Malacca – 22nd to 24th July

Once in Malacca I opted for the walk from the out of town bus station. At the hostel the receptionist looked quite shocked at the state of me – which given the lack of rain and my wetness was reasonable. For not a huge increase in price I treated myself to a room rather than a dorm. It was honestly the comfiest room I’ve stayed in so far. The bed and pillows were soft – raised on a wooden platform above the rest of the room’s rogue astroturf. The hostel was a dual purpose set up – part hostel and part cat hotel! Which is why I stayed there over the other option. Just after the reception there was a room with maybe 20 cat hutches for lack of a better word and about 10 cats (including 3 tiny tiny little kittens).

However there was no time for them to melt my heart. I rented myself a bicycle and took the lengthy cycle to the coastal mosque where I was meeting Izzy for sunset. She had been there pretty much all day but decided to stay for sunset as it lights up at night.

I arrived at the mosque but the security guard wouldn’t let me in as the last entry was at 6.30. I tried to charm my way in, but he was having none of it. So in the end I cycle 100 metres down the coast, park my bike in the forest and then just walked along the beach bypassing the mosque’s watertight security.

After chatting and soaking in the sunset I cycle back and she grabs a grab (Asian Uber if I haven’t mentioned that). It was on the way back I realised my $1 bike I’d rented wasn’t going to be the bargain I thought it would be. I was absolutely gunning it on an uphill, when all of a sudden pedalling became effortless and I started to lose speed. I eventually got the chain back on but got covered in oil. I set back off, only for the chain to dismount from the gears about 4 more times. To be honest in the humidity I was struggling to see the funny side of it. 

But once back at the cat hotel and I showered, desperately trying to get the oil off me and rendezvoused with Izzy for a wander through the weekend market and after we had enough of that very touristy affair we found their equivalent of beer street which was a series of bars on a canal. We ended up getting a bucket of beers and made swift progress through them. Moving bar and then onto the cocktails we were. On the way home we stumbled across a sort of pop up rave by the river and we sat and watched trying to work out what this situation was. Then very early in the morning it was bedtime.

The next day I explored Malacca a bit more and mostly discovered I didn’t really like it as a town. Too touristy and missing any genuine charm, also quite expensive (relatively speaking) – nothing to do with the horrific hangover of course.

At this point I had a big decision to make, or as big as my decisions are these days. I’d found out, believe or not, that you can cross the Malacca strait from Malacca – who’d of guess it! So my original plan to cross via Singapore had an alternative. In the end I just thought it’s too much of a good opportunity to pass up and sailed to Sumatra (the most westerly island in) Indonesia (also the 6th biggest island in the world). While I’m sad to have missed Singapore, I had a meeting in Australia and only about a month to get there so was in a proper rush.

The crossing was fairly smooth. It’s the piracy hot spot of the world so I was a bit concerned but we avoided any pirates and in a bit over three hours I’d finished my first international sea crossing. On the other side after passport control and paying for my visa, I teamed up with the three other foreigners; two French girls and a Japanese bloke to arrange our onward travels. Leaving the terminal we were surrounded by what felt like all of Sumatra trying to give us lift places. We made our way through and ended up getting a couple of bikes and side carriages to give us a lift to the bus station – another new class of tuktuk for me.