For the second time in our trip, Alice felt too ill with her swollen glands to go to meditation at a temple like she had planned, so we went to find breakfast together (the original plan was I was going to go to the breakfast place in the guidebook and print various stuff off at an internet café, whilst she went to the temple). The restaurant was closed but on the way back we saw a place that had a newspaper cutting outside about its coffee, so both had plain coconut rice (I think it was supposed to have some sort of spicy sauce on it, but as Westerners, I don't think we're quite used to it as our first meal) and a coconut doughnut thing with coffee. The guy behind the Yakult stand yesterday had said coconut rice was something we should definitely try, but it wasn't as flavoured or as tasty as Thai coconut sticky rice. I still enjoyed having a Malaysian breakfast though.

The guidebook made it out like we could get a bus from the bus station we had come from, but when we got there to buy tickets, the woman said we had to go to another one, but we couldn't understand what it was called, so we went back to the guest house to get our things and to ask him. He said we needed to get the TBS bus to the TBS bus station, although when we tried to find the bus stop he had said we could get it from, it was harder to find as he made out. We were going to go on the LRT train, but outside the station there was a TBS bus. Why the guy at reception didn't tell us to get it from there I don't know, as this was about the same distance to the other supposed bus stop, but a lot easier to recognise.

It was very easy to buy a bus ticket, and we swept right onto the next one leaving. We even got the fare for cheaper than the Lonely Planet said! When we got off at Melaka Sentral, we got a few men trying to get us interested in their guest houses. One looked quite good, and he said that he could put a spare mattress in a single room and let us have it for 25 RM a night (about £5), which included breakfast. It was extremely helpful of him to show us pictures of monuments we should look out for, for when we needed to press the button on the bus. We brought our Singapore bus ticket and then went to check it out. Everything today regarding travel has gone very smoothly - I'd say Malaysia is a lot easier to travel than India and even Thailand!

Alice was a bit peckish, so we went to find 'Capitol Satay'- a place famous for satay celup- you choose various meat pieces, vegetables and fish things on sticks and then dunk them in a satay sauce for a few minutes to cook them and then dip it into more sauce. When we got there, there was a massive queue (this was the place to go for it), so we went over the road. It was delicious and I can't imagine it being any less good than Capitol Satay! I had prawns, broccoli, mushrooms, pak choi, tofu, battered fish slice thing, fish wanton and a chicken pastry thing. Our new business venture when we get back is to start our own satay chain called 'Oi Oi Sateloy' (along with our ice cream/sandwich/biscuit shop called 'Scoopys').

On the way back, we stopped in the shopping centre. It was entirely justified my spending 160 RM (≈£30) on two shirts, 3 tops and a skirt because I knew I needed some smart clothes when I hunt for a job in Cairns, and it would have cost far more than that in Australia, and would take away valuable job hunting time going there. I also remember mum saying she wasn't let in somewhere because she was so scruffy after Asia, so I hope I've done her proud! Our new purchases gave us the kick up the bum we needed to throw away some of our other old manky clothes.

We then headed out to the Saturday night market- Melaka is definitely a good place for shopping, although we felt like we couldn't spend any more money! I tried the regional variation of laksa noodle soup, which was tasty but rather hot.

When we came back, we started talking to the guest house owner and a man, Doug, staying here long-term about Capitol Satay, but they both said it wasn't worth the queue- it just did that well because of its reputation. Doug offered to introduce us to the owner of the Reggae Café around the corner who he said did good satay, and said we'd only be 10 minutes. However he then started telling us about his passion- astrophysics- so we were actually about 2 hours. It was quite interesting some of the stuff he was saying, although some of it was quite hard to follow and keep concentrated on. For example, 2300 years ago they worked out the rough distance to the moon, by measuring the angles from Rome and Athens to the moon, and by knowing the distance between the two cities, could use trigonometry to find the distance. Another fact that once you think about it is quite intuitive is that when you look at the sun about to set, it has actually already set, because of the time it takes for the light to travel. Apparently the molecules we're made of are molecules that have come from the first generation of stars. He was complaining about mathematicians being too abstract, and to be honest I completely agree! Half the stuff I did last year, I have no idea what application it would have to real life!