Snorkeling with Turtles

The Gili's are supposed to have amazing snorkeling, so we thought we would give it a try. We wandered out of our hotel and up to a snorkel shack a few meters up (and yes, they have shacks on the beach solely dedicated to the pursuit of snorkeling). We rented our two masks/fins for $6.00 for the whole day- we're not sure if this was a good deal or not, but we took it anyways.  Snorkeling proved to be harder than I ever thought! There is a wicked current that rips to the north so it made swimming up (the south) kind of like a treadmill, a whole lot of swimming with no progress. So we jumped out, walked up, and jumped back in to coast with the current back on down. While we were flying over reefs we saw 5! turtles, which is awesome because I've seen a grand total of 0 turtles in the wild (Brian's seen a bit more than that). Anyways, these were good sized turtles and we happened to miss them in each photo, so enjoy the photos of the caged baby turtles below (they are saved as eggs and then raised for the first year in little tanks before being released back into the wild)!

Melaka, Malaysia

We left the city and headed 2.5 hours southwest to an old port town called Melaka (or Malacca in English). In 1511 the Portugese settled in Melaka, then in 1641 the Dutch took over, and finally the British in 1795, who we have to thank for the rust-red paint job that is seen all over the buildings throughout the city. Chinese settlers intermarried with local Malays and came to be known as the Baba-Nyonya.  The Baba-Nyonya culture thrives to this day and can be seen throughout the wonderful regional dishes served only in Melaka. With Babas, Nyonyas, and the Portugese, Melaka is now known for its egg and pineapple tarts as well as laksa ( a coconut/lemongrass infused noddle dish) and cendol (a shaved-ice treat with jellies, coconut milk and cane syrup).
We have pretty much tried it all- although my cendol came with sweet corn and red beans in the bottom and was topped with molasses, it was the strangest thing I have ever eaten! For some reason Southeast Asia loves corn; there are shops in every mall that sell corn in a cup, movie theaters sell corn kernels rather than pop corn, and corn is used in a variety of desserts. I still haven't got used to the idea of eating it with sweets, it feels like I accidentally combined the wrong food at a buffet!
Anyways, Melaka is a wonderful city and ranks right up there with Luang Prabang for us. We spend the days quietly wandering around and then at night we meander through the night market in Chinatown.  Melaka's Chinatown is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. All the buildings are very colonial but have huge Chinese characters written on the columns- there are also red paper lanterns strung on every building, for blocks, so the whole area has a distinct red glow. We love it here and are going to stay a while, so stay tuned for more information and pictures (we have yet to take any!).

Here are some photos left over from snorkeling in Koh Tao