Day 64 (Melaka)

Our second and final day in Malaysia – man time flies!

We left Penang and hit the road for Melaka with a planned pit stop in Kuala Lumpur to give people a few hours to sightsee, shop or just relax in the Petronus Twin Towers. We also had to pick up Todo who'd stayed on in Koh Samui for an extra couple of days. The drive to KL was quicker than expected so we had more than 3 hours to venture around the place and explore. We were dropped at the twin towers and that' where most of us stayed.

First stop was to look for money exchange to get Indonesian Ruppiahs to pay for our visa the next day during our final overland border crossing. The visa price was to be $25 US or 238,000 in local currency. Given that there might be problems changing Euros in Indonesia and that was the only cash I had left, I cleared out a bank in the Twin Towers by getting €100 changed up. That's the end of my cash :( Was hopeful I'd make it to Australia and have that note left to change there! After we'd got our cash situation sorted we went in search of food...and found....an O'Brien's Irish Sandwich Bar! I was tempted but it didn't look as good as it is at home, and I wanted to try something local given how much Western food I've been eating of late. After my tummy issues I'm a bit wary of eating in most local food places, but I figured in a shopping centre at least there are less flies and things landing on the food before I eat it! I had some noodles and chicken that was reasonably tasty.

There were no tickets left for the walkway at the towers so I half considered going to the BT tower to have a look at the city, but instead went to a net cafe to book my Sydney Harbour Bridge climb and start work on revising my plan for arrival in Oz.

With Todo collected and everyone else back at the bus we ventured onward to Melaka for the night. The guide again pointed out the sites to see and suggested that we all head to Jonker Walk for the night markets where we'd be able to buy anything and everything we wanted (waiting until as late in the night as possible to buy guaranteed the best price). In addition to stuff for sale there were lots of food stalls, and a stage set up that had locals and tourists up singing – very bizarre. I parted with the equivalent of €1.50 for a new pair of flip-flops (a girl can never have too many pairs) and resisted the temptation to buy anything else. A gang of us headed into a pub on Jonker Walk called the Geographer for some food and drinks. The cocktails seemed pretty alcohol free to me, but the food was quite tasty. There was a guy playing keyboards and guitar and singing some of the worst covers I've ever heard of some pretty good tunes. Toward the end of the night the manager came over to take our photo so if OzBUS 10, 11 or whatever make it there, look out for us...we may be on the wall of fame :)