Malacca

Got back from Malacca last night... yup... went for a short 2 days (1.5 days if you don't count all the travelling time) with my parents and my aunt... my bro didn't wanna go cos he was still having classes..

Anyway we took the coach down and boy it was quite a long journey... but then again, after travelling from New Delhi to Agra, nothing really counts as long anymore... we went by the 2nd Link and it was my first time there... the place looks nice enough.. only setback was that it was super empty... there weren't anyone in the lines and hardly any vehicles using it... so that kind of cut travelling time, since there was zero traffic all the way from the link to the expressway leading from there...

we stopped over at Ayer Itam (I know it means Black Water but I'm not sure if I spelled it right... never did learn Malay) while the driver lunched... pretty uneventful except for the fact that they were playing the chinese version of the Dragostea Din Tei song (Numa Numa hey... yup that AIESEC song) continuously... sounds quite horrible and in case you're wondering, the singer is actually Singaporeans and is singing about cockroaches in that song...

anyway, after that it was directly to Malacca bus terminal... another sprawling place and you can tell it's quite new... reminds me a bit of our own HarbourFront, where the terminal is housed in a shopping complex selling all sorts of stuff.. oh and the terminal comes with a very cool looking overhead bridge.. I've never seen one so long in my whole life...

so after admiring the place a bit, we headed off to this hotel my aunt found on the internet... not too bad for 69 RM a night... it's just a 3 storey building with pretty decent hotel rooms... at least there's aircon and a TV :)

anyway by this time it was like 2 plus in the afternoon (we boarded the bus at 9am in Singapore) so we headed across the street for some Chicken Rice Balls... I have a photo of the rice balls in my album... see if you can figure out which is the fishball and which is the rice ball... that was quite interesting cos the few chicken rice ball stalls in Singapore sell rice balls that are the size of your fist and not so small as those in Malacca...

I managed to hurry my mom so she'll eat faster and then we set off for the attractions... we walked about 20 mins to get to Christ Church (which is the famous red church building you always see when you look up Malacca) It's quite something to actually stand inside a bulding that's more than 100 years old... you don't get such old stuff like that in Singapore.. we're like so young compared to Malacaa...

most of the historical sites were around the area of the Christ Church... there was a hill behind with a dutch graveyard and remains of another church... the last standing wall of the fotress A Farmosa is just behind that hill... there we saw lots of museums as well (though we didn't go inside).. most of the museums are housed in buildings that were built more than 80 years ago...

after that we walked over to the river and the maritime museum. It's an actual model of a ship used back in the days when Malacca was a bustling port of trade (even earlier than when Singapore started) and they've included exhibitions of actual equipment used in those ships, models of other ships that visited the ports in the old days etc.. we weren't allowed to wear our shoes in (I assume they didn't want us to damage the floor, being made of wooden planks and all) so we carried our shoes about.. felt quite like being in a real ship, because the aircon was leaking at place down under the deck so you get wet spots and leaky roofs :) but all in all lots of interesting displays and definitely worth it for 2RM entry fee. the air con was quite enjoyable as well..

anyway, after that we decided we'll go hunt for some of those tasty Malaysian foods that Singaporeans and Malaysians always talk about.. we headed in the direction of this hawker centre stall place only to find a carpark and a sports complex there... there's lots of construction going on there, probably to make the place more modern etc... anyway the food centre was gone... apparently the last time my aunt was there was 5 years ago so I guess the changes weren't so surprising after all :)

without the roadside stalls, we headed for this shopping complex across the road... tried some KFC cos we heard it's better tasting than the one in Singapore... I thought it was quite ok.. at least it's not as oily as those in Singapore... and we said we're healthy... gee... well we didn't spend much time in the complex... My dad said we should go to the Portugese Settlement and the Portugese Village so we headed in that direction until my mom complained that it was a tad too far to walk... in the end we turned into this area with lots of Nonya restaurants and ate at the same one my aunt visited 5 years ago... it was quite ok... I really liked their Otak Otak... :)

after dinner we headed back to the hotel... I wanted to continue to Portugese Settlement but my mom said they're probably closed at night.. I didn't think it was likely cos I imagine it would be a place where tourists, especially the westerners would visit and have a drink at night.. in the end I was right... the hotel manager told us that place sells food and stuff at night.. must be something like CHJIMES in Singapore... haha..

well we were too far away and it was late to turn back so we headed to the 5 start hotel nearby for some drinks (my mom wanted to try cocktail :)) there was a live band playing when we got there... the male singer's quite ok and the electric guitarist rocks... only the female singer was a turnoff... she ruined many a good song that night...

so that marks the end of the 1st day in Malacca...

Day 2 saw us heading off to the "Antique Street" area of Malacca... it's on the other side of the river from Christ Church and the other historic attractions... quite a lot of chinese and nonya stuff there... the adults I was with were reminscing about their childhood when people still stayed in those double storey shophouses... that was quite interesting... we saw some temples along the way as well... yeah the place kind of reminds me of our China Town, just that it's still less commercialised compared to ours... which is a good thing I feel... oh yah we tried Chendol at this supposedly famous stall... man their syrup and coconut milk were thick... it's the real thing!

anyway we spent quite some time in that area and finally headed back to our hotel area for lunch at the Bulldog Cafe cos we found some recommendations to eat there on the Internet... sells nonya food as well and it was pretty good food... just that the owner was quite scary... she tried to "force" us to but her pineapple tarts... we declined, having bought fresh ones at Temple Street so she wasn't quite happy... she kept trying to compare how hers were better and that we should just get hers as well... :S

well after lunch we took a cab back to the bus terminal... had to be early cos we hadn't bought tickets back home... we got there at 3pm only to find that the next bus leaves at 5pm.. well no choice... ended up roaming the shopping complex for roti canai (Singapore calls it roti prata) but they didn't have it anymore... so we went to A&W...

did you know that A&W was the 1st fast food restaurant to open in Singapore? Unfortunately it was also the 1st to leave the Singapore market... couldn't keep up with competition from McDonalds and KFC and the rest... so we poor Singaporeans have ever since been deprived of root beer floats, curly fries, coney dogs and ice cream waffles... we would have packeted some home for my brother but I doubt the food would survive a few hours coach ride home...

good thing we didn't... it was freezing on the bus, partly cos there was a huge thunderstorm on our way back... because the expressway travels along the outskirts of the states, we got to see lots of natural scenary like moutains, plantations, small villages here and there... there were no skyscrapers or buildings to block our view of the night sky, which was dark, cloudy and would flash once in a while as the lightning streaked through the sky... there weren't as many street lamps along the road as well so it was really dark... it was quite an experience sitting in a coach zooming across an expressway that was hardly lighted underneath the lightning-streaked sky... must be something to live in those villages we passed by...

after some hours, we reached JB (different route from when we travelled into Malacca)... but before that we stopped over at Ayer Itam again and horror of horrors... they were still playing that chinese song... the poor hawkers there...

well that pretty much rounds up the 2 days in Malacca... not too bad for a short trip to get away from it all in Singapore... the only sad part comes when we get back and all the deadlines and things-to-do rush in our faces once again...