Our alarm went off at 9am and we wearily crawled out of bed, as yet again we had a poor sleep the night before travelling. It must be that we are worried about not waking up and missing our transport. Anyway, we ate breakfast and checked out of Transit Point. We walked to the new, glistening white tiled floor that was the Puduraya Bus Station and followed the maze to the LRT station. We got a ticket to 'Bandar Tasik Selatan' station and it was nice to see the use of a plastic ticket that was re-used as opposed to paper. We got to the platform just as a train was expected, so it was good timing. The journey was fairly short and we could see why our stop was an interchange station. The huge, new 'Integrated Transportation Terminal Southern Sector (ITT-S) or more simply the 'Bus Station' was reached via a bridge across the rail track and it felt as though we had stepped foot inside another airport terminal. It was nice and shiny and there was a departure board, along with a "gate" number for each bus stand. We eventually found 'Gate 17' and our Transnasional double decker bus was already waiting, so we got on board and found our seats which was a bit of a struggle. We had seat numbers SB and SC, which we thought was rather random, but when we got on the bus we just saw the usual 1A, 1B, 1C and 1D for one row of seats followed by 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D, etc. We were so confused but eventually found our seats on the top deck in the row behind the front. It took us a while to work it out but we assumed that S stood for 'SECOND' row, as the seats in front of us were 'F' standing for 'FIRST' row. Malaysia is renowned for organisation and yet this seemed far from logical to me! Anyway, it took two hours as expected to reach Melaka Sentral Bus Station. We were then approached by the usual taxi men but carried on walking into the building and had a seat so we could work out our next move. A man approached us asking where we wanted to go as I was sat with the Rough Guide open on my lap, so we told him Old Town Guesthouse. He gave us the price of RM17 as food came flying out of his mouth! There was a taxi ticket counter so we decided to check the price but they quoted RM20, so we followed the old man. We arrived at Old Town Guesthouse after one beeping taxi journey! It was as nice as we had expected, as our room was bright and airy with a shuttered window overlooking the street below. The French owner gave us a map of Melaka and informed us of the local happenings around the place. The guesthouse had a large communal area with sofas and a TV. There was a guest fridge where you could help yourself, writing in your own book what you had taken to be paid for at the end of your stay. It really did have a homely feel to the place. We set off in search of a place to eat and found the 'Madras Cafe' as recommended by the Rough Guide. It was situated on a corner without any English signing, so we took a seat and tried to work out what was on offer. We saw a local get a plate of rice and then help himself to a tray of food behind the counter. So up we got and followed his lead, where we were given a huge portion of rice and then spooned over what we thought was Mutton Curry! Andrew also got a piece of fried chicken and the whole meal, including a drink, cost us three pound. 

We returned to our room and chilled out for a while before having a cool shower and walking to the famous 'Jonker Street' which was closed to traffic as it was a Sunday to hold a lively 'Night Market' . There were the usual handicrafts on sale but it once used to be a popular spot for antique selling. We strolled down the entire street where we saw a 'Karaoke Stage' in full use! We reached the end so made our way back through the crowds and decided to walk alongside the river in search of a beer. We came across a very cheap restaurant called 'Riverside Kopitiam', aptly named as the tables were set out right by the river. We both got a bowl of soup for the grand price of 60p and a bottle of local Jaz beer for just over a pound, which was a bargain for Malaysia! We walked back to our guesthouse and helped ourself to a couple of cans of Carlsberg.