Category: Melaka

Melaka

Note: I’ve given up on uploading photos for now.  Will try later.

Blessed with what looks like a nice day. I got a map from the hostel after I checked out, but it was in Malay – so a little difficult to use. Managed to find the sites I was after, though. First stop of the day was the reconstructed 15th Century Malay palace, Istana Kesultanan. I checked out the gardens first, but they weren’t all that special. As I was entering the palace a couple of school kids approached. In flawless english they told me they were doing a survey, and asked if I’d fill it out. Nothing too taxing, just where I was from, and how long I’d been in Malaysia, etc. They took a picture and seemed quite happy to be talking to someone from Canada. Pleasant kids. Shortly after, I realized my wallet was missing. Just kidding. It was refreshing having someone approach you on the street and not want money.

Climbed up to St. John’s fort next, and then descended on the other side of the mountain to the Dutch square. From there I wandered into China street, walking mostly along Jonker Street. Came across a bakery that had some Portuguese tarts, but they didn’t compare with the English variety.

After covering most of Melaka, I figured it was about time to make my way to Kuala Lumpur so I headed back to the hostel and grabbed my luggage. Took a cab to the train station, then managed to find a bus ticket pretty easily, with a departure time that was only twenty minutes away.

Bus wasn’t very crowded. Had a buddhist monk behind me, that made some odd grunting noises on occasion, but otherwise it was a fine ride. Passed some nice terraced hills, and generally nice terrain.

As a lesson in contrasts, the scene in KL was chaotic. The driver had opened the door to the bus, so people were simply grabbing their bags and getting off. I figured I’d do the same, and followed the line of foot traffic towards a bridge that came across the street. I had no map, and no idea where I was in the city, but wonder of wonder, my hostel was across the street. I ignored the tauts asking if I needed a cab, and took the bridge over the street and checked in.

The hostel was rated quite well in the Lonely Planet guidebook Adam had, but things have apparently gone downhill since. A little dirty, and very smoky in the main room, but it’ll do for a couple of nights. I hope.

In the evening I headed over to Chinatown and Petaling Street. A huge market, and jam packed with people, which was kind of fun. Headed back to the hostel and did some reading. As I was about to go to bed, a new roommate arrived, Eveline from Switzerland. Ended up chatting with her, and two hours later finally managed to get to bed. She is leaving in the morning, but we’re both heading to Thailand next, so we’ll try and keep in touch and meet up at some point.

Slow Bus To Melaka

Note: I’ve given up on uploading photos for now. Will try later. Although I only have one for this day

I decided on Melaka, Malaysia – about a four hour bus ride from Singapore. I had some stuff to do in the morning so I settled on a 2pm departure time.

Got my ducks in a row, and headed to the bus depot for about noon. I only had $19 Singapore dollars left, and I was determined to make it last. $2.10 went to the subway, and I was counting on $11 of it to go to the bus ticket, but the ticket was $16. Thankfully, I had enough, but now I still had lunch to worry about (and didn’t want to take more Singapore dollars out). To complicate matters, it had decided to start pouring (and I do mean pouring) rain. I threw the raincover on my bag, put on my jacket and ran across the street in search of a food vendor that took credit cards. No luck, but at a convenience store I found a steamed bun, filled with vegetables, for 80 cents. There was an Esso across the street, so I waited patiently for the rain to die down before crossing over. No such luck. Throwing the bag over my head, I darted across the street and into the Esso. Thankfully they took credit cards, so I grabbed some snacks for the bus, and headed back to the depot.

We had to disembark the bus twice – once to go through Singapore customs, and once to go through Malaysian customs. Both went very smoothly (think Canada/USA crossing on a good day), and then back on the bus to Melaka. The rain came and went throughout the drive – quite hard at times. The bus also bounced about, but I had a nice seat at the back with plenty of room, so it was pretty good. I replied to some emails, and did some reading (back to “Next”), and before long we were in Melaka.

Grabbed some Melaka Ringlits (cold hard cash) from the ATM at the bus terminal, and caught a cab to the hostel. Cab wasn’t as cheap as China, but not too bad. Hostel is pretty cheap and not particularly nice. Clean enough, but a few too many rules. No footwear allowed in the hostel, no pork or beef products, no Chinese food (muslim owners I guess). Things like that.

I grabbed some chicken and rice at a place near the hostel, but because of the rain, I figured I’d stay inside. Read a bit more, and wrote this, but it’s getting late, so I’d best get off to bed. Hopefully I can hook up to the internet in the morning and get this uploaded – already I miss the free wifi I had in China and Singapore.