We arrived in Melaka after a comfortable bus ride from Johor Bharu, having negotiated the border again. We were immediately greeted by an arsehole in the bus station who kept pushing us to buy a ticket with his shitty little bus company. Pain in the arse. We were getting pushed a bit in Malaysia. I was determined not to give him any money. We got the local bus in to town, checked in to the hostel and had a little wander around. It looked like a nice town.
In the morning we looked up the flights to Oz and started to deliberate what we would do with our remaining time and money. Spurs bought noone on transfer deadline day. We would have to hope that it wouldn't come back to bite us. We started off with some breakfast in Chinatown, which is a little tacky and seems to have an atmosphere mostly for tourists. If you get off the main streets you can find something to enjoy for a while. We then headed over to the colonial part of the city. The Dutch colonial, salmon pink architecture is really nice and it has a very pleasant feel to it. Thankfully the city was nice, as it stopped Cannelle feeling homesick for Singapore, though I am sure we will head back there when we fly from Singapore. We then wandered around the colonial buildings. We went past the church and climbed up the hill to the old Portuguese ruined church. Its a nice place even if it was weird to have an impromptu concert on the grounds. Following that we saw the remains of the gate and wall and the old Dutch cemetery. We went past the waterwheel and found a good money changer to get rid of the remaining Singapore dollars. The old maritime museum is on a pleasant boat. We grabbed lunch in little India, where an American expat priest helped us with our orders. Afterwards we headed to the Chinese cemetery which is really peaceful and full of little monitor lizards. After I went for a walk down the river, which is quite picturesque for half the way until it stumbles into a really shitty, rundown area near our hostel, so I abandoned the hike then. Its a very quaint little town that is both picturesque and somewhat atmospheric. The problem with the town is that tourism is destroying what made the town so nice. At least most of them stick to Chinatown. It seems all the Chinatowns in South East Asia have all been adopted as backpacker shitholes for the zombie tourists. I bought some new clothes to replace the ones that had worn through and while Jessica and Cannelle watched a French film I set off to pick up a copy of the Philippines LP. We grabbed some food from the Chinese market in the evening and then Cannelle and Jessica went to watch The Impossible at the cinema, which they persuaded me to go and see in the end. We had been told that the internet was free, so I had done a lot of writing there, but it turns out it was only the wi-fi that was free. Oh well. We didn't end up paying anything.
In the morning we grabbed a bus to Kuala Lumpur and decided to make our connection directly to Georgetown and work our way back south. There were no trains at a good time. I think most trains are at useless times in Malaysia. So we hiked across the city and eventually negotiated the bus down to 27 ringgits. We got a bus to Butterworth and then the ferry for 1.2 ringgit return (its effectively a return ticket as there is no way for them to check or buy a ticket on the way back). We checked into the Banana Hotel and went and grabbed some Indian food for dinner.
Jessica got eaten alive by bed bugs in the night and looked like a bug pin cushion. Cannelle and I went out in the morning to visit the city. It is very nice and white. We went past all the colonial buildings and the old fort and round the old area. Very nice, but nothing amazing. This seems to be our opinion of Malaysia in general. We had an argument and agreed that we should stop compromising with each other on the trip as it was just frustrating us. We were starting to suffer from Nicaragua syndrome, where everything is nice, but nothing is nice enough to stop you being bored. We took a bus out to the famous temple. Its a bit tacky, but also interesting. We walked through it and were told that you had to pay for the stupid lift up to the top. That's not true of course, because I found a route to the top, by walking up the road where the cars go. It will save you some money and its not much of a walk. Damn lying bastards. The statues at the top are ok and the view of the city is nice. It convinced us that we didn't want to spend money going up Penang Hill as it is really expensive like everything else in Malaysia. They don't give a shit about tourists at the lower end of the scale here. The funicular up the hill is now super expensive, so we decided to skip it and head back. In the evening we went to an English pub and watched Spurs beat West Brom 1-0 thanks to a goal from Bale.
In the morning the hotel lost Jessica's trousers, dyed her clothes red in the wash and then accused her of bringing bedbugs to the hotel. Fuck I miss Vietnam. The people here treat you like shit and have no interest in you unless you are spending money. She told them that unless they found her trousers she was not going to pay for the last night. We decided to go to the National Park. They charged me more than they should have done and then refused to give me any change afterwards. Fuckers. They even called on a conductor to show my why I was wrong. When I proved I was right, he left and they told me I had to go to the main office to get my change. Scam artists. They have basically added money to either end of the ticket. If you go from the shopping mall in the centre to the town next to the park then its 2.7 ringgit, but if you go from the tourist area to the park its 4 ringgit even though the total journey is really long. Arseholes. On the way back we walked to the town and asked for a ticket to the shopping centre. He told us it was 4 ringgit. I showed him that it was 2.7 ringgit, then he tried to tell me I was going somewhere else. Then failing that he decided to say that I was on his bus originally, had got off the bus and got back on it again. Fucker. Eventually he had to give up that his logic was shit and let me pay 2.7 ringgit. Fucking Malaysian bastard. I hate the bus drivers here. Anyway. The National Park. The girls did not feel like trekking loads so they took the route to the lighthouse and I went for a run/fast paced walk in the jungle. I was listening to Eminem all the way to give me the adrenaline to push it. I had started with Lana Del Rey, but that doesn't have the same motivational ability. I took the trail to Turtle Beach, which is mildly strenuous and less than the one that LP says is easier. Neither of them is amazing, but they are both nice walks. The lake was not full of both salt and fresh water as that is only at some times of year. Shame, but I am not sure its that amazing anyway. The beach at the other end is nice. Both of them are, but there are less people on Turtel Beach. LP says each hike is 3 hours return, but I did Turtle Beach and back then down to Monkey Beach in around 2.5 hours. I begin to think that the LP researcher for Malaysia did most of their work online, due to the huge number of errors on the ground. On monkey beach I met the girls and despite the moniker we actually saw only one monkey. I had seen about 20 on one of the other beaches near the canopy walkway. We headed back from the park and it was a good day out. Good to get some decent exercise in and work on the fitness. The park is nice, but nothing amazing. It seems like the standard phrase for Malaysia sadly. We got some rotis for dinner as there was a monsoon rainstorm in the evening. We had got lucky in the rainy season with not too much rain.
In the morning we got the free boat to Butterworth. Jessica held firm on her threat and didn't pay for the room. I haggled a bus to Ipoh for 14 ringgit, though the guy didn't seem happy with my negotiating. Fuck him. They fuck us all the time. When we arrived the taxi drivers tired to discourage us from getting a bus and hung around for ages, but we just waited it out. We found a cheapish hotel for the three of us, but sharing a room meant that we picked up some bed bugs as well. Borneo was looking like being expensive as we tried to do some homework in advance. We looked around the town. Again it was nice with the colonial architecture but not worth a special detour. I watched Last Stand (which is ok), while Cannelle and Jessica watched Parker (which they said was ok). Although we stayed two days here I separated it into the two parts as we day tripped the next day. So far, so meh.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment