Paradise and Melaka (Vacation part 3)

It took us around 3 hours to drive from Singapore, across the border to Merasing by taxi. It was clear that there were about 100 times more cars heading into Singapore than into Malaysia. Miles upon miles of Palm trees lined the windy road, part of Malaysia’s biggest export – Palm oil. After waiting 1 1/2 hours for our ferry to leave Mersing, we quickly arrived at our new favourite place in the world; Rawa. People always say that pictures never do justice, but here it has never been truer. Two brothers once ran a resort on the island, but after a dispute on how the resort should be run. They split the island and each brother took half to run, as they saw fit. Le Club Rawa is owned and run by Juan, and is the most laid back place in the world. The hammocks everywhere, white beaches, wide array of cheap food, great music, clear green water and a beautiful coral reef just meters away from the shore made us feel like we were dreaming. After being there for only a couple of hours, Steph turned to me to say; “Let’s stay a third night”. Done and done!
Sadly, all good things must come to an end. Taking Virginia’s great advice, we abandoned our original plans to continue up the east coast and venture off to Melaka. Unfortunately, that meant ditching a trip to Taman Negara, Malaysia’s famous rainforest with tree-top tours and caving expiditions. It was a good choice though… if you like shopping! Melaka had been christened Malaysia’s cultural centre. Floating from Spanish to Dutch to British rule, finally obtaining independence in 1963, Melaka had plenty of food and shopping with a couple of touristy sites sprinkled in between.

St Paul’s Church in the Dutch area gave Steph some time to rub elbows with some kind (are there any other types) Netherlanders. We ate Indian food with our hands (a liberating experience), visited a long forgotten “Crocodile amusement park”, a city forest jam-packed with wild monkeys, night markets and a giant, brand new shopping mall. They must have known Steph was coming because they were having a month-long “MEGA SALE”! Before you could blink an eye, she had two new purses! (don’t they get jealous?). I did pretty well myself.

We even fit in a rickshaw ride with a 62 year old man who seemed extremely excited to get us into his cart, before he realized how big we were. It would have been a far more romantic ride if he didn’t almost die pushing us or tell us his incredibly sorrow-filled story. Thanks buddy!

After 3 days in Rawa and 3 days in Melaka, it was time to head for our final destination: Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia supposedly has the best infrastructure in South East Asia, so grabbing buses anywhere is a breeze. They are more luxurious than the ones in Canada and the 3-hour trip cost less that $3. Feeling that we “had done Melaka”, we took off.