Malacca
I have returned from Malaysia. It was a good trip!
I went with Sheri, Gary and Cia, all exchange students from my Hall. I have not yet introduced Cia - she is (well was) studying at McGill. That's where Tyler D. (my brother) was during the summer!!! Coincidence? Probably.
The bus ride was a breezy 4 hour jaunt through up to the north of Singapore and over the causeway linking Singapore and Malaysia. For those not in the know, Singapore really is its own island, but the bridge/causeway linking the two countries is no longer than the Lions Gate Bridge. The ride was fine but they showed the latest Chucky film on the TV screen in the bus, with the sound blaring out of speakers all throughout the bus, so everyone was subjected to watching and hearing the film, which quite frankly seemed a bit to violent for some of the youngsters who were also on the bus.
We arrived in Malacca (also spelled Melaka) at 10PM and tried to find a cab to the hostel we were staying at. The cab driver suggested 20RM (Malay ringitts) which seemed like a rip-off and we found a different one for 15RM. In actuality, $1 CAD equals 3.1 RM, so it's a pretty good deal exchange-rate wise. But still we almost got served by the first cabbie.
To make a long story short, we happened to be located in Chinatown, so we went to the night market before going for sleep. It was just closing when we got there, but there were some neat things to be seen. As we were going back to the hostel, many people on the street were burning money and incense on the sidewalks or edges of the street. I don't want to get this wrong, but apparently burning money (it was fake money) appeases Chinese spirits, and this has to be done on the 7th month of the Chinese lunar year (as September is the 8th month).
The next day we walked around. There were many temples and it was nice to be out and about. Malacca is MUCH less urbanized than 100% urban Singapore, and many of the streets were very narrow and contained much more interesting architecture than the many malls of Singapore. We also visited the main tourist area, and some other stuff.
We stayed in a different hostel that night. That night we went to a mall (again...) and in the morning we tried to find Portuguese Village but couldn't. I'm not even sure of the significance of said village, as we couldn't find it. Blah blah blah nothing of note after that, we bussed back to Singapore.
Funnily enough, I saw Cody Dart (of high school fame) in the bus terminal!!! What a small world!
This is Colin, signing off.
Colin
I went with Sheri, Gary and Cia, all exchange students from my Hall. I have not yet introduced Cia - she is (well was) studying at McGill. That's where Tyler D. (my brother) was during the summer!!! Coincidence? Probably.
The bus ride was a breezy 4 hour jaunt through up to the north of Singapore and over the causeway linking Singapore and Malaysia. For those not in the know, Singapore really is its own island, but the bridge/causeway linking the two countries is no longer than the Lions Gate Bridge. The ride was fine but they showed the latest Chucky film on the TV screen in the bus, with the sound blaring out of speakers all throughout the bus, so everyone was subjected to watching and hearing the film, which quite frankly seemed a bit to violent for some of the youngsters who were also on the bus.
We arrived in Malacca (also spelled Melaka) at 10PM and tried to find a cab to the hostel we were staying at. The cab driver suggested 20RM (Malay ringitts) which seemed like a rip-off and we found a different one for 15RM. In actuality, $1 CAD equals 3.1 RM, so it's a pretty good deal exchange-rate wise. But still we almost got served by the first cabbie.
To make a long story short, we happened to be located in Chinatown, so we went to the night market before going for sleep. It was just closing when we got there, but there were some neat things to be seen. As we were going back to the hostel, many people on the street were burning money and incense on the sidewalks or edges of the street. I don't want to get this wrong, but apparently burning money (it was fake money) appeases Chinese spirits, and this has to be done on the 7th month of the Chinese lunar year (as September is the 8th month).
The next day we walked around. There were many temples and it was nice to be out and about. Malacca is MUCH less urbanized than 100% urban Singapore, and many of the streets were very narrow and contained much more interesting architecture than the many malls of Singapore. We also visited the main tourist area, and some other stuff.
We stayed in a different hostel that night. That night we went to a mall (again...) and in the morning we tried to find Portuguese Village but couldn't. I'm not even sure of the significance of said village, as we couldn't find it. Blah blah blah nothing of note after that, we bussed back to Singapore.
Funnily enough, I saw Cody Dart (of high school fame) in the bus terminal!!! What a small world!
This is Colin, signing off.
Colin
posted by Colin at 9:10 a.m.
1 Comments:
That sounds like a really cool trip. I didn't realize Singapore and Malaysia were so close.
Ash
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