A taste of Malaysia: Melaka, Kuala Lumpur and Penang in less than a week!

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We were accosted by shouts of 'taxi., taxi' as we alighted the bus in the Bus Terminal in Melaka. Not knowing how it works or how far we were from our hostel, we took some time to walk through the terminal. We finally found an ATM to withdraw some Malaysian Ringgits and then ordered a taxi from the official taxi rank.

Following some discussion and a lot of hand gestures between the drivers about the location of our hostel, our taxi pulled up and out popped a man that I can only describe as being a dead ringer for Buddha. How his taxi supported his weight, plus four western tourists is beyond me, but it did, and 15 minutes later we were deposited in front of a blue door and wished an enjoyable holiday by Buddha.

The Jalan-Jalan Emas hostel in Chinatown is owned and run by a lovely young man called Sam. He was amused and delighted that we were backpacking with our parents, but was troubled by the fact that he would be putting Karin and Charles into a room with a bunkbed. After a lot of confusion, mostly caused by us, Philippe and I somehow got upgraded to a private room and Karin and Charles found a nice hotel room in a building up the road.

When we were all settled, we regrouped and went off in search of dinner. We were weary after the five hour bus trip and no one was feeling particularly gastronomically adventurous, so we found a nice little bistro by the river and tucked into a selection of western food before calling it a night.

It is surprisingly difficult to find any breakfast in Melaka that doesn't involve rice. After circling the town for a while, we finally found a restaurant that would make some scrambled eggs and toast for us. They served coffee that would knock you over, and smoothies that were so tasty you got the impression that was the fruit was still on the tree five minutes before. The staff were so welcoming and smiling and inquisitive as to where we were from that we didn't notice the time fly.

It was early afternoon by the time we got down to the serious business of sight-seeing. We had seen a boat full of happy tourists swim by on the river the previous evening, and thought we might give that a go, but the ticket office was closed for lunch. So we had a walk through town finding the Stadthuys and some other evidence of Dutch occupation here. It was strange to think that Charles' father had been in Melaka during his leave time when stationed in Indonesia. Sixty years later, here we were, exploring the history of the town, that he had lived through.

The air was so heavy that we needed to permanently guzzle water to try and keep some moisture in our bodies. We eventually decided that movement was futile and ice-cream was the only possible recourse. We sat by the river, eating our cornetto's as we waited for the boat service to resume.

We shouldn't have bothered waiting. To be honest, the boat trip 'to see the Dutch quarter' of town, was a complete let down. The people on the boat the previous night must have been drunk if they found it so interesting! Melaka received UNESCO heritage status in 2008 but it seemed to me that they had been building ever since. There were few historical sites that didn't have a crane hovering nearby, building a hotel or something and it really ruined the view. The only real positive of being on the boat was the cool breeze that whistled through the boat and offered respite from the thick heat of the day.

Back on dry land we found a cafe for a bite to eat and then made our way slowly back to the hostel for some time out (and air-conditioning!) to plan the next steps of our trip. When we did finally emerge again to source some dinner, we saw a totally different Melaka. The concierge in Karin and Charles' hotel told us about the night markets that were taking place just two streets away. The street was lit up with vendors hawking their wares. Everything from slippers to sausages could be purchased. Karaoke was being piped from a local temple and the streets were alive with the buzz of trading Malaysians. The city also looked nicer by night because it was lit up with colourful Christmas decorations. Even the noisy tuk-tuks were kitted out with enough Christmas lights to dazzle you. It was a very special atmosphere.

Having ate very well at lunch time, we returned to the cafe for some dinner. As we were 'serenaded' by a crow with a keyboard, we reflected on our quick tour through Melaka. The city can at times seem run down but it makes up for it with charm. The local people are lovely and one even gave Karin a no-strings attached present that night, just for being a nice tourist!

Next stop on our travels will take us to Kuala Lumpur which is only a two hour drive away by bus.


Kuala Lumpur

The bus trip as far as Kuala Lumpur was uneventful, but the traffic heading into town was unbelievable, so we ended up hopping off the bus in the middle of the traffic jam and hoofing it as far as our hostel. Once we eventually found the Attapasana Hostel we were delighted with our rooms. Okay, so we had to remove our shoes on entering the house and not store any pork in the fridge, but that was a small price to pay for the clean and spacious rooms and helpful staff. Also we were right beside the hippest (and priciest) strip in town.

