Singapore + Melaka

Photo: Rhino monchies at the Singapore Night Safari

First, a quick meta note. Uploading photos directly to this site got burdensome, so I’ve decided to just embed my instagram posts instead!

As of writing this, I’ve been on the trip for 5 and a half days. Since the last post, I stayed in Singapore for two more days. On day 3 of Singapore I decided to have a zoo day, where I visited both the ordinary Singapore Zoo, and their special nighttime exhibition called the “Night Safari”.

The Singapore Zoo itself was pretty ordinary, the animals were well taken care of, but otherwise nothing really blew me out of the water. It was cool, however, to see some more tropical animals - I’ve only ever been to more temperate zoos. The real kicker was the night safari. It was one of the coolest experiences I can remember. It was exclusively nocturnal animals, and you could only go at night. Like any zoo, some of the animals were absent, but those that were present were super active! There were fishing cats actively fishing, porcupines huddling in a group, and hyenas standing still while surveying their territory (they were actually pretty freaky). It felt really authentic, and I was so glad to have trekked the extra hour back to the zoo to see it.

The next day, day 4 of Singapore, I was feeling actively pretty crummy. There were a couple of things going on: I was still jet-lagged, I was hot and exhausted, and for whatever reason I had awful allergies. So I decided to take it easy: just eat some good food and relax. I went to a couple new hawker centres, chasing down some with good reviews. I also made a conscious effort to eat more sweets ;).

After that, it was one more night in Singapore before boarding the bus into Malaysia in the morning. The bus was comfortable and the border cross uneventful - just how I like it! And despite it just being a bus ride, it’s land transportation like buses and trains that are my favorite part of the trip: you just get to sit, relax, and watch the countryside go by.

I arrived in Melaka in the early afternoon and checked into my hostel. This hostel, “Ringo’s Foyer”, is pretty good - it’s more social than the last one, and I have had some great conversations with other travelers. Melaka itself is an interesting place - the city itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are references to its older days as a Dutch and Portuguese colony. The city itself is definitely geared for tourists, and there are a lot of them! This is apparently a popular destination for Chinese-Singaporeans. The main market street, Jonker Street, has a really lively night market that was fun to explore - and there are even still some ongoing lunar new year celebrations (lol).

Overall, I’d say the theme of the last couple of days has been learning to pace myself. The heat and activity has really gotten to me, and I quickly realized I needed to be more conscious of having frequent breaks and just taking care of myself. Luckily, it has gotten somewhat cooler over the last 24 hours, so I’m hoping that will help. Tomorrow I leave for Kuala Lumpur, where I’ve booked myself a nice private room at a hotel to catch up on rest and recover a tiny bit.