Yummy Historical Walk [Part 3]

5 September 2009 @ Malacca

...continue from Yummy Historical Walk [Part 2]

JooLi and I headed back for a shower, rested and got ready for our final round of food hunt in Malacca. This time, we had a special guest - Foong! We met him near the place we stayed and head on to Alai Ikan Bakar [Grilled Fish].


There were lots of seafood to choose from. I really don't know which to take!

Grilling in progress...

JooLi and Foong

We didn't wait long till our food comes. This is what we had - Prawns on sticks, Grilled Chilli Dunno-What-Fish, Otak-otak and Fried Calamari. Everything was superlicious!


There was a signboard near the shop that caught our attention. According to the "Malaccans", the signboard has been there for quite some time. It says "Lembu Dilarang Masuk. Tanah Persendirian" [translated as: If you are a cow, you're prohibited of entering. Private land.] Didn't know that cows could read nowadays. Haha!


Right after dinner, we drove to Jalan Bunga Raya for Oh Chien [Fried Oyster]. Apparently, this little stall is quite well-known. There were people queueing up just to tapao the Oh Chien.


My mouth was drooling all over the place already while waiting for it to be served. We got our pack of Oh Chien after not long... and it's goooooood! Probably the cook wasn't stingy on the amount of eggs he put in, that's why it tasted so good. Now I missed this shop more after eating a lower quality Oh Chien at SS2 just now.


We needed to walk around to help on our digestion, thus we went to Jonker Walk. It's just like Petaling Stree, but more interesting stuffs were sold here.


When we were there, a bunch of young adults were singing some patriotic songs [it was near Independence Day]. Stood there to watch for a while before heading towards Geographers for a drink.

The boys had a bottle of Heineken each...

... and the girl aka the driver had Raspberry Esprit!

I've not had beer for a long time. Didn't really enjoy beer that much but I just feel like drinking one that night.


Geographers and Ringo's are 2 different cafe/ bar that is situated opposite each other. They both play live music, live singing and live dancing. So I guess there's an agreement with each other where both parties take turns to play the music.


So, when it's Geographers' turn, we had a terrible keyboardist and a few singers. Then it turned out to be a dance party where some of them line-danced and after that was pretty much free-style. Kids, teenagers, angmohs and everyone were enjoying and all dancing along. Pretty fun eh.


We hanged out till pretty late at night. Wanted to play pool but the place was so packed and we were getting really sleepy. Sent Foong back to his car and headed back to the hotel for snoozyland.


6 September 2009 @ Malacca

We checked out slightly early to go to Fook Aik Restaurant for brunch. They serves really cheap Char Siew Fan with some additional dishes.

simply delicious

Before that, we actually went back to the Tart Tart Bakery for more tarts - to buy back for our families. So, JooLi had the tarts all buckled up all the way back to KL. Safety First, aye!


When we were approaching Seremban, we suddenly thought of finding one of JooLi's best friend, Radikah for a drink. Called her up and zoom we went to her house. I was still all blur looking at that familiar basketball court near Radikah's house. Only after I picked her up that I realized her house was so near LeongKee's house! [my ex-roommate]


Anyway, we went to the Jusco at Seremban for a drink and chit-chatted for a while before sending her back home. And we continue our journey back to reality.


Although the gathering had to be postponed, the both of us had lots of fun eating, sight-seeing and meeting the some of the friends [one-at-a-time]. The postponed gathering will be coming in a few days time. I hope we'll have another fun time in Malacca! Billy, out.

Yummy Historical Walk [Part 2]

5 September 2009 @ Malacca

...continue from Yummy Historical Walk [Part 1]

JooLi and I walked around the Stadthuys Square, aka Red House. It's the another significant landmark of Malacca.

At the square, you can see the Christ Church, Queen Victoria's Fountain (right in the center) and Malacca Clock Tower. If you want to take a ride on a trishaw, there were quite a number of them lining up for you to pick.


I saw a little alley between the shops at Red House, and went in to take a look. Seems that the little alley leads to the Malacca River (Sungai Melaka). There's a stairs to walk down to the side of the river.


Beautiful weather, nice back-lane scenery, and a handsome model. *perasan* What can I do? Decided to take some jumping-into-the-river shots. Turned out pretty cool eh? Thanks to my pro photographer! =)


We also visited Holland in that short period of time! Yeah right, it's just a little windmill standing at the side of Malacca River. Haha! Would love to visit the real Holland someday.


After that, we crossed the river to reach near the Jonker street. JooLi suggested to buy tarts from this little shop on a narrow road - Tart Tart Bakery.


I ain't revealling what we bought till the end of the post. Anyway, we tapao the tarts and head towards the ship. Along the way, I saw a new structure.


It looks like a newly built/ discovered fortress or something. I don't really know what's the name of it, and I have never seen this thing before (a decade ago). Being the curious William, I climbed the stairs to snap a few photos. A few cannons were sitting on the top, and I sit on top of the cannon.


