Port Dickson, Malaysia
We are staying for 2 nights in this seaside resort for Kuala Lumpur residents. Since most of the hotels are empty during the week (the vacationers come on the weekend), the room rates are half what they on the weekend. The resort is a very nice, large place with an artificial lagoon and giant pool. Best of all there is no one there except for a few Dutch and Germans on package tours. Unfortunately, the remote location of the resort allows them to soak everyone staying there, which is why we are now at a nearby shopping mall picking up supplies like water and beer and candy. I am ever the cheap bastard…
Our bus ride here was quite comfortable as the coach was almost completely empty. And cheap too at $1.25 for the 2 hour trip. Tomorrow we ride on to Malaka (the Dutch and Portugese colonial capital) and then Singapore.
The people we have met outside the city have been quite nice and friendly. Everyone has gone out of their way to make our trip easy and pleasant.
The bus station at Kuala Lumpur has two main aisles where you buy tickets. On each aisle are DOZENS of bus companies. Since many of the bus companies compete with each other, they shout out their destinations as you walk buy, while others shout “sir” or “hello, sir”. As you reach the end of this narrow hallway, the whole room is full of a cacophany of competing Malay place names shouted at you. It was quite an experience. I was certainly glad that the hotel concierge in KL had written out the name of the bus company we needed for Port Dickson.