Infestation in Melaka (Day 148 - 149 by Chris)

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Thursday 11th February 2016

Awake, packed and having had a quick breakfast at the hostel we were in a taxi and on our way to the bus station ready for our 11am departure to Malaysia. The bus arrived at 11am and when we boarded there was only 1 other person on-board. As we had trouble booking a seat a few days earlier as everything seemed fully booked we expected more people to board any minute. At 11:15am we set off with only 4 people aboard including the driver. We had a really plush bus with very wide seats that reclined almost horizontally and no one else aboard. We came to the conclusion that there must have been problems with the booking site as most buses that left the station had very few people aboard.

30 minutes after leaving the bus station we arrived at the Singapore immigration check point. We left the bus and having only 2 people ahead of us in the queue we were through passport control within 2 minutes. We then boarded the bus and traveled over the bridge that connects the island of Singapore to the mainland of Malaysia and if you think bigger still, a bridge that connects Singapore to Europe! We the arrived at Malaysia passport control and with absolutely no one there other than about 5 members of passport control staff and we entered Malaysia in seconds. The smoothest immigration check point we've been through to date.

After 3 hours on the bus, most of which was lost in sleep on account of the comfortable seats and the very smooth road, we arrived in Melaka at 2:30pm. To Gemma's complete surprise she found Malaysia to be very developed and clean. In her mind she had images of Cambodia and didn't realise that Malaysia is actually the 2nd richest country in South East Asia (1st being Singapore). At the bus station we located a taxi and drove 10 minutes to our Hostel "River View Hostel" which is based in the centre of the UNESCO area. Melaka is a port town and is quite a big, however is split into 2 parts - UNESCO protected site and the "normal" Melaka town. The protected part of the town houses many colonial buildings dating back to the 1500's and covers the reigns that the Dutch, Portuguese and British had in these areas. This is the main reason that tourists visit Melaka, for their old colonial sites.

The Hostel we were in was one of these buildings and from the outside looked like it had a lot of character, however from the inside you saw that having lots of character meant that the walls were cracked and damp was visible on the walls. We checked into our dorm room which had a set of bunk beds (for us) and a single bed which was occupied by a French lad. When we'd dropped off our bags we headed straight out into the town using the map that our hostel manager (a Scottish fella) had given us. The town isn't huge and looking at what he'd marked as places worth visiting we were confident that the day and a half we had here was enough to cover everything.

We were actually located in the Chinese section of the UNESCO town with the other part being an Indian area. We walked onto Jonka street which is approx 500 metres long and is lined with some beautiful colonial buildings, some of which have amazing street art on the walls (some may call it graffiti - odd as its meant to be protected to preserve its original state!) (I've started to use lots of brackets recently - strange!). We popped in and out of some of the buildings which are mostly shops selling tourists stuff like post cards, wooden carvings, scarfs, t-shirts etc. As its still Chinese new year and this is china town, the street was heaving with Chinese tourists all of which were indulging in the food being sold on the street vendors. Red lanterns lined the streets and there was a real buzz of activity. Being unbelievably humid we had to take cover in a small cafe which had strong air conditioning for some food and a break from the heat. We popped into 'The Daily Fix' which was a lovely cafe serving an extensive list of hot and cold drinks and food. For about £7 we had a huge bowl of pasta and a coffee. The prices in Malaysia seem to be more in our price range.

After eating we walked down to the canal and sat down at a small table at a Reggae bar. We spent an hour or so as the sun went down drinking some cold Tiger beers at good prices chatting and watching as the tourist boats floated down the canal full of bored looking tourists. After a while we headed off to find some food and decided upon an Indian restaurant which like the place we ate at in Singapore served their food on banana leafs. We had a selection of meat and dhal and ate until we were full. Extremely worn out, more from the humidity than anything else we headed back to the hostel to shower and sleep.

Friday 12th February 2016

We must have been very tired as we didn't wake until 10:30am. By the time we'd sorted ourselves out it was almost midday and we decided we'd head to The Daily Fix again for some brunch. We arrived and it was a full house so waited for a table before ordering some eggs Benedict and and egg mayo sandwich. The food here is so good and cheap!

We left and decided to cross the canal to the UNESCO area where we instantly saw the iconic red church (Christ Church), the symbol of Melaka and as you'd expect was surrounded by tourists and opportunistic locals trying to make a living. There were men with cyclos offing tourists a ride around the town. Each bike was decorated in over the top Disney and other cartoon characters. The most popular bike seemed to be a Hello Kitty bike with Hello Kitty soft toys, towels, flowers covering every square inch of the bike. There were loads and loads of these cyclos driving all over the town making for some good pictures. We walked around the corner from the church and up a hill to St Paul's church which was the original church built in the early 1500's. It was build by a Portuguese sailor which landed in Melaka and built it as a thank you to god for allowing him to survive the treacherous sea journey which saw them fight with many other ships along the way. This was the main church here for over a hundred years until the Dutch invaded and built the Christ Church using St Paul's as a storage hut. They were then invaded by the British in the 1800's and the Brits used the church as an armory before the church ran into disrepair as it is today.

After leaving the church area we popped into a shopping mall where we bought some new clothes, the ones we brought with us are now in the bin but served their purpose. We then spent a few hours in a coffee shop before heading out for dinner at a place called the Geographer which is a famous building in China town but now a pub. We had some local Malaysian fried rice and satay which was amazing before heading back to the hostel.

When we got back to the room Gemma went to take a shower and when she returned she commented on the number of flying ants that were in the room which I hadn't noticed. Around the light were over a hundred flying ants. I popped outside the room to tell reception when i noticed that around the light in reception there were also hundreds of the little buggers. Looking outside I could see a swarm thousands thick hovering outside the front door. There was a mad rush to ensure all windows and doors were closed. We turned off all the lights which seemed to be attracting the ants and insect killer sprayed in the room. During the 10 minutes we had to wait for the spray to do its job we got chatting to the girl who had moved into our room, an English girl called Kathryn. She had started her travels only 3 weeks ago and had come from the north of Malaysia so we managed to get some advice on good places to visit. She is eventually visiting Japan so we were also able to help her too.

When we reentered the room the flies were gone, or at least not near the lights. We noticed that there were lots of wings on the beds and floor. What the clever things had done was detach their wings to get away from the poisonous gas and were now crawling around the floor. My flip flops worked over time taking care of them all. We felt a little on edge for the rest of the evening and even typing this I am feeling a little tingly. We packed our bags ready for the bus the following day and then showered and slept.

We had a short stop on Melaka but this was enough time as its only a small place. It was a lovely little town and worth a stop if ever travelling between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

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