World Heritage Site of Malacca was our destination this past long weekend. Due to flights anywhere being quite expensive, a colleague and I decided to try our luck on one of the Luxury Buses to cross the border into Malaysia for the 3-4 hour journey.
Our journey started with the collection of snacks for the trip. There was a 7 11 down the street, but the Korean Supermarket seemed much more enticing. The only reason this is of importance to our trip was how excited we were of the Korean policy of try before you buy in regards to their chip selection! Once we had chosen our chip of choice, we waited to board our Coach.
Luxury it was! This bus was decked out in what seemed like armchairs – complete with leg rest. The journey began and it was quite simple to cross the border. Once we had crossed the river and passed through customs, it was amazing the immediate sense of space with not a building or light in sight. We became giddy on the prospect of being off the island however were dismayed by how slowly we were inching towards our destination. Finally, we decided to sleep our way through the bus trip.
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| Luxury + Excitement! |
This was quite easy for me – it was only later that my companion informed me of her planned escape route in case the white-knuckle-harrowing stop/ start / braking / beeping of the coach experience turned into a collision or coach overturning. Clearly, I am my father’s daughter and this rocked me to sleep!
Finally – 6 hours later and 1am, we arrive to our destination. After getting cashed up and grabbing a cab (complete with friendly cockroach greeting us), we arrive to our hostel. The owner was just about to turn in for the night as he had never had guests arrive so late from the bus before. Because of the long weekend, it seemed everyone was keen to get off the island.
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| The River by night |
Unfortunately, due to our late arrival the convenience store was already closed, but our host allowed us to partake in his Gin and Tonic so we sat by the river and unwound, relieved to finally have arrived. We stayed in this particular hostel for one night only as it was booked out for the next two nights. However, we had read such awesome reviews on it that we wanted to check it out.
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| The Mosque |
The next morning, we relocated to our new hostel – literally across the road so unfortunately no river view L. However, it was much more spacious, had better facilities and AIR CON! The owner sat us down and gave us the important information regarding Malacca: Where To Eat. Refer to my previous blog for the information on our culinary experiences in Malacca – they were amazing…….
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| Chinese Temple |
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| Guinness & |
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| Cigarettes as offerings? |
We spent the next day wandering the streets, temples and mosques. We also for the first time tried acupuncture (unfortunately, it didn’t affect me as well as I had hoped). The town is so quaint and interesting to wander through as the day went on, more and more people filled the streets and by nightfall, the main st ‘Jonker Street’ had been shut off for the bustling night market.
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| Indian Temple |
The next morning, we went on a bike ride through a village outside of town. We saw how rubber was collected off the rubber trees and palm oil plantations. We also saw many different types of fruit trees and for me, it was just wonderful to be out in nature – you don’t get a lot of that in Singapore!
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| Palm Oil |
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| Mmmmmm champagne anyone? |
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| Rubber Plantation |
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| Don't quit your day job! |
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| Custom built house which streams music of swallows calling. The birds are attracted to this and come build nests in here. The nests are made from twigs and stuck together with the bird's saliva. The nests are collected and then sold for literally a small fortune. They are a delicacy in China. |
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| cute! |
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| Hard at work cutting rubber trees. |
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| Dragonfruit tree |
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| Milk fed baby lamb. |
The next morning, we left quite early and I am hopeful I will be back soon. The town was so full of culture, soul and warmth that crossing the river back to Singapore made Singapore feel clinical in comparison. Everything is so structured and orderly and near perfect that it can feel cold at times. It was lovely to be back in the East, if only for a weekend.
Scenes of Malacca..............
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| Butcher |
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| Acupuncture |
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| One for Miss Newman...... |
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| One for my first mates aaarrgh! |
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| The river by day.... all the buildings are being painted with funky pictures and scenes which you can't see that clearly here unfortunately.... |
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