Malacca, Malaysia

Karen
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My artful interpretation of Jonker Street by night. Click here for more photos of Malaysia.

May 18-19, 2009

"We'd like to take an overnight trip into Malaysia," I told my friend in Singapore. "What place do you recommend we visit?"

"Malacca!" was her instant response.

And so to Malacca (Malaysian spelling: Melaka) we went. Comfortable tour buses (with a/c but no bathrooms) travel back and forth between Singapore, Malacca, and Kuala Lumpur every day at reasonable prices - we rode the Delima Express for about $20SNG there and 20 Malaysian ringgits back. Crossing the Singapore/Malaysia border was an experience in itself. "Be sure to remember your bus," the company operator told us, with good reason: at each border crossing everyone has to file off the bus, go through immigration, walk across the border, and find their bus on the other side - and with so much bus traffic, there's a lot of them! Luckily our Delima bus was fire-engine red and easy to spot, and it appeared our driver was keeping an eye out for us two Western girls. With our American passports we took longer to get through immigration than anyone else. At the Malaysian border crossing they even took us aside for a special health & temperature check; all the authorities we've encountered have been so cautious about swine flu.

Arriving at the Malacca bus station (about 4 hours after leaving Singapore) we wandered around in confusion for a bit before being tipped off to the Panorama bus, which functions as both local transportation and a touring service - all of the scheduled stops are at sight-seeing attractions. We'd heard some reports of ATMs in Malaysia swiping card information and emptying accounts, so we each exchanged $40 (about 170 ringgits) and it was more than enough for two full days.

The Panorama bus dropped us off at Victoria Fountain, right in the heart of Malacca's lovely old quarter, and we went in search of a hostel for the night. By sheer chance we stumbled upon what may be my absolute favorite hostel - River View Guest House, on Jalan Kampung Pantai right on the Melaka River. The whole building is full of unique charm and character, bright whitewashed walls contrasting with dark wooden beams and floors, large airy rooms and inviting common spaces. It's everything I think a hostel should be. And the owners, Mani and Raymond, are delightful. They both sat us down with a map and noted all the places we should visit, informed us we must try the traditional Malaysian dishes chicken rice ball, baba laksa and celdon, and served us coconut tarts. Mani was somewhat helplessly confused by our lack of luggage. "But...you have no bags?" she kept asking. The guest house had only been open 6 weeks when we arrived, and all the previous guests were backpackers lugging around their massive packs. We, tripping about Malaysia with only large purses, were quite the oddity.

Armed with Raymond's annotated map, we hit the streets of Malacca. After clean, wealthy, developed Singapore, Malaysia was a bit of a shock. Most buildings only had pit toilets, to my dismay. (Say what you will, I simply have not the talent to use them and am determined to avoid ever doing so.) Most of the narrow, winding streets had not even the semblance of a sidewalk, so people essentially amble among traffic. Now that I've been to Vietnam and Thailand walking in the street seems natural, but it was rather nerve-wracking to get used to at first.

Malacca has undergone great effort to build up its fascinating historical heritage and welcome visitors and it shows. Although the river itself is not the cleanest (and harbors the largest lizards/iguanas I have ever see; they were literally the size of small crocodiles), the riverfront is lovely - wide, well-lit pedestrian walkways have been built along both sides. We took an hour-long river cruise on our second day (only 10 ringgits) and it proved an excellent way to see more of the city. The area around famed Jonker Street (known for excellent antiques) is delightful to wander in despite occasional traffic. At night many of the original colonial buildings, a mixture of Dutch, Malay and Chinese architecture, are dramatically backlit in deep red. The glowing lights pick up on the many Chinese lanterns hung everywhere and the effect is magical. I'm not surprised my friend recommended Malacca as a destination, and I only wish we'd been able to stay longer than two days.

MacRitchie Reservoir & Sentosa Island, Singapore

Karen
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The long-tailed macaque! Click here for more photos from Singapore.

May 16-17, 2009

"Oh, look!" my friend said. "We can do this cool tree top walk through the Singapore nature reserve!"

"Does this mean we will essentially be hiking through the rainforest?" I replied.

"....Yes."

"Well. Just so long as we know what we're doing."

I was not aware, however, that this would turn into a 12-kilometer walk along occasionally very rough trails in 95-degree heat and dripping humidity. I do not think I will be doing further hikes through the rainforest anytime soon. We went with a pair of brothers from Yorkshire that we met in our hostel, however, and despite the rather miserable conditions we had a great time. The MacRitchie Reservoir occupies a huge area of land within Singapore's already small island, and we ended up completely circumnavigating (on foot!) the lower reservoir. The tree top walk, though brief, really was tremendously fun - the trees are so thick below you can't even see the ground. On our hike we even glimpsed a troop of long-tailed macaques, the monkeys native to Singapore, and heard them rustling in the trees repeatedly.

It's completely free to enter and walk the trails of the MacRitchie Reservoir, and I think the tree-top walk on its own is entirely worth it. Just be prepared for some serious hiking in sweltering conditions - a taxi can take you within 2 km of the walk, but once you enter the bridge it's one-way and the only way out of the reserve is another 5-6 km hike, most of it along a boardwalk. (Except, of course, when the trail becomes swamped in mud or encounters steep rocky inclines. Then you're on your own.) The second half of the hike actually runs along a fancy golf course for a time, so you get to see Singapore's finest citizens out practicing their drives, looking completely cool and comfortable, while you are swimming in sweat and limping from blisters. It's a fun comparison, I assure you.


