Sunday 20th JanuaryThe time had come to leave Singapore and move on to Country No. 3: Malaysia. There are many buses that travel between Singapore and the main cities in Malaysia, and my destination was to be Melaka, and old port town in the south-west of the country, about four hours drive on the bus. I packed up my stuff, and bade farewell to Mark and Jess. I was sorry to say goodbye to them as I had had a lot of fun during my time there, and they had been very welcoming and generous to me. It also made a welcome change to spend some time with a fellow Derryman, and it is not too hard to imagine how much shite was spoken between us over the week!
I took the MRT to Lavender Street station, and from there boarded the bus to Melaka. The coach was very comfortable, and made a change from the rickety old things that I was used to gettiig in India (and it didn't have any vomit stains down its side either). The roads are all perfectly modern, passing through countryside densely covered in palm trees. We passed through the border crossing at Johor Bahru, getting off the bus twice at the respective immigration centres, and we were in Malaysia – it was all very quick and simple. We arrived in Melaka about 19.30, and it was the easiest of journeys.
At the bus terminal, I met two Norwegian girls – Lene and Anna – as we both walked around in circles looking for the correct stand to get the bus into town. The girls were going to the same hostel as me – The Traveller's Lodge – and we eventually got there to find a very clean, comfortable place, with friendly staff and a good atmosphere to the place due to several common areas for weary travellers to rest their bones and talk about their trails. It was different to the places I had stayed in India, where the concept of hostels does not really exist.
The area was right beside two large shopping malls (maybe Malaysians are as consumer-driven as their Singaporean neighbours), and there were many places to eat, so we grabbed some decent noodles, found out more about each other, before going back to the hostel for some rest after a long, but strightforward, days travelling. My first impressions of the place were good, and good first impressions are sometimes very welcome when you're planning to travel about a place.
