Getting to Melaka and Back - Malacca Part 9

Bukit Jalil Bus Terminal

Getting to Melaka from KL used to be quite easy! You just head to Puduraya Bus Station (Hentian Puduraya), along Jalan Pudu, northeast and a leisurely 20-minute walk from Bukit Bintang. You didn’t even need to make advance bookings. A bus leaves KL every 30 minutes during rush hour; every hour on most times, and 1 ½ hours during the dead hours! But since the on-going renovations of Puduraya Terminal that started April 2010 – and one that would supposedly take 4 months, it has been a different story.

Puduraya services most interstate buses, from KL to most places in Peninsular Malaysia (except for 2 destinations – Jerantut and Kuala Lipis). Even buses bound for Singapore and Thailand leave from Puduraya! The few ones that travel to Cameron Highlands will wait for passengers right across the station (since most buses that head to the Hills seem to leave from a Bus Terminal at Titiwangsa).

PUDURAYA BUS TERMINAL

Puduraya was opened in 1976 by a former Prime Minister, and after 30 years, it underwent renovations in 2006. It is thus puzzling why another major renovation was scheduled just 4 years after its last refurbishments. Puduraya has bus platforms at the ground level, while the 2^nd floor is home to bus ticket stalls, a hotel (Hotel Puduraya), a post office (which I never saw), 2 left luggage centers (that meticulously checks what’s inside your bags), restaurants, news and fruit shops. Since it was temporarily decommissioned, all bus services have been transferred to a makeshift bus terminal in Bukit Jalil If you’re not familiar with KL trains, it can be quite an exciting little adventure in itself.

Melaka Sentral

TAKING THE WRONG TRAIN

In one of my rides to Bukit Jalil (which is an area known for their gold courses), I took the wrong train as it was heading to the right direction. However, I forgot to consider the fact that there are 2 stops headed in the same direction. I took the Ampung Line, instead of the Sri Petaling Line! I had to get off at Miharja, back track to a common station and took the correct Sri Petaling line to Bukit Jalil! If you’re not in a hurry, it’s fun finding your way around.

Anyway, I will have a separate post on taking the train to Bukit Jalil for emphasis – and nice photos!

BUKIT JALIL STATION TO BUS TERMINAL

Once you get yourself to Bukit Jalil, you will see the gargantuan National Stadium, which was an impressive sight! Head to the nearby road, and cross the street, then walk to your right. You shall pass through a small bridge. Once you see the equally impressive Hockey Stadium, just across it, you find the Bukit Jalil Bus Terminal. Walk towards the tented atrium, and find the stalls that book buses for Melaka. There are probably 3 which should include Delima Bus, Metro Bus and if it’s still operational for Melaka trips, the Transnasional (Malaysia’s biggest and most reliable consortium of buses) which was my bus the first time I visited Melaka!

I got a ticket from the Delima Bus at 12.50 ringgit (It used to be 8 ringgit 3 years ago). The trip will take 2 hours and terminates at Melaka Sentral. Like most interstate buses, Delima Bus is new, smells new, with comfortable seats and an AC! My bus pulled out from the station at 9:30 AM. Then I somehow went off into a restful nap! By 11:30 AM, I was in Melaka!

Delima Bus to Melaka

MELAKA SENTRAL

Melaka Sentral is a well planned bus terminal where shopping could be had. Pashminas are cheaper here than in KL, and there are even DVDs on sale – titles that aren’t found in the capital, probably because it is relatively closer to the Singapore border! The terminal is divided into 2 areas: the interstate bus terminal (for the long distance buses) and the intercity/local bus terminal for buses that ply around the state of Melaka. Direction? Just ask the locals!

Melaka Sentral

This is the Melaka Sentral's Interstate Bus Terminal wing, a circular atrium where you can wait for your bus.

GETTING TO THE CITY CENTER

Once at the local terminal, which is really just a walk to the other side of the covered building. I spotted Bus no. 17 (green bus, non-AC) conveniently marked “Town Bus Service”. For just 1.50 ringgit (prepare exact change because they won’t give your change back ), I slipped my bus fare at the collection box located just beside the driver. I took the seat in front, while munching on my 1 ringgit fruits. Though the dragon fruit is my current favorite, I specifically enjoyed the huge slices of the juicy and sweet “Star Fruit” (which locals call “belimbing”). Manila folks are used to the smaller and very sour variety of “balimbing”.

