July and August 2015

Coming from Singapore we arrived by bus at Melaka Central. From there we took bus no. 8 as it was described in the form of our hostel. Unfortunately we missed the point where we should have gotten off the bus. As it became clear to us – we already had a nice sightseeing section behind us – we stepped out somewhere in the countryside as we saw another bus stop on the other side of the street. It was a bus stop but no information what so ever. It took only 15 minutes and a bus approached with the direction Melaka Central. This was an express bus, that didn’t had the same route as the bus we took, so we ended up at the bus station again… From here – to spare us more trouble – we just took a taxi for 20 RM.

Malacca
The monsoon winds are still blowing, but the great trading times are over and history has forgotten this place. What a fascinating history this place has. As Toms farther was a sailor he had heard stories of Malacca since his childhood. Many great seafaring nations came here – including Zheng He for the Chinese Imperial Empire – in the end even the Europeans. Today – a few hundred years later – the name and the mixture of different cultures are the only remnants.

Tip
It was hot and mainly dry during our stay. We were active until around 11 am and made siesta until around 4 pm.

Hostel The Old House
Nice handmade wall paintings decorated this friendly, very clean and airy guesthouse. All tourist spots are in walking distance. The very friendly host liked to give his travel tips for Melaka and Malaysia.

China Town – World Heritage?
We wondered as we walked to the streets what the obligations are for such a site. Today many cars drove in the three parallel streets of the “protected” area, the houses were plastered with advertisements and only a few places were renovated in an old fashion style. Crazy compared with what you have to do in Germany just for a normal “Denkmalschutz”.

The Friday Night Market
Was simply not worth going to. More or less the same offerings like over the day, now only the shops extended onto the street and there were more food stalls. Some amusement came from the big stage as really untalented people sang their heart out – Karaoke as it should be.

A Famosa
The remnants of this former Portuguese fort, St. Paul’s Church and the inscriptions of the grave stones inside paint an interesting but unhappy picture. Going to Malacca in the 17th century meant a probable early death…
The remains of the fort and the church rests on small hill – from here we enjoyed a nice view on the strait of Malacca in the shade of trees.

Maritime Museum
The real size replica of a Portuguese sailing ship stood like a landmark on the way to the new shopping malls of Malacca. Inside this museum ship the exhibition was a bit, let’s say simple. We saw only a few real historic items, mainly text printed on pvc roles. But it’s still impressing what kind of vessels they’d used back in the “old” times.

The Straits of Melaka
In Europe all the cities at the sea and even those only having a river are proud of these locations and locals and tourists alike love to go there. So the infrastructure is serving this – but not so in Malacca. There was nothing worth mentioning or going to as we went to the harbor mouth. So different…

Eating and drinking

The Hard Rock Café
Like many places in Malacca they sold beer and had a happy hour. The terrace had a nice view on the river and the old Dutch Stadthuis A local resident band played as we were there. The first set slow songs, the second they rocked! Bohemian Rhapsody and Sweet Child Of Mine, just two classics that they performed very good We sang along, but most of the Asian guests however seemed to be more introverts or were just busy making selfies

Nancy’s Kitchen and Poh Piah Lwee
Both were closed on Wednesday so we went to the Geographer.

The Geographer
Although they had quiet good coffee + banana cheese cake in the afternoon, the dinner options tasted stale and lame.

Swaadhisht
A basic but tasty Indian restaurant. Meals are served on a banana leaf. Only for the Friday and weekend lunch they served Biryani. It closed at 9 pm.

Colonial Satay
This place was fantastic! A real simple local place, where we had to queue to get in. Inside we chose the sticks that we wanted to eat (you just pay per stick before you leave). Chicken, mutton, squid, prawns, sausages, vegetables and a few things that we didn’t knew the name of. We sat at a round table with a whole in the middle, where a hot pot was heated. Inside this pot they mixed freshly a thick peanut sauce. We cooked our sticks in the sauce – just delicious!!!

