I took a ride down south to the ancient city of Malacca this weekend. We left Saturday afternoon and stayed overnight. There are some really beautiful and historic things to see. The city itself is very old and the old churches and mosques seem that much older with their thick stone walls and missing ceilings.

The monument pictured here was constructed on behalf on Queen Victoria. The inscription reads: "Victoria Regina 1837-1901 Erected by the people of Malacca in Memory of a great queen 1904".

The church on the hill used to have a bell tower to warn the village / city of impending attacks via sea. I believe it was built some time in the 1600's. It had a tunnel leading to another building on another hill. Here is a panoramic view from inside the church.


On Sunday we raced back to KL and caught up with the group (we were a little late but luckily they waited for us) and headed up North to see the fireflies. This trip to see the fireflies was already paid for and we had a nice meal before heading out on the river in a really quiet boat. It was quite dark and the fireflies looked a lot like blinking Christmas lights. They congregate around a specific kind of tree and blink in unison. It's quite something to see. Unfortunately there was no way to photograph them, at least with my camera.