P.S. If you’re headed to the shopping complexes like Mahkota Parade and Dataran Pahlawan Megamall, then take Town Bus no. 50!

Melaka Sentral is 4.5 kilometers from the city’s historical center, the Stadthuy area!

1 ringgit fruits: papaya, guava, watermelon, dargon fruit, star fruit, etc.

What are these? Any Malaysians help? They were exceedingly sweet, I eventually threw them away.

Star Fruit, the big, juicy and sweet variety. They are also called Carambola or balimbing (in Manila), and belimbing in Malaysia.

Town Bus Service no. 17 at a cheap 1.50 ringgit!

GOING AWAY FROM MELAKA

Later that day, I waited for the same commuter bus along Dataran Pahlawan Megamall. This took me quite awhile, I was almost tempted to take a taxi instead. Fortunately, even a taxi was nowhere in sight. I belatedly found out that the “Town Bus Service” is conveniently parked just right across Mahkota Parade (a complex of shopping malls opposite Dataran Pahlawan Megamall). It was headed straight to Melaka Sentral. For just 1.50 ringgit again, I paid for myticket! Barely 3 years ago, this same bus took 1 hour as it roamed the different areas of Melaka before terminating at the terminal. It was a very cheap tour around town, but it took forever. This time though, it only took 15 minutes!

Once at Melaka Sentral, I looked for Transnasional’s ticket counter but it was closed. They really must have decommissioned their Melakan trips – I am not sure! I settled with a “Metro Bus Express” which didn’t look as new as the Delima. I just missed Delima by a couple of minutes, and I refused to wait for the next hour. Since Metro Bus Express was boarding, I snatched my 12.50-ringgit ticket, and settled comfortably. While the gentlest rains washed the lands, my bus was breezing through Malaysia and I fell in deep slumber!

I shall awake once KL beckons.

This is the Eye in the Sky!

Bus no. 50 to Melaka Sentral waits in front of Mahkota Parade - 1.50 ringgit.

FAST FACTS:

Buses from KL to Melaka fare – 12.50 ringgit per adult

Local bus fare from Melaka Sentral to City Center – 1.50 ringgit

Panorama Melaka fare – 5 ringgit and 2 ringgit per person per day

Metro Bus Express Schedule of Melaka-to-KL: 8:30 AM, 9 AM, 10, 11:30, 12 PM, 1 PM, 2:30, 3, 4, 5:30, 6 PM, 7 PM (last bus to KL) at 12.50 ringgit per person

Duration of travel from KL to Melaka: 2 hours

Melaka has opened a hop-on, hop-off bus service called “Panorama Melaka” which takes tourists to most of the attractions in town. The red bus charges a flat rate of 5 ringgit a day, while the blue bus charges 2 ringgit a day! They run at 10-minute intervals. However, this service is only made available from a ridiculously short 7 AM to 12 Noon. By the time most day tourists get to Melaka, the service would have already “retired”.

Melaka to KL Bus Schedule of Metro Bus Express

Puduraya Bus Station (Hentian Puduraya), underwent renovations since April 12, 2010. This photo only courtesy of wikipedia's two hundred percent.

Melakan Tales - Progress Faster Than Reciting the Alphabet

This photo only courtesy of flickr's The Bugz.

Melaka - So a royalty's hunting dog fell down the river and drowned when it saw a mouse deer, inspiring the prince to name this city from the site this actually happened - beside a melakan tree (Indian gooseberry)! So goes the legend. On my 2nd visit in this hybrid of Portuguese and Dutch city, I was just floored! This wasn't the city that I visited just a few years ago! It has amazingly grown exponentially!

First off, there is already an Eye of Melaka (their answer to the London Eye); a revolving restaurant that amazed me no end (at 20 ringgit per person); a hop-on,hop-off tourist bus service that perplexingly riuns from just 9AM to 12 PM; a more frequent and voluminous river cruise business; a better planned public transport with a more comprehensive itinerary (their town bus service now runs directly from the city center to the main terminal, you'd get there in 15 minutes; it used to take an hour!); a very much alive Jonker's Street that used to only come alive at night, but is a heavy bustle of activities and tourists now - even at daytime; and a tourist set that has more than quadrupled! I am not exaggerating!

