After spending an action packed few days in Singapore, it wasting to roll on out and into the sixth country on the list; Malaysia. The first stop in Malaysia was scheduled to be Kuala Lumper; however after speaking to a few people in the hostel in Singapore I had been convinced to get a ticket to the coastal city of Melaka first.
After a fun-filled and exhausting day at Universal Studios it was a massive struggle to get up and ready to leave for 9am to get to the bus terminal and make sure there was enough time before hand to grab supplies. The coach journey was a nice easy compared to those in SA and Oz, only taking 6 hours from the centre of Singapore including immigration. It was also one of the smoothest; and managed to get about 4 hours of sleep.
Melaka is famed for being one of the first ports colonised by the British empire within SouthEast Asia and also has a large Dutch and Portuguese heritage. The coach stopped in the middle of the Dutch quarter of the city and we were surrounded by traditional dutch architecture including a large clock tower and church. There were 6 of us on the coach and after a short wild goose chase, we managed to find the hostel; get settled and then head out for dinner. The first thing that we noticed was the distinct lack of people around... especially with it only being around8pm. The majority of restaurants were closing up for the night and there was also a complete lack of bars within the town. We managed to find the last place open which was a small local Malaysian place managed to grab a nice cheap plate of Chicken with Ginger, Rice and a nice cold bottle of Carlsberg.
As you'll figure out shortly; within Malaysia there is not really that much to do; and when you read about 'places of interest' etc... what is really meant by it is that you go there, look, take pictures and within 5 or so minutes it's time to head off to the next place. Which is lucky for me as Malaysia was only supposed to be a quick stop-over between Singapore and Thailand; so the plan was to only stay within each place for a couple of nights at the most.
The hostel in Melaka was actually pretty decent. Nice 4 dorm dorm and for the first time since the hotel in Rio, I was staying in a proper double bed and not a bunk bed!! So after a good comfortable sleep I was up bright and early to explore the town and see what there was to offer.
Not a lot; being the simplest answer... The first point of call was to find an ATM, which as with everything was extremely complicated. Everybody that was asked gave random looks of confusion and then pointed in completely the opposite direction to the person before. Half an hour later and I was on track, heading down towards the river and to the Dutch quarter to have a nose around and take some pictures. The buildings were based around a main market square and we're constructed of red brick with white trimmings, with the centre piece being a large clock tower and fountain with the church in the background. The whole square was also surrounded by bicycle taxis decorated in brightly coloured flowers
Unfortunately the Dutch museum of Melaka was closed, so the cultural side pretty much stopped there. The remainder of the day was spent wandering through Little India and Chinatown before retiring to the hostel for a few hours afternoon nap. The evening was a lot better than the previous. The streets of Chinatown suddenly came alive and the large weekly night market started with the majority of the stalls being food ones selling all sorts of local delicacies. My favourite two stalls were the lamb kebabs and a sort of pancake but filled with a chicken curry and then deep-fried. The remainder of the stalls were cheap and tacky clothes and souvenirs etc... and it was here that I got the first sight of the Asian unhealthy obsession with Angry Birds. They have balloons, bags, t-shirts, iPhone covers and several people on buses and trains have the theme music as their ringtone.
Next stop in Malaysia was Kuala Lumpur. After another 6 hour coach trip to the middle of the Country, the first thing to do once in KL was to get lost. I've quickly come to realise that there's no point asking the locals for help as they just seen to answer any question with a polite smile, a bid and the word: Yes. So after 3 stops on the train and finally realising that I was going the wrong way, it was time for a taxi. The hostel was right in the middle of Chinatown; loud, bright and energetic!! For the first night I planned to take it easy grab some food, relax and plan out the next couple of days. In reality, after a quick Skype call to the old people I took a quick nap around7pm only to sleep through my alarm and wake up at 4.30am... I put it down to the flight from Australia followed by a couple of intense days of walking around sight-seeing in immense heat and high humidity.
The next day was a lot more productive!! Having now mastered the complex KL train system (a mixture of overground, underground and monorail; all interlinked) The first point of call was to head to the twin Petronas Towers; which can be seen from pretty much anywhere in the city. The metro station is directly in front of the towers and the view when stepping out is breath taking. The towers were formally the tallest in the world and were only recently overtaken by another in somewhere like Japan. The towers are owned by an oil company and are the headquarters for many of the countries large industrial companies. At the bottom between the towers there is a large high-end shopping complex and approx. 100 metres above this there is a sky bridge that connects the two towers. I stayed there for about an hour; taking pictures and checking out Topman inside of the centre before heading back into central KL. I decided not to take the trip to the bridge as there is another tower within KL that has an observation deck approx. 150 metres higher than that of Petronas.
