Having spent 3 days in KL, we decide it's time to move on. KL is a nice city, but sometimes large cities can get a bit claustrophobic and all you want to do is to walk around a nice little town instead of always having to look up at the high rises, which is what we did. First stop, MELAKA.
Ben wanted to go up to the Cameron Highlands and do some trekking (no thankyou) and advised us to go to Melaka. Ben had aleady been there so it made sense for us to go south, and Ben to go north and then we would re meet ready to head up north to Penang together.
As Ben had already come from Melaka he kindly showed us to the bus station. With our heavy bags on and the temperature hitting 30 degrees plus, any length of walk would have been challenging. We arrive at the bus station after a 15-20 minute walk only to find, Ben had taken us to the wrong station. Thanks Ben!!! We then have to make the 15-20 minute walk back in the right direction, plus around another 10.. (you don't even want to imagine the faces I was pulling). Myself and Caroline finally made it to the station and a very friendly Malay man asked us where we were going, and that he too was going to Melaka so he showed us where to get our tickets from and what terminal we were due to depart from. This probably saved us around 15 minutes of faffing around trying to figure it out ourselves.
The journey was only 2 hours south of KL and a bargain at only 12RM, a whopping, £2.20! You can't even get a one way on the bus in Manchester for that!
The coach was more comfortable than a plane! It had near enough fully reclining seats, and even a fold out foot rest from the seat! Bliss!
We arrived in Melaka and headed straight to our hostel, the River View (which you guessed it, had a view of the river). We only paid £4 per night for this accommodation so we didn't even care what it was like but we were pleasantly surprised. Raymond the owner greeted us with a nice cold drink and an orientation of Melaka. The hostel itself was really homely, comfortable clean and tidy.
On the evening we arrived Caroline felt ill so whilst she slept, I took myself out and attempted to eat. At this stage, having been away for only 5 days, the thought of eating rice/noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner was filling us with dread. Our appetites had dramatically reduced and we just didn't want to eat (well, not Asian food anyway) So, the English way to solve a fussy eater, a good portion of french fries! Happy Jessica :)
With Caroline still feeling ill the following day, I take myself out for a wonder and with excellent use of my E grade Geography GCSE, I go the completely wrong direction. I find China town and the famous 'Jonker Walk' which is host to the weekend night markets. I walk up and down it around 2 times before Caroline comes out for some air and food. We spend the rest of the day walking around and generally enjoying the scenic town which could be a little European village with all it's river cafe's and quaint crafts and art shops.
One thing I do have to mention is.. I went to buy some playing cards and as I went to pay the lady she was literally almost spitting at me with her horrific cough. When I saw the unwanted bodily fluids coming in my direction I was trying to back up out the shop and get my money out of my purse so quickly my money just wouldn't come out quick enough... she was gross. As I left I felt like I had caught some sort of disease, and out came the hand sanitiser!
Also, on the way home, I also fell over.. twice, in the small fall. I don't quite know how it happened, but I spilt my newly bought drink and cut my foot.
When you say you are going travelling, everyone automatically thinks of beaches, well after 6 days, we still hadn't seen one, so our task for the day, was to find a beach... and that we did!
It only meant taking a 30minute taxi ride and a 20 minute boat.. close hey?
The beach itself was lovely and the island was called 'Pulau Besar'. At one point, it was only me and Caroline on the beach so perfect timing for a jumping photo shoot. We didn't last long in the heat as even for my standards, and I love the heat, it was just too damn hot!
On the way back to the ferry, we were swarmed by around 30 Indian men who had clearly never seen a white woman in the flesh before. We sat round the corner hoping they wouldn't bother us (yeh right) and the next thing we know, we have posed for around 10 pervy little men and their camera phones. We literally should have started to charge!
That evening Raymond had advised us that the local area was putting on a free river boat cruise with FREE FOOD, and as a backpacker, that's like hearing you have won the lottery.. well not quite, but you see how important it is.. for all international travellers to celebrate the Deepavali festival of light. We arrive and low and behold, everyone starts to stare, I feel like a gimic. We get some incredibly fresh food though and enjoy the Indian dancing. We quickly realise the importance of this festival as it's only the King of Malaysia sitting a few yards ahead of us.. and the King of India (I think).
After the festival, 2 Austrian's we had met in our hostel got chatting to a Polish girl and a Malay girl (no idea what her name was) and we all go for a few beers. One of the Austrian's, Manual, decided he wanted to get up and sing.. at this point you think, oh dear.. this is going to be awful. It actually wasn't. He got up and sang some Oasis.. especially for us, and also strummed away on the guitar. He also decided to play some of The Verve, or as Manuel liked to call them, The Werve! This, I found very amusing!
The next short chapter is going to be me, moaning, alot. If you too had gone to a place called 'IPOH'.. you would understand!
On the Monday morning, me and Caroline left Melaka to head 5 hours up north to Ipoh to meet back up with Ben. Then on the Tuesday, we would head up north to Butterworth to make the way to the island of Penang. This whole little journey made sense at the time of booking, but in heinsight, we all wished we had never gone to the dreaded town of Ipoh.
We arrived in Ipoh and headed to our accommodation, the Shanghai Hotel. It was, if I am going to be completely honest, a sh8thole, and I cannot be more polite if I tried.
It looked like it hadn't been decorated, well, ever! Our room only cost £3 per night each, but still, we were all disgusted.
The bathroom door lock was a straw, we saw rats on the 'balcony', we didn't have sheets, there was what looked like an axe mark in the door - as though someone was trying to escape this god awful room and a hand print above the bed Ben had! To make the evening a little more bearable, we got a couple of beers and watched some ever so exciting, NCIS and Criminal Minds. Rock on.
To top it all off.. Caroline and Ben heard.. errrmm.. how to describe this nicely, 'man groans' from another room.. and as it turned out, we were staying in a semi brothel!!!
At 7.30 the next day we left Ipoh as fast as you could say Ipoh. Without sounding horrible to it's locals, it should be wiped off the map and never heard of again!
Our next stop, Penang...!
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