Today is my one month anniversary with Singapore!
One month ago I hopped off a plane into a country I had never been to before and started a new life. It’s crazy. It’s nuts. It’s just like me to do something like that. I have had some good days and some bad ones but overall I’d say that I am enjoying myself here.
So in celebration, here is documentation of my first trip since I got here!
Melacca, Malaysia!
Or Melaka. Depends on who you ask.
This past Sunday was Eid al-Fatir, a Muslim holy day which marks the end of Ramadan. Since I’m now in Singapore, I got a Monday off of work to celebrate the holiday. I wanted to go to Malaysia because it’s close but didn’t have anyone to go with. Early last week I said hi to a girl in the lab who I hadn’t met and introduced myself. Her name is Sarah and she is interning for 6 weeks from Germany. I needed software that was only available on a computer near her so we started chatting during work and got along pretty well. We started talking about weekend plans and she mentioned that she was going to Malaysia and I said that I thought that sounded really fun and that I wished I had plans to go. So she invited me along and, much to her surprise, I said yes! So this is my life, tagging on to random trips to Malaysia with German interns.
She was going with friends who are staying in the same hostel with her and some of their friends. Turns out, all six of us are from different countries! Sarah (Germany), Rik (Netherlands), Cagatay (Turkey), Elena (Italy), Ola (Poland), and me! It was a really cool group and we had a great time exploring all of the sights!
We took a bus into Malaysia because it was cheap but the border took awhile, holiday weekend you know. So here’s some traffic, and the green behind it! It was nice to get out of the Singaporean haze (Indonesia (farmers?) lights things on fire, Singapore chokes in haze. Apparently this is an acceptable yearly thing? I can’t breathe…) and see some open space! That’s one thing we all remarked on when going to Malaysia, even the size of the food stalls was bigger in Malaysia. There’s just so much more space! You don’t feel like you’re stepping on someone else all the time, well, except at the night market but I’ll show you that in a second.
We had rooms in a hostel not too far from the center of town and we had this giant rotating observation deck thingy right on our front porch. We didn’t actually go on it but I’m sure it has a good view!
My favorite part about Melacca was the trishaws. They were the best. I don’t know who thought of them but they made me so happy. They are little rickshaws with a bike attached to the side. Which is cool. But they were all decorated with ridiculous winged things that looked like butterflies attached to the top. A ton of them were pink and covered with Hello Kitty paraphernalia. And most had boom boxes on the back to play fabulous music while people were driven around in them. I swear I giggled every time I saw one.
This was a bridge I liked. It was all pretty and green around it.
We went to a famous chicken rice ball place apparently. We went because the line was long so we figured it was good. Oh, this is Rik and Sarah!
But it turns out the line was for this. Which was shockingly good. It tastes like maple sugar candy if you’ve ever had that. We just had a sample on our way into the restaurant.
The restaurant was super cool though!
Here is where the make the chicken rice balls. So chicken rice is made by doing something like mixing chicken drippings into what you cook the rice in so it picks up all of that flavor (I think this is how it happens). But here they make it into balls! The machine on the left does most of the balling I think and the guy kind of finishes them off and puts them in a try. I clearly don’t know all of the details but the black magic is tasty so I’m okay with it.
See, Hello Kitty. I think this was a Hello Kitty themed hostel?
Right next to this mosque! I had never been to a mosque before and this one was pretty neat. It’s not like most mosques, it has influences from a bunch of different cultures and I thought it was super cool!
We went inside and had to cover up to do so. We missed the hijabs which we felt really bad about when we saw them on our way out… We really were trying though!
I thought this sign was very interesting. Not how most signs where I come from look.
Same with this one.
Rik and Cagatay. There will be more pictures of these two being ridiculous. They’re pretty good at it.
The night market! This place was my favorite! It was crazy crowded but also super cool and fun with lots of tasty food.
This is before we tried the durian tart. Durian is a huge thing over here. People like it. It’s spiky. It smells really bad. And in my experience, it tastes like something literally rotting in your mouth. But some people really liked it and make everything with it. You can get durian anything. I’m just not quite sure why you would want to… This is before trying it. The guy at the durian cottage gave me a durian egg tart because he said it was the best introductory durian thing he had. The flavor was the weakest of what was there but I still definitely couldn’t get rid of the taste for awhile. You have to try it though. It’s like a rite of passage.
Here are a bunch of pictures of the night market! They don’t do it justice. It was great!
We got a bit completely rained on at the end of this night. It started pouring and we were stuck out at a bar. So we ran out and got soaked and then bought some severely overpriced ponchos! Once we got back to the hostel, Sarah and I realized we had grabbed the wrong key! Back out in the rain to go to the main office which was on a different street behind our hostel and find the key. It was really fun, even running around in the pouring rain. I also realized it was the first time I had actually felt cold since arriving in Singapore, other than being too cold from the air conditioning! I think I was only cold before we stopped to grab ponchos though, so maybe 30 seconds?
The next day we started off with a river boat cruise!
By the dock there was a large sign commemorating the Malaysian Airlines flight that was shot down.
Americans are supposed to be patriotic but I swear I’ve never seen this many flags at once before in my life. Go Malaysian pride!
A lot of the buildings along the river were painted really cool!
And then we visited a pirate ship!
Just kidding. It’s actually a maritime museum. But we definitely still climbed all over it where we were allowed to. We actually learned a lot about Melaka from exploring here. Turns out it used to be a really important trade city but then traded hands a lot and lost a lot of it’s power. I’m pretty sure everyone took over Melaka at some point. Some more successfully than others. Rik kept trying to tell us that the British came and ruined everything and then the Dutch came and made it better. None of us were super convinced.
More trishaws!
I didn’t actually drive us. But it was so fun! No one else wanted to take a ride with use but we had way too much fun. The guy played Happy by Pharrell while he drove us. It was great. We got totally ripped off but hey, life goes on and it was super fun.
Indian food! On a banana leaf. No utensils allowed. Also, it was spicy. I couldn’t quite finish mine. I got close though! Everyone else cleaned their banana leaves.
I told you there would be more great pictures of these two.
The messiest fingers! (Cagatay was the neatest among us)
We walked up to what we think is the highest place in Melaka. It was a nice view!
Hey look it’s a miniature of that place with all of the trishaws in front of it!
There were some really pretty places in the city as well. I really liked this one.
Me, Sarah, and dino.
Me and dino. Sarah pretending she doesn’t know us.
More messy hands after crab.
The cutest ice cream ever! It’s potted plant ice cream.
Isn’t it adorable?!! (I may have stopped a random stranger and asked if I could take a picture of her ice cream cause that’s how I roll)
Drinks by the river on our last night!
Hijab store at the bus station. There were places like this all over. It was actually super neat. If you love scarves, you will have lots of options if you visit a place like this.
I had a great time exploring a little bit more and made some pretty good friends along the way. I’m super glad I jumped on this random trip and that it just happened to be awesome. But I must say that THIS was still my favorite part:
😀