ONE DAY IN MALAYSIA

Singapore is lovely, but it’s all city. There are heaps of trees; all of the freeways are lined on both sides with lovely big trees, the walkways & bridges all have flowers growing over them. There are gardens (one guide told us that we foreigners may not realise but Singapore has gardens & a garden has plants & trees – that’s how you know it’s a garden!) & there also are parks. There are older sections of the city like Chinatown & Little India, but other than that; it’s all big buildings. We wanted to see something different, some countryside and some traditional Malaysian culture. So we decided to take a day trip into Malaysia. Once again, no visa required.

Singapore & Malaysia are joined by a ‘causeway’ which is basically a bridge, about 1.2 kms long. We had to get off the bus to go through the Singapore Checkpoint to get out of Singapore, then off again to go through the Malaysian Checkpoint to get into Malaysia. It’s a bit scary; the bus driver told us do not take any photos, smile, act normal; all these things ‘cos they sometimes have trouble getting through. The police over there look a bit more serious than ours do; they drive around in big red vehicles that look like our armaguard trucks, they don’t seem to know how to smile & some of the ones we saw were walking around with BIG guns held in front of them. So, we got off the bus at the border, smiled & behaved ourselves. We were told not to take any photos so I've downloaded this one from the internet. We couldn’t believe how many cars & motorbikes were crossing over when we did; there was a constant stream of traffic. They reckon 60,000 vehicles cross over every day.

The first state you enter in Malaysia is Johore Bahru. A lot of people live there & commute to Singapore every day for work because the cost of living in Malaysia is a lot lower than Singapore. Because they’re an oil producer, petrol is extremely cheap so they go there just to fill their cars up, smokes are about 1/3 the price of anywhere else but you’re not allowed to take any into Singapore & maximum tax paid is 28%. The retirement age in Malaysia is 55! If you get old in either Singapore or Malaysia & don’t have any money you have to live with your kids; there are no pensions. (Our girls are now sighing with relief that we don’t live over there!)

The first place we stopped at in Johore was a pewter factory. They showed us how they make it; 98% tin & 1.5% something else I can’t remember that gives it the shine & about .5% silver. They melt it then put it into a mould, spin it around for a few seconds & next thing it’s set & being unmoulded. Then they just have to file it & put any decorations on it with a razor blade. Pretty smart. We bought a pewter budda; he’s very nice.

Next we were headed for the state of Malacca; about 300 kms from Singapore & only 180 kms from Kuala Lumpur.  The highways were all really good; even the back roads were. All along the way there were oil palms, rubber trees, teak trees & rice paddies; but mostly oil palms. Palm oil is used as a cooking fat, in chocolate & other foods. It’s grown all across Malaysia and it’s worth a lot of money to them. The rubber trees had little cups tied to them where they’d nicked the tree to get the latex out of them. They produce 1 cup of latex a day but 70% is water; in other words they don’t get much out of them. They only milk them once every two days too so they don’t ‘overwork’ them. The rubber is mainly used for tyres but a few other things as well. 

When we arrived in Malacca the first thing we did was have lunch. After seeing the old town as we drove through, we were amazed at the lavishness of the hotel; it was huge & elegant. It had a beautiful spiral staircase in the foyer that went straight up for several stories. The spread we had for lunch was hard to believe; lots of beautiful hot dishes, salads, fruit, cheeses, soups & the desserts; wow. It was like having high tea. There were all of these tiny little cakes, tarts & little cups of desserts to choose from. It was way out of place for the type of town it was in. I’ve now tried jack fruit, dragon fruit, star fruit & guava. The only one I liked out of them was the guava. The dragon fruit & star fruit didn’t have much flavour & the jack fruit has a texture a bit like a pawpaw but tastes quite a bit like a banana.

After our lovely lunch we went for a tour around the city then they dropped us off so we could walk around & see more. We went into the oldest Chinese temple in Malaysia where they showed us how you could have your future told by shaking chopsticks in a container & when one falls out you can get an answer to any question you ask about your future. Then if you don’t like what your future holds all you have to do is burn the answer & start again. Simple hey? You can change the course of your life so easily! The temple was beautiful too by the way.

We walked through the streets & saw lots of traditional Malaysian shops, markets & people. Even a lady riding a bicycle with a traditional Chinese hat on! You usually see them in story books. There was even a huge dragon draped over an intersection. It was great.

 



















We crossed the bridge over the river& met up again at the square where there’s a beautiful old church, an art gallery, markets & a fountain built for Queen Victoria Regina who reigned from 1837 to 1901. The history in this place is amazing. In Australia you‘ll hear history back to 1770, but mainly the 1800’s onwards, in Malaysia they’re talking about the 1100’s as if it was yesterday & they mention things that supposedly happened there before Christ. It’s amazingly old.  It started as a little fishing village & is now listed as a World Heritage Site.

We met up with our guide again where she gave us the option of walking back to the hotel & meeting the bus or having a trishaw ride. You can guess which one we picked; who wouldn’t?

 

There were so many trishaws in the square & they were all decorated beautifully. Some of drivers were being a bit pushy so I chose the one who’d already let us take photos of ourselves with his trishaw; I could see him looking at us hoping but he was too polite to say anything.

He took us all over the town. We saw a Portuguese ship (Malacca was invaded by the Portuguese centuries ago), a Portuguese fort, an American freighter from WW2, the beautiful river, the beachfront. He showed us lots of the history of Malacca as well as giving us a fun ride. Although he did ask us to get off & walk while he rode up a hill at one stage! We bought a great painting of Malacca which had been done by one of the locals. Things are so cheap; it only cost us $20 which is about $8 Australian.

It’s getting late by now so time to head back to Singapore. After we got through customs twice again, we noticed the traffic coming the other way from Singapore; it was incredible. There were cars lined up kilometre after kilometre, waiting to get back into Malaysia after working in Singapore. We couldn’t believe how many. Fancy having to go through that every day but depending on what you do, wages in Singapore can be really low so some people don't have a choice. Our bus driver told Phill that he earns $7 an hour.

It was pretty late when we got back & we were tired & hungry so we went to an eatery in the back street behind our hotel. It was a 24 hour Asian market type & they had all the usual weird & wonderful foods we’d become used to seeing around the markets like Pig Organ Soup, Pig’s Stomach soup, Shark fin soup, Sea Cucumber, Red Residue Mee Sua (residue of what??). We’re not quite that game so we steer clear of them & stick to things we know, like chicken & pork with noodles or rice. We got soup, a small salad (not our usual type of course), rice & meat with sauce for $2-$5. Amazing. I don't know how they make any money out of it & there's so much competition. Well, Malaysia for a day isn't really enough but it was certainly better than not at all. We've had a great day & one day we may get back & see some more.