Loving Malacca

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July 5
Well, we were all so tired from yesterday we woke up hours later than what we planned on. Karla had to leave earlier this time. We were leaving Kuala Lumpur on that day so we needed to get our luggage out of Karla’s room. Karla had this brilliant idea of leaving the luggage with the front desk and inform them that people will pick them up later. So that was what happened and we were able to get out of that hotel all right. Heheh
Levs and I had to get our morning fix so we went to Starbucks and had our coffee. Soon we left to go to KL Sentral station to leave some of our stuff in the coin lockers. We went to the tourist office to confirm that the Petronas skybridge is open for that day. We took the train and soon found ourselves in line to get the free tickets to get up to the Petronas building. While in line, we met this Filipino family who has been living in Malaysia for a while. The family is muslim and we had a nice discussion about religion and I learned a lot from him. We got our tickets and found out we were scheduled to go up at 245 pm so we had quite a lot of time to burn. So Levs and I went straight to the number 8 hotel, which we were eyeing as a good budget accommodation in Malaysia. We were able to talk to the people there and was given an ocular. We felt it was good enough and it was within our budget so we didn’t go to other hostels anymore, instead we went to the Central Market to do our shopping. After haggling and begging, we basically got the stuff we wanted. At around 2 pm we left to go back to the petronas tower to get on the sky bridge. We were able to get up there and it was really nice to see the view of Kuala Lumpur and basically to know that you’re inside one of the most famous buildings in the world.
After the sky bridge viewing, we went to the KLCC food court to get a bite to eat, we found a kaiten sushi bar and got all excited by the prospect of finding something close to what we had in Japan. We took our seats by the conveyor belt and eagerly awaited the sushis passing by. However we were really disappointed by the selection so we left after just one plate each. We went to a teppanyaki place instead and ate our real lunch.
We then headed back to the KL sentral and went to the tourist office asking help on cheap accommodations in Melaka. The lady was real nice and gave me a lot of numbers I can call, so I made a few calls and found a room for 2 for only RM27. So we went to the Transnasional Bus ticketing office and bought our tickets for 7 pm, a good hour and a half away. We went back to the hotel to get our luggage and was astounded to find that by the time we left the hotel, it was already half past six. We were in such a hurry, we tore through the commuter train to get to KL Sentral. We took a quick stop to get our stuff from the coin lockers, then grabbed a taxi that will take us to Puduraya bus stop. We begged the driver to hurry up coz we only had less than 15 minutes before the bus leaves. I was so nervous that I just channeled all my chakra and stared the traffic lights down green. We got out of the taxi in the bus station with 3 minutes to spare. I left Levs behind coz she was having a hard time with her luggage. I figured if I get there first, I could ask the driver to wait. I went up and down stairs with 15 kilos of luggage and I couldn’t care less for all the adrenaline pumping into me. I got to the boarding and couldn’t find the bus, I thought for sure it already left. I turned around and saw the Transnasional bus to Melaka getting ready to leave, I practically threw myself in front of the bus and signaled to the driver that we were getting on. In short, we were able to board the bus between gasps and looks of disbelief.
The bus went on to go to Melaka and it was pretty smooth until we got to Melaka Sentral station and we had to look for the bus to take us to the hostel. We waited for a bit to catch the rickety local 17 bus. It took us to this hotel and we didn’t know which way to walk to get the hostel that we booked. We started talking with this trickshaw driver who told us that he would drive us to our hostel for RM5. I thought that was pretty steep coz I knew it was close. He went down to RM4 and since we were really tired already, we accepted. Turned out the place was less than 3 minutes away and the driver was pedaling really slow. I complained like hell for the price he asked. He said it was for the government bla blab la. And I was all, yeah, government my a**.
Anyways, the hostel, Traveler’s Lodge, was pretty nice, it was clean with pretty good facilities and it was dirt cheap. We settled down and took a nice, long sleep.

