The value of friends you meet on the road.
Trip Start
Aug 17, 2008
1
30
Trip End
Sep 09, 2009
Melaka, Melaka State, Malaysia
Saturday, April 4, 2009
April - Melaka, Malaysia.
I took the bus from Singapore on Wed 1st April to Melaka, Malaysia.
In all the bus journeys I've done, and the amount of hours and nights I've
spent on busses, for this 4 hour bus journey, I got the nicest bus I've ever
seen.
The seats were like arm chairs, that
reclined far back, with a foot rest. There was so much room in between the
seats that even with the seat of the person in front right back I still had
loads of room to move. The seat even had, get this, inbuilt massage!!! By far
the best bus journey yet!!!
Melaka is a lovely little town in on the
south west coast of Malaysia.
I had been told about it by a couple who were staying in the same hostel in Singapore, who were going there the day before I
left Singapore.
I didn't want to head straight to KL and I couldn't afford to stay in Singapore any
longer and was look for somewhere to go in between.
Melaka is a beautiful historical town. It
was first taken as a Portuguese colony in 1511. Then in 1641 the Dutch defeat the
Portuguese and took Melaka and used as a port for the Dutch East India Company.
There are many landmarks that can be seen still, such as the Stadthuys, or town
hall. Which stands on the hill above the main square named, Dutch square. There
is even a Dutch café, where you can by ollieballen and croquet sandwiches.
I stayed in the Voyage guest house, in
another dorm. Again it was one big room, but this time no bunk beds, there were
about 20 beds, 10 down each side of the room, which gave it a kind of military
feel. Even thought there were less people and more room, it did feel like you
had a lot less personal space. You were sleeping out in an open room, with
strangers. But still it was clean and most importantly cheap, and it had a nice
lounge downstairs.
On the first night, I met a guy called
Matt, 22 from South England. He had been in Australia and was making his way, opposite to
me, up through South East Asia. We got
chatting and I found that he had as come from Singapore that day and had been
drinking in the hostel I was staying in on the Sunday night, and he remembered
seeing me. While we were chatting the couple, who had suggested I visit Melaka,
also walked passed. We arranged to meet the next morning to have some company
while we explored Melaka.
After, a long hot day of wandering the
streets and the many museums of Melaka (they have them for everything there,
The history of Melaka to Enduring Beauty and Kites to Stamps, we didn't go to
the last one) I left Matt and went to get showered and changed, before we met
again to go to the cinema. When I got back to the hostel, I found Marlynn, the
lady who had the bunk above me on the train from Had Yai to KL, sitting in the
lounge. It really is a small world. Matt, Marlynn, another guy from the hostel
Ross, and I went to the cinema, that night.
The next day, Thursday, was a lazy day, I
met up with Matt late afternoon and we took walk around and had some dinner.
Later that night I went back out for a drink. I was sitting on the street tables,
of a quiet bar in Jonker Street,
reading my book. I guy walked into the bar (no that's not the start of a joke)
talking on his phone, he sat on the seat across the entrance from me to my
left, just as I was thinking that he looked a bit dodgy and going to move my
bag, which was sitting on the stool next to me, he reached across grabbed my
bag and ran. I remember shouting (sorry mum) "YOU F**KING W**KER" and running
after him, bare foot. He turned down the street across and just as I nearly
caught him he jumped onto the back of his mates scooter who was there waiting
for him. One of the guys from the bar continued to chase after them but
couldn't catch them. As I walked back it hit me that they had my purse with all
my money and cards, my camera, my phone and my ipod!! I started to cry. By this
time there were about 30 Chinese people, who had been at a ceremony in the
temple next door out on the street as well as the guys who run the bar. They
were all really nice to me, and two women sat me down and comforted me as
others called the police. About 5 minutes later a police car, with three police
officers turned up. I was taken away in a police car, flashing lights and all
to pick up my passport at the hostel, which luckily wasn't in my bag and taken
of to the police station. I had to visit three police stations. The first one I
wrote my statement. Then I had to see the Police Sergeant who went through my
statement and translated it to Malay. Then I had to visit the tourist police
station, where I could phone my mum, who, due to the time difference was able
to cancel my cards. There I even met with the deputy chief of police for
Melaka. Everyone was really nice to me, the police even took me around to find
a western union bank. About 2 and a half hours later they dropped me back off
at the hostel. A couple in the hostel who I had given Laos money to
earlier in the day, were very kind and gave me some money to make sure I could
get food etc.
The Friday, I was planning to go to KL, but
as I then had no money etc, I had to spend and extra day in Melaka. It was
panicking as I needed to be in KL to get my flight to Bali
on Sunday, and I didn't know if I could get money in time as the banks would
close at 4pm on Friday and wouldn't open until Monday. However, after waking my
mum and dad up at 5am, and asking if they could get up and transfer money
online through Western Union, and waiting until they could confirm it by
calling WU at 7am, I managed to get money at 3pm and was able to leave for KL
on Sat morning. The guys that owned the hostel I was staying in couldn't have
been nicer, they gave me breakfast and lunch and told me I could stay for free
for as long as I needed. I had also received an email from an American man
called Buddy I met on the bus from Singapore,
he was travelling on to KL with a Canadian guy called Dan, they'd met in Singapore. They
emailed to say that because of the Grand Prix, they were struggling to find
somewhere to stay and that I might have trouble as well. Emailed back to tell
them that I might not be going anywhere as I'd just had my bag stolen. They
both got a bus that day to Melaka and came down to make sure I was alright and
if I needed anything. Dan was on his way back to Singapore
anyway, and Buddy was planning on going to Penang
but didn't mind the detour. Buddy had had his bag stolen, which included his
passport, three weeks earlier in Indonesia and knew how it felt.
It's good to know you have some friends when you are on the road yourself.
I still love Melaka, I thought it was one
of the friendliest places I have ever visited. The people were so nice. This is
something that could happen anywhere, as there are bad people everywhere. I'm
not in a hurry to rush back though. I left for KL on Saturday morning and was
happy to be leaving.
Comments
awww go buddy
bless that buddy man, brought a tear to eye that!!