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Published: October 12th 2009
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05 September 2009 - 09 September 2009
After having spent more money than we anticipated in Singapore, we got up early on Saturday morning to get a train to Melaka on Southern coast of Malaysia.
We had decided that due to missing the bus because of a delay in immigration on our entry into Singapore, we would opt for getting out of the country by train (we hoped this would cause less hassle.)
As it turned out, Immigration exiting the country was quite straightforward, as we exited Singaporean immigration at the train station and entered Malaysian immigration at the border.
1 hour, and after everyone on the train had cleared immigration (would have been nice if the bus could have done that on the way into Singapore!) we were back on our journey through Malaysia.
As we were tired from our 5am morning start, the 6 hour train journey did little to raise our spirits. There poor, friendly taxi driver who greeted us at Tampin station (the nearest train station to Melaka) was greeted by grumpy faces. Normally we wouldn’t have taken a taxi for such a long distance journey (Tampin is 34km outside of Melaka) but we
were tired and hot (the air con on our carriage of the train had not been working- Welcome back to Malaysia!) that we decided to give in to the persistent local.
The taxi driver spent the entire journey telling us stories of his family and life and even offered us free stay at his home! (Apparently a common occurrence in Asia for locals to offer travelers a spare room.) We gracefully declined (this thought of another day with this rather eccentric taxi driver was too much after the long day we had endured.)
We finally reached Melaka central where we cheered ourselves up with a spot of retail therapy at Tescos (which anyone who knows Amy will know that this was heaven!)
An hour later we hopped on a local bus to Melaka Old town. We originally planned to stay at a hotel we saw mentioned in lonely planet; however, we accidentally stayed in the hotel next door, which turned out to be a very good choice. The Cheng Ho hotel was clean and friendly, free internet but shared bathroom. However, we had not realized that opposite was a Hindu temple. With neither of us well acquainted with
Melaka to Penang
The annoying kid caught on camera! our religious studies, we were rudely awoken at 7am but what we could only describe as 'party music.' The temple conducted their hour long ceremonies with drums and some kind of clarinet! Now the calling of the mosques we had just got used to as this only usually lasts 15 minutes and can actually sound quite soothing. But the festival atmosphere of the Hindu temple was enough to send us bonkers!
After having being woken up at 5am by the mosque and 7 am by the Hindu temple, we awarded ourselves a short lie in until 11 am, where we then started our walking tour of all the historical buildings of Melaka (courtesy of Lonely Planet.)
We started off at the Stadhuys (town hall) which was built between 1641-1660 by Dutch settlers, but is now a very impressive museum with life like displays depicting life throughout the centuries, not only in Melaka but all around Malaysia. We then moved onto the Christ Church before making our way around the buildings of interest in China Town. At the Guanyin Temple, we were told about the temple and also given a drink which was supposed to help make our dreams come
Melaka to Penang
Amy tried all her best to trip the annoying kid up! true! After a prayer to the Buddhist goddess of compassion we made our way to Francis Xavier Church (which was based on the cathedral of St Peter in Montpellier, which appealed to Amy's love of the southern French town!)
We then carried on around to the ruins of Saint Paul’s church (which still held the tomb stones of many Dutch settlers) before we looked around the replica of the Sultanates Palace.
The town is great at night where the entire old town is lit up with red lights. As we only stayed two nights in Melaka we used the second night to go around the night market, where street Karaoke takes place- an interesting sight!
On the Monday morning we rose early again (awoken by our temple alarm clocks!) and headed to the bus station to start the first part of our long day! Never ones to take the easy option (which would have been a bus direct from Melaka to Penang) we opted to get a 9am bus to Kuala Lumpur and then after a 3 hour wait pick up the afternoon train from KL to Penang.
The journey was pretty average, apart from being
Melaka to Penang
Inside the train that housed us for 9 long hours! tiring. By 7pm we were tired and hungry and we still had another 3 hours until we would reach Butterworth. We then had a small child who decided that for the final 3 hours, he would continually bang on seats and run non stop, up and down the aisle screaming!
By the time we reached Butterworth at 10.30pm (1 hour later than scheduled) we waited 30 minutes for the car ferry which would take us the 15 minute journey to Penang Island.
Having arrived so late the Old Penang Guesthouse on love lane was full and so we stayed in the Star guesthouse around the corner, which like the hotel in Melaka was clean and cheap! We finally got a chance to grab some dinner at 12am before falling into bed at 1am.
On Tuesday, we again awarded ourselves a lie in- until 12pm this time before we again took a walking tour of Penang ( again courtesy of lonely planet.) We started at the famous Eastern and Oriental Hotel before making our way to the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. We then took in the Cathedral of Assumption before looking around the Penang Museum (which with entry at
Penang
Arriving at Butterworth station...and there's that blasted kid again! 1 ringgit was well worth it!) We also saw the Supreme Court (which is a magnificent white building (big enough to rival America's!)
We finished the tour with a look at city hall and the town hall. We would have visited Fort Cornwallis but it closed early due to Ramadan so we took in the outside walls of the fort.
With another early start scheduled for Wednesday, in order to get the boat to Sumatra we decided an early night was in order!
PS: Again guys, more photo problems. We have sadly lost all photo's from Melaka and hopefully those are the only ones! Amy & Dan
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sylvia
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Bus from Penang to Melacca
Hi, now you can book the bus ticket online. It can check the price and bus schedule to and fro for Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. I normally will buy the bus ticket from Penang to Melacca online. Im Penang ppl^^</a