Another interesting I saw was the "Kincir Air Kesultanan Melayu Melaka". I wanted to take a photo with that thing but there were a bunch of indian teenagers hogging up the place. Losing my patience, I just took a photo of the watermill with those people inside.


Walk and walk and walk some more, we reached The Ship. It's actually the Maritime Museum, a replica of the Frol de la mar ship. In common terms, we just call it The Ship.

A couple of tourists wanted to visit the museum but it was CLOSED! The opening hours displayed clearly stated that it should be open at that time, but they closed it without any notice. I guess the people there are just too busy getting ready to break fast (it was fasting month for Muslims) and couldn't be bothered about the tourists in Malacca. Bad impression of Malaysia man.


Well, I managed to take a good photo here. And helped a couple took photo with the ship too!

After we left the ship, we saw our shadow on the road and wanted to capture it. The kind lady whom I helped to take her photo earlier asked whether I needed help to take our photo. I kindly rejected her help, we don't need it anyway.

*Note the top right corner of this photo is the lending hand of the kind lady. How nice of her*

While walking back to our hotel, we bypassed Taming Sari Tower (Menara Taming Sari). It's the first revolving gyro tower in Malaysia, measuring 110 meters in height.

going up!

Curious on how much it takes for a ride like that, I went in for enquiry. If not mistaken, it's RM10 for a 7 minutes ride. But for those who enjoy sceneries from high up, or those who are birds-wannabe, it should be an incredible experience to be able to see the whole of Malacca in one glance.

on top of the.. Malacca!

It was a really hot day. With tarts on in my hands, we stopped at the McDonald's to quench our thirst and munch our tarts. We bought 2 Portugese egg tarts, 1 cheese tart and 1 blueberry cheese tart. The tarts were so heavenly we decided to buy more before going back to KL on the next day.

From Dataran Pahlawan, we walked back to Fenix Inn for a quick rest before heading out again for dinner. We had a special guest who joined our evening session for dinner and more! Well, it'll be in my final post on this Malacca trip. Billy, out.

... continue at Yummy Historical Walk [Part 3]

Yummy Historical Walk [Part 1]

5 September 2009 @ Malacca

It was supposed to be a little gathering for JooLi's friends, but the plan were postponed. So I said, why not we stay with the plan and head on to Malacca since I've not really tour around since.... 11 years old? That was a decade ago! Well, she agreed. =)

JooLi and I departed from KL early morning. When we reach Malacca, the first thing we do is to try to check in. But we reached way too early to check in, we head for Chicken Rice Balls for brunch instead.


I can see the 3 words - "chicken rice balls" almost everywhere in Malacca. It has become so commercialized people started making their own balls. Nothing special to be, except the SHAPE of it.

We headed back to our pre-booked Fenix Inn and we're still too early. Luckily they have parking lots for tenants. We parked our car and walked over to Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall for a walk. Never thought we'll end up shopping and buying stuff!


When it's about noon time, we checked into our little cozy room and head out to hunt for food again. We went to Donald & Lily Corner for "tea".


This shop is quite recognized in that area and was visited by the Ho Chiak food show on 8TV. Looks like it's really worth a visit.


The shop was not very big. We were lucky to be able to find a place to sit. Many people had to wait for a table as the place is really packed. The interior was decorated with many beautiful vases, teapots, statues and etc.

Back to the food there. We had cendol, laksa and Tau Kua. Laksa was really good, though I was sweating through my pores, eyes and nose. The cendol was great for a hot day. But I don't really like Tau Kua, as I don't really fancy eating tofu.


After eating, headed back to the hotel again, just to park our car there. We then walked across Dataran Pahlawan, towards A'Famosa.

One of Malacca's unique - colourful trishaw

The landmark of Malacca - A'Famosa Fortress

I still remember the last time I came here, was with my classmates when we were 11 years old. An ang moh (foreigner) was playing his guitar at the top of the stairs. My friends were so entertained by him that they gave him a lot of their pocket money. I wasn't one of them.


Up the stairs, we reached St Paul's Church, that is sitting on St Paul's Hill. I didn't have much memory at that place besides a caged hole. That's all I could remember. I think it's because my friends and I spent too much time listening to the guy on his guitar 12 years back. Blerh!

JooLi with the caged thing that I remembered

Jump shot is a must

We came down from the hill and walked over to Stadthuys (old Dutch spelling meaning "Town Hall"), also known as the Red Square.


Built by the Dutch as early as the 16th century, it's one of the significant sight in the heart of the Malacca town. We went to say hallo to Oliver the Bulldozer and some kind of old fire engine. Don't really know them or their history, just want to see them because they're really old.

Malacca view from hilltop

It's a long long post, so I'm going to split them into a few posts. This is the end of Part 1, more photos of Stadthuys and yummy food coming up in the subsequent posts. Stay tune! Billy, out.

... continue at Yummy Historical Walk [Part 2]