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Published: November 5th 2005
Malacca 2005
Hotel Puri MalaccaThis is the 2nd leg of our Singapore-Malacca-Singapore trip from October 30, 2005 to November 4, 2005. Please check Singapore (part 2) for the days preceding this trip and Singapore (part 3) for the return to Singapore.
MALACCA, MALAYSIA
Wednesday After checking-out and having our luggages stored, we took the MRT to Lavender station for our trip to Malacca. This time we walked and saved the $5 very short cab ride hehe.
Directions going to the Lavender / Kallang Bahru bus station: 1. From the station, exit to Lavender street.
2. From the top of the escalators, walk to your right going to the intersection
(Landmark: to your left you will see a blue building, that’s the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority building - do not walk going in that direction). You are now at the intersection of Lavender and Victoria streets.
(Landmark: If you’re facing Lavender street, at your 11 o’clock is a Buddhist temple.).
3. Cross Victoria Street and walk straight on. Lavender Street should be at your right side.
4. You will pass 4 roads on your left side (Jellicoe, French, King George, Cavan streets). There are many Chinese establishments here,
Malacca 2005
Courtyard of Hotel Puri, a restored Peranakan home notably hardwares. You will also pass by Hotel 81 Lavender at the corner of the 3rd road.
5. On the 5th corner (Hamilton Road), you will see a Chinese eatery with red and black laquer windows. The name is Hakka.
(Landmark: Next to Hakka is a blue building Singapore Casket - if you reach this building, lagpas ka na). Cross from there to the other side of Lavender and there in the big parking lot is the Kallang Bahru terminal. Across you will see the Golden Mile Complex where other buses going to Malaysia come from.
The Kallang Bahru terminal services only three bus companies: Transnasional, Delima Express and the Singapore-Malacca Express. The ticket counters are easy to miss from across the street because they’re just customized trailers. You won’t miss the buses though.
Transnasional have express buses going to KL while Delima and Singapore-Malacca only have express buses to Malacca.
GETTING THERE
1. Leaving for Malacca, we arrived a few minutes earlier than the required 10 minutes prior to boarding. The Delima Express bus was worn but the aircon was cool and the ride smooth. Here is a time map of the trip to
Malacca 2005
Beautiful antiques at the lobby of Hotel Puri Malacca:
8:30AM - Bus leaves the Kallang Bahru terminal
9:00AM - Alight at Woodlands Checkpoint for Immigration. You will need to show your passport and the perforated portion of the Immigration card left in your passport when you entered Singapore
(I didn’t know that and we were panicking because other foreigners were holding full immigration cards - apparently these were Malaysian Immigration cards and were given to them by the bus drivers. We were then told by some officers there that all we needed was the perforated Singapore Immigration card. It was nerve-wracking.) There is no need to bring your stuff but if like me, you’re scared of being left by the bus, then haul everything.
9:20AM - Bus leaves the Woodlands Checkpoint, crosses the Causeway
9:30AM - Alight at Malaysian Immigration. Bring all your stuff as you will be required to pass through inspection and customs. At this point, we still didn’t have Malaysian Immigration cards and had to fill out one at the checkpoint. Of course, we were the last ones to board again.
11:00AM - Stopover for 30 minutes while the driver has his lunch. Toilets were major yucky.
1:00PM -
Malacca 2005
More antiques at the courtyard / lobby of Hotel Puri We finally arrive at Malacca Sentral bus terminal. It’s a huge, new, blue and white complex (as is the other government buildings in Malacca).
2. The bus stops at the wing where the taxi station is. But we needed to buy our tickets for our return trip the next day so we crossed over to the other wing. It’s cheaper here (RM17 vs. S$12 if you buy in Singapore) plus you have more choices.
3. Near the wing where we alighted, drivers would ask if you need a taxi. Taxis are not metered in Malacca so you have to negotiate with the driver before you board. To be safe, you could email your hotel in advance to ask how much the cab fare is. For our destination which is Hotel Puri (which I also booked via internet at http://www.holidaycity.com ), fare is RM15. There were no problems with the taxi as they seem to be honest.
OUR HOTEL
1. It took less than 15 minutes to get to our hotel. Our hotel was beautiful. It’s a boutique hotel - an old house restored with modern amenities. It costs RM130. Checking-in was fast. Unfortunately, when we arrived
Malacca 2005
Garden of Hotel Puri at our room, it still was not made up. It’s actually repelling to see a room you will be occupying soon with all the litter and the bundled bed articles of the previous occupant. But the charm of the hotel (it’s really very pretty and the rooms are nice) won me over so we decided to leave for lunch first so they can clean up the room.
OUR ITINERARY
1. Having done my research beforehand, we ventured out to look for a famous restaurant in Jonker Street. I mistakenly thought that our hotel was in Jonker Street - hindi pala, it’s Heeren Street (Jalan Tun Tang Cheng Lock). Jonker Street (Jalan Hang Jebat) is parallel to our street, on its left side if you’re facing the river.
