The second crossing: A trip to Melaka
by nigel on 17-Feb-2010
Chinese New Year was on Sunday, and Monday and Tuesday were public holidays in Singapore. So we took the opportunity to visit Melaka.
We were booked on a Luxury Tours coach from Orchard Road to central Melaka.
Half an hour after departure we arrived at Singapore Immigration at Tuas, disembarked, found our coach, and twenty minutes later we cross the bridge that is the Second Crossing between Singapore and Malaysia over the Johor Straits and join a kilometer plus queue of traffic for Malaysian Customs and Immigration. We are not the only people going away for the public holiday and many Singaporean residents are off to visit family for New Year. So it is nearly two hours between departing Orchard Road and getting on the road in Malaysia. The traffic is especially heavy this day and we arrive at our destination about a total journey of five and half hours. On an ordinary weekend this would have been four hours.
Our chosen accommodation is Heeren House which is right on the river and a lovely little place.
We discover that one of the museums we intended to visit will be closed thoughout our stay but we happily wander around the streets admiring the old buildings of the Chinese quarter before walking up one side of the Melaka river and then down the other. It is then that we find the Riverine Coffee House which you can eat Peranakan food, drink Tiger beer and wave to the tourist boats as they pass by.
Over the next few days we have lots of wonderful food, Peranakan, Chicken rice balls, Melakan Portuguese and Heeren House's English breakfast. We drink Tiger beer, Guinness Stout, Fruit juices and the local coffee. We ride the boats and the trishaws, watch the locals flying kites in the evening, watch other tourists taking photos of each other in front of various sites. We visit the night market, museums, some of the Kampungs. We see Lion dances being performed at various businesses in order to bring prosperity for the coming year including a dance by eight lions for the Bayview Hotel.
Monday and Tuesday there are so many people (well, it is a major public holiday) and the roads are choked with cars and coaches.
Then it is time to head back, we rendevous with our coach and discover that we have been promoted to the front two seats. The Malaysian express ways are very busy and often the traffic is down to a crawl. This is when the impatient use the emergency cum break-down lane (usually frequented by motorcycles) as a means of jumping the traffic. From my vantage point I discover that the toll for a coach along 150km of the North-South expressway is RM4.90 and that once you turn off onto the expressway for Singapore the next few kilometers cost another RM3.90 and then RM13.00 to pass into the immigration complex. We are swiftly out of Malaysia and although there is a queue of cars into Singapore the Bus Lane is empty, I have filled in an immigration card this time and the baggage is ready to be x-rayed so we are through quick as. The coach drops us off at Jurong and a short taxi ride later we are home four and a half hours after leaving Melaka.
We were booked on a Luxury Tours coach from Orchard Road to central Melaka.
Half an hour after departure we arrived at Singapore Immigration at Tuas, disembarked, found our coach, and twenty minutes later we cross the bridge that is the Second Crossing between Singapore and Malaysia over the Johor Straits and join a kilometer plus queue of traffic for Malaysian Customs and Immigration. We are not the only people going away for the public holiday and many Singaporean residents are off to visit family for New Year. So it is nearly two hours between departing Orchard Road and getting on the road in Malaysia. The traffic is especially heavy this day and we arrive at our destination about a total journey of five and half hours. On an ordinary weekend this would have been four hours.
Our chosen accommodation is Heeren House which is right on the river and a lovely little place.
We discover that one of the museums we intended to visit will be closed thoughout our stay but we happily wander around the streets admiring the old buildings of the Chinese quarter before walking up one side of the Melaka river and then down the other. It is then that we find the Riverine Coffee House which you can eat Peranakan food, drink Tiger beer and wave to the tourist boats as they pass by.
Over the next few days we have lots of wonderful food, Peranakan, Chicken rice balls, Melakan Portuguese and Heeren House's English breakfast. We drink Tiger beer, Guinness Stout, Fruit juices and the local coffee. We ride the boats and the trishaws, watch the locals flying kites in the evening, watch other tourists taking photos of each other in front of various sites. We visit the night market, museums, some of the Kampungs. We see Lion dances being performed at various businesses in order to bring prosperity for the coming year including a dance by eight lions for the Bayview Hotel.
Monday and Tuesday there are so many people (well, it is a major public holiday) and the roads are choked with cars and coaches.
Then it is time to head back, we rendevous with our coach and discover that we have been promoted to the front two seats. The Malaysian express ways are very busy and often the traffic is down to a crawl. This is when the impatient use the emergency cum break-down lane (usually frequented by motorcycles) as a means of jumping the traffic. From my vantage point I discover that the toll for a coach along 150km of the North-South expressway is RM4.90 and that once you turn off onto the expressway for Singapore the next few kilometers cost another RM3.90 and then RM13.00 to pass into the immigration complex. We are swiftly out of Malaysia and although there is a queue of cars into Singapore the Bus Lane is empty, I have filled in an immigration card this time and the baggage is ready to be x-rayed so we are through quick as. The coach drops us off at Jurong and a short taxi ride later we are home four and a half hours after leaving Melaka.