Singapore to Malacca

My day starts to the sound of Russell Watson singing Va Pensiero to wake me from a deep sleep in my ‘Cabin’ at YoHotel, Landside at Changi Airport. 

My flight from Bandar Seri Begawan last night was uneventful and going through customs here a breeze.  Then, bag in tow I make the short walk to Jewel, Jewel in Changi’s crown. 

YoHotel was easy to find and check in a breeze. The Hotel is built in a circle around the massive waterfall in the centre of Jewel. My Cabin 428 was a good way round the circle and I was pleasantly surprised when I let myself in. I was expecting just a pod!  Here was a queen bed, full but tiny bathroom, baggage storage space, aircon and a giant tv. The only thing missing was a jug!  

By now I was hungry and disappointed that at 9:30 the place was closing for the night. Sometimes things happen for a reason tho. The one place that was open had a truffle burger on special. Sold!  I don’t know what heaven tastes like but I expect it is something like this. Washed down with a crisp cool savvie and I was in lala land. 

Sated and tired, back to my cabin I go. It took a while but I fell into the deepest sleep till Russell woke me this morning. 

Check out is a compulsory 9:00am and no way to make coffee in my room so I pack up, leave and go in search of my morning medication!  

Almost the perfect breakfast. An excellent espresso dopio and best of all a kouign amman (which they sadly microwaved). Oh my. 

And so ended my overnight stay at Changi airport. The Yo hotel was perfect and far more reasonable than overnighting in the city or at the airside hotel. 

I grab a cab to the Queen st terminal where I expected to find a terminal. Other than a check in desk, a loo and a tiny bit of shelter there is nothing. 

I head off to the closest shelter, the Bugis market. A bit of fruit, a lot of junk but managed to buy stuff (included in the junk category). 

I’m ready to head back to the non-terminal when the heavens opened up. What now?

Maccers of course. The usual rubbish but it gave me time to retrieve my pooh bear umbrella from my stuff and there was a loo there as a bonus. 

By the time I left the rain had stopped and as I got to the non-terminal bus no 7072 was waiting.  What a wanky swanky bus. Velvet seating, pristine condition, air con, reclining seats. Perfect.  For my $15 not what I expected. 

It is around 4 hours to Melacca broken by border crossings out of Singapore and into Malaysia. I have been given an instruction sheet telling me what I need to do at the crossing. Perfectly organised. My seat 3A an excellent choice  with an unobstructed view. 

We zoom along beautiful roads. Beautiful parks and star studded architecture surround but it is very sterile. 

Easiest border crossing ever at Singapore. Amazing how easy electronic passports make it. No queues, no grumpy inefficient immigration officials like there are some places.  Over and done with for a bus full in ten minutes. 

At the Malaysian border we collected our bags from the bus, breezed through immigration and boarded another bus, just a swanky as the last one. Seems a shame but I think it is nap time. 

Alas, it seems we have company on this bus. Either there is a huge rat trapped somewhere or something needs a good dose of CRC. It’s loud enough and constant enough to put paid to the sleep idea. Even ear plugs don’t help 😩😩😩. 

My music drowned the noise out for a bit and when I woke up it had gone. 

I’m just having my snack that I bought before we left. A regular croissant which has been flatter since since to about 1/2 cm, sprinkled with sugar and baked resulting in a very yummy buttery, caramelised crispy pastry. 

As far as the eye can see there are Palm trees. Not the coconut variety but the Palm Oil type. Malaysia is one of the world’s biggest producers of Palm Oil and desepite its disgusting taste and the many boycotts it still rates highly on Malaysias source of income. Much of what we see from the bus is farmed and not an issue for deforestation affecting the wildlife habitat. It is still used in the manufacture of many foods (labelled as vegetable oil) and still tastes awful. 🤮

We pass huge numbers of same same houses. Neat as pins, and quite substantial. Govt housing?  Who knows. The Govt does have schemes for helping people get into homes and I suspect that is what these subdivisions are. 

Lovely homes with curated gardens are interspersed with old decrepit buildings that look like war time public housing. So many contrasts but it is far more bustly, modern and westernised that I expected. 

I expected an old small town but Melacca has a population of over 500,000 and is the main city of the state of Melacca. 

I had booked another hotel which I loved the look of but while I was in Sri Lanka I decided a pool might be nice. There were two options I looked at and I chose Treasures Hotel & Suites because the other one was a big tourist place. On the map Treasures looked very close to where I wanted to be but judging from the drive getting here I may be wrong. Never mind the ride share here, Grab, is pretty cheap and I’ll hit the streets tomorrow. 

Arriving at Treasures I see a very non-descript pokey entrance. Moving through reception is a gorgeous wee courtyard, like an oasis appearing out of nowhere. 

My room was lovely, everything I need, spacious and with the swan towels to greet me. I have truffle chippies with me for dinner so I settle in. 

Drip, drip, drip. I feel a splash. Water is coming through the ceiling onto my bed. Oh beaut. Here we go again. I rang reception. They send someone to check and then rang straight back to see if I would mind if they moved me to a premium room which will be dry. Thanks very much. So here I am in my $100 a night huge room with funky decor, sprawled across the bed eating chippies. How tough is that. 

Lights will be out very soon so I can explore tomorrow.