Lunch was at
Hoe Keen Chicken Rice, #4 Jonker Street. It’s near the start of Jonker Street, just a few steps from the bridge. We didn’t see the sign (everything was in Chinese) but the flocks of people and the long queue indicated we were there. We queued for about 20 minutes before being shown to our table. Turns out there is no other food in the menu except the
Malacca 2005
Antique rickshaw at Hotel Puri Hainanese Chicken Balls they are famous for (they are recognized as the original). It’s particularly hard (and terrifying) because they don’t speak much English. The place seems to be run by one extended family. One auntie will seat you down and set your plates (disposable), one boy will take your drinks (I ordered Coke because I figured Coke would be called Coke anywhere in the world hehe but was told “Pepsi” so Pepsi it was. I ordered bottled water for my mom and he came back with a paper cup of hot water. So much for my attempts to communicate). One other auntie took our order and was irritated when I couldn’t understand her (at this point, I still am clueless on what to order - I didn’t know there was no menu). I asked for Chicken Balls and she was asking pala if I wanted ”wedgies” (veggies pala) “cabbage” so I said yes, remembering the sautéed cabbage being prepared in the kitchen.
The meal was good, the chicken tender and the rice balls (which we initially thought were chicken or squid balls nyahahaha) were sticky and fragrant. Our bill was RM17.40 (RM1.40 each for the drinks - I
Malacca 2005
More antiques at Hotel Puri corridors don’t know if they charged us for the hot water haha). Toilets were clean.
2. To get our bearings, we looked for the
Visitor Information Center which was on the other side of the short bridge. The stop was not very fruitful - the brochures in the hotel were better.
3. At the plaza / rotunda where the Visitor Info. Centre was are clustered a few of the popular attractions. Most of it were closed (I learned much later that their Aidl Fitri holidays were officially from Nov. 3-5 but people were already preparing for it so almost everything were closed as early as the day we came Nov. 2) but were still good for photo ops hehe. Around the plaza are the popular
Portuguese red-brick buildings Malacca is known for: the Stadthuys, the Christ Church Melaka, the Malaysian Youth Museum (they have a whole lot of museums in that small area but they were all closed), the mini-windmill, and the clock tower. This part of the river is distinctly Portuguese vs. the very old, Oriental Chinese on the other side.
4. From the plaza, we followed the curving cobblestone street of Jalan Kota and climbed up
Malacca 2005
The Galeri Cafe at Hotel Puri the stairs going to
St. Paul’s Church which affords a 360-degree view of Malacca. St. Paul’s Church is the parish where St. Francis Xavier spent the last days of his life and was in fact, buried there for a time. The relics of the church are very nice, not at all creepy, even with the 4ftx10ft stone Dutch and Portuguese tombstones leaning on its walls. They have English translations for you to better appreciate who were buried in that church.
5. Wanting to rest at the hotel before going out for dinner, we crossed the bridge again and walked along
Temple Street (Jalan Tokong) which is 2 streets away from our street (parallel) and which features several Chinese and Indian temples all in one street. It is said that this is the street of peace and harmony given that different temples exist side-by-side. The street is lined with shophouses (shops at the ground floor and the owners’ homes on the upper floors), mostly selling articles of worship for the Chinese like incense, paper stuff for the dead, etc.
6. We rounded the end of the street and this time walked along the famous
Jonker Street. The street is
Malacca 2005
Miniature replica at the garden of Hotel Puri famous for its antiques but we had no interest in them and had no idea what to look for so we didn’t bother entering the shops. There were a few souvenir shops selling wooden clogs and the exquisitely beautiful handmade beaded shoes (I really wanted to buy one but they cost around P2K+ a pair for the simplest design. The more intricate the design, the more expensive it is.). There was also a store selling those small Chinese silk shoes women with bound feet wore but it’s creepy - the shoes were at most 5 inches long! Imagine that!
7. Going back to the hotel, we rested for a bit and then came out for dinner. Taxis are hard to come by so we had to ask the hotel to call one for us. We wanted to go to the Makhota Parade (the only mall in that part of Malacca). Fare was RM12.
Our driver was probably taught that brakes were only for full stops. He would round corners without slowing down -- at one point, I slid from the left to the right side of the taxi in one swift motion and he didn’t even blink. Anyway,
Malacca 2005
The History Room at Hotel Puri he took the long route and requested our permission to stop for one minute because he had to check his other car where he left his keys and bag. The stop was a blessing in disguise (despite the reckless speed which he maintained even after he found his keys and money) because we saw the other part of Malacca which we ordinarily wouldn’t have been able to see if we were just walking around.
