Our bus to Melaka leaves at 9:00 sharp. It is a comfortable bus with only two seats on one side of the aisle and one on the other. The man we bought our ticket from said that it was a 3-hour trip.
The first two hours of the trip are taken up with driving around Penang and Butterworth. First we drive out to the Express bus station and pick up a few more passengers. Then we cross the bridge to Butterworth and sit at the bus station there – I guess waiting for a full load. It is close to 11:00 before we are actually on the way. Next time, take the passenger ferry across to Butterworth and save yourself an hour or two of bus riding!
The #1 highway runs from the Thai border south through Kuala Lumpur to Singapor. The freeway is in great condition and has mowed edges and pruned hedges along the way. We go through a few areas of tropical forest but most of the land has been harvested and planted to oil palm.
We go into the centre of Kuala Lumpur, a city of about 1.5 million, to drop off a few passengers downtown. The city is clean, the traffic flow well-organized, and most of the older buildings have been restored.
From Kuala Lumpur we head out of town toward the port to the bus station there, then back to Kuala Lumpur before we head south again. It is after 6:00 before we come into Melaka. The bus station is 5 km north of town. We are expecting to be met at the station by a swarm of touts, but there is only one man there asking if we want a taxi.
“No thanks, we’re taking the bus into town.”
The local buses leave from the other side of the station, so we make our way through the building, stopping off at the toilets before we look for the #17 bus into town. The bus is just pulling out and we manage to wave him down and lug our bags up and into the bus. The ticket man is a friendly guy who asks where we’re going.
“To the roundabout on Melaka Raya.”
He says the roundabout is no longer there, but he’ll tell us when to get down.
The ride into town takes us right through the centre of the historic district. Melaka has attracted visitors for centuries, being on the sailing route between India and China. The Chinese, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British all controlled the port at different times and each left their mark on the architecture of the city. Tourists from nearby Singapore and Kuala Lumpur come to shop in the quaint shops and eat the unique food. Bus loads of Chinese, Japanese and Koreans come to take each others photo in front of the fountain and tour the town on the colourful rickshaws.
The bus leaves us off at the old roundabout and the ticket man points the direction for us to take. We are planning to go to Shirah’s Guest House, with “Mediterranean colours” and where the “doubles are excellent value.” It sounds good, but when we find it, it looks terrible.
We head back to the corner where the Fenix Inn looks like a great place to stay. It’s rather pricey at 88 RM (almost $30), but it has free internet and the place is spotless.
We’re starving by now. At the corner by the shopping centre are several night food stalls with outdoor tables, so we head across the street to eat. Later we go into the mall looking for the grocery store. We see people coming out with bags of groceries, but we can’t seem to find the store. We keep going in the direction that people are coming from with their grocery carts. On the 4th floor we finally find it. The escalators are like moving, slanted sidewalks so that people can push their grocery carts onto the escalator. I can’t imagine a supermarket in Canada being on the 4th floor of a mall, but here it seems quite common.
A tub of yogurt, a bag of muesli, a package of chewing gum.
Galen & Rebecca Kennel's Travel Blog 