So we get off the bus, and straight away have about 5 guys coming up trying to sell us discount tickets to anywhere we wanted. I had been warned (thankfully) so we ignored them and went to the counter and got proper VIP tickets to Melakka. The bus was comfy and air con, and the 3 hour bus ride cost something like $7 NZ each - gotta love Asia :)
The decor on the bus was garish! I was later told that the discount tickets are, at best, not aircon and not insured, and at worst, non-existent or so rusted/unwarrantable etc. that you wouldn't want to get on.
And the driving! It is truly scary at times, even the bus drivers drive like crazy. Indicators, road signs, lanes - all these things are optional. Its might makes right around here, and the bus wasn't small ...
This is the old town square that is Dutch styled. Melakka (and importantly, its port) was taken by the Dutch. If you read the history, you'll see that lots of bits of south east Asia have been conquered due to secure shipping needed- the various powers (EU/US etc) were all capturing ports in south Asia. This was the Dutch port.
We spent our first day looking around the place, including holding this snake. The owner promised it wasn't poisonous, but I was still quite edgy and nervous. Princess was much calmer, but she didn't have the head! He kept wanting to come and kiss me or my wrist. No problem. Honest...
Singapore was clean, orderly and very European. Melakka.. isn't. We sheltered in a nice clean restaurant and had some nice comfy European food - Hot chips and pasta. The prices would be horrendous for the locals, but it still converted fine for us rich foreigners. It was here at Melakka we both realized the reality of the poverty gap.
We were staying at Ringos Guest House and this was quite nice. Hung out with a live-in staff member, Howard, and traded some music etc. We got over our reality-low and decided to visit a water park in Melakka.
Howard wasn't sure, but he pointed us to the local bus station, and we took a 'local' bus the 1 hour trip to the park. This bus had no doors, and was falling to pieces. A fun ride! Was good to talk to the locals - the older generation learned English, so had a few (basic) conversations with local Malays'.
Incidentally, they are very sensitive about being called Malay/Malaysian etc. depending on their ethnicity. Malaysia is a bit of a kludge with respect to culture, as there are indigenous Malay, Chinese Malaysian and Indian Malaysian all in similar proportions. The harmony seems only on the surface - maybe an example of bad multiculturalism?
Afamosa, the fenced tourist park that housed the waterpark was hard to get to. The local bus went to the nearest town, and we had to taxi out and pay a staggering amount just to go in. We were so hot and scratchy by the time we got there, that the NZ $30each was payed - which is our daily budget each!
The park was not very great, and all most of the tourists were Middle eastern. Because Malaysia is Islamic, they come over and spend lots because its so cheap! The water was cool though, and a welcome relief for a time. We ended up getting a ride back to the local bus with a cute old school teacher who drove past and offered us a life. He was the sweetest guy - as he dropped us off, he tried to purchase us a Malay flag as a souvenir even though he was running late!
That night, you could say we had culture shock, but that isn't a good description of what we both felt at the end of the second day. We both missed home, and were just exhausted from walking and being in the searing heat (aside from the swim itself). The amounts of money people live on here is so close to zero, our influx of tourist money is the only thing to grasp at.
To top it off, the Chinese community hall across the road had some festival and was cranking their huge (taiko?) drums and the noise made our room shake! In the distance we could hear the Muslims chanting too - it was like a sing off was happening at the expense of our sleeping patterns.
It wasn't just any one thing, but suffice to say we both felt very low for a while there in our room. Family and friends - we miss you all!
We made the decision to move on to Kuala Lumpur after a few days of Melakka. We didn't really give Melakka a good chance, but it was an interesting place to further dip our feet in the Asian experience.
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