Blog Day 115 Mon 29th August 2011

Today we are sadly leaving Kuala Lumpur to head onto Melaka. This is kind of a half-way point between KL and Singapore. The bus journey to Melaka is again a very comfortable one & takes about 5 hours. Once at the main bus terminal we are on our own & have to find a way to our Hostel. Trish has read that the cheapest way to do this is by public bus & it's meant to be pretty easy. So we head round to the public bus terminal & a guy approaches us asking if we need help. We explain that we need to get to Melaka Central, he shows us the bus we need & where to wait, the whole time we are talking to him he is rubbing Dan's arm & when we go to walk away he gives it a little squeeze & a big smile (looks like Dan's pulled!). Some of the buses that are pulling up really don't look like they are going to make it very far, they look like old tin sheds that have been nailed together with wheels stuck on them. When our bus turns up we breathe a sigh of relief as it looks like one that has a good chance of getting us to where we need to go. The bus fare sets us back all of R2 (40p) no wonder the busses are falling apart really. We drive through Chinatown & some of the historic sights which all look extremely worse for wear. Finally we reach the last stop & get kicked of the bus. From here it about a 20min walk lugging all our belongings in the humid weather, we didn't realize that this particular hostel was a little way out of town. When we finally turn into the road where our hostel is situated, we realize its dead, everywhere looks shut, like it's been shut for years kind of shut. We have booked to stay at the AA motel & its right near the end of this road. We arrive outside and are greeted by a locked door. The lights are on but no one is home, literally! We hang around waiting for about 20mins but this seems like forever, we are banging on the door & looking around but all we get back is silence. As we are about to walk away & find somewhere else (hoping that because we booked online we can get a refund) a guy opens the door & says he was asleep! He shows us a number he stuck to the door that said 'on call please ring', we're not blind we saw this but without a phone & with no one around whose phone we could borrow, we were kind of stuck.

He grabs a key & shows us to our room just up some stairs beside the main reception, he says the door gets locked at night as there are are lots of pubs around & it gets very busy (we can't imagine this at this moment). Now to say the room is basic is an understatement.

Picture if you will:

Three badly painted blue walls, one wall of windows all blocked over, a huge double bed, a very badly laid carpet, a small storage unit & after closer inspection a ton of ants aimlessly wandering around over the floor. NICE! As Dan checks out the free Wi-Fi (the only bonus) Trish hangs her head thinking what Dan can only make out as get me out of this s***hole. We decide that the best thing is to go for a walk & clear our heads for a bit before making any rash decisions (first impressions can be interpreted wrong sometimes). However we are pretty sure that when we return the place will still be a s***hole!

We find a mall & pop in for something to eat (any guesses for what that might be?), actually today we treated ourselves to a Pizza hut. After wandering around, having a massage in one of those big comfy massage chairs & going to the cinema to see Cowboys & Aliens (good film) we decide that we will try to go to Singapore tomorrow instead. It's not until we are back at the hostel that we find that anything reasonable in the price range in Singapore has gone, looks like we will be here for one more night. After spending around 4 hours talking to parent's in England, Grannie Annie & Aunty Pat in Ireland & Uncle Steve in America we decide that maybe we will ride out a few more days here. Thank God for BUGSPRAY!