Malacca via Jerteh via Kula Besut to Pulau Perhentian Kecil & Besar
Cepat & Cekap Express Bus, 10 hrs by bus to Jerteh, 30 minutes by taxi to Kuala Besut, 30 minutes by speed boat to Pulau Perhentian Kecil
The bus that we had prebooked looked ok from the outside. Different from all the other bus rides that we had made during our round the world trip so far was that here the bus company wanted to have nothing to do with our luggage. Every guest could throw in and take out whatever they wanted. Personally we prefer the i.e. Argentinian method were we got a receipt and only with that we got our stuff back. More odd things followed. The personal lights couldn’t be switched on and 10 minutes after departure the main light went out as well. So it was pitch black in the bus. No music, no movie. During the night the bus stopped several times outside bus terminals, the light always suddenly turned on again without thinking about the sleeping guests already in the bus. Sometimes they announced the name of the stop, but really loud and with echo. During the night we drove through one town center that was covered with colored lights, somewhere further we passed a factory and we could see the Abstich. In Jerteh the bus stopped somewhere on the street, as we stepped out a guy approached us and said that he would drive us for 10 RM to the jetty of Kuala Besut. That was for sure no taxi, but a young local couple took the taxi as well and there was no alternative in sight, so we went. The driver dropped us at the ticket counter – meaning a man sitting on a plastic chair selling speed boat tickets, 6am in the morning. Still it was dark and a lot of other tourists waited there. Approx. half an our later we got on a small boat with two motors and a roof for shade. We had to put on the safety jackets. Good sign.

Pulau Perhentian Kecil

Shangri-La Island Resort
We had a nice small wooden bungalow with charm and HBO. The resort was quiet nice along the waterfront of the island with many trees and pools, but although the employees did their best, it was a bit outdated and the service friendly but a bit sloppy. Wifi was only available in the lobby and most of the time very slow or just didn’t work at all.
During our stay we heard several different languages: Malayan, Chinese, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Russian and German. The interesting thing was that we couldn’t be really sure in which nation drawer we should put the speakers. For example did the “Chinese speaking people come from China, Malaysia or Singapore? Was the “Indian” family from India, Singapore or England? This “riddle” showed clearly that it really didn’t matter!

Beaches & Snorkeling
“Romantic Beach” – next to the Shangri-La
Little patches of white sand with a lot of broken reef pieces along a tree line. Although there were only mainly broken corals there were a lot of colorful fish to see. Even small reef sharks could be seen frequently.

Next to the island jetty
The sand was wonderful white, but nobody – not even the diving schools around – felt responsible for the trash in the water near the rocks… So sad to see!

“Long Beach” – on the east shore of Kecil
A long stretch of white sand in a even longer green bay. The water was clear (no corals, not good for snorkeling) and we had to walk in quiet a bit to be in water up to our chin. Unfortunately the bay had its downturns as well. Many boats landed to bring supplies and they made landfall with a lot of speed. It smelled like fish or gasoline or both all the time. Personally we also don’t like being covered with a sound layer all the time, but the young folks at the beach seemed to like it.

Places we ate
Ombak
Food and beverages were good, service was friendly. A little expensive but worth for the quality. Every evening they showed a movie on a bigger screen.

The other beach joints
In one (Senja) we ate satay, quiet good! Unfortunately weren’t they able to bring us our drinks, although we asked for them twice.
In another (Fatimah) they had a broad menu, but didn’t serve everything on it. The food was ok.
Both were very cheap.

Island hopping
We just showed up at the beach and arranged a “taxi” for around noon. 20 MYR per person from Coral Bay/Kecil to Tuna Bay/Besar, 10 minutes.

Pulau Perhentian Besar

Tuna Bay Island Resort
They welcomed us with cold juice and a friendly smile. We got a very nice, seafront bungalow with a little balcony with chairs and a terrace with sun loungers and the best of all: direct view on beach and sea. Wifi was only available in the restaurant, worked slow but ok and for us worked only in the afternoon – but with such a beach, who cares, really.
Apart from the marine life we had some visitors on our terrace. A slim green-yellow snake, that was surprised to see us on her way to the tree to our left; monkeys in that tree and one very interested fellow looking into our window – wait a minute, don’t play zoo with us; and at dawn bats circulating around the bungalows and showing their amazing talent to fly. Among them one really huuuuge one!

