228. ESCAPE TO SMALL TOWNS

I'm thirsty now and you aren't open!

A durian 'feast' - taste test with 1 fruit...

The Cheng Hoon Teng temple, lovely old building, the most impressive is her roof with its porcelain characters

The colours of Malacca - this Hindu temple was a dull grey before...

They're done a good job with the trishaws, making them insta-worthy. It's a fun, colourful ride round the block, music blaring away and everybody's good about it...

Malacca was for a long time, just another sleepy hollow small town. The river that runs through it was silted with stinky black mud. All it needed was some paint to bring out the beauty of the old temples and old-world shophouses and when it was anointed a Unesco heritage site, money started pouring in and what we see today is this transformation...

Having visited the town several times before, this time was more about eating and shopping...

Checked out several vegetarian eateries - they were super! Menus and presentation were certainly different from those in Singapore, I'll be back...

Luten 21

Anthony's Kitchen

The eating and shopping continued into Muar, another small town in the state of Johor, next to Malacca, about an hour's drive away...

This too was a sleepy hollow but has woken up to the possibility of the tourist dollar which right now, it's chiefly from Singapore, whereas Malacca receives a sizeable number of visitors from China, followed by those from Singapore who are there to eat and shopping for more food to take home.

The narrow Muar River separates Malacca from Johor State

The eating continues into Muar...this market is a coffeeshop

Nothing beats street food and coffeeshop coffee

In between kneading his dough fritters, he takes orders

Small town vibes live on in their bazaars and the merchandise they carry - the difference now is that the workers or business owners are not native Malaysian Chinese - quite a number are from China and Vietnam...

Muar has her collection of shophouses