Look It Up!

30 August 2013

Malacca, Malaysia


When my brother came to visit us, we decided to check Malacca during one weekend. We left by bus at around 8 in the morning on a Saturday. We thought we had return tickets for Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, the salesperson and I had a miscommunication. The "return tickets" she booked for us were actually for another Singapore to Malacca trip. It was so stressful because nobody was selling any Malacca to Singapore tickets for Sunday. They were all sold out. We were advised to buy our tickets in Malacca instead.

The trip took around 5 hours, I think. They say that normally, it only takes 3 hours. But the long queues at the Singapore and Malaysia immigration checkpoints were just horrible. The immigration lines were not that long. But since there were a lot of people travelling because it was a school holiday month, the bus queues were soooo long. There were also traffic jams on the Malaysian side. While the bus was quite comfortable, we felt quite impatient with the jam. I think we ended up sleeping most of the time.





When we arrived in Malacca, the first thing we did was to look for return tickets. We wanted to book for an afternoon or early evening trip on Sunday. Unfortunately, tickets for the later trips were all sold out. We had no choice but to buy tickets for Sunday morning, 8 am, which meant we had less than 24 hours to explore Malacca.


We took a cab to the Bayview Hotel. Cabs were like Philippine cabs. Luma, sira-sira, karag-karag, hehe. After checking in, it was lunch time for us. We were all tired and hungry after the long trip. There was a restaurant near the hotel which served chicken rice. We had lunch there and food was okay. Indeed, food in Malaysia is cheaper than in Singapore. Parang half the price ata. Not bad.




After eating lunch, we decided to explore Malacca. After all, we did not have much time left. We walked to the Christ Church, the landmark red church in Malacca. It was pretty crowded because there were a lot of tourists then. We noticed that the streets were just like in the Philippines - some open canals, some trash on the streets, cars parked everywhere, traffic jams, etc. But in fairness to this touristy place, I think it's still cleaner than Manila.



After taking photos at the Christ Church, we checked out the other places nearby. There was St. Paul's Church that was located on top of a hill.





Honestly, there was not much to see in Malacca.










It actually reminded me of some of our provinces in the Philippines.







On one instance, we ended up in a deserted place with a dark overpass. It was a bit scary. Quite different from the super safe and secure Singapore.





At around 6:30 pm, we decided to head back to the hotel. We were so tired and we felt that there was nothing else to see outside so we just had dinner at the hotel. Food was so-so. We were able to witness some sort of parade of bicycles that were lit up. Afterwards, it was sleeping time for us.

The hotel was also so-so. We needed an extra bed for my brother and we paid for it beforehand. However, it took the housekeeping people forever to deliver the bed. We also needed some other stuff like toiletries and they also took their time to send them over. Boo! Before we retired for the night, we also informed them that we needed a cab at 7:30 am because we had to be at the bus terminal by 8 am. When we arrived at the reception lobby by 7:20 am, the receptionists were surprised. They started calling their contact, who obviously could not be there instantly. It was another stressful situation for us because the hotel was located quite far from the bus terminal. Fortunately, a cab passed by in front of the hotel so we were able to make it in time for our trip.



There was a bit of a traffic jam on the way back. But it was way better than the trip the day before. I guess it was also good that we returned earlier because the jam might have been worse if we left in the afternoon or in the evening.


Over-all, Malacca was just okay. Initially, I was really looking forward to the trip because it's a historic place and it's part of the UNESCO World Heritage list. But I didn't really like it that much. I think Macau was better. But then again, it's one of the places you just have to see and visit. It was nearby after all.

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