I remembered having a cheap meal at a makeshift stall just before turning towards St. Paul's Hill - now it is all gone! What used to be small forgettable stores has been transmogrified into a luxurious Carrefour and its contiguous Dataran Palahwan - Melaka Megamall, the smallest megamall I have ever seen. LOL

The Stadthuy and Christ Church (an anglican church) still took my breath away! They even have a Taman Mini Malaysia now - a cultural park - Melaka's tribute to the 14 states of Malaysia as well as its neighbors in Asia. This is Malaysia's version of the Philippines' Nayong Pilipino and Indonesia's Taman Mini Indonesia Indah!

I feasted on their fruits - dragon fruits, balimbing, some anonymous ones - at 1 ringgit each! The Melakan Bus Terminal is such a well planned system of local and interstate transport system that it doesn't matter now that it is actually 4.5 kilometers outside of the city center.

To be honest about it, I cannot wait to be back! One day, soon!

This is the Eye in the Sky.

This photo only courtesy of www.backpackingmalaysia.com.

Fascinating Malacca (Malaysia)

When Malaysia was just a pipedream and I was still brainstorming with myself on how to go about with my Malaysian visit, the one place that fascinated me no end wasn't KL or Penang or Johor Bahru. It was "Malacca"! For how can one forget a place often alluded to from History lessons. There was Malacca (of Malaysia)- and there was Moluccas (of Indonesia)! And any form of association was welcome: Portuguese, Galleon trade, barter, spices, etc. I would be thrilled to visit distant images from the "past"... visiting such faraway places. This was my chance.

Malacca is conveniently located between KL (125 km.) and Singapore (225 km.) This is why many of the Singapore tourists are found on day-trips to Malacca (as well as Johor Bahru). The border crossing takes from 3.5 to 5 hours!

I approached my trip to Malacca with a bit of skepticism. I would take a bus from KL's Puduraya Station and pray to the heavens that people I meet along the way would a> understand english, b> be helpful. Finding Puduraya was a breeze. After taking a nice breakfast at a popular backpacker's hotel along Bukit Bintang (I found myself sitting on their front-of-house "veranda" directly facing the street - which was supposedly reserved for their in-house guests – but I was allowed by my friendly waitress to stay there if I please, so I was smug!), I took a leisurely walk going North. Some 15 minutes later, I found Puduraya Bus Station.

I expected a crazy environment teeming with people, but instead I found a building which looked like the old Ali Mall Building - only bigger! I crossed the street, went inside, and saw organized rows of buses with digitized signage’s bearing the destination and their exact time of departure. It WAS a cheap ticket too, and the buses looked new, well-maintained and clean. Inside, it smelled good, the waft of the air-conditioning was regulated and the seats were comfortably distanced. YES! My bus left on time! Everything was pretty convenient and well organized.

The 2 hour trip was a breeze. Scenic route it was! As we neared the Malaccan bus garage (I always remember a Scottish friend saying, "garr-ij"), I recognized some points of interest that I read from my guide. The bus depot was a sprawling one-storey berth. I went off my bus and headed towards the shops. I wanted to check out what was there. Went to a DVD shop and got crazy buying original DVD's and VCD's of Malaysian and Indonesian movies (this usually takes a while coz I have to make sure that they have english subtitles). I found some shawl and shirts as presents. Cheaper here than in KL.

Took an early lunch (restaurants everywhere) and bought bottled water at their 7-11. Also checked out the ticket counter where I would purchase my return ticket back to KL. Nice place. There was a seating room (like in airports) where travellers can comfortably wait for their bus rides. Malaysia is unexpectedly tourist-friendly. Most people speak or understand english (a lot better than Indonesia). The transportation fares are cheap, and the whole transportation system is well organized.

I also found a travel shop advertising local packages. I realized that it will be a very, very far walk to the city center, and since I am wary of a taxi ride from there (“Hostel” anyone?), I decided to hire a 1-hour local tour.

The people from the shop were obviously disappointed. ONE hour meant 30 Malaysian Ringgit (about PhP 370). I specifically told them, I just wanted 1 HOUR or "no go". Are they crazy? In the big city, KL offers a ride-all-you-want roving buses (hop on-hop off) that stops at various tourist attractions (like the Petronas Tower, etc.) for just MR35. This was good for 1 whole day! Compared to what KL offers, their MR 30/hr rate (though this is on a private car) is highway robbery of sorts. Well, I took that, and just decided to let the car go at one point (once I am at the town center) – I can go on my own from there!

