything but Charleston. This place has been settled by the Portuguese, the Chinese AND the Dutch (and maybe the British also at some point but I can't quite remember....you can google it if you are that curious). It's the oldest city in Malaysia.

The following pictures are in completely random order.

A history museum built built into a ship, right alongside the river.

A cool shot outside a church that's been in existence since the 1500's.

A shot walking up to the church. It's such a beautiful area!

St. Paul's - a church almost half a century old!

The boardwalk - note the ferris wheel in the back! The "Melaka Eye" perhaps?

Where we stayed - The Aldy Hotel - a historical place. It felt very European and yet tropical all at the same time!

Inside the ship museum. Just posing on the steps....I felt very uh....Kate-Winslet-in-Titanic-like :)

We took a bicycle rickshaw ride...haha they really deck them out with sound systems, lights...stuffed monkeys...it's good, clean fun!

I met a former SK teacher! We had lots to share about teaching in SK. At that point (in June), she had been traveling SE Asia for 10 months!

No, it wasn't full of pictures of me as you might think a Museum of Enduring Beauty would be....no actually it was a Museum dedicated to "beauty" that takes serious endurance, such as tribal piercing and tattoos and foot-binding and such. I personally wouldn't call these things beautiful but to each his or her own I suppose...

Sokcho - Summer Edition

Mid-August brought a 3 day weekend, which meant I took advantage to get out of the city to see more of Korea. For this, my friend Stefanie and I visited Sokcho, an east-coast town very close to Mt. Seoraksan - one of the most beautiful places in Korea. Being summer, we spent most of the time at the beach and checking out the city, but did see some of the mtn on the trip there and back. I plan to spend some time on the mountain come October, when all the leaves are changing and the humidity is lower. The pictures tell the best stories :)

On the walk to Sokcho Beach

The ridiculously crowded conditions

The "intense" tents situation - they tried to make us rent one, we didn't want to, the guy got mad when we moved one of the tents out of the way even though they don't own the beach....yeah not a fan of the tents or this beach all that much...

Sokcho Beach

Ran into some familiar foreigners

As the sun goes down

The port city side of Sokcho

Fish Market

Dinner!

And we ended our night with sparkler fun!

We love sparklers in the summer!

Driving through Seoraksan Mountain