Weekend in Melaka
Heard quite a bit about Melaka(Malacca) and so decided to visit the former Portuguese town.
It is interesting as Malaysia was mostly a British colony and in the midst of that, was a Portuguese seaside town.
From Singapore, Melaka is just a 3 hour coach bus ride away.
There are plenty of companies that provide such services and some coach buses come with wifi, tv as well.
So, off I went to Golden Mile Shopping center on a Saturday morning, at the Beach road area.
Known mostly, nowadays, as a gathering spot for Thai workers, it is also the starting point for many buses to Kuala Lumpur and Melaka.
Collected my advance ticket booking, which was necessary, as the bus was totally filled up.
The bus, I was on, was just a basic bus with no wifi but had a tv showing Iron man through the whole journey, complete with loud explosions.
Yes, no sleep unless you wear headphones.
Seats were in a 1-2 config with plenty of leg space.
No individual IFE though, but still much better than a 20 hour hard seat train ride in China.
Passing by the new Marina Bay Gardens
This is the second causeway from Singapore to Johor, called Tuas 2nd Link.
Definitely helped eased congestion between the two countries but maybe a 3rd is needed?
This Tuas causeway was also very packed especially on the Malaysian side.
We had to get off the bus, go through immigration on the Singapore side, get back on the bus and do the same on the Malaysian side. The tricky thing for a first timer, was to find where the bus was located on the other side of the border.
There were a few bus bays located quite far from each other.
So, be sure to remember and recognize the bus you took!
There was a rest stop about 2 hours into the journey and after another hour, we finally arrived at Melaka bus terminal.
Took a taxi at an pre-assigned rate to Hatten hotel.
I think it was about 40 MYR.
Tried to share with a Singaporean couple but they were going in a different direction.
Hatten hotel is located in a commercial retail district near a bunch of shopping centers and close to another bus terminal. On hindsight, it would have been better to get a hotel near Jonker walk where the attractions are.
The room was quite large and had nice views although the carpeting was really old.
Wifi was only available in the lobby.
Breakfast the next day was in a huge dining hall and we had to queue for 15 minutes to get in.
It was that crowded on a Sunday morning.
The breakfast itself had western as well as Malaysian choices like nasi lemak (coconut rice) and noodles but ... definitely worth skipping over.
On Saturday night, I went to bed early and ignored a doorbell at 11pm.
The hotel staff, who rang the doorbell, then tried to get into my room!
Fortunately, I had secured the door with additional door latch.
The next day, I complained to the hotel management but of course, they didnt do anything.
Not a very safe hotel, to say the least.
It was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel to the old part of Malacca.
These trishaws are found all over the city and ferry people around like a taxi.
They do light up as well at night! Quite a hoot to see.
This is the Jonker walk area.
A street that is close to traffic on weekend nights for the night market.
The stalls sell local street food and all kinds of stuff like bags, dvds, local products.
This guy is selling a sort of sweet glutinous flour called "moi ji" that is especially popular with kids.
Frankly, the chicken rice balls were not all that great.
The rice being squished together was just not as tasty as the individual rice.
The roast chicken itself was just so-so.
They all have loudspeakers which play pop music too. :)
The next day, took a taxi to the bus terminal and had a quick lunch of fishball kway teow noodle soup before the journey back to Singapore.
It was a fun 2 day trip to Melaka.
Quite interesting to see the night markets, street stalls which are long gone from Singapore.
Hope you had fun reading this!
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