Weekend at Melaka - Part 1: Traveling to Melaka

The Clairvoyant and I went to Melaka for the weekend. This was a surprise trip arranged by the Clairvoyant to celebrate my 40th and happened to be our first trip to Malaysia after going to different countries around the world (though I haven't gone to Europe...yet). Going to Malaysia was not a difficult thing because the country and most destinations can be reached by bus from Singapore, which was originally part of what was called Malaya prior to its independence.

The Clairvoyant booked us on bus trips but managed to get our first choice company, StarMart Express, only for the Singapore-Melaka leg.

People waiting to be called by the dispatchers for the different buses going to Malaysia from the Beach Road terminal

The Clairvoyant waiting at the steps

StarMart buses are owned by Air Asia - Asia's largest budget airlines. They are the top rated bus for trips between Singapore and Malaysia based on internet postings.

Our bus arriving at the loading bay, which was a driveway in front of an office building. I was actually surprised that the set-up at Beach Road was quite informal considering the volume of people traveling between the two countries.

Comfortably seated inside the bus, we proceeded to Malaysia

There are two checkpoints on either end of the causeway that we used, which was one of two connecting Singapore and Malaysia. Going to Malaysia, we used the newer and smaller checkpoints where the processing were very smooth as one could expect for checkpoints that are so busy especially due to the high volume of traffic between Singapore and Malaysia. Taking photos are prohibited in these areas so we refrained from doing so.

I will be featuring more photos of our weekend adventure to the World Heritage City of Melaka in succeeding posts. There's a wealth of photographs taken (and still to be taken in the future) from cities like Melaka. It is truly a unique place and one so rich in history considering what she has gone through being a colony under the Portuguese, then the Dutch and finally the Brtitish. Melaka, of course is the Malacca that is mentioned in history books that was the subject of much conflict associated with the desire for spices in the so-called Old World.

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