Even If You Have a Map, You Get Lost

We boarded another of the free, public buses in search of the Malaysian National Textile Museum and its renowned batik exhibits. Batik is a form of dying cloth that is popular in Malaysia. I chose this as an homage to my post college, Home Economist days. We exited the bus at the suggested stop but did not see the museum. We had no idea of either where we were or how to get to the correct location.

We sought direction help from a couple of young men, who were waiting for another bus and sent us in the wrong direction based on their Google Maps search. After walking over a mile (2 km) in the midday, sweltering, tropical weather, we finally found a museum complex, the Malaysian National Museum. We decided to visit it since we were there and the admission fee was about $3US (10MR). Happily we learned about the Portuguese occupation of the port of Melaka which we were scheduled to visit on our way to Singapore in a couple of days.

As we finished the main exhibit hall, we were greeted with a deluge of tropical, summer, monsoon rains. We gave up looking for the National Textile Museum and waited out the storm at the complex snack bar with ice cream bars and chilled water.

Based on our simplified and not to scale, tourist map, Don and I went in search of and found a nearby bus stop, after it stopped raining. We joined a few locals, who were under the provided canopy and were waiting for the next bus, also. The next bus bypassed the stop altogether by staying in the farthest traffic lane from the designated stop. The other prospective passengers were not happy and grumbled among themselves. Two buses finally came but they were in a middle lane of bumper-to-bumper traffic; this didn’t stop the local passengers. As the pair prepared to pass us in the heavy stop-and-go traffic, we followed the locals and boarded the almost full buses in the middle of traffic.

Were we insane? In the US, YES! As we experienced in Jeddah and Delhi, traffic laws are merely suggestions here also. Surprisingly, we made it back to the hotel, safely and without further adventure.

We walked across the street from our hotel to the Hokaido Seafood Restaurant that we had spotted the first night. I, again, had prawns, which are larger than shrimp and were very flavorful. Don tried a venison dish, which we found to be flavor filled and satisfying.

After dinner we investigated the street massage program set up across from both the hotel and the restaurant. This nongovernmental program helps train blind and visually impaired participants for spa related occupations. Streetside the services were very inexpensive but limited to leg, foot, shoulder, and neck massage in the open air. Private sessions could be arranged in the rooms at an additional cost.

I had a very good foot, lower leg and shoulder treatment, but they could not perform the thigh massage, recommended by my doctor for my sciatic nerve issue. After his similar treatment, Don reported he was a little sore from his massage but still considered the results to be an improvement. We returned to our room to prepare for our next day’s adventures.