During this segment, we got re-introduced to book buses, flights and the ever so convenient Grab rides (the Uber equivalent in SEA). Navigating different bus and airport terminals always seem to present some uniqueness.

An overview of our trip itinerary is here

2023.01.22 – Singapore – Melaka (Malaysia)

We had learned over the past few days that the weather forecast seemed to change every 15 minutes or so in this part of the world. It was no different this morning, as we were about to step out of our hotel and walk to the nearby bus terminal, we were confronted to a heavy rain downpour. We decided to wait 15 minutes before calling a taxi. As we had hoped, the rain eventually stopped. We managed to start walking to the bus terminal and we even stopped at McDonald’s for a quick breakfast along the way. Our international bus left promptly at 8:45am. Within an hour, we had gone through Singapore’s exit checkpoint as well as Malaysia’s Immigration control. The vehicle traffic on the road was heavy at times – most likely as a result of the Chinese New Year. Once in Melaka, we walked from our bus drop-off a mere 400m to our hotel. We were quite impressed by our nice modern hotel which we learned it had been opened for less than a year. Festivities for the Chinese New Year were in full swing in town. As most (if not all) money exchange offices appeared to be closed today, we opted to withdraw some local currency at an ATM. We learned later on that our $200cdn withdrawal incurred almost $15cdn worth of bank charges (mostly from the local bank). After our dinner, we enjoyed walking along the very busy Jonker Street Night Market. Somewhat tired, we looked forward to a good night sleep.

2023.01.23 – Melaka – Melaka (Malaysia)

Our hotel breakfast buffet was quite expansive. Many hotel guests were checking out in the morning. After our breakfast, we walked over to a money exchange office. Sadly the exchange rate was not that great. Later, we walked along the Melaka River while taking in the surrounding views – including some big river lizards. We took a 40mins river cruise along the same river and visited some of the main tourist sites. We returned to our hotel room in the early afternoon to avoid the rain forecast. It finally rained only a few hours later but stopped in time for us to head out for dinner. After our meal, we had hoped to take of few sunset pictures a popular floating mosque. Unfortunately, we failed to secure a Grab ride as the drivers were particularly busy.

2023.01.24 – Melaka – Melaka (Malaysia)

Yesterday we managed to visit most of Melaka’s highlights except for the floating mosque. After our hotel’s breakfast, we did some additional flight and hotel reservations. Late morning, we walked to a shopping mall to check out the socks offering for Jenny. We returned to our room under some light rain. We spent the rest of the day relaxing in our room and listening to the on and off rain falling. In the mid afternoon, we enjoyed a colorful (and loud) lion dance performance at our hotel. The dancers and musicians performed throughout each floor of our hotel. As the rain continued into the evening, we resigned ourselves to skip our planned visit of the floating mosque which would have required a return car share ride for a brief photo op.

2023.01.25 – Melaka – Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia)

Today was yet another traveling day. It seemed an earlier tour bus group ate all of the hotel’s breakfast croissants as they had ran out by the time we showed up. After breakfast, we ordered a Grab ride to get to the bus terminal. Before leaving, we enjoyed chatting with a member of the hotel management team. The 2 hr bus ride to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport was uneventful. We promptly checked in for our 2 hrs flight to Kota Kinabalu on the Borneo island (Malaysia side). From the airport, we took another Grab ride to our hotel – our new home for the next three nights. After checking into our hotel, we stepped out for late diner at a nearby American-style restaurant.

2023.01.26 – Kota Kinabalu – Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia)

After breakfast at our hotel, we spent the morning planning and booking an upcoming five-day stay at the Gunung Mulu National Park where we planned to visit caves and do jungle walks. In the early afternoon, we embarked on long stroll along the sea front boardwalk. At the end of our walk, we sought refuge in a large air conditioned shopping mall. I took the opportunity to purchase a few extra t-shirts for the trip. Later we visited some tour operators at the ferry terminal to get information on snorkeling excursion options for the next day. We returned to our hotel with a Grab ride. In the evening, we had dinner at an open-air seafood restaurant.

