malacca river cruise

we were still on our half day in malacca and yet, it felt like we had already covered a lot of places. although, we merely passed by a few house-turned-museums,  interesting shops and some local dining scenes. however, looking at the brighter side, the chinese new year holidays spared us some time since we didn't have to stop by at these museums and shops for they were apparently closed. as what my project leader at work told me, malacca deserves twice the visit, during the chinese new year and during regular days, when everything is normally buzzing with daily activities.

well moving on, for the tourists that we were, one of the most important activities that we had to do was the malacca river cruise. daytime and nighttime river cruises both have equal bearing and each has its own beauty to offer. daytime river cruise affords you the view of the colorful paintings on malacca's traditional houses along the river and other things that may catch your fancy. on the other hand, during nighttime, serene calmness engulfs you while you get mesmerized with the night lights.

so, i was thinking that breinn and i had to do it during dusk. it had to be a perfect time for the remaining rays of the setting sun would still lit up malacca and eventually for our return trip, darkness would step in. yes, i was the one who most of the time did the thinking for i only had to drag breinn's arse and he would then give me that excited and giddy look. it felt like i was a tourist guide without a fee!

Malacca River Cruise Ticket Counter

but it didn't go as planned, dusk came too slow and our feet had brought us to the malacca river cruise ticket counter sooner than we would have liked. we even killed time by eating some commercial ice cream, commonly known as nestlé. i even had one locally packed green peas on top of that! and for a while, breinn went around and acquainted with himself by taking some photographs. but no, dusk preferred to come in its own time.

after 2 queues (for the tickets and the boat), we found ourselves seated in between this group of malaysian vacationers while we felt kinda out of place as they merrily conversed with each other. not that we really did mind. we were even up to the idea of asking one of them to take a photo for us but we got too shy before we could blurt out the request.

and off we go to our malacca river cruise. we had to take back our disappointment on not sitting in front of the boat the very instant a splash of water sprayed those who were seated there and they even ended up as our shields from the water. the water was too murky for comfort and breinn even told me to save my "wows" or else i might have my share of river droplets straight to my mouth. although the river is not crystal clear, i did not see any floating trash or any visible thing that can attribute to its not so enticing color.

anyway, here are the photos during our relaxing cruise along the river whilst occasionally interrupted by the splashing water.

The life vests gave me peace.

All the time, we were seeing only half of the view.

Dine al fresco!

I think the houses were intentionally painted for the river cruise.

We even saw a "Grandpa" hanging his laundry!

the house shots are in various sizes for i have to crop them to give more meaning. as you can see, a patch of hair is even still left at the right bottom of the photo above! yes, i suck at editing pictures and i don't even do photoshop but i digress.

The Malaysian flag painted on the roof.

merdeka means independence.

the above bridges are intricate and beautiful! they appeal to me as very malaysian. well, of course!

A monorail that's not in operation.

when we were cruising up the river, i was intrigued by the elevated metal track that lined the river. you can see it in the photo of the bridge encrusted with flowers. i ignored the idea of monorail since the track looked too flimsy but lo and behold! when we reached the end of the cruise, we saw a monorail car! we didn't know then that it wasn't in operation since we could see a number of people inside the car. we also didn't bother to ask anyone in the boat. we only knew the monorail's state from our taxi driver the day after when he exclaimed the monorail as a stupid idea. so i guess, the monorail became just a plain exhibit.

at this part by the way is where the river cruise will officially commence. as your boat makes a u-turn, the boatmen will play an audio track, narrating the places of interest which you have already seen on the way up. we were not able to listen intently with the narration because the sound of the boat lulled the audio and drifted us to our own thoughts.

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the river cruise is worth the price of RM10 per adult although the audio can be much improved. the trivia and hidden stories could make the sites more interesting. it's even a better idea if there is a candid guide! but that may not be anymore worth 10 ringgits.

Malacca River Cruise Map

in getting to the malacca river cruise counter, you need only to walk by the pavement along the river, towards the direction of the open sea. just let the old ship guide you because they're both near to each other.

o-O