The first task of the day was to go to Port Dickson to check in. The marina charges an $5USD surcharge if they call the cab for you, so we decided to walk down the road to the taxi stand marked on the map the marina gave us. The tree lined, nice looking road we were on let out onto a main road with blocky, unattractive military housing dominating the other side of the street. The “taxi stand” was really a bus stop. In Singapore, you never waited more than a minute for a taxi at a stand. After 10 minutes, only two taxis had passed, both full, and we began to wonder if not paying the surcharge might have been a mistake. Should we go back to the marina? Fortunately, a cab pulled up right then.
The taxi driver asked us where we wanted to go. We said “Immigration”. He tried to drop us off at a hotel just a couple blocks down the road. We said “No, in town”, so he drove on. The road parallels the beach. The beach side is packed with one large, high rise hotel after another all the way into town. The other side has the military base, and once the base ends, there is an odd assortment of loosely spaced buildings along it with a lot of brush in between the structures.
We knew we had gotten to town when the nice hotels ended and it suddenly became a little seedier. The taxi driver drove along slowly, pointing at various buildings, asking if that was where we wanted to go. We showed him “Immigration” on the map. He tried to drop us off at both ferry terminals. The roads are not a grid and are very confusing, so the map wasn’t much help. Eventually, we figured out where immigration was and were dropped off at the right place. Checking in with Immigration took all of five minutes.
Back out on the road, we found out that walking was no easier than driving. We still had a hard time deciphering our map. There seemed to be no crosswalks anywhere and there was a lot of traffic, making crossing streets difficult. The city looks like when it was first built, a lot of effort was made to make it a nice place. But now, the city pride seems to be gone. Most of the buildings are two to four story row houses, with a couple of taller buildings around, many badly in need of a coat of paint. The sidewalks are broken and crumbling in a lot of spots. In some ways the city reminds us of Ende, Indonesia. Most of the women wear clothes that cover their arms and legs with the Muslim head scarves, though not all.
After a few wrong turns and some help from a couple of policemen, we finally found Customs and Quarantine, located side by side along the water. Each stop took less than five minutes. Yay! In Malaysia, you have to clear in and out of every port, and the officials had both cleared us in and back out so we don’t have to make a return trip to town when it is time to leave.
We didn’t have time to dawdle. The crew from Shayile was waiting on us to leave for Melaka. We didn’t mind not having the time to sightsee today since it didn’t look like the kind of place you would want to hang out in, anyway.
We had no problems catching a cab back. Fortunately, Rob, Belinda and the kids weren’t quite ready to go when we returned, so we had a few minutes to make sure we weren’t forgetting anything important. Rob had arranged for a cab to pick us up that could accommodate the 6 of us. Rob was quite clear about needing a bigger vehicle. Of course, when the cab pulled up, it could only hold 4 passengers, so the kids wound up sitting on our laps. The drive only took an hour and a half, along the same road, going the opposite direction from Port Dickson.
Like most of Indonesia, there is consistent development all along the road. Most of the buildings look relatively new. Some were very fancy and nice, some definitely on the low end of the quality of construction rating system. All the buildings seemed to follow building codes, and we didn’t see anything that looked dilapidated or like it might fall over. The road is really good, too. There is a lot of greenery everywhere, but it is certainly not the dense jungle you read about in all the World War II stories. The cab driver said all the jungle has long been cleared.
We knew we were getting close to Melaka when the buildings started to get older and denser. Some were well maintained, many were in various stages of decay. As we neared the heart of town, all the buildings were well maintained. The cab had some difficulty finding our hotel, so we got a mini tour of downtown. Once we were checked in, we walked down the street in search of a restaurant. The sidewalk comes and goes on this street, and the sewers are open. The road is an incredibly narrow one way street that barely fits the cars, so every time the sidewalk ended, we almost had to walk in front of on coming traffic. We were scared for ourselves, let alone for the kids.
We found a cute place called “The Honkey Tonk” that serves western food. It was pretty good. At night they have a live jazz band that plays the old style swing dancing jazz. Christi mentioned her love for swing dancing and the owner played her a live tune.
Once we were done eating, we started the official Lonely Planet recommended walking tour. We headed another block or so down to the”¦
To be continued”¦