How to Get There: Bus Ride to Melaka

Our side-trip to Melaka started early on our third day. We left Pasir Ris at 6AM, which in Singapore time, is still dark, and arrived at the Golden Mile Tower at about 6:30AM. There are two buildings there. The more popular one is the Golden Mile Complex, which was where our taxi driver brought us. The Golden Mile Tower is just next to the complex. When we arrived, there were a few people waiting for buses. I thought Golden Mile Tower was a bus station. It isn't. It's just a building and passengers just wait outside for their buses. There are no seats. When we arrived, I went inside to the Starmart Express office to have our tickets validated. It is easy to spot your bus because there is a name + number. While waiting for our bus, we decided to buy breakfast at Coco Eatery, which was the only stall opened that time.

This is the Starmart Express office inside the building.

Paid SG$8.00 for a cup of nasi puti, 2 slices of luncheon meat, 2 eggs, and 1 cup of kopi-o.

My sister bought spicy noodles, which I didn't particularly like.

This is their kopi-o. We love the handle.

At exactly 7:15 AM, our bus arrived. Startmart Express buses are colored red and easy to spot because there is a Smartmart Express name. Before we were allowed to embark the bus, the driver informed us that eating is not allowed. Maybe because he saw we were bringing kopi-o. We drank our kopi-o and threw the container in the trash can before we alighted the bus. I bought our tickets from redbus.sg and I just printed the ticket voucher to show to the driver. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the bus seats are spacious and there were very few people with us. I think we were only 10 in the bus.

I loved our ride out of the city. We passed by Little India, Haji Lane, the Marina Sands, and more tall buildings. Thirty minutes or more later, we were on less urbanized surroundings, there were more companies we saw though and more "landed" housing. We were going fast and I was mesmerized by just how clean the city state is, and how there was no traffic at all. We reached the Tuas Immigration at around 8AM, and we went off the bus to have our passports stamped. NOTE: Remember the white paper you filled up in the Changi Airport before passing through the immigration. Bring that with you here because the Tuas Immigration officers will get it back. There was hardly any line and we were out in minutes. 

The Marina Bay Sands hotel.

There was no traffic at the causeway link but we saw that there was heavy traffic on the other side -- the lane entering Singapore. Causeway took us about 10 minutes, and when our bus landed in Malaysia, I was singing in my head, "Malaysia, Truly Asia." After a few minutes, we reached the Malaysian Immigration at Sultan Abubakr Complex in Johor Bahru. The immigration guy who entertained me was kinda grumpy at so early in the morning and asked for my return ticket. I first showed him my return bus ticket, but he frowned and I realized he meant my return ticket to the Philippines. I'm glad I bought all my "paperworks" with me and I was able to show him my return ticket to Cebu. All's well. The immigration center is very small but there were not many people there also. 

There were horror stories I read about Malaysian buses and immigrations. One of which was told by my cousin. She said she knew of a family who lost their belongings when they got off for the immigration and the bus left them. So we just bought one bag each that we can lug with us all the time. We were delayed in the immigration at Johor Bahru because our bus driver was nowhere to be found. After more than an hour, he arrived and we learned he was waiting for more passengers. I was hoping to be able to sleep the four-hour travel but I didn't because, while the scenery of eternal palm trees became boring, it was my first time in Malaysia and I didn't want to blink. Yes, that's me. So, I passed time by working (digital nomad represent!), reading, writing, taking pictures, and daydreaming. It was convenient to work in the bus because the road was flat, no bumps and humps at all. An hour before arriving in Melaka, we stopped at a small station and I hurriedly took a pee.

An hour later, this toll gate greeted us, and we were on our way to Melaka!

We arrived at 12 noon at Melaka Sentral, their bus station. We were famished because we were deprived for four hours. But, before that, we had some money exchanged into ringgits. And then, looked for a place to eat. We spotted this place at the bus station and chose this because there were several people. Let's just say this was the reason why I never had any Melakan food during the rest of our stay in the city. I ordered sweet and sour fish and shared a Coke with my husband. I paid RM7.00 but I was not pleased with my food.

My sister's tom yun soup.

My sweet and sour fish.

After lunch, we looked for a taxi to take us to our accommodation. Melaka Sentral, their bus station, is a 30-minute ride (no traffic at all) to the city center. We rode two taxis and we paid RM30 each taxi (P100 per person). My cousin said we were scammed but I do not mind paying the P100 as I did not want to walk that far, or haggle some more. 

We enjoyed our driver because he talked about a lot of things in the short span of time he was driving. He asked if we knew Jericho Rosales (very popular in Malaysia, and very handsome too!). My brother asked him about beef rendang (his reason for visiting Malaysia is to eat authentic beef rendang) and we learned beef rendang is served on very special occasions. He also shared with us a little history about the place, pointed out the enclaves (Indians live here, Chinese live here), and shared that the rubber industry is slow as young people no longer want to plant rubber trees. They are migrating to the cities. It's the same story everywhere! Finally, we entered the red square, and reached our destination.