On the opposite island (Kecil) stood a white mosque at the sea. From there the muezzin called – from our site only slightly to hear – wonderfully for prayer several times of the day.
The restaurant of the resort was a nice relaxed place with good food, affordable prices and friendly service.

The moment we got into the water we knew that snorkeling was so much better here than on Kecil. All sorts of colorful corals and a huge variety of fish, fantastic. And just 3 meter away from the beach!!! It was even better than a few years ago in front of Gili Meno, Indonesia. The snorkeling area is protected by buoys, no boat is allowed inside.

Snorkeling Tour
Tiga Ruang, Turtle Point, Shark Point, 2 hrs, 40 RM per person
We started at 10 am with in total 7 people. An Italian couple, a French mum with her two daughters and us. The difference to the 10 RM cheaper boats was that they were packed with around 20 people. Every time they arrived at a spot too, it got crowded.

– Tiga Ruang
There are no turtles, but a lot of nice corals and many beautiful fish.
– Turtle Point
We saw a turtle grassing in approx. 5 m depth. The turtle was quiet big. #donottouchtheturtles
– Shark Point
Here we did the most swimming in low water and saw two mini sharks. More interesting than these two for us were the beautiful flower shaped corals.

Remark
Annoying is the habit of some travelers to feed the reef fish with toast bread only to have pictures of oneself in a cloud of fish. Our guide did not do such nonsense, but others did. #dontfeedthefish

Canoe for a day or “why are we going in Schlangenlinien?”
We rented a canoe for a day at “Abdul’s Chalet” (50 RM) and paddled back to Turtle Point. After some coordinative problems that didn’t let us paddle in a straight line we did fine. At Turtle Point we waited for the tour boats to spot a turtle – the area is quiet big and the locals spot them so much quicker – and swam quickly to the point. A nice big turtle swam approx. 4 m beneath us. To our surprise two times the turtle came to the surface (and very close to us), before it wanted to be on its own again.
We snorkeled a bit near the rocks and discovered even some fish that we hadn’t seen before at “our” beach. Claudia saw a shark, bigger than the once we saw before.
In the afternoon we added another hour to our paddle workout, made a pause at a abundant small patch of beach and returned the canoe afterwards.

Tips
To prevent sunburn during snorkeling and canoeing we wear a shirt with long sleeves and give all other body parts an extra round of sun cream. Tom wears the buff to protect his head.

We made a few good pictures with Tom’s camera in the waterproof bag. (For info about that go to “Gear Up”) Pictures are best with a lot of light and up to approx. 1 m of depths. Everything else – like the turtle i.e. – gets blue green and needs another more professional equipment. The best light for snorkeling pictures was around 10 am.

Tuna Bay fully booked? Try the two places left and right from it. “Abdul” has a few nice bungalows with sea view, restaurant and palms at the beach, as has “Cocohut”.
In general all the resorts on the big island seem to be nicer and the beachfronts better. The money that you have to pay here seems to be justified.

On our last evening we sat on the beach too see a kitsch rosé sundown. Little bats flew over our heads. After a while: “Oh look, some midi bats!” – and than … flap, flap, flap … “Oh wow, that one was huge!”.
After dinner we looked into the clear night sky full of stars – which wasn’t possible due to clouds and thunderstorms the last couple of days. We remembered what our host in Malacca asked us: “What are you possibly gonna do 14 days on an island?”, and we smiled!

Back to Singapore by bus
Transnasional, 11,5 hrs
Back to Singapore to catch our flight to Cairns, Australia – the next stop on our trip around the world in 2015
The bus was a rolling freezer (despite provided blankets) and the seats weren’t really comfortable for our size, but apart from that … cheap & quick.

Thanks once again for reading
Safe travels!
Claudia & Tom

How was our east cost trip in Australia? Do you really need a car for such a trip or was using the bus system an alternative? You can read it all here (in a couple of weeks).