What a pleasant surprise Malacca was! This small port town was once one of the most important and busy stops in the spice trade. Malacca had already achieved worldwide fame back when Singapore was nothing more than a fishing village. When Europeans showed up to fight over it, specifically the Portuguese, Dutch and eventually the English, the city went into a decline from which it never quite recovered. Today it's a cool, photogenic, little tourist town with great food and coffee.

I pretty much just spent my time walking around taking photos(and getting my photo taken). I was fortunate to stumble across a wedding photo shoot for a young couple. Due to the henna ink on the girl's hands, I'm guessing this was a Hindu couple in an arranged marriage, but I didn't ask. Everyone was fine with me taking photos though so they are included here.

The local population is a mix of Indians, Chinese, and native Malaysians. They seem to stick together with their own kind and appear to be free to follow different religious rules, customs, and dress codes. The Chinese women were perfectly comfortable in revealing summer dresses or short-shorts, while the Indians preferred jeans or long pants. Meanwhile, everyone, including the local Chinese and Indians, stared at the Muslim women in full burkas thinking "how can you wear all that in this heat?" The temperature was around 89 F (about 32 C). To be fair, very few women were dressed like this and the headscarf seemed to be the fashion statement of choice among the Muslim women. To my surprise, the younger Muslim girls were the most outgoing of the local population, stopping me and a German girl I was walking around with to take our photos on several occasions.

It doesn't take long to see all this town offers in my opinion. So I'm off to check out that little fishing village they call Singapore.