The Menara tower is one of the tallest communication towers in the world and has an observation deck at approx. 350 metres high. The views across the city are spectacular; however the day that I went, there was a low cloud coverage, so the distance was very hazy. The best part about the tower was that the ticket to get to the top is a multi ticket, with a choice of 2 other 'attractions'... The first was a donkey ride - which I decided to skip after seeing a donkey tied up in the car park and a few cones lined up - and the second was to their 'wildlife park' which was situated beneath the tower. The wildlife park had a lot of negatives. There was a large selection of animals; however the cages were very small and the conditions didn't look to good. The two big highlights though were the parrots and the snakes!! The parrots were in the open and sitting on a few perches and I had my photo taken with 3 of them; one was sitting on my shoulder nibbling my ear whilst the large one was digging it's claws into my wrist, flapping it's wings and squawking pretty loudly. The snakes were very impressive. There were several albino Pythons, grass snakes, taipan... however the main attraction was the enormous 32 foot Reticulated Python. This thing was HUGE!! The head was twice as big as my hand and it was thicker than my thigh. When I asked the little Malaysian man if he'd ever held it, he had the look of fear and just said: no... it would kill me!! There was a large wall with boxes of spiders - which I stayed well clear of - and small cages with tiny monkeys and other strange looking creatures.
After spending the rest of the afternoon chilling around looking at a few more temples I managed to find the posh area of the city with nice bars and restaurants to get a cold beer and sit and watch a few games of football. I met a really cool New Zealand couple in the bar who now live in Sydney and invited me to come and stay with them anytime I want!! VERY tempting!!
The next day was the last in KL. I spent the morning walking around Chinatown and the afternoon back into the posh area to get a decent meal and do a bit more shopping. Chinatown in KL is awesome!! There is stall after stall of fake watches, handbags, clothes and electronic goods. I managed to grab a couple of bargains and came away with a couple of New Era hats, 4 or 5 pairs of Ray-Ban shades and a pair of Dre Beats headphones. The night was spent in a Reggae bar by the hostel and just relaxing before hitting the next part of Malaysia which was supposed to be the highlight... hmmmm, we shall see...
x
The Menara tower is one of the tallest communication towers in the world and has an observation deck at approx. 350 metres high. The views across the city are spectacular; however the day that I went, there was a low cloud coverage, so the distance was very hazy. The best part about the tower was that the ticket to get to the top is a multi ticket, with a choice of 2 other 'attractions'... The first was a donkey ride - which I decided to skip after seeing a donkey tied up in the car park and a few cones lined up - and the second was to their 'wildlife park' which was situated beneath the tower. The wildlife park had a lot of negatives. There was a large selection of animals; however the cages were very small and the conditions didn't look to good. The two big highlights though were the parrots and the snakes!! The parrots were in the open and sitting on a few perches and I had my photo taken with 3 of them; one was sitting on my shoulder nibbling my ear whilst the large one was digging it's claws into my wrist, flapping it's wings and squawking pretty loudly. The snakes were very impressive. There were several albino Pythons, grass snakes, taipan... however the main attraction was the enormous 32 foot Reticulated Python. This thing was HUGE!! The head was twice as big as my hand and it was thicker than my thigh. When I asked the little Malaysian man if he'd ever held it, he had the look of fear and just said: no... it would kill me!! There was a large wall with boxes of spiders - which I stayed well clear of - and small cages with tiny monkeys and other strange looking creatures.
After spending the rest of the afternoon chilling around looking at a few more temples I managed to find the posh area of the city with nice bars and restaurants to get a cold beer and sit and watch a few games of football. I met a really cool New Zealand couple in the bar who now live in Sydney and invited me to come and stay with them anytime I want!! VERY tempting!!
The next day was the last in KL. I spent the morning walking around Chinatown and the afternoon back into the posh area to get a decent meal and do a bit more shopping. Chinatown in KL is awesome!! There is stall after stall of fake watches, handbags, clothes and electronic goods. I managed to grab a couple of bargains and came away with a couple of New Era hats, 4 or 5 pairs of Ray-Ban shades and a pair of Dre Beats headphones. The night was spent in a Reggae bar by the hostel and just relaxing before hitting the next part of Malaysia which was supposed to be the highlight... hmmmm, we shall see...
x
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