2023.01.27 – Kota Kinabalu – Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia)

After breakfast, we took a Grab ride to the ferry terminal. We purchased a two island boat transport to the Tunku Abdul Rahman National Park where we did some snorkeling for few hours at each island. It was a bit of a sad moment when the park agent looked at us and then suggested we could get a Senior discount for the park entrance. We saved $1.75cdn each. Although the sun did not appear to be shining strongly, I returned to the ferry terminal like a cooked lobster as I had failed to put on some sunscreen. Jenny was well protected with her long sleeve snorkeling top. Upon arriving at the ferry terminal, we realized that my phone had been exposed to some water as its waterproof sleeve had started to leak from a tiny hole cut by the beach sand/shells. Suddenly the phone’s sim was no longer being recognized. Hence, we could not request any Grab ride back to our hotel. We walked to a nearby shopping mall and stopped at a mobile phone boutique where we tried to wipe dry our sim card. After a quick reboot, the phone’s sim started to work again. Strangely, we had to deal with a few canceled Grab ride requests before making it back to the hotel. After our dinner, we visited a nearby laundromat to wash all of our clothes used during our snorkeling outing. At a mere $3.40cdn, it was a worthwhile saving of effort.

2023.01.28 – Kota Kinabalu – Miri (Malaysia)

We noticed a lot of Korean visitors seem to flock to Kota Kinabalu for their enjoyment. They easily splurged on expensive seafood and water activities. After breakfast, we caught up with our blog text and travel expenditures until our 12:00pm check out. We left our backpacks at the hotel and then took a Grab back to the large Suria Sabah shopping mall. We had compiled a list of things we wanted to purchase. Folks at the mall were entertained by a youth talent show in the spirit of the Chinese New Year. Surprisingly (or not) we found many of our items at a dollar store (e.g. Jenny’s higher angle socks, head torch, waterproof phone sleeve) while the remaining items we purchased from the pharmacy (e.g. Jenny’s magical green oil, aloe gel, deodorant, etc). We also bought some Subway sandwiches for our later dinner at airport. Back at the hotel, we relaxed in the lobby until 6:00pm after that we requested a ride to the airport. As we checked our luggage at the airport, we learned our 50 mins flight to Miri was delayed by half an hour. We were reminded how much waiting time was associated with each of our flight – nonetheless it was still more tolerable than a 10+ hour bus ride. The AirAsia’s Airbus A320 was full to capacity with very little space between the rows. Although our flights from Kuala Lampur and this one were domestic flights, everyone still had to go through an immigration check. Thankfully for us the immigration control queue for those with foreign passports was quite small. After several failed attempts to secure a Grab ride from the airport to our hotel, we resigned ourselves in taking a (very) slightly more taxi ride. We checked into our hotel room just after 11:00pm

2023.01.29 – Miri – Miri (Malaysia)

We initially thought we would get a very restful night of sleep but it was far from it. We barely slept all night – even with Airpods and ear plugs. Our room on the 13th floor of this 3+ star hotel faced some low-rise buildings from which loud base music played throughout the night and morning. Before heading to the hotel’s breakfast room, we stopped at the registration desk to request a change of room. We learned that the hotel had no available rooms until late afternoon after guests checked-out. We were determined to move to another hotel after our breakfast. We learned from the staff at our new modern hotel that the town of Miri was often overwhelmed by folks from Brunei. These foreign family visitors came to Miri for shopping and weekend escapade enjoyments. It was our bad luck for showing up on a weekend in Miri and choosing a hotel with a pool. Staff at our new hotel kindly allowed us to move into our room as soon as we had checked out of our disappointing hotel. In the afternoon, we visited a large grocery store for some supplies for our upcoming stay at the remote Gunung Mulu National Park. Still tired from our sleepless night, we had dinner at our hotel’s restaurant.