The view from Sentosa Island

For our final full day in Singapore (before heading off on our overnight trip to Malaysia) we decided to check out Sentosa Island. My friend E warned us against this - "It's very touristy, the whole island is basically a resort" - but after several days of first walking around the sweltering city and then the sweltering rainforest, we decided a beach resort was exactly what we wanted. It's easy to get there - just take the metro to HarbourFront, and from there you can reach the island by bus, monorail or cable car (glass-bottomed and not). The bus and monorail each cost $3 SNG (the cost of getting on the island) while the cable cars cost significantly more.

Upon stepping off the bus we did indeed find ourselves in one huge theme park, essentially - all the careful landscaping and artfully designed walks strongly reminded me of Atlantis in the Bahamas. Or perhaps even Disney World, as the island even has a ride - the luge! It is quite silly but ridiculously fun - for $11SNG you take a ski lift over the island then ride a low wheeled cart down a course, speeding or gliding as you like. Monica merrily swerved all over the course, cackling all the way. I was a more sedate driver.

Our theme-park ride accomplished we headed for the beach, where I was rather disappointed. I know Singapore is a massive hub for shipping traffic, of course, but I had no idea their resort beaches would essentially look onto a major shipping lane. They'd built mini-islands facing the beaches (which were created with sand imported from Indonesia, E tells me) in order to improve the view, but they couldn't hide the fact that some freighters were anchored just offshore. It was not encouraging me to swim, and the cloudy water speckled with debris didn't help. So Monica swam while I lounged on the beach and read a book, and we were both happy. Afterward we watched the sunset over the shipping channel choked with vessels - and with all the bobbing lights, it was quite the beautiful sight.

Geylang, Singapore

Karen
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Durian fruit. Click here for more photos from Singapore.

May 14-20, 2009

Thus far Singapore is the hottest, most humid country I have ever encountered (and as of this writing I've already been to Malaysia and Vietnam). Coming after cool autumnal Australia, the heat was brutal. The first couple days it almost felt like moving through water, the air was so heavy. We kept ducking into air-conditioned restaurants and shops just for some relief.

Since Singapore is essentially one huge shopping mall, luckily we were never far from a/c. A good Singaporean friend of mine from college used to joke about her country and its shopping centers, and she really wasn't kidding. It felt like everywhere we turned we found ourselves in another mall - gorgeous, gleaming, and frigidly blasted with a/c. And spotless, of course. Singapore is truly as clean as advertised. Not that we never saw litter, but all the sidewalks and pedestrian walkways were so well designed, all the public areas so beautifully laid out and maintained, an aura of glittering cleanliness seems to permanently hover over the city.

Our hostel, 98SG, was superbly located less than 100 feet from the Aljunied subway station, and it was wonderfully easy to get into the city center and explore. (I do so love a well-functioning metro system.) Aljunied serves the Geylang neighborhood, which my friend laughingly informed us was the red light district - after we'd already booked our hostel, of course. (I was rather startled to discover that Singapore has a red light district, with its wholesome, hardworking, no gum-chewing image - though with its history of pirates, this should really be no surprise.) Geylang turned out to be a great place to stay in - the hostel itself was located at the quiet end of a street, and the rest of the area is filled with Chinese and Taiwanese restaurants, brilliant red lanterns, and blazing neon signs.

We went out one evening with my friend E and a couple of her friends for a sampling of Taiwanese food. With rapid Mandarin they helped us order steamed and fried pork dumplings, bean curd custard, fried spring onion pancake, and yu tiao, the fried dough to be eaten with the custard. (As a former British colony, Singapore's primary language is English, though the island population is largely made up of ethnic Chinese, Indians and Maylay.) All was scrumptious except for the custard, which I found rather sour. Afterward we visited a fruit stand for durian. Durian is a large fruit - bigger than a coconut - studded with extraordinarily hard and sharp spikes. The fruit seller had to handle them with thick gloves, and we were informed that people have actually died when these fruits fall out of the trees and land on them. Harvesters have to wear helmets. I had no idea fruit could be so dangerous.

E. & friends enjoying their durian

Amusingly, the day before we had wondered over some signs on the bus: no smoking, no food or drink, no . . . strange spiky fruit? Why does it get its own category? Besides its prickliness durian is also known for its strong odor and unusual taste - which appeals to some and revolts others, apparently. Hence the ban on carrying them on public transportation. With swift whacks of the knife the fruit seller carved our durian into sections, of which only the spongy, yellow flesh around the pits is consumed. There's no doubt, durian is a strange fruit. Monica and I took tentative tastes . . . and promptly decided that was enough. It's the texture that's so off-putting - it reminded me of soft tuna fish more than anything else, except somehow sickly sweet. Not very appealing to American tastes. E and the others happily finished off every pit, however - and then washed their hands at the fruit stand's sink to get rid of the durian odor. I have never yet encountered another fruit that required so much effort to hide the fact that you had eaten it.

Upon leaving the stand we were overjoyed to hear E and her friends complaining of the heat. "We thought it only affected us silly foreigners!" I said. "Oh, no!" said E's friend. "We're always hot! Why do you think we have so many indoor shopping malls?" Indeed. Singapore: where shopping - and air conditioning - reign supreme.