Malacca 30th May 2009

Went to Malacca on a whim last weekend. My last trip there was about 8 years ago. Took the 8:30am Bus from Kallang depot opposite Singapore Casket. It was the first day of the school holidays, so there were many people there.
I reach Malacca central bus station at around 1:30pm as the wait at the customs was quite long and the bus was going slow. I bought my return ticket immediately upon reaching. The latest bus back was at 6pm so I had no other choices. After securing my ticket back I took the local bus to the town city area to look for a hotel.

It did'nt help that the weather was hot when I was looking around for a hotel. I was looking for the hotel that I saw on the net, it was also recommended by a friend who stayed there before. It was located at a very convenient location, just opposite the biggest mall in Malacca!! yet it was on a quiet street full of rows of shop houses! The name of the hotel was Fenix Hotel. Its a nice little hotel, the interior was very new, simple and clean looking. I managed to get a room which was a twin room as all the single rooms were booked. I was glad that I got a room as walking around looking for a hotel in the heat would definitely spoil my day.

The first thing I noticed in my room were these little small cockroache nymps. I squashed two of them hanging around my sandals and bed. I was starting to question the recommendation of this hotel and its seemingly "clean" appearance. Luckily no other occurance of the cockroaches happened again. I dumped the things from my bag onto the bed, washed my face and was out exploring. Malacca was a unique town with its own signature town planning. As it was occupied by 3 different colonial masters, the roads and buildings were quite chaotic. Its was also recently named as a UNESCO site, which explains its very touristy outlook. I got this huge map at the bus station which was very informative and in a very unusually "unMalaysian" logical and nicely done graphic layout way! Hahaha, being declared a UNESCO site sure brings in lots of cash and good graphic designers!

I navigated by the map and found all the tourist spots. I went through the usual A'Formosa fortress and St. Paul church which I last visited about 8 years ago. As it was a Saturday, it was packed! There was this big group of kids from Singapore on an educational tour there and I thought I can escape Singaporeans there! Cheh!

There was this big ass plane on display at the foot of the St.Paul hill. Just my type of quirky looking type.

There was also a TLDM museum with an actual Perkasa Patrol boat parked right beside!! Woohoo!! I have a chiong kit version of this craft!! Now I can take detail pictures of it!!

You have to purchase tickets for the museum which was a measly 3 ringgit only. With the ticket you get to go into the Wooden replica Portugese warship and the TLDM museum. There was a British made Wasp helicopter that their Navy use on display in the museum. I had seen one of these examples in a Pahang museum a few years back.

By the time I finish touring the museum it was around 7pm, they close at 9pm. It was dinner time and I had already completed half of Malacca's tourist spots. So I went to a nearby hawker which was called Newton hawker center. I think its a copy of our local newton circle hawker but with Malaysian fair. I ordered Cha kway tiao, satay and a local Nonya you cha kway wrap. Sad to say, this must be the few times where Malaysian food did not live up to its standard. All three dishes I tasted failed my expectations and I have been going Malaysia almost everyweek now for the last 2 months. I was disappointed as this was Malacca which was touted as a food paradise.

After the disappointing dinner I needed something to recover from the lost. SHOPPING!!!! yeehaa!!!!! Chiong ah!!!

All I can say is Shiok!!! Cheap and good!! I bought like 7 polo-T from the Factory outlet store! 1 for each day! That more than made up for the crappy dinner. It was around 10:30 after that so I went back to the hotel to shower. The shower room had the same water heater as my house with almost the same shower head, weird, I had the feeling I was showering at home!! but yet I was in Malacca!! hahaha!!!! After the rejuvenating shower I was ready for somemore exploring. I went out the room at around 11:30pm, as the street I was staying was full of cafes and massage palours, I decided to try one of the massages. I checked out a decent one and went in. They were very professional I must say, none of the hanky panky stuff here, after all its a UNESCO site!! I fell asleep quarter of the way as I was so tired. It was almost 2am after the massage so I went back to the hotel. I turned on the TV and it was Pirates of the Caribbeans 3, so I watched. There was some pretty bad acting in the show and Chow Yun Fatt was overcompensating for his bad role. Crap. I was dosing on and off throughout the show and finally gave up as the show was drawing to a close. I switched off and was knocked out within 5mins.

Next day, I woke up at 11:30am, crap, half day gone and I had to check out at 12pm! I turbo-ed brushing teeth and packing and was out the door at 12:15pm. Brunch time. This time I chose carefully for about half an hour for a decent makan joint and finally settled on a shop with lots of newspaper cuttings of recommendations. It was a good choice as the chicken rice was delicious, so was the Nonya sotong and petai and egg!!

A cute little boy took my order and I can see they were pretty busy as more people were coming in, looks like I had picked a famous joint to eat.

After the satisfying lunch, I went to the famous Jonker street. The weather was even more burning than yesterday and I was sweating like mad.

Jonker street was very packed and super touristy, not my kind of place. The only thing I like about it was the architecture and cafes. But the weather was too hot for me to enjoy it slowly, so I took a few photos and split after an hour. I went to buy a pair of Bata shoes as my sandals were hurting my legs. After that I went back to the hotel as I left my bag there and had them book me a taxi at 5:15pm while I go across the street to get a foot massage.

I left malacca at around 6:10pm from the Bus station and reach Singapore at around 10:45pm. Pretty fast.

It was a nice little trip for me, tired but fun. There was almost no "hang" time in between, so I felt that the time was fully utilised. My next trip there, will definitely be more switch off, more hang time to laze around their many cafes. Planning another trip there soon!