Our final port destination before returning to Singapore was Malacca. We were awake early and often on the 9th morning due to our obnoxious and clueless neighbors opening and closing their door no less than 8 times during the six o’clock hour. Nevertheless, we joint a group exploring the “Dutch Trail” meandering through the Malacca city center. We began the exploration with a boat ride along the Malacca river. The boat ride finally started after a group of grown adults whined and complained about the boat being too crowded. A boat change later we were off!

The ride was enjoyable and included some brief history of the Dutch settlement of the area. The star of the show however turned out to be a monitor lizard enjoying his mid-morning on the banks of the river.

Next up was the Sultan of Malacca‘s recreated palace. From the moment we set foot in the palace the drama started. That same group of grown adults asked if they had to listen to the guided tour and one man loudly asked to go back to the boat. All in all not much to say about that stop although we did score this sweet headshot.

After paying homage to the sultan we made our way to the Dutch Square via rickshaws. Not just any rickshaws mind you, but Malacca’s super quirky elaborately decorated ones complete with ridiculously powerful sound systems pumping out dance music.

It it really impossible to convey how quirky, chaotic, and thoroughly enjoyable the experience was. We arrived at the dutch square and said goodbye to our drivers before briefly touring the area and returning to the ship for our final dinner in the boat.

The final night’s dinner was much like all the others. The food was fairly average with some components bordering on bad. Thankfully the sweet hard working staff continued to do their best to deliver the flawed product. One peculiarity we noticed was one of the featured vaunted James Beard dishes was a repeat from earlier in the week. How is that possible on a 7 day itinerary?!

After dinner we said goodbye to new friends and closed up our suitcases. Tomorrow we disembark and return to our hotel in Singapore for one last Saturday night on this holiday adventure.