The main tourist attractions comprise the "historic" areas heavily influenced by the Dutch and Portuguese settlers and traders, thus walls are painted in "red" (the Stadthuy Building), streets are cobbled, architecture is pre-war Portuguese and Dutch. There is "Jonker's Street", which was advertised for their "authentic" architecture and antique goods, never been rehabilitated, etc. This was supposed to take a carnival environment during weekend nights. What I saw instead was a row of run-down derelict houses in fast state of decay. Everywhere you turn, they were just ugly, dilapited relics of the past. Other than this disappointment, the whole town boasts of old colorful churches, a whole line of Chinese street, a mini-Lisbon square (ahhh I miss Lisboa!), and my favorite – St. John’s Fort, an 18th century fortress on a hill facing the Strait of Malacca, fortified with cannons from the past. This has stairs leading to the top of the hill, a church relic, and one of the best views overlooking the historic Strait, etc. St. Paul’s Church attracts the religious too. This was where the body of St. Francis Xavier was interred before he was transported to Goa, India. There is a huge Galleon ship marooned in front of St. John's. THIS was all part of the past, and I am so thrilled.

An antique shop at Jonker's Street.

Stadhuy Buildings, including Christ Church - Dutch architecture, red painted...

Mini-Lisbon Square

Stadthuy - in its characteristic reddish paint.

At the Church, I met an old man who volunteered to take my photo, so I decided to come back for him – to hire his trishaw (these are colorful tricycles decorated with either flowers or brass decors - and you see them all over the town) - after ditching my car service (my driver was morose).

Before my 1 hour ended, my last stop would be the hill. I went up while the car waited. 15 minutes before my hour, I decided to go back down (which was strenuous - it was a long way up and a long way down as well) and let my driver go. To my surprise, the idiot left me just like that! Might as well. I was about to give him gratuities that I was sure would help his regretfully dour life and his family! The nerve!

St. Paul's Hill and Church

I have accepted the fact that, in any travel, NOT everything will go as planned. Something will turn out not to your liking. This was one such instance. It's best to just shrug the shoulder and charge it to experience.

Entrance to the hill tower/church.

Long way down. Inside the fortress' entrance, some local art works are being sold. I bought 4 pieces.

Church relic on the hill

St. Paul's Church on the hill

The view from the hill: Strait of Malacca

By then, I was drenched with sweat from every tip of my hair and down to my shoes. It was that hot! I went to a carinderia. Braved some "colorful" viand on display, enjoyed one of my cheapest meals at just 5 ringgit (PhP60) – ice cold coca cola included! It was almost on-the-house, the owner kept asking me to "get more". I wanted to be sure I wouldn't be charged more than necessary so I timidly took a small portion of one viand. How shy! Hehe. I was still smarting from the stupid driver who left me - though I was gonna let him go anyway. It was just insulting, to say the least! The idiot left me!

Hospital (white), residential, shopping plaza... notice how the main road is "paved" with color concrete blocks.


Shopping Plaza

I noticed the regular movement of school buses. There was a school near the hill. Though it doesn’t have the bustle of a city, Malacca had constructions everywhere, and the structures standing were new - a shopping mall, a hospital, high-end residential tenements; wide, clean, "cobbled" streets. Some 2 hours later, I decided to leave Malacca not knowing how exactly. I wasn’t sure if those trishaws would take me to the bus depot. Seemed too far.

THIS was another adventure! From the sidewalk, I bravely hailed the public bus. I had NO idea where this was gonna take me. As I went in, I asked everyone, "Bus Station?" When one nodded, I took my seat and relaxed. I was still wishing they understood me. THIS ride took a good 1 hour! To my delight, this turned out to be a local commuter bus which traversed most of the 3 districts that comprise the whole town of Malacca – I inadvertently availed myself of an inexpensive local tour, one that will terminate at the main bus station! We passed by Jonker's Street again, some residential areas, a row of new hotels. I watched as the bus took in new passengers. It was fascinating people-watching, observing the change of faces. For just PhP 5!

THIS was gonna be a technique I will use in the future - maybe when i find my way to the new city of Putrajaya - I made a mental note!

You lose some. You win some!

My Transnasional Bus back to Kuala Lumpur

My updated visit of Melaka 2010 here - http://eye-in-the-blue-sky.blogspot.com/2010/08/melaka-giddy-with-delight-in-new-old.html

This is the Eye in the Sky!