We dumped our bags and chilled out for the afternoon. I had a bad headache that I needed to sleep off, and the Counets had a lot of parent-son bonding to catch up on, so I left them to it. That evening we ventured out as far as the strip and I was ecstatic to find a restaurant serving a full Christmas turkey dinner with all the trimmings. It was a few days early, but I wolfed it down and pretended it was Christmas day.

The next day we wanted to do a Singapore-style, one day tour of the city. We had found a place to eat a lovely breakfast, had acquired map of the city and a metro guide and some big bottles of water, and set out with great expectations. Best laid plans and all that... minutes later Philippe stumbled on a pot-hole and caught his finger on the corner of a sheet of galvanised metal that was enclosing a building site. The fence was lethal and would never be allowed in Europe, but that was of no use to Philippe's sliced open finger! We had to stop everything and hail a taxi to return to the hostel. It was a pretty deep cut, but Mammy came to the rescue and an hour later we emerged from the hostel, emergency over, with Philippe sporting a perfectly bandaged ring finger while I was thanking God that we got all those jabs before we left, more specifically the tetanus booster!

A lot of the day was over, so we changed plan and instead bought a ticket for the hop-on-hop-off tourist bus. It was a quick and easy way to see the main highlights of the city. We only hopped off at two points. The first was the Lake Gardens, where were nearly killed ourselves hiking around the floral gardens in the heat. The second was the very impressive Petronas Twin Towers. The Sky Bridge was closed to visitors by the time we reached it, and Karin did an impressive display of being disappointed. Now we will never know if she would have braved the height, but in light of her recent pattern of overcoming fears, I like to think she would have gone up! I certainly know Philippe was up for it.

We walked back to the hostel through a maze of sky-scrapers. None were as beautiful as the Petronas towers, but there were enough of them to make us feel like ants, scurrying back to our nest. We had a condensed tour of Kuala Lumpur but I think we saw enough to realise that we didn't need to spend another day there.

After an early dinner on the posh street, we returned to our hostel to pack our backs for an early morning trip to the airport. We're off to the island of Penang.

We were up and out of the hostel by 8am to give us plenty of time to get to Kuala Lumpur International Airport which is on the ourskirts of the city. We took the Metro to KL Sentral and then took a shuttle bus out to the airport. Typical for travelling with Charles, we were there in plenty of time, in fact we had to wait thirty minutes before the counter opened. We were one of the first to be checked in, and then we could relax until we were called for the flight.


Penang

It was only a thirty minute flight to Penang and it felt even shorter. It would have taken us eight hours to complete the trip by bus, and the tickets were only twenty euros per person. We stepped off the plane in Penang airport and quickly found our luggage. We booked an official taxi and were only slightly insulted when the driver told us that his car 'was nearly touching the ground with four big westerners' in it. He didn't say anything else for the trip, so we soon realised that it hadn't been an attempt at humour. He was really quite concerned about it!

Twenty minutes later we were dropped at the YMCA hostel where we were disappointed to learn that our rooms weren't yet ready. We stowed our luggage and walked to a local food court. It was so hot that the walk felt like miles. I was grumpy and saturated by the time we reach the shopping centre.

A few cokes later I had mellowed out, and was enjoying being entertained by a local school who were practicing their school musical on the stage in the middle of the shopping centre. We figured there was no point in returning to the hostel before dinner, so we whiled away the time and then tackled the food court with gusto.

The location of the YMCA may have been pretty poor, but the rooms made up for it. We are being completely spoiled by Philippe's parents and have had private rooms most nights since we picked them up. A step up from a private room, is a private ensuite room, which we were delighted to have in the YMCA. I will never take hotel rooms when away on business for granted ever again!

The next morning we shared a taxi into town and then split up. We decided on an afternoon of wandering through Georgetown on our own. Philippe and I took care of booking the ferry tickets for the next day and then found a post office to send our statue home. After a quick lunch in a local shopping centre we walked into the centre of town via Little India and the Colonial neighbourhood of Georgetown. There is plenty to see, but it is all condensed around a small area, so we were finished and ready to meet Karin and Charles sooner than we thought. We ate dinner in the same shopping centre and then all took a taxi back to the YMCA.

The ferry to Langkawi is at 8.30 tomorrow morning, so we are busy packing up yet again, but are looking forward to a luxurious Christmas on the Island.

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Comments

[Eileen]

Does Karin know you called her the devil incarnate. The places look so colourful. I suppose they don't get weeks and months of grey rain