We have just spent the weekend in Muar. Travel (the LRT to Terminal Bersepadu Selatan and then a Mayang Sari bus) plus a night's accommodation cost MYR200. The (copious amounts of) food we consumed cost less than MYR160. Add in a river trip for MYR12 each, and you've got a very pleasant weekend for NZ120.

What do you get for that? Well, once you're off the motorway, the route is really pretty, taking you past blue-painted mosques, carved old Malay houses, rows of shophouses in candystripe colours, and Chinese graveyards, the details of their circular tombs picked out in pastel blues and pinks that complement the pale blossom of the frangipani trees.

Once in Muar, you will be spoiled for choice by the food options. Mee Bandung Muar is one speciality. Our favourite version, consisting of a pile of noodles, a generous handful of sea-food, and a couple of ladles of phenomenally tasty fish-and-spice gravy, came from Abu Bakar Hanipah.

And Muar does great sate (but here it's a breakfast-and-lunch food, so don't repeat our rooky mistake of looking for it in the evening).



Keeping up the Bandung theme, the city is also noted for its sirap Bandung, that sweet, creamy, rose-pink, Turkish-delight-in-a-glass that is perfect for long hot days.

Muar, as well, is the home of really fabulous coffee. It matters not a jot whether you buy it (with your sate) from the first-opening Sunday-morning sate merchant, or (with impeccable kaya toast) from the famous (and always heaving) Sai Kee 434 Cafe, opposite the bus station, or (with red-bean pao such as you haven't eaten for far too long) from a humble Chinese eatery where the old guys are settling down for the day with their stretchy cup of coffee and their newspapers. In all these circumstances, Muar coffee is a treat to drink.



Other serendipitous finds included Vietnamese food from the Back Lane cafe and a delectable yam ice-cream sundae from a dessert place called Harbin (near the clock tower).





OK, so there are more good food options than you can deal with in a weekend.

What else? Well, there's a ton of really delightful architecture, and a walking tour is rewarded by lots of great pics. Whole streets have been painted pink or blue or yellow, and people clearly believe in keeping these old-timers looking spiffing.











You can also do a little river trip. This allows you not only to take in some of the more prominent monuments from a different angle, but also to watch the huge barges getting towed and guided back up the river after disgorging their contents. Of course, we would have been happy to just carry on chugging until the river ran out. But hey, something is better than nothing.









With all this on offer -- food, snapportunities, and a breezy river -- I'm amazed that we saw so few tourists. Why don't more people come and visit this place? This is quintessential Malaysia to me. Yes, the "big sights" are definitely worth doing, but failing to build in time for the low-key but highly enjoyable destinations is a big mistake. You miss out on so much.

In the period of slow journeying that we hope is soon to arrive in our lives, may Muar always remind us of the charms of the road less travelled.