Anyway, we arrived at
Makhota Parade in one piece. I was ecstastic to find out that they were on a grand Aidl Fitri sale and the prices of items on sale were half the sale price in Singapore! So I bought a nice leather bag for RM140 😊 Regular-priced items were only slightly cheaper than Singapore and almost same price here.
We went to the Parkson Grand supermarket to buy water and was pleased to find out that there were a lot of things there that we don’t have locally. I bought flavors we don’t have here - Pringles, Cadburry, Van Houten, Vochelle, Seasons canned drinks (the Water Chestnut flavor was so good!). I even bought different scents of Johnson and Johnson’s body wash
Malacca 2005
History of Malacca at Hotel Puri's mini-museum haha. Cheap thrills 😊
We went around the mall lugging our groceries. Nothing spectacular - we were able to buy Hang Ten stuff though (cheaper than in Singapore) and there were a lot of stores selling generic, unbranded shoes (think Marikina).
I read that there were a lot of food stalls across the Makhota Parade which offers cheap local food but I was too tired to look for it. Besides, I already knew taxis were hard to come by and it was getting late. Thinking that the most logical location for a bus or taxi station was at the main entrance of the mall, we exited there and luckily, found a taxi station with one sleepy taxi driver. He deposited us safely at Hotel Puri for RM12. We just had dinner at our room.
Thursday 1. Complimentary breakfast at Hotel Puri was definitely better than at YWCA. The buffet spread included: bread station, cereal station, noodles (pancit canton), cake rice (puto), a vegetable curry, fish rolls (kikiam), hashbrowns, some sweets made of cereals, an egg station and the best of all - a Teh Tarik station. Teh Tarik is a local drink made of pulled tea
Malacca 2005
That's me at Hotel Puri's History Room! sweetened with condensed milk. It’s frothy milk tea and it’s very good 😊 Love it!
2. After fixing our stuff for our 2PM bus ride back to Singapore, we went around again, this time to the
Central Market (which was closed since it was a holiday already) and to the
A’Famosa port and
Declaration of Independence Memorial. They were of course closed but we still had a good number of photos there 😊
3. After checking-out at 12nn, we ordered a taxi from the hotel again (which took 30 minutes to arrive!) and went to pass time at the
Sentral bus station. There is a Tesco mall connected by walkway to the bus station but our stuff was heavy so we just decided to kill time at the bus station. I had lunch at one of the stalls in the food court and bought snacks at 7-11. Depositing my mom and our stuff at the gate of our bus (you have to be at the gates 30 minutes before your trip), I went around the terminal and discovered that there were other buses going to Singapore. Among them are TransAsia, Melaka 707 Express, KKKL Sdn Bhd, Delima Express
Malacca 2005
More antiques at the History Room and of course, the Singapore-Malacca Express.
As I was a little disappointed with the condition of the Delima Express bus, I chose Singapore-Malacca Express for our ride home. Unfortunately, it was a wrong decision: the aircon was not cool, the bus creaked loudly all the way to Singapore (4.5 hours!) and the bus driver does not appear to speak in English (unlike the Delima Express driver).
4. The bus left at exactly 2PM. At 4PM, we had a 30-minute stopover and this time, I knew better - I asked for Immigration cards for Singapore so we don’t get delayed filling it up. Our driver was speaking loudly in Chinese about immigration and even if I couldn’t understand a thing, I knew he would leave us if we took longer than 20 minutes at Immigration.
We arrived at the Malaysian immigration a little before 6PM. We breezed through it because there were only a few of us foreigners. All the others were Singaporean or Malaysian passport holders - their counters had long queues.
My only thought as we waited for the others to clear immigration is that I wouldn’t want to have any problem here at this
Malacca 2005
Hotel Puri's Lounge immigration. The immigration was very dirty and the officers almost hostile.
5. Traffic at the Causeway bridge was heavy, with many Singaporeans entering the country after holidaying in Malaysia. I breathed a big sigh of relief upon entering Singapore. I didn’t feel safe in Malaysia.
However, I still feared our crazy driver would leave us after all the shouting he did regarding “passports”. The foreign passport counters at the Singapore immigration were filled to the exits - it took us 30 minutes to clear immigration and I was sure the bus left already. Surprisingly, the bus was still there and even more surprisingly, we were one of the first to board the bus. Apparently, the Singaporean and Malaysia resident counters had even longer lines.
Anyway, the bus left immigration at 6:30PM after 45 minutes of waiting (the bus driver screamed at the last few who boarded hehe). It took another 30 minutes to reach the Kallang Bahru station.
6. As we needed to go to church in the nearby Geylang area, we hailed a taxi, attended worship service and had dinner at the area. It was a nice surprise also as the hawkers offered cheap, hot
Malacca 2005
Beautiful private Chinese mansion right across Hotel Puri and good food. As I’ve been there before, I knew where the MRT station was and boarded it back to the hotel. We checked-in again at YWCA, got our luggages from their storage and settled in for the night.
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Great Post
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