Chapter 3.5: Change direction as needed

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Yeah... no go on the original plan. No buses going to the east coast until monday at all, nothing all full. So yesterday I had to turn around and go back to the bus station that is near the hostel and decide what to do. Which was reverse the direction of travel and go to Malacca/Melaka on the southern, western coast. Melaka and Georgetown together make up one World Heritage Site, which is very unusual since they are in two different places. I wonder if there are any more WHS like that. I still had to wait 3 hours to get on the bus because these buses were also very full, i feel lucky I got a seat at all. Its quite a hectic place that bus station, with a bunch of people running around with walkie-talkies trying to outshout each other to sell people tickets. And they chant the names of the towns in an unbroken, extremly energetic string of words - JB, JB, JB, JB, (for Johor Bahru, everyone calls it that) or Ipoh (pronounced ee-poh), Ipoh, Ipoh. They go on like that for half a minute or so, then switch to a different town.

Melaka is a very old town, one of the oldest in the country and has a lot of colonial history and buildings. I had a nice stroll around it and also enjoyed a museum about Malay architecture. Although to be honest I think they spent more time on the building where the museum is housed (go ahead, ask me anything) than many other things.

Being wise to the issues arising with travelling with buses here I went already yesterday to get my ticket to Singapore. Although I had originally decided that I wouldn't go I had just decided to do so when I got a confirmation. A friend of mine from Denmark unexpectedly informed me when I was already in Malaysia that he was actually doing a study abroad semester in Singapore. I took it as a sign. So I am in Singapore now although not after a bit of excitement as well. Apparently I need a new passport... at least according to Singapore immigration. When you take a bus from Malaysia to Singapore, you are entering another country, and as such have to go through immigration. To do that everyone has to get off the bus with their baggage and then go through an immigration hall and then come out on the other side, board your bus again and finish your journey into Singapore proper. Or at least that is the theory. In actuallity the computers at immigration couldn't scan something in my passport because it is old, has gotten wet and creased. Don't know what they couldn't read - I have never had this problem before. So after standing there for about 5 minutes the guy says I have to go to a special office and an officer comes to take me away. So I had to go and fill out a form and answer a thousand questions about everything. So of course that took ages and when I came out on the other side my bus had left. I really wasn't sure what I was supposed to do in that situation but another bus driver took pity on me and let me ride in his bus to singapore. Must remember to account for this when I am going back in the other direction - I doubt a bus driver will just happen to show up that is going to the same place backwards.

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Photos

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Supposedly the oldest church in Southeast Asia

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Fort Cornwalis