Day 33: Into Malaysia

No sleep in today! Alarms at 7:30am, at breakfast by 8 and showered, packed and out the door before 10. Our coach to Malacca was leaving the bus station at 11 and we needed to be there 30 minutes early, plus it was on the other side of the city. Onto the now-familiar metro's green line, change trains at Little India for the few stops to Bugis Junction, out into the heat and find the bus terminal.

Collected our tickets no problem, and the bus arrived just before 11. Set off promptly, though it was only about half full. This was a very comfortable coach, with wide padded seats, air conditioning and plenty of space. Luggage down in the hold and my shoulder bag on the rack above, so I was about as comfortable as I could get.

We drove for about 45 minutes and crossed out of Singapore via the western causeway. It's been a long time since we've crossed a land border and this was very different to the Vietnam/Cambodia border! Going through the departure gates took over an hour by the time we'd queued and made it back to the bus. Across the bridge into Malaysia and it was another 30 minute wait - we got through in basically record time, but this was mostly achieved by shoving through a group of 50+ Indian tourists who were sorting out luggage in front of the entrance. I guess everyone else on the bus was too polite and ended up stuck in the queue behind them! Despite having my bag scanned at multiple airports and customs points now, still nobody has asked me why I'm carrying a huge stash of prescription tablets which seems a little odd! But if it's not a problem, I don't intend to make it one.

As the bus rolled into Malaysia I reflected a bit on Singapore. I really don't think I gave it a fair shake when I was here five years ago - back then I saw it as inauthentic and too Westernised; like Dubai it's a theme park version of the culture it represents. But I don't think that's fair. We really explored properly this time and found a lot of authentic areas still existing, trading and living as they always have. I also read up a little on Singapore's history, and for it to have come from very little in 1965 to one of the world's leading cities in a generation is nothing short of remarkable. I won't miss the prices, but I'll definitely miss drinkable tap water and the comfort of knowing that 60-70% of conversations and signs are in English.

Onto the Malay peninsula and I noticed very quickly that the terrain was very different from Indonesia. No rice paddies! At all! I assume there are rice farms in Malaysia, but it certainly isn't grown down here. The coach journey once we cleared customs was pretty uneventful - the driver followed the road rules and stuck to the speed limit, though he had a habit of making loud comments in Malay to nobody in particular.

Arrived in Malacca at about 4:30pm, nearly 1.5 hours behind schedule but apparently ours was a long stop at immigration. Although we'd paid a little extra to get dropped off near our hotel, the last part of the journey needed to be done via cab, which the bus company paid for. The driver kept the meter off and at the end I just gave him the money the bus driver gave me - no idea if it was a fair fare but it wasn't my money so who cares.

Of course the taxi driver didn't know our hotel and we didn't know the exact address, so he dropped us a couple of blocks away at a landmark and we navigated the rest of the way on foot. Offline Google Maps is a lifesaver. Our room is very nice and spacious, and even has a balcony overlooking the river! Malacca is an old Dutch and British trading post colony that still has quite a few heritage buildings around.

After freshening up a little we headed out to check out the town (it was 6:30 by this stage), but most of the shops in the local district were closing up for the day and the food markets we were keen on checking out weren't on! They're only on Friday/Saturday/Sunday, and today was a Monday. Swing and a miss. Managed to find an open restaurant serving Nyonyua cuisine (it's a local hybrid of Malay and Chinese, also indigenous to Penang where we visited in 2015), so we had dinner there and headed back to the hotel. We're two blocks away from a Hard Rock Cafe which I was pretty keen on, but Shandos insisted (that we didn't go there).

Looking forward to exploring the town tomorrow! We're here for three nights and haven't made any plans beyond that - though flying east to Sarawak is our preferred option at this point.Read more