July 6

We woke up rather late, around 930 and we didn’t care, we just had the best sleep we’ve had since we left Manila. We got all ready to check out and get around Melaka. After leaving out luggage with the hostel guy: Abeng. We went down to the street and found a pretty good café for breakfast at reasonable prices. We had a nice, leisurely breakfast before we started walking down to the main street. From the main street there’s a road with an arched entrance that begins the walk down historical Melaka. After a short walk, we found ourselves in the town center. We went inside the Independence Museum and then went to the Fort and climbed up a small hill to get to the Sao Paolo church ruins. Melaka is the historical capital of Malaysia. It’s a port city and in the past the Portuguese colonized the area, which explains why a lot of the architecture and the influences of the place was European. The ruins of the Sao Paolo was really striking and peaceful since it sat on a hill and from there, you have this amazing view of the ocean and all these buildings with the same thatched room. For a while, it was hard to imagine we were in Southeast Asia, well, except for the weather of course, it was really hot!
After a bit of meditating and chilling on that mountain, we went down to check out other things. We went to the red Christ Church and prayed inside. We just drank in the atmosphere of the place and the laidback attitude we had on this part of the trip was really welcomed coz we were really tired out from the hectic schedule of the past few days. We started to look for a convenie or a small grocery coz we were really thirsty. We found one and we bought a lot of fluids and decided to walk down another road. We passed a bride over a river and saw this huge alligator in the water. We couldn’t believe that there was a crock in the city! It was right there! I took a bloody photo of it coz I just couldn’t believe it! Later we went to a tart shop that sells cendol, this ice dessert similar to our own halo-halo. We tried one and it was ok, but there was too much thick coconut milk and the taste was so overwhelming. Also, I was scared of the effect it may have on my sensitive stomach. We walked out of the shop and nearly yelled our heads off when this lizard walked in front of us! It was either a very big lizard or a baby alligator. Whatever it was, it left my mouth on the floor. That town was really something!
We then went to the cultural museum which was pretty deserted and just looked around and talked and hung out in the gardens. We decided we’ve had enough so we went back to the hostel and fixed loose ends before heading out the main street to catch the bus back to Melaka Sentral. We got there around 4 pm and we wanted to take the first bus out to Singapore. We got the Delima bus at 430 pm. The bus was real nice and comfy. I didn’t sleep a wink though but that was fine. We got to Singapore at around 9, stopping at the immigration of Malaysia and the immigration and customs of Singapore. After the border check, the bus went to Lavender street to drop us off. To my horror, it was not a bus station, instead it was a parking lot! No money changer, no nothing! Good thing, I had Singapore dollars on me that Mom gave me before leaving.
We were able to ask people around the bus station how to get to the Passiton Point hostel, the cheapest hostel I found on the web. We were told that buses in Singapore do not give out change so we needed the exact amount. I had to get my bills changed before we were able to get on a bus. I told the driver where we were going and asked him nicely to tell us where we were supposed to get off.
This black guy, Toyosi, on the bus asked us if we were going to the Passiton hostel and we said yeah and he told us that he was staying there too and offered to take us there. We said yeah, ok. (looking back on it, that was pretty dangerous and stupid) anyways, he did take us to the hostel and yeah, he was really staying in there. The thing though… well… the hostel pretty much sucked. We didn’t have any other choice coz it was late and we were tired so we took the dorm beds they had available. We didn’t like the place and the atmosphere at all plus Toyosi was really hitting on Levs. So we locked ourselves inside our room and didn’t go out, even to wash our face or pee. We talked a while with this Indonesian girl who moved to Netherlands, and then we just slept.

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Photos

Flowers anyone?
Fancy trickshaws all over Malacca, complete with a soundtrack... for the government! HAH!

sao paolo ruins
ruins of the portuguese church on top of the hill in Melaka

There's the CrOCK!
I swear it was there!

Cendol
shaved ice, jelly, coconut milk... um... yum?!